Delaware
Inside the monumental effort in Wilmington to ‘Resurrect Riverside’
Markevis Gideon lived in Riverside as a child in the 1980s.
“It was a lot of crime, a lot of violence for me,” Gideon recalled recently. “For me, when I got punished, I had to sit on the front steps to try to be acclimated with the environment. But it was something I just thoroughly didn’t enjoy. I hated it.”
Wenona Sutton of REACH Riverside grew up in the Bronx, which is perhaps New York City’s roughest borough, but was stunned by life in this part of Wilmington when she arrived a few years ago.
“One of the saddest things I saw when I came in this area was the Riverside housing community,” Sutton recalled. “There are boarded-up homes, living conditions that are a norm for community members that should not have been a norm.”
“And then when you hear the stories of how long this community has been sitting and how long help has not come, it just really makes you wonder how and why something like that could happen.”
City leaders embrace ‘Purpose Built’ model
Two decades ago, though, developers tore down and rebuilt Eastlake, across the boulevard from Riverside.
Although no comprehensive project to revitalize the entire area took place, Eastlake’s transformation did become somewhat of a delayed catalyst for Riverside’s rebirth in recent years.
“What we saw in Eastlake was that it’s possible, right?” Herring said recently. “A mixed income community in a community that used to be notorious for crime and poverty. And so the work that we’re doing right across the boulevard, we believe, is going to highly complement what was done in Eastlake.”
The other seeds of rebirth were planted around the turn of the 21st century when EastSide Charter School opened on the site of a long-mothballed public school that borders Riverside.
When the students at EastSide struggled, school leaders sought ways to improve their performance.
They studied a housing- and education-focused initiative that had dramatically revitalized one impoverished area in Atlanta and was being replicated in New Orleans, Tulsa, Birmingham, Omaha and other cities.
Known as Purpose Built Communities, the redevelopments are funded with a mix of tax credits and public and private investment, plus unrelenting will.
Among Purpose Built’s financial backers is billionaire Omaha resident Warren Buffett. During a 2017 Purpose Built forum, the CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway investment company raved about the Atlanta project, which revitalized an area where barely 1 in 10 people had a job.
“There hadn’t been a building permit issued in 30 years,” Buffett told the audience. “The fifth graders — 5% were reading at grade level. It was just a disaster.”
But after several years of investment, planning, construction, and collaboration, Buffett said, “there’s full employment. There’s a mixture of incomes. There’s a mixture of races. The school scores in the top 10 of that area.”
In 2014, Mike Purzycki joined a contingent from Wilmington that visited Atlanta to see that city’s revitalized area, also known as East Lake. At the time Purzycki headed the public-private group redeveloping Wilmington’s riverfront, where the new Blue Rocks stadium is an anchor. Purzycki was elected mayor in 2016 and is finishing up his second term.
“We came back pretty enthralled by this whole concept of building a project, but building supports and community centers and schools and the works,’’ Purzycki said while standing on Bowers Street, where the old Riverside ends and the new Imani Village begins.
“It’s a magnificent example of what happens when people have this indomitable will that says we are going to do this project. And all you gotta do is look around here and if you are not impressed, you just don’t have a pulse.”
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Date Posted: Saturday, June 20th, 2026
The Delaware State Police Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR) is issuing the following public notifications of homeless and wanted sex offenders.
Wanted Sex Offenders
SOAR is currently looking for the following wanted sex offenders after they either failed to register or re-register at their current address. If anyone knows the location of these individuals, please call (302) 739-5882. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333. The individuals shown represent only a portion of the current wanted sex offenders. Please see the Delaware Sex Offender Registry website for the complete list.
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Homeless Sex Offenders
The following individuals are not wanted for failing to register or re-register at their current address. This is a homeless sex offender public notification. If you have information that the listed individuals are occupying a residence, please call (302) 739-5882. Information may also be provided by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) 847-3333. The individuals shown are those recently reported homeless and represent only a portion of the current homeless sex offenders. Please see the Delaware Sex Offender Registry website for the complete list.
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What is Delaware’s Kalmar Nyckel ship?
Here’s the history of Delaware’s Kalmar Nyckel ship explained in 36 seconds.
The Delaware history column features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.
100 years ago, The Evening Journal, June 21, 1926
Jealous man kills woman, wounds boy
Oliver K. Higgins, aged 33 years, of Washington Street, in a fit of jealousy late Saturday night, is alleged to have pumped seven bullets from an automatic revolver into Mrs. Edna M. Martin, 40 years old, of Spruce Street, killing her.
