Philly keeps a billion-dollar open-air drug market contained in Kensington

The market is here because it is highly convenient for so many to contain the problem here, far away from affluent, white areas whose residents have historically driven in to buy drugs, use them, and leave. And my Black and brown neighbors have been told, both implicitly and explicitly, that the accompanying violence and community destruction inherent in open-air drug markets is their burden to bear, and that the wellbeing of themselves and their families simply don’t matter.

November 11, 2021 | 7:46 pm