What would you change about Philly? High school seniors share their hopes for the city. | Perspective

You’re invited: Thousands of young people are graduating from Philadelphia schools this spring. Come hear from some of the best and the brightest on Tuesday, June 4. Inquirer education reporter Kristen A. Graham will speak with students from a variety of schools, including Mastery Charter-Shoemaker and Strawberry Mansion about their hopes, dreams, and experiences in city schools. Register for free at philly.com/inquiringminds. As part of this event, we asked two graduating seniors to answer the question: What would you change about Philadelphia?

By Kevin Davis

If I could change one thing about my city what would it be? I have lived in Philadelphia my entire life, so, when thinking about change, I instantly thought of the neighborhood I am from, Strawberry Mansion, and others like it, where there aren’t many resources available. What I would like to change the most is the amount of resources in our communities consumed by poverty.

Growing up in North Philadelphia, I have seen firsthand how hard it was for my parents to come across the things we needed just to get by. For example, I’ve noticed that there aren’t many shopping centers in my area. The ones that we do have don’t provide what the residents of our community are looking for. The quality of the goods being sold also aren’t the best, never lasting very long. That creates another problem, forcing shoppers to go back and spend even more money.

I’ve come to an understanding that a lack of jobs contributes to this poverty we live in. I’ve noticed that teens around my age and even younger have nothing to do or keep themselves busy. Most want to start working, but finding work is extremely hard due to their young age and lack of experience. It is also difficult for the young people in my community to travel to other areas of the city that have job opportunities. I would like to see more opportunities for internships and/or jobs for teens that are available throughout the entire year, not just during the summer.

Fortunately, I have been working since I was 14, thanks to people like Kevin Upshur and Tootsie Iovine, who have given me many opportunities. These two gave me my first jobs at the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center and Reading Terminal Market and were very beneficial in my becoming the young man people know today. I want to see people in neighborhoods like my own getting a fair shot like everyone else, and that when opportunities are created for people in my neighborhood, they take advantage of those opportunities. I feel there’s a clear disadvantage that communities in poverty face that factor into how the people living there function, as opposed to communities in other areas of the city. One of the many disadvantages that we face is our high crime rate. I do believe that if our neighborhood had more resources others wouldn’t be so driven to take from others and commit selfish acts like that in the first place.

I believe one day that we will see this change and the people of these communities will greatly benefit from this. I see a bright future for my community and truly believe that one day we’ll get the tools that are necessary for us.

Kevin Davis is a graduating senior at Strawberry Mansion High School and will attend the Community College of Philadelphia’s honors program majoring in mass media this fall.

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By Jaya Touma Shoatz

As a kid, I remember taking walks with my dad and staring at my feet as we roamed about the parks and the streets surrounding my home in Cobbs Creek. My young eyes took in the details of each sidewalk, so much so that I memorized every crack and curb. These walks made me fall in love with my city, with Philly. It’s the place where I grew up and learned how to navigate streets. It’s where I learned how to walk to school on my own and it’s where I have a lot of family and good memories.

But as much as I love walking around my city, it was — and continues to be — so jarring to see the litter that covers the sidewalks: cigarette butts, chip bags, Arizona Iced Tea bottles, beer cans, plastic wrappers. You name it and I bet you’d find it on 52nd Street sidewalks.

Seeing so much trash on the streets of my neighborhood really impacted my view of Philly residents when I was a kid. Questions swam in my head. I wondered: "Who did that? Why? Don’t they care about the sidewalks? Why couldn’t they put it in the trash? What were they doing when they decided to leave that there?”

Back then, I think I was too young to recognize the true weight of the situation.

Litter and the culture surrounding it have deeper social implications. As I’ve gotten older and explored more parts of the city, I know that litter is a persistent issue throughout Philadelphia — but it seems to me that communities of color have more trash on the streets than other neighborhoods. This is sad, but it’s not because people are lazy or irresponsible or uncaring.

I believe that littering comes from the lack of self-worth that comes from living in communities of color. While many parts of Philadelphia are thriving, for residents of some neighborhoods, it’s clear that not all people are treated equally. As someone who grew up in a neighborhood of color, I have found time and time again that my peers feel insignificant because they’ve been told — or seen through daily and long-term actions — that they matter less than other people.

For example, I’ve seen more and more gentrification in neighborhoods of color, specifically West Philadelphia, where I live. For a lot of people of color that means that once white people move in, their neighborhoods start to get improvements that longtime residents have never seen before. When white people move into communities of color, it’s not uncommon to suddenly see more street cleaning, more attention to detail, and more economic interest being taken now that there is a more “elite” market.

While it’s a positive thing to have those improvements, it signals to communities of color that we did not matter until white people moved in, that our cries for help, our pleas for change did not make a difference until white people were at risk of feeling the effects of the circumstances we’ve endured for much too long.

If we get bombarded day in and day out with the message of “you don’t matter,” it can be demoralizing. It can be hard to really acknowledge the impact our everyday split-second decisions — like dropping some litter on the ground — have on the rest of the world.

Solving Philly’s litter problem starts with individual actions. No one should throw trash on the ground. But the solution also requires that everyone in the city be treated equally.

Jaya Touma Shoatz is a graduating senior at Mastery Charter-Shoemaker and will attend the University of Vermont.

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