As you might have noticed, it has been a while since the blog was last updated. My apologies. I have been away for the past month visiting my family back in Seattle and my close friends in Manitoba.  I arrived back in Philadelphia on Saturday, and since have been struggling with the question of why I am back. Why I am choosing to live across the country from the family I love. In a neighborhood and culture I do not understand.

It is easy for me to say that I am back for the job, or for the friends. For both of these aspects of Philly did draw me back. But I had a job and friends awaiting my return in Seattle. The real reason I return to Philly is rooted in my passion for social justice, a passion I am assuming most reading this blog share with me. In Philly I have found a place I can question and think and be with people who are actively seeking to bring about social change. But upon returning I could not help but to wonder how I was enacting social justice here?

The whole idea of gentrification has been at the forefront of my mind. As I feared that my presence here in Kensington was perpetuating that, rather than justice. And today while I was doing some catching up reading I came across an article by Bob Lupton called Gentrification With Justice. This idea caught my attention right way. My understanding of gentrification, which was reinforced by Lupton’s definition, was that it is “the restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by the middle classes, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people.” I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds anything but just.

Lupton himself built a house in the city in hopes to more effectively bring change in the community he cared about. Rather, he found himself only perpetuating this uprooting and scattering of the poor. Through this experience though, Lupton found out that gentrification was not something we can stop, and that it is not necessarily a bad thing if we “include the poor as co-participants” in the rebirth of the city. Bob Lupton has now spent years enacting gentrification with justice by helping pass ordinances that give tax relief to seniors so they can stay in their homes, and by establishing loan funds to give down payment assistance to low-income homebuyers. He is transforming his neighborhood in a way that is enabling the least of these to share in the benefits of a reviving city. In a nutshell he is harnessing “the growing tide of gentrification so that it becomes a redemptive force,” rather than a destructive power.

Although I am still struggling with how I can be a part of this redemption, it is great to know that it is possible.

Here’s a clip of an interview I shot with painter Aaron Fiordimondo.

PS: Did you hear The Ordinary Radicals will premiere September 2nd @ the Bryn Mawr Film Institute? We’re looking for indie film houses in cities all over the US to bring the movie to. Let us know if you have a suggestion for one!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, above you will see some bona fide footage from The Ordinary Radicals. We’re in the process of putting together a handful of clips similar to this one from each of the interviews that we’ve done so far. This is the first one we completed, and you’re seeing it just moments after it was uploaded. Let us know what you think!

Hey all,

Just wanted to hit you with the PAPA Festival 2008 Promo.  Four of us from The Ordinary Radicals movie will be there shooting the event, and we leave from there to follow the Jesus For President tour.  What a summer to make a movie!

Check out: papafestival.org for more info and to register!