North Philadelphia

North Philadelphia

North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is sometimes regarded, especially by people with little familiarity with Philadelphia neighborhoods, as everything north of either Vine Street or Spring Garden Street, between Northwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia. The official boundary of North Philadelphia are Cheltenham Avenue to the north, Market Street to the south, 35th Street to the west, and Adams Avenue to the east. The Philadelphia Police Department patrols six districts located within North Philadelphia: the 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 35th, and 39th districts. There are six zip codes for North Philadelphia: 19132, 19133, 19121, 19122, 19130 and 19123.

The city government views this sprawling chunk of Philadelphia more precisely as three smaller districts, drawn up by the Redevelopment Authority in 1964. These regions are (from north to south) East & West Oak Lane/Olney, Upper North Philadelphia, and Lower North Philadelphia. The Oak Lane neighborhoods and Olney are sometimes considered to be separate from North Philadelphia entirely because of their unique architecture, culture and differing patterns of development. Other sections of North Philadelphia include Brewerytown, Fairhill, Fairmount, Fishtown, Francisville, Franklinville, Glenwood, Hartranft, Northern Liberties, Poplar, Sharswood, Strawberry Mansion, Yorktown.

In past decades, North Philadelphia was hit hard by economic decline. The majority of North Philadelphia's residents are African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Despite its wealth of history, schools, cultural sites, parkland, architecture, and other holdovers from more prosperous times, unfettered poverty has earned North Philadelphia a reputation as a slum. At the same time, some would counter that it is far more diverse an area, and thus too large to stereotype. From the Puerto Rican communities in Hunting Park, West Kensington, and Fairhill to the middle class African American neighborhoods around the Oak Lanes to the poor ghettos that typify much of its core to newly-gentrifying Brewerytown, a large portion of Philadelphians call this section home.