Vacancy

Income

Unemployment

Poverty

Inf. Mortality

MILL CREEK ABSTRACT

These Facts:

• Mill Creek's residence have an infant death rate equaled to an impoverished country, yet Philadelphia has some of the finest hospitals in the world.
  
• Most of the mothers in Mill Creek are unmarried - 87%.
  
• Many of the families live below the poverty level.
  
• The teenage birthrate is 450% higher than the national average.
  
• The population of Mill Creek is predominantly African- American.
  
• Mill Creek has a high violent crime rate which may explain its particularly low median age for men and high ratio of approximately 3.5:1 widowed females to widowed males.

The average income for a household in Mill Creek is $19,481, which is far below the national average of $28,800. This figure however, is very misleading since many families have incomes just over $8,500 per year. The poverty line for a family of three is $11,000 and many of these families have 4,5,or 6 individuals. It is understandable that home prices in Mill Creek fall far below the national average of $78,000 with the average home price in Mill Creek at $19,023.

One other reason for the diminished economic base of Mill Creek could be the loss of many of jobs. Since 1970, the city of Philadelphia has lost over 250,000 jobs! Where did they go? Most of them relocated to the far northen and western suburbs, in many cases moving some 20-30 miles away to take advantage of suburbs without a city tax, cheaper land costs and fulfill thier need to build newer and larger facilities. The people who had cars and the means to buy a home in these far reaching suburbs went with them. Most of the habitants of Mill Creek used public transportation, The transport cost coupled with the long commuting time, combined with the amount an individual earned made getting to these jobs an impossibility for many people.

Considering these facts redesigns for the neighborhood must do much more than beautify the community, create more recreational spaces, and even stop subsidence. Surely all these things will go a long way to help Mill Creek. The real challenge however, will be to address the social ills of mill creek through a design solution which can serve to make a positive contribution toward it's residents.

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Back to Place

Credits

Students of the group "Demographic"

Andrea Hallmark

Catherine Wiley

Wu Lei

LARP601--Studio III-Transforming the Urban Landscape

Critic: Professor Anne Whiston Spirn

Computing Instructor: Professor C. Dana Tomlin

Teaching assistant: Robert Cheetham

Last Update: October 1, 1996
URL: http://www.upenn.edu/gsfa/wplp/course/demograp/demograp.html