The Dynamics of Neighborhood Change in Brewerytown, Philadelphia

Abstract

Although it was once a vibrant industrial area, by the end of the twentieth century, the Philadelphia neighborhood of Brewerytown stood ravaged and impoverished by decades of disinvestment and industrial abandonment. In the past few years, however, speculation and development have perked up as the city’s economic center expands into the surrounding working-class neighborhoods. As Brewerytown’s landscape changes, the neighborhood’s residents, politicians and business leaders confront these changes in a variety of ways and justify their actions by telling different kinds of stories about what is happening in their neighborhood. To Westrum Development, Brewerytown is a bad and blighted area of the city, and their effort to build over 400 units of luxury housing in the area is an important step toward improving the neighborhood and making it more livable. Local residents, on the other hand, are split between those who feel that the new developments will offer much-needed economic opportunities and those who feel that many long-time members and institutions of the Brewerytown community are in danger of being gentrified out. Finally, it is the local government that must negotiate among all of these different groups to enable development while, hopefully, displacing as few people as possible. Through extensive interviews with some of the different stakeholders involved in this process, this paper offers a look at the ways in which these people interact with each other and analyzes the different factors that are shaping those interactions and ultimately determining the changing face of Philadelphia.