Chester Pennsylvania - Philadelphia's Worst Suburb
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- Today we visit Chester, Pennsylvania - a small city about 25 min away from Philadelphia. Like most American cities it has a storied past, and despite all it's current woes it still has some remnants of the good times hanging around which we will pass by today... but for the most part its a city that needs help.
Originally settled as Upland by the Swedish in 1644, and incorporated and renamed Chester in 1682, Chester is the oldest City in Pennsylvania.
This city, like most American cities hit its economic and population peak in the 1950's. The world war II rush was over, jobs were being shipped out to more cost effective locations and so people started to move. Prior to this great migration out of the city, in it's heyday Chester was a hub for textile factories, and shipbuilding but also had a burgeoning base in heavy industry. The city reached it's peak population of 66,000 people in 1950 but it has been losing people ever since. Today 32,605 people call Chester home.
With opportunities and jobs drying up, crime is a problem in Chester. It is one of the most dangerous cities in Pennsylvania and to be technical, one of the most dangerous in the country. Chances of being a victim to either a property or violent crime is 1in 21. In 2020 Neighborhood Scout ranked it 20 out of top 100 dangerous American cities.
On top of all these issues mentioned above, the city has filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. Today we take a drive tour of the roughest areas of the city to see what life is like on the average day in Chester, Pennsylvania.
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#chester #pennsylvania #crime
I used to live in Chester, as a teenager. The reason why it turned into a ghost town is because in the 1990s the government decided to put the nation's largest trash incinerator in Chester, along with a sewage sludge incinerator, numerous chemical plants and various toxic waste sites. Hazardous materials from around the country are brought in by train to Chester everyday; studies have shown that blood lead levels and cancer risk are as much as 10x higher in Chester than the national average. It's a pretty open and shut case of environmental racism and anybody with the money to leave tends to do so.
Thanks for the history. Thank you for watching.
Wrooooooong I grew up in sun village in the 90s Chester was gone by then it was not easy being the only white kid in the hood but I survived and was always cool with everyone in my hood my mom grew up in the same house I did late 60s early 70s I heard the stories about avenue of the states I heard about the movie theaters still don't change the fact that the downfall started during the Industrial decline after the second world war it had nothing to do with trash or sewage it had everything to do with jobs and the economy you have no idea what you are talking about
@@ghettomericadon't listen to this guy
@@overlordshankoftheygftsqua1014 That's the main reason why I left, and heard the same thing from many people I knew that moved out of Chester. Not sure why anybody would make up something like that, and besides you can look up everything I said and see that it's true. You're telling me you grew up in Chester and never heard anything about the hazmat processing plants, landfills, refineries etc. And the sky high cancer rates in the area? I find that hard to believe especially in the past 10-15 years
100% true. Right in the lobby of city hall there’s a big board explaining all the hazardous pollution and cancer rise in Chester.
Lived here as a kid in the 1970s, lots of relatives also here before they moved on. Like a lot of American small towns, a victim of deindustrialization and globalization amongst other things. What doesn’t get conveyed by a simple video drive through is the city’s storied history. Dr Martin Luther King earned his theology degree in Chester, and the city’s connection to musical history through people such as Bill Haley and the Comets or jazz artist Ethel Waters.
Thank you for sharing. Very well put and thanks for watching.
There are some beautiful old buildings and there are parts of these neighbourhoods that look like they're really trying and want to better the area.
My opinion it's way better then living in big city's ,,,
@@Mar-vj6unYeah go live there if you want the place ranks awful in evreything and a lot of those big cites have better job opportunities then this wreck of a place so yeah keep up that ignorant mentality because ur just wrong
Yeah there are but no real cash flow In that town it's a Shame need to bring businesses back there they need to tell trump & them to visit
The traffic signals work and there’s a lot less trash on the streets here than in Philly. Maybe cause that’s because nobody lives here.
Detroit has better graffiti. This is pretty lame
Chester isn’t a suburb. It’s the oldest city in Pennsylvania dating back to 1644 as upland and renamed Chester in 1682. My family lived there for many many generations until the mid 80’s or so when the last finally left. It was a mix of years and years of corruption and deindustrialization/globalization that killed this city. It’s sad really because it’s extremely rich in history and really was a beautiful place.
It's a suburb of Philadelphia.
No, thats darby and upper darby @ericsierra-franco7802
@@ericsierra-franco7802no Chester is a city with its own suburbs (Chester township, parkside, Brookhaven, eddystone, upland, etc)😂
It’s a city. I was born here. My uncle had a bar here. His cousin had a bakery. In the 70,s I’d hang with my uncle at his bar. Anyway RIPmto my family who grew up there. Years ago!
