(gentle music) (soft music) - [Cris] There's lots of roadways in and out of Wilmington, Delaware.

Thousands of commuters use Interstate 95, which bisects the city of 72,000 people.

Or they use roads that weave through smaller towns or the suburbs.

Yet one former major artery is hardly ever used.

That's Northeast Boulevard.

The two mile stretch that parallels the Delaware River has deteriorated for decades.

Once thriving auto dealerships, restaurants, and other neighborhood anchors, including a professional baseball stadium, are long gone.

- Well if you look to your left and your right, these aren't vibrant businesses.

You have a convenience store, you have a gas station, which in the evening, there's some activity that probably isn't best for our community.

You have a lot of automobile type of businesses, whether it be tires or mechanics.

You have failed fast food restaurants, which turned into automobile.

So if you look, lease, for sale, businesses that are abandoned or sitting here.

- [Cris] Just off the boulevard, stretching for several blocks is the Riverside Public Housing Complex.

For decades, Riverside has been a poster child for urban poverty and despair, but it's one most Wilmingtonians and visitors never see.

Logan Herring grew up in another rough part of town.

- The one or two times I rode through Riverside, my head was on a swivel because it was synonymous with poverty and crime and violence and drug dealing.

- [Cris] But revival is in the air, and Herring is leading the way.

He runs Riverside's Kingswood Community Center and is point man on REACH Riverside, a 10 year, half a billion dollar plus reclamation project.

The centerpiece is tearing down Riverside's 300 low slung rundown units and building a 700 home community called Imani Village.

But the scope encompasses the entire boulevard.

There's a new skills and social rec center for teens, and a charter school where a STEM hub is under construction.

Kingswood is getting a new state-of-the-art center, the swimming pool where President Biden lifeguarded as a teenager has been modernized, an electronics recycling biz and a produce store have sprouted.

- Our charge is really not just to provide support to our service organizations, which are The Warehouse in Kingswood, but really to drive this vision of a holistic revitalization of the Riverside neighborhood.

And so that includes housing, which is the redevelopment in REACH, the R. Education, so that cradle to college career pipeline, community health, which includes economic vitality, workforce development, economic development, just everything to be a vibrant, thriving neighborhood, not just surviving.

- See, this is how these are designed.

That's a one bedroom too.

This is a different house right here.

Then this house is upstairs, and then this house on the end, it's the stairs, and then that's a three floor.

- Okay.

Lorrie Dennis has already moved from the old Riverside to the new Imani Village.

- I think it'll make a difference with people that's over here doing what they're doing.

And it just seems like when you go across the street, you're in like a new environment, you know?

It's like a new planet.

- I'm Cris Barrish from WHYY's Delaware desk.

For the past few years, we've been chronicling the monumental efforts to revitalize this historic and once proud part of Wilmington that had all been forgotten.

And over the next half hour, we'll explore the past, assess the present, and reveal the ambitious gambit to resurrect Riverside.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) Before I-95 and I-495 were built, before Northern Delawareans shopped in malls or strip centers, the Northeast Boulevard ruled.

On Wilmington's outskirts, the Mecca was the merchandise mart, a sprawling complex of stores and restaurants.

Nearby was a bowling alley and a movie theater.

Once in town, baseball fans flocked to Wilmington Park.

That's where the Blue Rocks farm team of the Philadelphia Phillies and Athletics played.

Sometimes Major league clubs had exhibitions there.

- This community has such rich history, and I think we really need to start there.

We need to revisit how rich it was.

And not just economically rich, but rich in culture, rich in history, rich in tradition.

- [Cris] Swank auto dealerships graced the boulevard that led into the downtown of Wilmington, a chemical and shipbuilding center, which in the late 1940s was America's 75th largest city.

After World War II, two massive public housing neighborhoods for returning veterans, Riverside and Eastlake were built.

There were schools, ball fields, and a gigantic swimming pool in a picturesque park.

- And then certain decisions, whether they be legislative, criminal justice, we could talk about it for days, but eventually it became a community that wasn't so synonymous with prosperity and thriving.

(somber music) - [Cris] The demise began in the 1950s when Wilmingtonians began moving en masse to new suburban developments.

The ballpark closed and the Blue Rocks folded.

And when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and riots ravaged Wilmington, more people moved away.

That same year, Concord Mall opened west of town.

