I choose to stay here (View a clip).

This documentary follows a group of people opposing the city of Philadelphia's "takings" of private homes: the little-known downside of the city's "redevelopment" initiative. "I choose to stay here" shows people fighting city hall for the right to define and preserve viable communities, and it tracks their struggle for justice.

Philadelphia is a city in decline, say planners and politicians. In response, the city unrolled the Neighborhood Transformation Initative - a massive program to change the face and future of the city. Last year, the city of Philadelphia condemned and acquired 5,334 properties, 20% more acquisitions than any other year. This same pace is expected next year (2004).

But much of this land and property is being acquired without any plan in place for redevelopment. About 250 of these properties, to date, are occupied homes whose residents are to be relocated. While some residents have accepted relocation deals, others simply do not want to move from the neighborhoods in which they have lived for decades, or even generations. In "I choose to stay here" residents speak eloquently about why they are fighting and what they value: the local history, rich memories, and web of relationships in the neighborhood. Displaced and soon-to-be-displaced residents eloquently name a system of value that is grounded in what is priceless (community, family, memory, experience). They articulate a sense of place and hard-won belonging, and a commitment to preservation, not profit.

On West Kensington’s Bodine Street, no homes remain standing. Where outsiders see cleared and desolate land, or the possibility of new development and profit, neighbors vividly picture ghost memories of people who worked hard jobs as agricultural workers, day laborers, or domestics. Gatherings, gardens, festivities - and long-term fights for the right to enter city parks, to go safely to school - are among the stories people briefly share about the community they have built over decades and lost in a matter of years.

Stories sketch residents' versions of block and neighborhood history, of struggles against disinvestment, of emerging movements and coalitions, of good times and bad. Residents' stories challenge and complicate city planners’ tales of decline.

The transformation of place is seldom seen from the point of view of poor and working people impacted. "I choose" offers residents' perspectives: alternative senses of neighborhood history and value, and a documentary record of unwilling removals. Says one West Kensington resident, "The cameras have to come soon, because the houses will be torn down by the city and memory of this will be gone. But this memory has to live on because these unjust home-takings cannot be repeated."

In 1950, Center City Philadelphia was home to 23% people of color. By 1980, only 10% people of color lived in Center City and the number has continued to drop - even as the diversity of the city as a whole rises. Writing a decade ago about urban renewal programs that had massive impact on North Philadelphia and Center City from 1949-1970, sociologist Nancy Kleniewski echoed community peoples’ feelings (still simmering today, condensed in peoples’ description of those programs as "urban removal"), that "poor and non-white people have had to bear the brunt of the demolitions and displacement from redevelopment projects." City officials and residents alike struggle with the question of how to "save" declining rust-belt cities like Philadelphia; this brief documentary emphasizes that blight, decline, and renewal represent different readings of history, different assessments of the present, and different views of good prospects for the future.

About the co-directors: Rosemary Cubas is a 31-year resident of a neighborhood impacted by the takings. An activist for 40 years, she is the Director of the Community Leadership Insititute. Barry Dornfeld is a documentary filmmaker and Associate Professor and Chair of the Communications Department of the University of the Arts. Debora Kodish is a folklorist and director of the Philadelphia Folklore Project. Elizabeth Segarra and Iris Torres are residents of a neighborhood impacted by the takings and staff volunteers at Community Leadership Insititute. With Rosemary Cubas, they have been active in organizing the CLI, the Concerned Residents of the American Street Empowerment Zone, and the City-Wide Coalition to Save Our Homes.

"I choose to stay here" was initially supported by a grant from WYBE-TV, and by PFP members. It was broadcast on WYBE Channel 35 (Philadelphia) on July 20th at 9 PM and on July 24th at 10 PM.

I choose to stay here" is available for $15 for individuals and $50 for institutions from the PFP or CLI. Purchase now.

VHS: 0-9644937-7-2
DVD: 0-9644937-5-6

For more information: 215.726.1106.