How one Philly neighborhood contributed to the city’s historic drop in crime 20%
By Sherry Stone2%
7/29/2026, 3:00:00 PM
Keywords: South Philadelphia, Point Breeze, Philadelphia, Kenyatta Johnson, Jordan Harris, Mayor John Streets Administration, Young Chance Foundation, Al Littlepage, Chew Playground, Vare Recreation Center, Hawthorne Cultural Center, Pew Charitable Trusts, Claudia Smith Sherrod, Philly Truce, Young Chances, State Rep Jordan Harris, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, Wharton Square
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Fundamental Attribution Error, and Appeal to Emotion, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 26.6% saturation with 202 hits. Analysis detected 1,290 faulty-reasoning hits from 759 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 34.2% and a BS Rank of 20% (17,832 of 22,281 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 80.00% of the article peer group.
Inside Chew Playground at 18th Street and Washington Avenue in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze community, young children laughed and played on brightly colored swings, slides and monkey bars.
Others splashed in the park’s pool under a warm summer sun and the watchful gaze of parents, day camp counselors and lifeguards while older kids and teens could be seen playing soccer in a grassy section of the park’s sports field.
While the city of Philadelphia has seen a historic drop in its crime rate, a June study by Pew Charitable Trusts found that the city’s Point Breeze neighborhood has made significant contributions and changes to the recently renovated Chew Playground could serve as Exhibit A.
Sitting on a bench in the playground’s community garden this week Al Littlepage, president of the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition (CDC) and Claudia Smith Sherrod, longtime South Philadelphia community organizer, say changes in the neighborhood come as the result of community development efforts including new recreation centers, the creation of spaces outside of work and home environments, open markets and other initiatives.
Point Breeze’s success is the result of a “combination of many factors,” said Littlepage.
“People in the area are concerned about the conditions of their community.
Residents are more involved in that community … where people want to see change.
They're seeking better opportunities for the kids,” he said.
“It took the combination of everybody … of all of the players involved.”
Sherrod agreed.
“You have to learn to respect people’s wishes, and make sure those wishes are being fair and amenable to everybody including the developers who are actually going to be creating the development,” she said.
“I work with anybody who really sees fit to help rebuild Point Breeze and Grays Ferry.
I don't think there’s such a thing as (just) one person has done anything.
I think it is a collaboration of people”
Littlepage pointed to area groups like Young Chances, which hosts after school and summer camp for kids in South Philadelphia.
"Youth basketball Coach Charlie Reaves does a lot with the kids with his youth basketball program closer to the Grays Ferry area — and I don't want to neglect the principal of Audenried High School,” Littlepage said.
“He is just an awesome guy who's really engaged with teaching his kids the benefits of living a better quality of life and finding opportunities to live differently and relate to each other differently."
Harris said his office has been very strategic in working with community organizations “that are on the ground doing the work and touching people and making sure that these organizations have funding.
We want to make sure that these organizations that are touching young people every day have the resources that are necessary … but we're not done yet.
There's more work left to do.”
Pew’s study noted a link to higher crime in areas where there are more abandoned buildings.
That has not been a problem in Point Breeze.
"Blight has been replaced by businesses that have united the community," Littlepage said.
"As for housing, if you go around Point Breeze and Grays Ferry, there are not a lot of vacant properties left for developers to feast on, so to speak.
“We don't have a lot of blight.”
Harris said the community has also had “a tremendous partnership with law enforcement … and so when you're talking about Point Breeze area and Grays Ferry, that's the 17th Police District, but also sometimes it's the work that we do with the 1st Police District.
That really, really, I think, makes a difference.”
One is an investment in green space, whether it's recreational activity and green space, whether it's the brand-new Vare Rec Center, whether it's True Playground, whether it's Wharton Square Park, whether it's Smith Playground," he said.
"I've always said that everyone deserves high-quality green space in their community, regardless of socioeconomic status.”
Vare Recreation Center, at 2600 Morris St., received an investment of more than $20 million for renovations and modernization with help from the Philadelphia Eagles.
The center re-opened in 2024 — complete with a state-of-the-art swimming pool — and the Chew Playground, also located in Point Breeze, held its ribbon-cutting ceremony this June.
Not far off, the Hawthorne Cultural Center, on the 1200 block of Carpenter Street, reopened following a $400,000 investment from Johnson’s office, a $639,725 additional investment from the Post Brothers, a private real-estate development and investment firm.
Littlepage said to expect more community development in the area.
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