Chester High school had the best marching band in the region we were probably the most talented city in music and sports I pray for my city every day and remember what once was.
I am Chester Made!! You make me so proud, bringing this great city back!! What Chester Makes, Makes Chester!! I am 70, born and raised in Chester!! So many wonderful memories and I carry her in my heart, wherever I go!! I have tears in my eyes watching this video!! So proud of each of those trying and working to make Chester Made!!
I grew up on McIlvain Street in the 1950’s and Chester was a beautiful, vibrant city. It would be a beautiful dream if it could be built up again but it would take a miracle for that to happen. Thanks for this interesting video.
I deliver mail in chester sometimes, w 2nd street up to w 6th, I gotta be honest, during the day a majority of people are extremely nice and helpful, have had some good conversations with a lot of people, but the second dusk hits the atmosphere changes and you start seeing a different kind of group out on the blocks.
I was born in Chester, and graduated the year that Chester high was burnt down. Chester was a beautiful place to grow up but it started to get worse in the late 60's
I was Made in Chester, PA, way back in 1955! I was born in Chester Hospital, went to the Elementary School, Jefferies, which now looks like an Apartment building? My Address was 1142 Potter St., and I went to the what was then, the Third Presbyterian Church, also on Potter St. Got my Junior Lifeguard Cert, @ the YMCA! I recall the Cadets, from PMC (PA Military College, Now Widener College) running down the streets yelling that President Kennedy had been shot....of course Nov. 11, 1963! The Teacher had us all pray for him, and we were sent home early! It was a vibrant city, in many ways....then the crime got so bad, my father moved us up to Lebanon County PA, in 1968! So yes, I do recall the Long Hot Summer of 1967 there....not good! Hopefully what is said in this Vid, is a positive thing for Chester, and it does revitalize! It sure has a had a rough past 50 years, for sure! Everybody knew everybody back then! Get out Chester, meet your neighbors, make this community a better place to reside! I hope I live to see that occur, I really do!
i too grew up there on baldwin st off morton and it was a great place to live great place to live ,i went to jefferies i feel anger now when i see what it has become i know what it was
To be honest here 75% of the people who commented on this video is the problem. I live in Chester and the most important thing that we need here is for people outside the community to chip in and help out. Everyone’s calling us thugs which would make the people who are not thugs want to be thugs because that’s what they are being treated like. YOU guys outside the city of Chester need to loosen up and realize not everybody here is apart of a gang or stealing things or stupid. I have plenty of friends from swarthmore and Ridley and other counties around here who are scared to step foot into chester or who are forbidden to even be in chester by their parents which is really insane to me. Y’all gotta stop codling y’all kids nd grandkids so much because of you don’t chester is never gonna change🤦🏾♂️ Half of the kids I talk to couldn’t walk a block in my shoes in my city and that’s Because most of them get everything handed down right to them. I’m 16 and most of my friends from outside the city are 16-18 and some of them look down on me because I walk to work or ride a bike or catch the bus and because I’m working and trying to pay bills and trying to get a car and just trying to be independent in my way. The biggest problems most of them have is that their parents won’t let them go to a party. But I’m gonna finish here and just say that you guys outside of Chester need to change the most. Now I’m not saying Chester is perfect but it’s not somewhere you should set a border up for yourself or your kids that’s just disrespectful to the city and everyone in it. I say all this with the most due respect 😤😤💯
Nicely done.the saddest loss to Chester is losing its architectural history. All the cooler looking homes and businesses are left to rot and get torn down. We also have way fewer trees than we did when I grew up in the 1970s. Our air quality is suffering because of that.
This was an interesting documentary. As a Widener alumni, I am glad to see how Widener is attempting to see the "best" side of Chester. Unfortunately, the city is dead. No matter how it is presented, the city does not have the financial resources to become anything of value to anyone outside of its restricted confines - and, even then, it seems as if the majority of young residents are only interested in finding ways to make a quick dollar (mostly illegally), contend with interpersonal difficulties by using weapons, do very little to take care of their properties, and allow the general atmosphere of the city to be little more than urban blight. Why won't new business relocate into Chester? Because the city cannot support them, and customers will not go into an area that is proven to be a dangerous and dirty place. I can understand why Widener is putting a "propaganda" project onto social media - no one would want to attend a school located in a social war zone. But, you can't hide from reality, Widener. Chester has been, and continues to be, a slowly sinking ship. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a smelly pig, in the long run. Chester is, most certainly, that pig.