Thanks for sharing. I’ve heard good things about Chester in its better days. Also thank you for watching. Glad you enjoyed.
If you think driving thru bad hoods in Atlantic City to get to a casino is something, you need to drive thru Chester at night to get to the Harrah's Casino. And it's right next to a damn prison, for God's sake! My advice is: windows up, doors locked, and Glock in your lap, just in case. I've never seen a city with so many historic buildings, wasted so badly.
14:30 I remember seeing a shooting take place at that corner near the convenience store some years ago. I remember pulling my car over, and ducking down below the windshield. 🚓
Dr King got his masters degree in Chester. Learned his speaking and preaching style in Chester also. Chester High marching band marched Mother's Day in Chester. The band was 7 blocks deep and lines of people would attend. Lots of good times and good memories from 1970's to 1990's in Chester.
Dr King did not get a master's degree in chester quit capping...
In my lifetime 3 events that devastated Chester, the 9/13/71 flood that killed 10 people and destroyed several downtown businesses, 2/2/78 Wade chemical dump site fire to this day is still affecting the health of firefighters involved, and the 1989 closure of the Sun Ship and Dry dock company. To witness these events and see the affect on people and the city over time is hard especially for a city whose industrial decline dates back to 1950.
The oldest city in Pennsylvania. It was once beautiful and well cared for.
Not now , over token by a lot of greed
0:51 Those folks are still waiting for BIDEN HARRIS to save the day🤣 When on earth are people going to wake up to the fact that politics are mockery of the sheep?
Wonder which is rougher…. Camden or Chester? Chester looks pretty beat up and deserted.
I thought Camden was bad until I visited Chester during the late 90's
camden got better
Been to both lived in Chester till I was 14 and let me say Chester makes Camden look wholesome
@@microlithicChester looks more Midwest rural than a city
It’s actually getting better smart play to buy a house it’s cheap and Philadelphia has changed so much can’t afford to live there anymore in New York. People are moving outside the city Chester is the next place from Delaware County and I lived in Philly for years. I’m back in delco now and it’s changing whe. I was in high school Chester was super dangerous it not any more
Born and raised in Chester, was born in 95’ and this place is far from the suburbs and it’s definitely not apart of Philly. If Chester had Philly money they would tare it down and restart somewhere else. Only thing keeping it up is the history and all the plants
It's Delaware County Pennsylvania quite literally a Philadelphia Suburb! 8mins i95 south of Philly
@@Pontiacgxp303no philadelphia is a suburb of Chester it’s just 8 mins i95north of Chester and Chester city is older than Philadelphia
@@Pontiacgxp303Philadelphia is the suburbs of Chester, Chester Is The First & Oldest City In Pennsylvania.
@@ausarelFACTS, IT'S SAD TO SEE THE SAME STREETS I PLAYED ON IS DESTROYED WITH TIME
It's in Delaware County which is a suburb of Philadelphia. Chester is a suburb of Philadelphia.
Bro visit Wilmington Delaware next. It’s about 15 minutes away from Chester and 30 min away from Philly. A lot of people call it a “mini Philly”
It’s not a mini Philly at all. I’m from Chester and live In Wilmington De, Wilmington in 10x’s better the only issue is so many of our Pennsylvanians have moved from Chester and Philly and brought all of their same problems.
Nowadays there is no one hanging outside in Chester. I was in Wilmington yesterday and seen a line full of dope fiends. And blocks on blocks of people outside hustling
I think it was 8th st
No one calls it mini Philly.
@@youngrosay2493so wouldn’t you call that a mini Philly ?😂😂😂 y’all from people from Philly kill me ..
Urban blight is an understatement!!! This is what nightmares are made of!!!
As long as the Ukraine is ok.
One has nothing to do with other.
@@ericsierra-franco7802Why not? We're happy to let our own country turn into a bombed out warzone. Can't be bothered to fix problems at home but happy to send trillions overseas. It's BS
Must be a national holiday...The Brothers are all "sleeeping in" today!
Including the public housing section, I would say the average age of vehicles shown in this video is around 6 or 7. Average in the US overall is over 12.
The priorities of living in a consumer based society.
I was thinking to myself, the vehicles look very modern for the areas shown in the video.
It's like watching an old skool rap vid without the people on the street
I was born 1970 on 3rd street cross from William Penn projects use to see bar fights all the time
It always been bad smh
10:32 looks like Chicago south side where the chi was filmed and close to where lil durk from normal ave.
Looks like a nice place to live
Yeah ur definitely a troll💀
Say chum, where is this delectable little quaint town. It's such a delight for the eyes if you're into boarded up graffiti tagged buldings.
Hey there. Ha ha. Just about 25 min south of Philadelphia. Thanks for watching Michael.
