ABSTRACT
The intersection of Franklin and Norris Streets in North Philadelphia looks to be generic American ghetto. There are no trees. Shards of glass crunch underfoot on the concrete. A brown brick elementary school with security-grated windows occupies the northeast corner of the crossing, centered in a small sea of asphalt. Across Franklin, a parking lot fills the northwest corner. On the southwest side, a crack house gutted of anything of value has structural timbers falling out its front door. On the southeast corner stands a modest stone church that not long ago underwent repairs to prevent the tower from collapsing. The church looks abandoned, left to die by the flight of whites to the suburbs. 1