The merchandise mart began declining, car dealerships moved, with one taken over by the rough Thunderguards motorcycle club.

Left behind was an impoverished population.

Riverside and Eastlake and the Boulevard that cut through them only decayed.

- Everybody wants a commercial life to exist in their communities, and there's not much of a commercial life available when you have nothing but poverty everywhere you see.

- [Cris] Markevis Gideon lived in Riverside as a child in the 1980s.

- I can't recall many positive memories.

I mean, I could think of one when I was riding my bike.

I think it's 25th Street, there's a big tree.

My training wheel fell off and I kind of fell.

We all laughed.

That's a good memory of mine.

It was a lot of crime, a lot of violence.

For me, when I got punished, I had to sit on the front steps to try to be acclimated with the environment.

But it was something I just thoroughly didn't enjoy.

I hated it.

- [Cris] Winona Sutton of REACH Riverside grew up in the Bronx, but was stunned by life in this part of Wilmington.

- One of the saddest things I saw when I came in this area was the Riverside Housing Community.

(somber music) You pass by there, I mean there are boarded up homes.

There is living conditions that are norm for community members that should not have been a norm.

And then when you hear the stories of how long this community has been sitting and how long help has not come, it just really makes you wonder how and why something like that could happen.

- In time, these projects become obsolescent.

Their structure is so challenging that spending a lot of money on them doesn't make any sense.

- [Cris] Two decades ago though, developers tore down and rebuilt Eastlake.

- These houses have held up nicely.

They're maintained, they're taken care of.

- [Cris] No comprehensive project to revitalize the entire area took place.

But Eastlake's transformation did become somewhat of a delayed catalyst for Riverside's rebirth.

- So what we saw in Eastlake was that it's possible, right?

A mixed income community in a community that used to be notorious for crime and poverty.

So the work that we're doing right across the boulevard, we believe is gonna highly compliment what was done in Eastlake.

(gentle music) - [Cris] The other seeds of Riverside's rejuvenation were planted around the turn of the century after Eastside Charter School opened next door.

When the students struggled, school leaders sought ways to improve their performance.

They studied a housing and education-focused initiative that had dramatically revitalized one impoverished area in Atlanta and was being replicated in New Orleans, Tulsa, Birmingham, Omaha, and other cities.

Known as Purpose Built Communities, the redevelopments are funded with a mix of tax credits and public and private investment, and unrelenting will.

Among Purpose Built's financial backers is billionaire Omaha resident Warren Buffett.

- Hadn't been a building permit issued in 30 years.

The fifth graders, 5% were reading at grade level.

I mean, it was a disaster.

And in a period of not too many years, there's full employment, there's a mixture of incomes, there's a mixture of races.

The school scores in the top 10 in that area.

- [Cris] In 2014, Mike Purzycki joined a contingent from Wilmington that visited Atlanta to see the revived area, also known as Eastlake.

At the time, Purzycki headed the public private group redeveloping Wilmington's Riverfront, where the new Blue Rock Stadium is an anchor.

Purzycki was elected mayor in 2016.

- [Both] So help me God.

- [Cris] And is finishing up his second term.

- We came back pretty enthralled by this whole concept of building a project, but building supports and community centers and schools in the works.

To me, it's a magnificent example of what happens when people have this indomitable will that says, "We are gonna do this project."

All you gotta do is look around and see what's going on here.

And if you're not impressed, you just don't have a pulse because it's really beautiful.

- [Cris] By 2020, Wilmington's Purpose Built model had the green light.

The centerpiece is the old Riverside neighborhood where the stately units of Imani Village are going up at a dizzying pace.

In a few years, there will be about 700 homes.

Lorrie Dennis is one of the first residents.

She lived for years in the old Riverside and couldn't be happier now.

- I think it's beautiful what they're doing.

I really do.

I think it's gonna be way different from over there.

So every day I wake up, I count my blessings, and I thank God for what I got.

- [Cris] Most of the old Riverside still stands, and a couple hundred people still live there.

But these brick apartments will eventually be torn down for Imani Village units.

- Look, just a little sad, a little heartbroken because this where all me and my friends grew up at.

I lived there all my life.

That's the only reason.

But anything other than that, I'm all for the program.

And the people that build it, I salute them.

- [Cris] Do you think it'll bring more like business and like a more thriving boulevard?