Charles Brown, the 15-year-old of Mrs. Gladys Brown, was shot in the jaw and shoulder by Higgins but will recover. Mrs. Brown, also of the Spruce Street address, is the sister of the slain woman. …
Mrs. Martin, who was employed by the Home Baking Company on Market Street, left the store at a late hour Saturday night, accompanied by Paul A. Crawford of Marshallton and went home. They found Mrs. Brown sitting in the dining room with Julius K. Bowman of Newport.
The women and men sat around the table for a short time. At 11:45 o’clock, hearing someone taking out a window screen in the parlor, Mrs. Brown went to the hall to see what caused the noise.
She saw Higgins step in the window with a gun in his hand. She opened the door and ran off the porch.
Higgins failed to see Mrs. Brown and continued to the dining room where Mrs. Martin and the two men were sitting. He leveled the revolver at their heads and said, “Stick your hands up everybody, and I don’t mean maybe.”
Higgins then asked for Mrs. Brown. Learning she had gone out the front door, he ran after her, passing her as she crouched behind a hedge a few feet from the doorway. He returned to the dining room, but the men had fled. He then turned to Mrs. Martin and fired as she ran. …
Leaving the dead woman at the head of the steps, Higgins rushed in the back room in search of Mrs. Brown. Charles Brown, who had been sleeping, awoke because of the noise. …
Hearing the boy going down the stairs, Higgins stepped to the stair rail and shot him twice. …
Mrs. Brown went to the drug store of Otto H. Miller at 22nd and Pine streets to telephone police. …
Officers surrounded the Brown house … and arrested Higgins. …
Higgins met Mrs. Brown several months ago when he was in the employ of the United Cigar Store, and Mrs. Brown was working nearby. He is said to have become jealous over the attention of other men to Mrs. Brown, who is divorced. She asked him to stop annoying her and appealed to police.
After Higgins threatened Mrs. Brown with a gun, she told her employer who called the United Cigar Company and made a complaint to the manager. Shortly after this, Higgins was discharged.
50 years ago, The Morning News, June 23, 1976
Bill would jail parents of delinquent kids
A tough measure that provides for jailing the parents of delinquent children or requiring them to spend weekends with delinquents at juvenile detention centers has been introduced in the Delaware Senate.
The bill is the brainchild of the community-based services staff of the juvenile corrections bureau.
“This gives a way to coax them (the parents),” said John J. Mulvena, juvenile corrections chief. “If not to coax them, to require them. If not require them, jail them.”
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Herman Holloway Sr., D-Wilmington.
Mulvena said it is “directed at parents who are reluctant to participate in the responsible supervision of their children.”
He said due to “stubbornness, ignorance or neglect,” his staff often ends up acting as “mother, father, aunt, uncle or surrogate” for children “while the parents get off scot-free.”
20 years ago, The News Journal, June 26, 2006
Storms wallop Sussex with 6-8 inches of rain
Jack English knew he was in trouble early Sunday morning.
He kept waking up to the sound of his Seaford basement sump pump trying to keep up with the downpour outside….
At first, he found a few inches of water on his basement floor. Then, all of a sudden, his backyard was completely flooded and the rising water blew out his basement window. …
“I was evacuated by the fire department,” he said. …
In six to eight hours, 7 inches fell in Bridgeville, more than 8 inches in Georgetown and nearly 6 inches in Laurel….
The Seaford Fire Company had its first sign of trouble at 7:30 a.m., when a crew responded to a person trapped in a car by rising water. As the morning went on, rescue crews turned to boats.
An estimated 300 people were evacuated from homes at three mobile home parks southeast of Blades.
Meanwhile, in Seaford, concern grew as water levels rose in the Nanticoke River and Williams Pond. As a precaution, 110 residents of Lifecare at Lofland Park rehabilitation center were evacuated to Nanticoke Memorial Hospital. …
At the Seaford Walmart, a team of swift water rescuers from Salisbury, Maryland helped people trapped in the parking lot, with water up to the top of some cars. …
Bridges at Craigs Mill Road and Woodland Road washed out. …
The American Red Cross opened a shelter at Woodbridge High School in Bridgeville. About 30 people were staying there Sunday night.
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ind. — All lanes closed on I-69 in the southbound direction in Delaware County on Friday morning.
Authorities with the Indiana State Police were dispatched to the 240.5 mile marker on a report of a crash involving a semi at approximately 8:08 a.m.
All lanes are now open.
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