Nicetown–Tioga

The neighborhood for Budd was pretty much what you would expect.

Budd's greatest Philadelphia plant rose in North Philadelphia's Hunting Park and Nicetown industrial belt.

It was near West Hunting Park Avenue, Wissahickon Avenue, Stokely Street, railway lines, row house blocks, and the web of suppliers and workers that had made Philadelphia the workshop of the world.

This, of course, was the city of Baldwin Locomotives, Disston saws, Midvale Ironworks, William and Coleman sellers both, textile mills, Stetsons, tool works, foundries, machine shops, rail yards, a place where invention did not stay abstract for long.

I was confused about this Until I dug in.

We have the industrial Budd behind the Zephyr.

That's the one that was in Nicetown.

It's the one that I passed almost every day as I was driving to Temple Hospital when I worked there.

But Vaughn didn't grow up in the burbs.

She grew up in Tioga, in North Philadelphia.

Today, at 63, she still lives in the house her parents brought her home to as a baby.

She's remained, but how her neighbors show up in the neighborhood has changed.

People don't look up and say hi.

Another reason why Vaughn thinks people stay inside? They feel unsafe.

Tioga and neighboring Nicetown are two of the 10% of Philadelphia neighborhoods where 40% of Philadelphia's shootings take place.

Abandoned houses and vacant lots don't help this problem.

But Vaughn didn't grow up in the burbs.

She grew up in Tioga, in North Philadelphia.

Today, at 63, she still lives in the house her parents brought her home to as a baby.

She's remained, but how her neighbors show up in the neighborhood has changed.

People don't look up and say hi.

Another reason why Vaughn thinks people stay inside? They feel unsafe.

Tioga and neighboring Nicetown are two of the 10% of Philadelphia neighborhoods where 40% of Philadelphia's shootings take place.

Abandoned houses and vacant lots don't help this problem.

Now, outside of being a mother, Rachel was also deeply committed to her career in education.

For 10 years, she worked as a teacher at Mastery Charter's Grover Cleveland Elementary School in the Tioga Nicetown section of North Philadelphia, where she primarily taught 7th and 8th grade English.

Rachel loved being an educator, and after a decade in the classroom, she was beginning to think about what came next.

She had plans to eventually become a school principal and one day hoped to start her own curriculum consulting business.