Because these areas were built in a different era. The people who built these communities that are now deteriorated once worked different jobs along the Delaware River. That is a past time. Philly was deteriorated and bombed out along the river and throughout the city also. Gentrification and renewal projects and investments changed Philadelphia. Camden New Jersey is the same.
Chester is in the Philly metro, but it's own thing. It's technically a small city. It's not a suburb.
An industrial city, a lot of closed dwn factories here, the majority of businesses R closed, closed dwn sum schools, money gone.... 😢😢😢😢
And to think Chester is in the suburbs.
Chester isn’t a suburb, it’s a city inside of a suburban county.
Yes we are a city.
Chester IS a Suburb. It's a Suburb of Philadelphia. Duh.
That doesn't matter. It's still a suburb of Philadelphia.
Thanks for putting ‘Public Housing’ in parentheses. It wasn’t obvious already 😅
alot of good memories when i grew up there , the boyd theater, furillos , hangin out at the boys club in the penn , even heading to the armory for the dances on fridays .. but given the place being used as a chemical dumping ground , corrupt city officals, HUD.project money being funneled to Nacrelli , the iacona family (whom I work for , for a small bit of time) and others.. it got drained of any value as a city.. 70s and 80s were pimp(if you didnt look at the crack being shovelled all over the place) but as in every story .. there had to be an end
Thanks for sharing and thank you for watching! It seems to be the same or similar story in these cities particularly on east coast and in rust belt.
Why are the sidewalks so wide?
They probably just feel like it honestly
It’s a lot of space there
The majority of the city used to have rowhomes up to the side walk, thus a wider sidewalk for a further setback from the road. Now since a HUGE percent of these rows have either been burned out or torn down all that's left is the sidewalk.
The cars look newer and better than the houses.
Commodore Barry took one look at this place, built a bridge to New Jersey, crossed it and never looked back. 😂😂😂
Great selection of bandos. Looks like the British got the best of that place! Wow.
They filmed the movie, “A Bridge Too Far” here, and you can see why. Never exit the bridge into Chester.
All the cars are like New though
The city of Chester also Has the smallest number of Hispanic/latino Immigrants, Delaware county has a noticeable small number of Latino/hispanic immigrants but does have a large compared to the rest of the country African specifically Liberian and Asian immigrant population. Over the last 65 years zoning laws changed and whites moved towards the western part of the southeast region situating themselves in towns like concord. The majority of black people from Delaware to as far north as Allentown are situated in the southeast corridor along I-95. Although Fba makes up the majority of the population and its workforce they still earn the least, Asians who make up less than 2.6 of the population and whites earn more than blacks within Chester.
13.40 it go down in the Bennett 🤦🏾♂️
Tht ain’t Philadelphia at all buddy thts Chester Pennsylvania cnt confuse the ppl my guy
He says it's Chester.
This is where The Cheetah is from. Fredia Gibbs. 💪
she is the sista from another mista .. glad she got out and did alot with her fighting and such ..we did have a few legends come out of chester albeit , some ended with true legacy ; Ethel Waters ,and some ended in tragedy (r.i.p Brandi wells)
WOW Mr.Lee Fish Store Had The Best Crib's & Fish In Chester.... I'm Embarrassed Of This
I grew up in Chester went too elementary school it's still the same way old history old buildings
Camden New Jersey Entered the Chat
Chester used to be a beautiful city. What happened?
At least the liquor market is open, 24-7
A city cannot be a suburb to another city. Chester is a city so not a suburb of Philly which is several towns away up the Delaware River. I do have to laugh when I see videos like this. Yes, Chester has a lot of problems because the manufacturing plants that helped build Chester all left. The Philly Navy Yard going was a nail in the coffin and malls opening up killed many towns business districts in the area. But you only show the main roads. I noticed the well kept little pockets are missing, the huge post office building that is still a main sorting hub for the area, the well kept area around city hall and the early American courthouse which is the oldest in the country. Videos like this also never show the 1/4 of Chester that is cut off from the main city by I-95. We have many nice and maintained houses over here, Widener University and Crozer Hospital are also here. On the far end of East 24th Street the first Friends Meeting House still stands. Founded by William Penn, this Quaker Meeting House is still active. We also have buildings on the Crozer Hospital property that were part of the Crozer Theological Seminary which is where Doctor Martin Luther King got his religious training., The church he was Associate Paster for still thrives in Chester.
I praise God for all the climate changed and tornadoes, they send justice to the neighborhoods that profited off the pain and suffering of others.
greatest country in the world!!!
