Delaware

Inside the monumental effort in Wilmington to ‘Resurrect Riverside’

Published

1 year ago

October 21, 2024

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.”

As CEO of WRK Group and REACH Riverside, longtime Kingswood Community Center director Logan Herring is leading the multifaceted revitalization effort. (“Resurrecting Riverside”/WHYY News)

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.

Leaders in Wilmington visited the Purpose Built Communities’ comprehensive revitalization project in Atlanta. One of Purpose Built’s donors and boosters is billionaire investor Warren Buffett. (“Resurrecting Riverside”/WHYY News)

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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Delaware

State police investigating 3-vehicle crash in Camden-Wyoming area

Published

6 hours ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

State police investigating 3-vehicle crash in Camden-Wyoming area

Delaware State Police are investigating a three-vehicle crash in the Camden-Wyoming area that left one man dead on Dec. 20.

The crash happened around 6 p.m. on Westville Road between Allabands Mill Road and Mallard Drive. Police said a Ford Fusion was traveling west, while a RAM 2500 towing a utility trailer headed east with a Chevrolet Suburban behind it.

Investigators say the Suburban tried to pass the RAM in a no-passing zone and sideswiped the Ford Fusion. As it moved back into the eastbound lane, the Suburban struck the front driver’s side of the RAM. The SUV then swerved on and off the road before leaving the roadway, hitting a tree and catching fire.

The driver of the Suburban, an 84-year-old Camden-Wyoming man, died at the scene. His name has not been released pending family notification. The drivers of the RAM, a 31-year-old Dover man, and the Ford Fusion, a 37-year-old Hartly man, were not injured, according to reports.

The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information, surveillance or dash camera footage is asked to contact Delaware State Police Sgt. J. Jefferson at 302-365-8484. Tips may also be submitted through a private message to Delaware State Police on Facebook or by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-847-3333.

To share your community news and activities with our audience, join Delaware Voices Uplifted on Facebook. Nonprofits, community groups and service providers are welcome to submit their information to be added to our Community Resources Map. Contact staff reporter Anitra Johnson at ajohnson@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

1 killed in Delaware County apartment fire: Dozens of residents displaced

Published

18 hours ago

December 21, 2025

Press Room

1 killed in Delaware County apartment fire: Dozens of residents displaced

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UPPER DARBY TOWNSHIP, Pa. – An apartment fire in Delaware County killed one person and injured seven on Saturday, while displacing dozens more.

Upper Darby apartment fire

What we know:

Firefighters were called out to the Llanerch Place apartment building on Township Line Road in Upper Darby Township around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. When they got there, they found a fire on the second floor of the three-story building.

Firefighters pulled two people from the flames and paramedics took them to the hospital. One of them died at the hospital, according to the Upper Darby Township Fire Department. The other is in critical condition.

Six other people were also injured, but officials said none of their injuries were life-threatening.

Crews were eventually able to put out the fire, but there was significant damage to the building, between fire, smoke and water damage.

The approximately 75 people who live in the building were all displaced by the fire.

What we don’t know:

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. The UDFD Fire Marshalls, the Upper Darby Township Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshalls are investigating the fire.

The Source: Information in this story is from the Upper Darby Township Fire Department.

Delaware CountyCrime & Public Safety

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Delaware

State Police Investigating a Single-Vehicle Fatal Crash in Delmar – Delaware State Police – State of Delaware

Published

1 day ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

State Police Investigating a Single-Vehicle Fatal Crash in Delmar – Delaware State Police – State of Delaware

Date Posted: Saturday, December 20th, 2025

Delaware State Police are investigating a single-vehicle fatal crash that occurred Friday evening in Delmar.

On December 19, 2025, at approximately 6:30 p.m., a Toyota Tundra was traveling westbound on Bacons Road, just west of Bi State Boulevard. As the vehicle approached a left-hand curve, it exited the north edge of the roadway, struck a utility pole, and overturned multiple times.

The driver, a 24-year-old man from Delmar, Delaware, was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle during the crash. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His name is being withheld until his family is notified.

Bacons Road was closed for approximately 7 hours while members of the Delaware State Police Troop 7 Collision Reconstruction Unit conducted their on-scene investigation and utility crews replaced the damaged pole.

The investigation is ongoing. Troopers ask anyone who witnessed the crash to contact Master Corporal R. Albert at (302) 703- 3266. Information may also be provided by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police or contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.

If you or someone you know is a victim or witness of a crime or have lost a loved one to a sudden death and need assistance, the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit / Delaware Victim Center is available to offer you support and resources 24 hours a day through a toll-free hotline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461). You may also email the Victim Services Unit at DSP_VictimServicesMail@delaware.gov.