mead young im from chester as well, 1119 Norris Drive Bennett homes... Now i live in lancaster pa since 97, chester need alot of work thow cuz there beautiful there as well but the crime rate needs to go down dramatically, still is my home i visit every cuople of weeks at a time
Truth is, Chester will remain the way it is for a very long time. Instead of pushing the idea of socialism and activism, how about getting things right in the home? Over 80% of the kids that live in Chester are from Single Parent homes, where the father isn't the head of the house. The kids run the streets late at night and the parents do a terrible job at disciplining and correcting them. People in this town town don't respect other people's property, and the attitudes of many discourage business to invest in the city. Chester needs to be a place where people can work and be a part of something. Those who had the money moved out and let Chester go to rot. What Chester should do is build up the waterfront by making 2nd street far more attractive than what it is. Buy up the remaining property there and rebuild it into something that people would want to visit. If you build it, people will come! Create an attractive site---people will invest in the city again. Only a Republican Mayor who is willing to stick it out will make it happen. The last 2 mayors who did something great for Chester were Pilleggi and Joe Battle--and we are going back 20 years ago.
I was born in Chester Hospital 1939, as was my Mother. My family, was in the census of 1830. Yes we are a white family. My family & others were, at one time, part of the Underground railway, helping slaves make it from the Southern slave states to the north. I remember great times thru the 1950.s. Then the CHS Vocational bldg was burned down! CHS bldg burned down, 3 generation of my family went there. I lived @ 9th & Barcley, right next to Chester Hospital. Then that went down, to build a NEW CHS. This a Historic City that has been destroyd. The Population is about 85 or90% black. We helped some of your famlies get here. Please help rebuild the town, the neighborehoods & the families.
If you want someones opinion, ask me about the city of Chester, I used to live there for 50 years. I moved out and across the state to get away from that hell hole.
I lived on Upland St and worked at the old Goodwill on Morton Ave. Long time gone but I return to support the sports teams and visit some close friends. Chester is wonderful. People who watch television for all their news and images are completely uninformed about the character of the city. And the art studios on Ave of States are visionary. I buy the stuff and hang in around my house -- and I live in Lancaster PA
If you want Chester to come back to its glory days get rid of a corrupt politicians to keep bleeding it dry to higher tax hikes and power grabs lower the corporate tax rate and start to entice corporations in industry to come back and build their manufacturing and distribution hubs along the Delaware river that’s a start somewhere along the way the rest of fall in the place New jobs will be created a tax base will start to come in you can start to repair roads better teachers at the schools more social programs for people all that comes from taxes if you have no workforce you have no taxes right now Chester is in a slump there’s more welfare on Chester than there is people paying into the tax base and now they wanna sell Chester water authority because they have no more money would say they get another $40 million for Chester water authority what are going to do in a few years with her is gone and they’re back to their Same old ways
I grew up in Chester from the late 1950's to the late 1990's. The city , in my opinion went to the wayside by the gangs & drug dealers. It's a dump today.
Chester was a city of industry the sunoco dry dock ship building company was their scott paper which is now kimberly clark malls shopping complexes movie theatres roller rinks you want it back up and running hard mean profitable and straight kick every corrupt politician off the board and throw then in jail lower business taxes give a few tax breaks to bring some industry back and the rest will fall into play and close the casino also I like how is documentary only shows the very few good parts of Chester such as the casino soccer stadium in up in the upper parts of Chester where the courthouse and police station how about we go to 11th and Beverly or I saw a shooting not too long ago as I was delivering a pizza one night or a guy got shot and killed in front of me let's go back into the projects and look at all the crap needles that were laying on the ground gunshots shootings this is a city that in one summer alone back in 2012 27 people were killed or maybe it doesn't seem like much when you compare that amount of homicides with the amount of capita in that region that's a lot so much in fact a state of emergency was declared and a temporary curfew is instated people were only allowed to move in groups of three or less and after 6 p.m. unless you were going to work or had a really good reason you were not allowed out of your house or on the street regardless of your age gender Creed or sex
@@memyself6235 Sorry , I seem to have offended you. I worked at Sun shipyards many years ago and lived for a time there. I don't think my comment is wrong though.
Life in Chester is not living. History be damn. A city of filth crime and disfunction. G is afraid of Chester, not God but gentrification, our real salvation. Unfortunately Mayor Thad isn't complete with pilfering the little we had
That would be your fuckin mother! Don't you EVER disrespect my City without knowing it first! You are like every one else's misconceptions about my City. The mayor who used to be the state rep. is one of the ones to tear it apart so talk to Him! I Know cause I'm the transexual that used to be his mistress!
I grew up on McIlvain Street in the 1950’s and Chester was a beautiful, vibrant city. It would be a beautiful dream if it could be built up again but it would take a miracle for that to happen. Thanks for this interesting video.