Laziest citizens too
@jed6403 meanwhile we have a longer work week on average educate yourself before speaking
Believe it or not, I actually live right by the mural in your thumbnail. 3rd and Engle. I had to temporarily move here from Delaware after covid and Biden's economy forced our Family business to close. My new business is doing well, and I'm looking to have me and my son out of here in a month or so. (single dad) I've known Chester my entire life, and have watch it deteriorate. Yeah, it's bad here. Don't come.
Documentary is inaccurate and offensive to someone (like myself) who have worked there, lived near there, and built relationships with people from there. 1. Chester is NOT a suburb of Philly. William Penn settled Chester first, and Chester is it's own city. 2. The camera person drove around a 10 block radius of Chester the entire video. They missed nice areas like Seaport Drive, The Warf, the Victorian houses around Widener University, Chester Park, the Kimberly Clark factory, the soccer stadium, the casino, and the new hotels popping up. Nor did anyone record the brand new single homes on Kerlin Street that was built several years ago. No one drove pass Widener Charter School where a mural my son and his classmates made as children is still on the wall.
I used to work in the building, on the left, at 18m:30s... I used to leave my office in pitch darkness and never feared it.
I gave this video a thumbs down 👎🏿; inaccurate and corny!
Glass shortage in Chester
Why doesn’t the local or county governments just demolish these buildings or how about sending some of the newly arrived immigrants the the “United States of Amerikkka” here. I’d bet that they would repair some of these house’s as it would be better than what they have in their native lands.
It's a shame that about 80% of the city looks like a damn war zone.
There's only one reason it turned into this
the 22:51 and 24:45"s are destroying everything. But Chester, has some hidden good parts
Dude keeps driving around the same block
This is what happens when you don’t treat people equally . Low wages , no upward mobility for certain peoples
Why is this allowed to happen in one of the richest countries in the world 🌍
Because these people have no respect for themselves or especially others.
Wow, don't you like diversity?
@@dickinsteinblowitz7102 I’m talking about the drug addicts I don’t care what colour they are !🙄
Because these areas were built in a different era. The people who built these communities that are now deteriorated once worked different jobs along the Delaware River. That is a past time. Philly was deteriorated and bombed out along the river and throughout the city also. Gentrification and renewal projects and investments changed Philadelphia. Camden New Jersey is the same.
@@jed6403wrong
I'm from Philly & I know people from Chester been out there plenty of times it's not Philadelphia suburb it is a whole other town& county it's delaware county PA philly is it's own city & county Chester is closer to the state of delaware than to philly whoever wrote title don't know what they talking about Chester is Delco not philly suburb ik bunch of philly suburbs closer to city on edge of Delco & philly & the other counties around city Chester is not philly suburb
The entire population now resides in the state Correctional Institute! Free food!
Use to be a nice Town
When 1970s? Cuz Chester been horrible since i was a jit and I'm 36
@@smoove35251thank you cause i’m 28 and it’s been a death zone since I was born
Probably anytime before crack
Not for nothing but Umm, Camden is actually the worst. Just sayin
Thanks for confirmation. I’ve heard many debates on the subject. Thank you for watching
tell that to the people who witnessed the highest murder rate in the country during the 90s
@@overlordshankoftheygftsqua1014 ok. Six in one hand and a half dozen in the other. You can have em both
Wow it was cool to see where my mom worked back in 70 s and 80s Levy's furniture on 3rd st
Upland.
Chester done puts da H in hood yo. Word
Chester,PA sure did has gone to Hell in recent years.
Better than you know!
And I thought York was a dump!! Damn PA sucks!!!
I bet this place was a booming open air drugs market years ago....girls on every corner ,now look at it.
Reading pa city is 100 more beautiful than canden Philadelphia and chester
Naming Chester a suburb of Philly is like naming Jamaica Queens a suburb of nyc! So please stop!
That makes no sense because Queens is part of NYC. Chester is not part of Philadelphia.
@@ericsierra-franco7802 true, how about naming Buffalo a suburb of nyc!
Better than inner city it's how u live y showing run down side positive side libary public trans career link social security soccer stadium casino Kimberley Clark Delaware river everybody who can buying buildings it was once the place to be and now it's coming up again people from here know
Jesus wept😢😢😢
Relax. Build back better Biden has only been working in politics for 40 plus years....4 more years promise... it will be fixed!
Chester is NOT a suburb of Philly. You can't even take a direct (1 bus) to get to it. West Chester is closer.to Philly than Chester.
Totally wrong! West Chester is NOT closer to Philadelphia than Chester. Chester isn't far from Philadelphia International Airport. Chester is absolutely a suburb of Philadelphia.
Chester is 18 miles south of Philadelphia. West Chester is over 35 miles from Philly. You have your geography all mixed up. And I don't think you know what a suburb is.
Put some respect on my citys name
Late stage liberal democracy.