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Dec 6, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Emily Rizzo |Jill Bauer-Reese |Sammy Caiola
As city officials announced Thursday that narcotics arrests in Kensington have more than doubled since March, residents at a Harrowgate community meeting questioned whether the increased enforcement has improved quality of life in their neighborhood. Residents continued to express concerns about the number of people living outside and using drugs, often in front of their homes.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Sammy Caiola |Jill Bauer-Reese |Emily Rizzo |Solmaira Valerio
Content warning: This story includes descriptions of sexual abuse and assault, including sexual violence against women and minors. Two women who were sexually abused as children by former Philadelphia police officer Patrick Heron are suing the Philadelphia Police Department, alleging it knew about Heron’s misconduct for more than a decade but failed to intervene.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Sammy Caiola |Emily Rizzo |Jill Bauer-Reese
A large group of state lawmakers and city staffers walked down Kensington Avenue for about 90 minutes on Friday afternoon, navigating used needles, cigarette butts, and piles of litter. They also walked by dozens of people sitting or lying in varying states of consciousness on the sidewalk.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Emily Rizzo |Jill Bauer-Reese |Sammy Caiola
About 40 people disrupted a criminal legal system panel at the Parkway Central Free Library on Tuesday night to protest the recent deaths of Amanda Cahill and Michael McKinnis, the inhumane conditions inside Philly jails, and call for an end to mass incarceration. The panel event was part of the “Justice 101” series organized by the Eastern State Penitentiary, entitled “Excessive Punishment and Mass Incarceration,” and featured Michael Resnick, the Philadelphia Department of Prisons Commissioner.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Jill Bauer-Reese |Christopher Baxter
We are thrilled to announce that Emily Rizzo is joining the Kensington Voice staff as a full-time accountability reporter covering government and institutional accountability in the neighborhood with sharp attention to the Parker administration’s five-phase Kensington Community Revival plan. Her position is supported by a grant from The Lenfest Institute's Every Voice, Every Vote project. Rizzo began her career in film and audio documentary production.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Solmaira Valerio |Sammy Caiola |Jill Bauer-Reese |Emily Rizzo
Under the warmth of Saturday's sun, the El train rumbled by the KCT Community Garden as community members gathered for a special event celebrating the arrival of Roberto Lugo’s first Kensington sculpture installation. The “Garden Party” was not an ordinary event; it was a vibrant display of art, culture, and community spirit, marking the unveiling of one of the major sculptures from the “We Here” project at the Kensington Corridor Trust (KCT) property at Kensington Avenue and Madison Street.
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Jul 12, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Jill Bauer-Reese |Sammy Caiola |Emily Rizzo |Carly Sitrin
Swarms of police officers patrolled Kensington Avenue and Emerald Street from Orleans to Somerset streets Wednesday in what police leaders described as a broader effort to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood but that caused distress for some residents. Early Wednesday afternoon, police tape surrounded the perimeter to close the area to foot and vehicle traffic.
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Jun 20, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Sammy Caiola |Emily Rizzo |Khysir Carter |Jill Bauer-Reese
A Pennsylvania trust that oversees the local distribution of federal opioid settlement dollars voted Thursday that Philadelphia improperly used $7.5 million for projects to improve quality of life in Kensington. Trust members argued the spending was “noncompliant” with a court order outlining how the funds should be spent.
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Jun 16, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Jill Bauer-Reese |Sammy Caiola |Julie Platt |Lauren McCutcheon
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said police will increase enforcement for drug-related activity as early as Monday in an effort to implement Mayor Cherelle Parker’s new policing initiative aimed at shutting down Kensington’s open-air drug market.
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Jun 14, 2024 | 
kensingtonvoice.com | Sammy Caiola |Jill Bauer-Reese |Emily Rizzo |Khysir Carter
Correction: The original version of this story misstated the locations of methadone and buprenorphine delivery in PDP facilities. This story was also updated to more accurately describe the intake area, the PDP officer shortage, the medical screening process, and what is provided to people exiting incarceration. On a steamy spring afternoon in Northeast Philadelphia, a man pressed his cheek against the window of a holding cell at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road.
