These properties along the 6200 block of Osage are for sale. They were quickly built following the MOVE bombing in 1985 and quickly fell into disrepair (Photo Google Street View).
The city has invited developers to bid on 36 controversial properties on the 6200 blocks of Osage and Pine hastily rebuilt following the MOVE bombing in 1985.
A fire began after police dropped a small bomb from a helicopter on a home at 6221 Osage Ave. following a long standoff with members of the black liberation group MOVE, who had barricaded themselves inside. Eleven people, including five children, were killed in the fire that followed the bombing. More than 50 neighboring homes were destroyed.
Only about half of the residences are occupied, and now the city is looking for a builder to buy the properties and either renovate them or demolish them and start over.
In its request for bids, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority asks potential developers to be mindful of the history of the surrounding neighborhood.
“Because some of the PRA-owned properties abut owner-occupied units, developers should be prepared to make every effort to address safety issues and prevent work that would adversely affect private properties,” the request reads. “Developer should also be respectful of the area’s challenged history and the trauma that adjacent residents may have experienced.”
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority will show the properties to developers on Nov. 28 at 10 a.m. and bids are due by Dec. 14.
November 22nd, 2016 at 9:43 am
To all you young mommies and daddies new to West Philly I say, welcome and Gobble Gobble Gobble 🙂 If you have any questions, there are tons of resources and some pretty neat little nooks you may find really neat, especially around Baltimore Avenue and can make this place like home 🙂 Also, we are very very dog friendly!
November 22nd, 2016 at 10:00 am
Gobble gobble…what the what?
November 22nd, 2016 at 4:32 pm
Well, it is close to Turkey Day! Smile 🙂 This day brings us together in giving thanks. Even if it is a little chilly out!
November 23rd, 2016 at 12:02 am
MOVE is not a “Black liberation group.” It is a multi-racial organization/family/religion which stands for the liberation of all life.
November 23rd, 2016 at 9:43 am
MOVE pursued the liberation of all life by arming themselves to the teeth with submachine guns, donning paramilitary fatigues, marching in cadences around the premises, placing snipers on the roof of their fortified squalor, blaring music and bizarre ranting diatribes all day and all night without their neighbors’ permission, engaging in gun battles with the police causing serious danger to innocent bystanders and neighbors including children, raising abused and malnourished farm animals on the block without a permit or permission from the neighbors risking disease. When the MOVE cult took over Powelton Village, the entire block became infested with rats and vermin putting innocent neighbors’ health in jeopardy. I have nothing but respect for death cults, however, we must acknowledge the serious and dangerous double standard of preaching love of life and practicing the same beliefs through death and violence. This isn’t a game. Goode bombing Osage put the neighbors and the cult’s lives in danger. It was a serious pock mark on our history books. MOVE did put everyone’s life in danger too. At the time, in the early nineties, I found a lot of value and love in Dave Koresh’s teachings and I was able to look past the allegations of incest and child rape (mostly true) but I had to draw the line when they threatened to burn the neighbor’s fields destroying their crops and causing pain and panic. I don’t believe that there are any winners when the feds want to take down a religious group or death cult And of course, MOVE cared about life and all that.
November 23rd, 2016 at 6:13 pm
@watchcat You make it sound so benign. @Cornballer got it mostly right until drifting to the pervert Koresh. MOVE was a radical, self-serving, anti-social, hate cult which cared little for their neighbors but allowed rats and cockroaches to run free. They were involved in the killing of a police officer in 1978. The decision to bomb their hovel had tragic outcomes which reverberate to this day. The loss of life, especially the children for whom others made choices, was especially sad. They didn’t deserve to die but we can’t rewrite history. They weren’t martyrs who died for some glorious cause. They were people who felt or were disenfranchised from society and created their own alternate society with disastrous consequences
November 26th, 2016 at 12:07 am
Reply to Cornball: Your first sentence makes it clear you have NO idea what you’re talking about so there’s no need to wade through the rest, we’ve all heard it all before.
You, WP, are also full of it and obviously base your knowledge on what you read in the Daily News, and most of what you say doesn’t deserve the dignity of an answer.
Perhaps it’s just jealousy that the MOVE family IS (present tense) loved and respected by many many people, both worldwide and here in your own neighborhood, where the organization continues to thrive and is well respected, also well known for shoveling snow for elderly or incapacitated neighbors, and the list goes on.
Together you guys don’t have enough feet to put in your mouths. MOVE on.
November 28th, 2016 at 9:00 am
MOVE on. Nice pun, weirdo. Don’t mock them. Most of the other things you said are correct then you go and mock them in a pun!? Weird way to end a reply.