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The Spirit of the Riverwards – June 8, 2016
Continued from Page 1. We’ll start in Northern Liberties, approximately where I-95 begins to split for I-676. Spirit News met with Steve Vaiani, Leila Miller and her fiance, Dan Kishbaugh. They’re young adults who find themselves in an interesting living situation in the last house on the 100 block of Brown Street. According to the group, their landlord has known for at least the past 10 years that one day I-95 construction will consume his property. States use eminent domain laws to acquire property from private citizens for public works projects like highway expansion. According to Kishbaugh, his landlord received several letters from PennDot over the years warning of the highway expanding to his property. The three current tenants all knew this was a possibility when they moved in, but have managed to make the best of living with the fact that they will have 30 days to vacate to premises when the time for construction comes. Vaiani and Kishbaugh are both musicians and night owls, so being able to play as loud as you want at hours where most neighbors would dial 9-1-1 is a big plus for them. Miller agrees, pointing out that she has become used to the constant sounds from the highway. “Because of the noise from 95 and the El right next to us, we can be as loud as we want,” Miller said. “Unless there’s like a major accident right behind me, I don’t notice it.” Miller's bedroom is adjacent to I-95 and is so close that they occasionally pick up staticky CB radio transmissions from truck drivers stuck in traffic. “Where I sleep my head comes to the wall right along 95, where 95 splits. It’s constant[ly], people [saying], like, oh shit I’m in the wrong lane,” Miller said. As properties are being renovated in the immediate areas of Fishtown and Northern Liberties, the house where Miller and Co. live has remained largely unchanged. According to them, the landlord fixes issues with the house, but has not updated their home for the simple reason that the looming cloud of demolition hangs over their heads. “Since the landlord knew the house is going to be knocked down, the house hasn’t been updated,” Miller said. “If something gets broken it gets fixed, but it’s not being remodeled.” According to the tenants, the section of highway adjacent from them is a popular spot to get pulled over. “A lot of people get pulled over there,” Kishbaugh said. “I see the blinking lights reflecting,” Miller added. This has also made their property the subject of police searches. According to Kishbaugh, a man attempting to flee the police jumped into a tree in their backyard and fled, drawing police into their yard to search. According to the tenants, police searched their property another time when a subject possibly threw weapons or narcotics over the guardrail during a traffic stop. Then there’s the litter. “There’s a lot of trash,” Kishbaugh said. According to Kishbaugh, parking under 95 is a bad idea and he’s replaced four or five windows on his last car due to break ins. Kishbaugh, Miller and Vaiani understand that they will most likely only get 30 days notice before they have to vacate their home, but are grateful for the time they spent living there and joke about their experiences. We found some other folks who reside in close proximity to the highway. They are also happy with their living situations, but their lives under I-95 are much different than Miller, Kishbaugh and Vaiani. Spirit News recently contacted Abby Anderson of Salvation of Sorrows, Inc., an outreah organzation dedicated to helping less fortunate folks in the community. Her organization recently put on a homeless outreach event for homeless veterans to receive a meal and a haircut. “You’ve got to have faith that life will repair itself and I’m on a mission,” Anderson said. It was there that she met Rosanne Terrell, a homeless US Army veteran living under I-95 in South Philadelphia. We reached out to Anderson, who reached out to Terrell. Spirit News was granted access to her campsite located under I-95 in South Philadelphia, near the Walt Whitman Bridge. “See that carcass right there? I don’t know what that was,” Terrell said pointing to the skeleton of what appeared to be a humongous opossum or raccoon. “We have baby birds up there,” she said pointing to the steel beams holding up the highway. As we spoke with Terrell, a raccoon ran full speed along the peak of the hill right behind us. It was like being in a strange park in the middle of the concrete jungle. According to Terrell, she was born at 3rd and Cambria, but grew up in South Philly. Following a few rough shakes in life, she now resides with her significant other, their dog “Noodles" and her brother Andrew Welsh, who is also a veteran. “At 42 I learned how to use drugs, 42,” Terrell said. “Mind you before that, I was Suzy Homemaker.” Their site is at the base of an incline under the highway, tucked away in the back of a parking lot. There was a mop leaning against the fence and Terrell even had a semi-private bathroom tucked away in thick brush with the view blocked by an oversized T-Mobile sign. “I mop the floors here because of the mud,” Terrell said. “This is still our home down here.” Welsh has been living on the streets for most of his life and has called the area near the Walt Whitman Bridge home for some time. “I used to sleep in cars when I was a kid, so this ain’t nothing for me,” Welsh said. At one time he was a machine operator in Port Richmond and according to him, he works one to two days a week doing cleanouts and demolition work. Though he’s financially poor, Welsh is grateful for what he has. “Just cause we’re down here, doesn’t mean we don’t got nothing,” Welsh said. He does miss doing laundry. “The only thing bad about this is clothes,” Welsh said. Terrell says that she is an avid reader and enjoys a good book as she falls asleep to the sound of passing vehicles. She longs for human interaction and and one of the things she misses is meeting new people. “People don’t talk to me,” Terrell said. “I’m not dirty on the inside.” Despite of her situation, Terrell still feels grateful for what she has and compassion for those less fortunate. “At least we have a home. Just think about the people living on the ground,” Terrell said. “You know what, it’s home right now, and I’m strong. I’m as far down as we can be, but it’s nothing but up now.”
Dan Dugan has a sense of humor about the massive and seemingly endless construction occurring right next to his property. A week after visiting Terrell and Walsh’s home, Abby Anderson reached out to Spirit News with an update. The recent tropical storm flooded the campsite and most of the residents’ belongings were destroyed. Salvation of Sorrows, Inc. is helping Terrell and Welsh get back on their feet. Leila Miller and Rosanne Terrell both described the noise from the highway as something that reminded them of being home and told Spiri News it was, for the most part, something they could fall asleep too. That isn’t the case for Dan Dugan of Port Richmond. He’s dealing with another noisy problem that comes along with the resurgence of the I-95 corridor. Dugan’s property is the last house on Lehigh Avenue and butts right up against one of PA’s most expensive road construction projects. Dan Dugan is a slightly eccentric grandfather who wants to make sure he has a safe place for his grandson to live. The same goes for his next door neighbor, Bob Taylor. Dugan contacted Spirit News having some issues with the construction crews operating across the street from his nicely manicured side yard. We recently paid Dugan a visit at his home and we were joined by Taylor. After being offered a glass of water, Dugan placed the glass on his table and drew attention to the fact that the water was rippling just like the classic scene from “Jurassic Park” where the Tyrannosaurus Rex is vibrating the Earth with its footsteps. “They wanted to put a seismometer in my basement,” Dugan said. “I said I got a water cooler and when they jackhammer the water goes back and forth. I don’t need a seismometer." During another interview, we noticed what felt like very small tremors shaking the house from time to time. Dugan did not flinch. Dugan’s woes began when his sewer pipe cracked. According to him, the crack caused flooding in his basement. Dugan has lived in the house since the late 1970s and believes this damage was caused by the highway construction, specifically the pile driving across from his property. Dugan filed a complaint with James J. Anderson Construction Company, Inc. (JJA). According to their website, the firm does heavy highway construction and have worked for various PA transportation agencies including SEPTA, PennDot and The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. JJA referred Dugan to their contractor Hill International, Inc. who then referred him to PennDot and finally 177th PA District Congressman John Taylor. Dugan believes he was Continued on Page 7.
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