@@tkso.philly-7868. Were your cousins also named Bannister? I would like to know who they were. Did they go to public or Catholic school? When I lived on McIlvain Street, it was mainly Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian families who has escaped Europe in World War Two. McIlvain Street was only four blocks long (a factory took up one block) so you knew everyone. It was also close to the Delaware River, the Amtrak railroad tracks (Pennsylvania R.R. back then), and the Philadelphia Airport, which was a few miles away, so that put us in the flight path of planes. To this day, I LOVE the sound of trains, boat whistles, and planes.
Chester born and raised. No matter where I go I'll never forget where I come from💯
Chester High school had the best marching band in the region we were probably the most talented city in music and sports I pray for my city every day and remember what once was.
Let's say it right. "The High" had the best band. I get chills thinking about the turn up!!! '85ver
Prayers ain’t gonna help standing up to the corrupt politicians will
I am Chester Made!! You make me so proud, bringing this great city back!! What Chester Makes, Makes Chester!! I am 70, born and raised in Chester!! So many wonderful memories and I carry her in my heart, wherever I go!! I have tears in my eyes watching this video!! So proud of each of those trying and working to make Chester Made!!
I grew up on McIlvain Street in the 1950’s and Chester was a beautiful, vibrant city. It would be a beautiful dream if it could be built up again but it would take a miracle for that to happen. Thanks for this interesting video.
I deliver mail in chester sometimes, w 2nd street up to w 6th, I gotta be honest, during the day a majority of people are extremely nice and helpful, have had some good conversations with a lot of people, but the second dusk hits the atmosphere changes and you start seeing a different kind of group out on the blocks.
Didn't expect to see my cousin in this documentary,wat up Rabbit!!!
They should put up a video of how thriving Chester used to be and beside that show what it is like now. It's truly heartbreaking to see
Nice Presentation, God bless you and the review of History of Chester PA. 🙏😔🏡
I was born in Chester, and graduated the year that Chester high was burnt down. Chester was a beautiful place to grow up but it started to get worse in the late 60's
I was Made in Chester, PA, way back in 1955! I was born in Chester Hospital, went to the Elementary School, Jefferies, which now looks like an Apartment building? My Address was 1142 Potter St., and I went to the what was then, the Third Presbyterian Church, also on Potter St. Got my Junior Lifeguard Cert, @ the YMCA! I recall the Cadets, from PMC (PA Military College, Now Widener College) running down the streets yelling that President Kennedy had been shot....of course Nov. 11, 1963! The Teacher had us all pray for him, and we were sent home early! It was a vibrant city, in many ways....then the crime got so bad, my father moved us up to Lebanon County PA, in 1968! So yes, I do recall the Long Hot Summer of 1967 there....not good! Hopefully what is said in this Vid, is a positive thing for Chester, and it does revitalize! It sure has a had a rough past 50 years, for sure! Everybody knew everybody back then! Get out Chester, meet your neighbors, make this community a better place to reside! I hope I live to see that occur, I really do!
i too grew up there on baldwin st off morton and it was a great place to live great place to live ,i went to jefferies i feel anger now when i see what it has become i know what it was
This my home 💙💙💙💙💙
To be honest here 75% of the people who commented on this video is the problem. I live in Chester and the most important thing that we need here is for people outside the community to chip in and help out. Everyone’s calling us thugs which would make the people who are not thugs want to be thugs because that’s what they are being treated like. YOU guys outside the city of Chester need to loosen up and realize not everybody here is apart of a gang or stealing things or stupid. I have plenty of friends from swarthmore and Ridley and other counties around here who are scared to step foot into chester or who are forbidden to even be in chester by their parents which is really insane to me. Y’all gotta stop codling y’all kids nd grandkids so much because of you don’t chester is never gonna change🤦🏾♂️ Half of the kids I talk to couldn’t walk a block in my shoes in my city and that’s Because most of them get everything handed down right to them. I’m 16 and most of my friends from outside the city are 16-18 and some of them look down on me because I walk to work or ride a bike or catch the bus and because I’m working and trying to pay bills and trying to get a car and just trying to be independent in my way. The biggest problems most of them have is that their parents won’t let them go to a party. But I’m gonna finish here and just say that you guys outside of Chester need to change the most. Now I’m not saying Chester is perfect but it’s not somewhere you should set a border up for yourself or your kids that’s just disrespectful to the city and everyone in it. I say all this with the most due respect 😤😤💯
❤️I’m from Chester pa and proud
I've been coming to work in Chester for the past 34 years.
Chester will always be home!!!