- They should because when they look over there, they ain't gotta see the old projects.

They gonna see the new houses and they're beautiful.

- [Cris] Maurice Brooks also grew up in Riverside.

He worries about residents who won't qualify for the new homes, but said life should be better for those who do.

- I see the change.

I see them putting a little playground for the kids and a little gazebo, that's nice.

I think everything they doing is nice.

- Aw!

Oh, you're good.

- [Cris] That was Clarissa Crippen's reaction when she and her children moved to Imani Village.

- Moving!

It's really big, right?

Yay!

(bright music) - While stable housing and low unemployment form the backbone of a thriving community, residents need places to learn and to play, to buy groceries, clothes, household items, and electronics, to see a doctor, to enjoy meals and cocktails, or just a cup of coffee.

Kids need safe spaces to kick back, to paint, to dance, blow off steam, to dream.

Stay tuned as we show you how policymakers, educators, and entrepreneurs are moving full steam ahead in their quest to attract those crucial neighborhood amenities and resurrect Riverside.

(upbeat music) We're at The Warehouse For Teens at an event promoting historically Black colleges and universities.

The Warehouse opened in 2021 and has pretty much everything a teenager could want.

Like any traditional rec center, there's a gym and an outdoor playground.

But there's so much more in this rec center on steroids, one designed to stimulate kids' minds.

Kids grow hydroponic crops to stock community refrigerators that anyone in Riverside can use to feed their family.

A movie theater airs documentaries and other educational shows.

A dance studio and an art room let kids explore their creative side.

Teens get culinary lessons in a commercial kitchen.

There's room for meetings, job training, or tutoring on topics like the benefits of meditation.

- You could get your mind just to focus on one thing, you would get that done quicker.

- [Cris] There's even an electric school bus to transport kids.

Prominent local politicians like Senator Tom Harper have visited.

So have Michael Regan, who heads the US Environmental Protection Agency, and US Surgeon General Vivek Murphy.

Winona Sutton of REACH Riverside said The Warehouse fulfills the urgent need to nurture and inspire teenagers.

- What we do know is that a idle teen leads to interesting problems.

And so we wanted to make sure that our teens had a safe place to go.

And then we wanted to make sure that when they came, that there wasn't just idle time, that our teens were just not here doing nothing.

- [Cris] Beyond the fun stuff, there's workforce development for professions such as phlebotomists and events promoting careers in STEM, that's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

But the Teen Warehouse isn't the only place in Riverside where building better futures is the focus.

(gentle music) - [Teacher] The story that we're gonna read today, Christopher Myers, he's both the author and illustrator of the book.

What does the author of the book do (indistinct) - Write the words.

- Write the words.

What does the illustrator do, Isaiah?

- Color the pictures.

- Maybe more than color.

- They draw the pictures.

- Draw the pictures, yes.

The author writes the words.

The illustrator draws the pictures.

- [Aaron] We are focused on preparing the whole child.

- [Cris] Aaron Bass is a man in perpetual emotion.

He's the CEO of Eastside Charter K-8 school.

He's also the driving force of a STEM hub being built there.

- We wanna make sure the students have purpose-filled lives.

That means the students are able to not only graduate from high school and then from college, but that students can then choose where they wanna live, choose where they wanna work, choose how they wanna live.

- Who can tell me the equation?

What's the equation gonna be?

Kyle?

- Six plus three equals nine.

- Good.

Six plus three equals blank.

Get the answer yet.

I'm proud that you know the answer though, buddy.

- [Cris] Bass knows Eastside students need more than his staff can provide.

So he's persuaded the corporate, political, and philanthropic community to donate more than $25 million to build the state's first STEM hub.

The facility will open next year.

The lead donor, Chemours Chemical Company, contributed $4 million.

There will be courses in engineering, robotics, coding, chemistry, biology, 3D printing, renewable energy, and other STEM-related subjects.

- So what this work does is it means that our community is seen.

It means that the students are valued.

It means that the parents have a place they can go to and not just dream dreams for their children, but they can have visions for themselves.

- [Cris] Bbarely a mile away as the crow flies.

One time, Chemours CEO Mark Newman could glimpse the Riverside area from his downtown office.

Newman said companies like Chemours need to foster STEM education so industries can hire scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and programmers.

- But we know the pipeline starts in elementary school.

