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0:00All right. So what’s up everybody? I’m out here. I’m in Germantown. I’m here with Mr. Joe. How are you doing, Mr. Joe? I’m okay yourself. I can’t complain, you know. I’ve maybe done six or so interviews since I’ve been back home here in Philly. So maybe you’re number seven, I think. Okay. I’m curious. How old are you and what part of the city are you from? I’m from Philadelphia and I’m 65 years old. Okay. When you think about how the city has evolved, what are some of the first things that come to mind? Well, the city has evolved right now. I think that we’re all on a good track. We’re cutting down on the killing.
0:30They’re cutting down on the stealing. The police chief right now is really, he’s on the ball about a whole lot of things, especially to the mayor. I give all respect to the mayor. Oh, you like Sherelle? I like Sherelle Parker. She’s doing a lot. Some people don’t like her, but you know, I see what she’s doing. She’s cleaning up. She wants a clean, green city, but you know, it’s going to take a while. Do you feel like that’s for us or for like the people who buy property and like gentrify? Well, it’s for all of us. You know what I mean? I don’t understand why they say is trying to separate us from saying that one side of a side of people, if we’re this side of that side. I don’t understand that. You know, it’s for everybody. We all live here together. So we, you know, you can’t say that, you know, you shouldn’t say that at all. Yeah, I guess when I say that, right, I think like a lot of people have been displaced by gentrification. Right. And so while the neighborhood might be cleaner, the park might be better, the people who are going to get to appreciate it in the long term aren’t necessarily the people who are here today. Exactly. Exactly. That’s what had me ask you that question. I haven’t
1:26She’s not really been around the city too much since you’re all in her office, you know, Ms. Mayor, so. Okay. So when you see her cleaning up, what are some of the things that you’ve seen her do since she’s been in her office? I really like the way how she cleaned up Kensington and Allegheny. Took a whole lot of those drug addicts off the streets and gave them options to go into rehab and, you know, do something. And, you know, she’s trying to do the best that she can, you know what I mean? But, I mean, the last mayor that we had, he didn’t do anything, you know what I mean?
1:55So she’s starting from scratch. So we have to give her the credit that she deserves. You know what I mean? And she is really doing a terrific job. And I hear the people now talking about a dollar tax on the Uber riders and stuff like that for the school districts and all that kind of stuff like that. I personally don’t think that that should go through, you know, because we’ve been taxed out a lot. And I think that the the soda tax is enough. You know what I mean? I mean, and what is that money going at? You know what I mean? We got to find out, we got to really sit down and think about what are we going to do? Are we going to cut something or are we not? Even down to our school district, they’re closing so many schools going to shut down because of the money. But the school district has been begging for money every year. They beg for money. So if you’re getting all the money from the state to city or different organizations and stuff like that, how come you’re always being broke?
2:47Yeah How can you help us being broke? So I think that if you stop paying these people with these doctor’s degree, higher class money and give the money to the teachers, you know what I mean? The teachers will teach the kids because at the end of the day, the people that you hire with a doctor’s degree, they don’t put their feet in the classroom. So they never put it, they don’t even know what the classroom looks like besides the one they came out of. But the real teachers is the one who needs the money. You know, there’s no excuse for that. The real teachers should be making a lot more than what they are making right now and better benefits. And I go with that.
3:23Mmm. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I appreciate you shouting that out. I feel like now I got to go over to Kensington and ask people how they see, you know, these changes being implemented and those options and stuff like that. Well, you know, some of them are going to give you a good report, some of them are going to give you a bad report on it. That’s because people just don’t want to change. Yeah People Can’t Accept Change Until You Find Until They Really Accepted Change Then You Gonna Get A Good Response From Them Yeah Yeah But You Know What I Mean? Kensington Always Was A Nice Neighborhood At One Point At A Time
3:55Oh Really? Yeah It Was Really A Nice Neighborhood At One Time But The Drugs Took Over Yeah So When Your Drugs Took Over People Coming From All Over In Jersey And Everything Like That And Finding Out Where They Can Get That Dope That’s Where They Going To Be At You Know What I Mean? I mean, it’s a park right there on Frankfort Avenue, a little park there, I think it’s at Frankfort and, I can’t think of it right now, but it’s a beautiful little park there, but you can’t go in here because you got more people on drugs passed out in there, you know what I mean?
4:27And you got people living in tits and vacant lots and stuff like that. So I think, like I said, Cheryl Parker, the mayor, God bless her, she’s doing a great job, but she’s got to do what she can do, you know what I mean? So, I give all the respect in the world Okay, shout out to Mayor Cheryl Parker And I’m curious, when you think about community in Philadelphia, what do you think about? The community now is changing We start now to see different people We starting to see a big change in different communities Because now, our community now is growing And some of our community, we don’t got some of the violence out
5:10So the violence that used to be in the community is not here no more. So we happy for that. I’m happy for that. I’ve been down here in Germantown Avenue 36 years and I have seen things change. I’ve seen stores that went out come in. You know what I mean? The Germantown High School is closed down now. But you know, it’s turned that into apartment building now. But now I understand now that people now want to build back up. Want to build back up Germantown. So I’m for building back up Germantown. Amen to that. Amen to that. And this is a historically black part of it. Yes, it is. Historical part. And so how do you think about that? Like, what should people know? Like, people don’t really know what that means. What education is out there is that the people got to, got to, got to want it. You know what I mean? You know, we got, we got a whole lot of ain’t history. How you doing, Doc? How you doing? A whole lot of history places. Hold on a second. Boom.