We were the only mexican family in chester back in the 90s #chesterproud
Nicely done.the saddest loss to Chester is losing its architectural history. All the cooler looking homes and businesses are left to rot and get torn down. We also have way fewer trees than we did when I grew up in the 1970s. Our air quality is suffering because of that.
@1:20 the lady said,"...we're too crowded already." Really, too crowded?
Do they got a Wawa though?
Can anyone please give the location for this "historical arts district in Downtown"? The map doesn't seem to know it exists. Thanks.
That would be the courthouse in Welsh nextdoor to the old well fair office.
This was an interesting documentary. As a Widener alumni, I am glad to see how Widener is attempting to see the "best" side of Chester. Unfortunately, the city is dead. No matter how it is presented, the city does not have the financial resources to become anything of value to anyone outside of its restricted confines - and, even then, it seems as if the majority of young residents are only interested in finding ways to make a quick dollar (mostly illegally), contend with interpersonal difficulties by using weapons, do very little to take care of their properties, and allow the general atmosphere of the city to be little more than urban blight. Why won't new business relocate into Chester? Because the city cannot support them, and customers will not go into an area that is proven to be a dangerous and dirty place. I can understand why Widener is putting a "propaganda" project onto social media - no one would want to attend a school located in a social war zone. But, you can't hide from reality, Widener. Chester has been, and continues to be, a slowly sinking ship. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a smelly pig, in the long run. Chester is, most certainly, that pig.
You got that right. No bullshit.
William Penn projects?
thank you for this!
Thank you!!!!!!
I Love Chester and The People in this Beautiful city We Are Rising
mead young im from chester as well, 1119 Norris Drive Bennett homes... Now i live in lancaster pa since 97, chester need alot of work thow cuz there beautiful there as well but the crime rate needs to go down dramatically, still is my home i visit every cuople of weeks at a time
Truth is, Chester will remain the way it is for a very long time. Instead of pushing the idea of socialism and activism, how about getting things right in the home? Over 80% of the kids that live in Chester are from Single Parent homes, where the father isn't the head of the house. The kids run the streets late at night and the parents do a terrible job at disciplining and correcting them. People in this town town don't respect other people's property, and the attitudes of many discourage business to invest in the city. Chester needs to be a place where people can work and be a part of something. Those who had the money moved out and let Chester go to rot. What Chester should do is build up the waterfront by making 2nd street far more attractive than what it is. Buy up the remaining property there and rebuild it into something that people would want to visit. If you build it, people will come! Create an attractive site---people will invest in the city again. Only a Republican Mayor who is willing to stick it out will make it happen. The last 2 mayors who did something great for Chester were Pilleggi and Joe Battle--and we are going back 20 years ago.
It is extra wacky to push socialism when most of the original people who built Chester FLED Communism and Socialism in Europe
we just from da hood
Chester seem so small and streets so narrow back when i was there years ago in the 90s
How about Sun Village
Chester PA will always be my home 1119 Norris Drive represent Bennett homes
Oh wow , I am sure you know my family “ the blacks” we lived on 1125 Norris drive. Talib( Kenny) is my father 🤗
@@kiynteam what up, I'm poochie son and nephew of Helena shakes mom
Linear Ellis oh wow, I just seen Shake n Mr. Hank a few months ago ☺️
BHP!! 1201 Norris Drive!!
@@kiynteamI saw your brother a little while ago out Media!!
That city's a fucking mess come on, some kid just got shot at memorial park today
Don't talk shit! Do something!
The city made me the man I am today 922 upland St summer of 75
1104 UPLAND ST 1958
I was born there in 1959. My dad was born there in 1923.
I was born in Crozer hospital in 72
I was born in Chester county hospital in 1966 on October 8th we lived in Kennett Sq I was thinking about moving back there I want to be home
You should move back!
I wouldn't think of moving there.
I was born in Chester Hospital 1939, as was my Mother. My family, was in the census of 1830. Yes we are a white family.
My family & others were, at one time, part of the Underground railway, helping slaves make it from the Southern slave states to the north. I remember great times thru the 1950.s. Then the CHS Vocational bldg was burned down! CHS bldg burned down, 3 generation of my family went there. I lived @ 9th & Barcley, right next to Chester Hospital. Then that went down, to build a NEW CHS. This a Historic City that has been destroyd. The Population is about 85 or90% black. We helped some of your famlies get here. Please help rebuild the town, the neighborehoods & the families.
No....the black people built the economy of this country that either fed your family or made immigrating to this country appealing.
If you want someones opinion, ask me about the city of Chester, I used to live there for 50 years. I moved out and across the state to get away from that hell hole.
