Search Results for: today I saw deeney

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE: At Least They Spelled It Right BY JEFF DEENEY You might be asking yourself, if Room 315 is designated as an educational no-man’s-land for the worst behaved kids in one of the city’s worst public high schools, where are the true hard cases? Where are the 15 year old stone killers that you saw holding corners down like trained infantry occupying a battleground hilltop on The Wire? The fact is that come high school many of those kids are already gone. They’ve gone to juvenile detention facilities and privatized discipline schools. Some were so incorrigibly truant and their […]

The Valley of the Shadow is an ongoing series documenting how those in Philadelphia’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods publicly mourn and commemorate their dead. Jeff Deeney, the man who brought you Today I Saw, knows these neighborhoods well from his days as a social worker. The hope is to shine a light on the city’s untouchables, brighten the darkest corners and gather-and-share ultra-vivid and all-too-real stories of loss, grief and remembrance. Look for it every Tuesday on Phawker! Why? Because we love you! [Photo by JUSTIN ROMAN]

[Photos by JUSTIN ROMAN] BY JEFF DEENEY The intersection of Cambria and Amber streets is a good six blocks away from the endemic drug violence of the Badlands — sometimes that seems like six miles, and sometimes like six inches. It sits east of Frankford Avenue and a full five blocks from the El, far enough away that you can’t even see the hulking steel skeleton that straddles Kensington Avenue from here. Crime and violence has seeped north and east from West Kensington over the years, slowly and steadily creeping further and further into the surrounding neighborhoods of the Lower […]

The Valley of the Shadow is an ongoing series documenting how those in Philadelphia’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods publicly mourn and commemorate their dead. Jeff Deeney, the man who brought you Today I Saw, knows these neighborhoods well from his days as a social worker. The hope is to shine a light on the city’s untouchables, brighten the darkest corners and gather and share ultra-vivid and all-too-real stories of loss, grief and remembrance. Look for it every Tuesday on Phawker! Why? Because we love you!

[photos by JUSTIN ROMAN] EDITOR’S NOTE: The Valley of the Shadow is an ongoing series documenting how those in Philadelphia’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods publicly mourn and commemorate their dead. Jeff Deeney knows these neighborhoods well from his days as a social worker. The object is to cast Philadelphia’s disadvantaged in a new light, brighten the darkest corners and gather-and-share compelling personal stories of loss, grief and remembrance. BY JEFF DEENEY On the corner of 52nd and Larchwood, across from West Philadelphia’s vibrant and thriving Malcolm X Park, on the south facing wall of the Food Plus corner store, […]

PREVIOUSLY: TODAY I SAW two 16-ft. moving trucks parked back-to-back in front of Mantua Hall, their loading ramps extended so they almost touched each other. Every day is moving day now. The building is slated to be emptied by the end of the year, and while most families have already left there are still some stragglers waiting for the Philadelphia Housing Authority to approve their new scatter-site placements. PHA is paying for the families to relocate, so the moving trucks come in pairs and when one leaves another arrives. The shrill, intermittent symphony of ear-piercing smoke alarms going off about […]

Dear Jeff Deeney, I’ve only one question to ask: “How did you know she was a Methadone patient?” (Perhaps she was drunk, under the effects of benzos or maybe suffering a neurological condition.) Regards, Toni Gear Australia