I lived on Upland St and worked at the old Goodwill on Morton Ave. Long time gone but I return to support the sports teams and visit some close friends. Chester is wonderful. People who watch television for all their news and images are completely uninformed about the character of the city. And the art studios on Ave of States are visionary. I buy the stuff and hang in around my house -- and I live in Lancaster PA
1104 UPLAND ST
To hear these people downplay how bad this city is is scary! The place is a war zone!
Yup. But hopefully things can change
Yes just look at where they rank in the national statistics of bad stuff
They’re just trying to turn it around
❤
Might move here
Philly born and raised, but sister is also home-
If you want Chester to come back to its glory days get rid of a corrupt politicians to keep bleeding it dry to higher tax hikes and power grabs lower the corporate tax rate and start to entice corporations in industry to come back and build their manufacturing and distribution hubs along the Delaware river that’s a start somewhere along the way the rest of fall in the place New jobs will be created a tax base will start to come in you can start to repair roads better teachers at the schools more social programs for people all that comes from taxes if you have no workforce you have no taxes right now Chester is in a slump there’s more welfare on Chester than there is people paying into the tax base and now they wanna sell Chester water authority because they have no more money would say they get another $40 million for Chester water authority what are going to do in a few years with her is gone and they’re back to their Same old ways
I grew up in Chester from the late 1950's to the late 1990's. The city , in my opinion went to the wayside by the gangs & drug dealers. It's a dump today.
Chester was a city of industry the sunoco dry dock ship building company was their scott paper which is now kimberly clark malls shopping complexes movie theatres roller rinks you want it back up and running hard mean profitable and straight kick every corrupt politician off the board and throw then in jail lower business taxes give a few tax breaks to bring some industry back and the rest will fall into play and close the casino also I like how is documentary only shows the very few good parts of Chester such as the casino soccer stadium in up in the upper parts of Chester where the courthouse and police station how about we go to 11th and Beverly or I saw a shooting not too long ago as I was delivering a pizza one night or a guy got shot and killed in front of me let's go back into the projects and look at all the crap needles that were laying on the ground gunshots shootings this is a city that in one summer alone back in 2012 27 people were killed or maybe it doesn't seem like much when you compare that amount of homicides with the amount of capita in that region that's a lot so much in fact a state of emergency was declared and a temporary curfew is instated people were only allowed to move in groups of three or less and after 6 p.m. unless you were going to work or had a really good reason you were not allowed out of your house or on the street regardless of your age gender Creed or sex
The place is a mess now.
Who are you and where are you from? How do you know what Chester's like without living here.
@@memyself6235 Sorry , I seem to have offended you. I worked at Sun shipyards many years ago and lived for a time there. I don't think my comment is wrong though.
Chester is hell now
when they get steve carrell? lol
+Jimmy Faust jr Iceeee!!!!!!! whats up bro???????
@@brotheldan2009 whats up man lol im still at fedex 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 be 20 years this year. Dec 11
Instead of art , try math, plumbing, electrical education….. practical.
Life in Chester is not living. History be damn.
A city of filth crime and disfunction.
G is afraid of Chester, not God but gentrification, our real salvation. Unfortunately Mayor Thad isn't complete with pilfering the little we had
Thaddeus want y'all to kill yaselves. This is what he told me. ("Those niggas don't care about the city so let them kill themselves!") This is Bey.
Nothing on the 1917 race riots
Amen!
Just tear it down. Everyone there is a waste of life.
No type of empathy.... karma will get you I will manifest it
That would be your fuckin mother! Don't you EVER disrespect my City without knowing it first! You are like every one else's misconceptions about my City. The mayor who used to be the state rep. is one of the ones to tear it apart so talk to Him! I Know cause I'm the transexual that used to be his mistress!
I grew up on McIlvain Street in the 1950’s and Chester was a beautiful, vibrant city. It would be a beautiful dream if it could be built up again but it would take a miracle for that to happen. Thanks for this interesting video.
I wish my family never moved away. Life could have taken a different better direction
Will you must know my family the Bannisters---there were thirteen children all of them my cousins...
@@tkso.philly-7868. Were your cousins also named Bannister? I would like to know who they were. Did they go to public or Catholic school?
When I lived on McIlvain Street, it was mainly Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian families who has escaped Europe in World War Two. McIlvain Street was only four blocks long (a factory took up one block) so you knew everyone. It was also close to the Delaware River, the Amtrak railroad tracks (Pennsylvania R.R. back then), and the Philadelphia Airport, which was a few miles away, so that put us in the flight path of planes. To this day, I LOVE the sound of trains, boat whistles, and planes.