So what can we do in corporate America to drive more excitement about science early on, and especially in disadvantaged communities where access to STEM education and STEM facilities is really difficult.

Our vision is that this could become a model for underprivileged communities where companies like Chemours can go in, and there's a sort of a cookie cutter template that you could say, "Hey, we're gonna put one of these here in this community."

And this will provide facilities and a basis for teachers to get the next generation excited about science.

(gentle music) - [Cris] On the south end of Imani Village, there's yet another new major construction project coming.

And that's a grand new home for Kingswood Community Center.

Kingswood has been Riverside's heartbeat since the mid 1950s.

It's a sanctuary for older and younger residents, like little Callie.

- What happened, Callie?

- He popped, the button popped out.

- Yeah, pop, oh no.

Another button popped off and rolled away.

How many are left now?

- Two.

- You know already.

Good girl.

This is number two.

And this word spells two, T-W-O, two.

Did he cry?

- No.

- Goodness no.

Buttons come and buttons go.

- [Cris] The preschool has about 100 kids.

Adrienne Davis runs the program.

- We are definitely trying to get them kindergarten ready so that they're prepared when they go to elementary school.

So we start and support them in learning basic things that they need for school, as well as how to be great people in our community.

Oh, that's nice.

- [Cris] Inside the 4-year-old room, children learn from a book based on a Bob Marley song.

- Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun.

Three little birds perched by my doorstep, singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true, saying "This is my message to you."

One more time, what the birds say?

- [Children] Don't worry about a thing Because every little thing's all right.

- Good job, friend.

Give yourself a hand clap, friend.

Good job, friend.

- Very good.

- [Cris] Senior center members playing dominoes said the venue is vital to their lives.

They even complete each other's sentence.

- This is one big family right here, hear me tell it.

- It's a blessing.

You get out and you get to meet different people.

You hear the ups and downs, and some cried, some are happy, but it brings us all together for one.

Then we have a good director.

- We got one another.

- Yep.

We have very good directors here that understands and will talk to us and try to help us out the best they know how.

If they don't know, they'll go and find somebody that that can.

- [Cris] The seniors can get lunch from the kitchen too.

Kingswood also has a garden that helps fill its community fridge.

There's also a pantry with free canned goods.

Deputy Director Tya Pope said Kingswood offers so much more to support families.

- So we do events like turkey and food giveaways for Thanksgiving, toy and coat drive annually to try to fill in gaps for the folks in the community.

Because that's the important stuff, right?

That's the stuff that has been often left to the wayside.

We have a monthly food distribution that we provide through the food bank.

- And the next step for you guys is to build a?

- A bigger, better space.

Because as I was saying, the services and the needs have continued to grow.

And so as you see, like we've outgrown this space.

And so we're gonna be building a brand new facility.

- [Cris] The second coming of Kingswood will be four times bigger.

Pope envisions a larger medical hub.

Childcare capacity will double.

There'll be a gymnasium, outdoor sports fields, and a commercial kitchen too.

While the new Kingswood, the STEM Hub, Teen Center, and hundreds of new homes bring stability to Riverside, that doesn't guarantee Northeast Boulevard can be reborn as a thriving commercial corridor.

And nearly four years after REACH Riverside began its quest, the strip is the same gritty industrial wasteland and food desert, seemingly resistant to revival.

Exhibit A is the produce spot, which Sisters Thameenah and Adiyuh Davis opened in 2021.

- We absolutely know that this community needs fresh things around here.

Prior to us opening, as you said, there wasn't anything around here, no healthy options.

Just the Popeye's, Dollar Tree, and the corner stores, which we all know is unhealthy.

- [Cris] Thameenah has been heartened to see Riverside kids come in.

- [Thameenah] The neighborhood children, they come here more frequently to buy fruits and vegetables.

Things that their parents didn't think that they were interested in.

- [Cris] The store accepted food stamps and did outreach, but generating enough revenue to cover rent and other costs proved formidable.

When WHYY interviewed the Davises in the summer of 2023, Adiyuh sounded defeated.

- You know, we thought coming here where it was a food desert that we would have people breaking down the doors trying to get in, but that's not the case.

My sister and I have been here for two years and it's been a struggle.

- [Cris] You think you'll survive?

- As of today, absolutely not.

- [Cris] A few months later, the produce spot shuttered.

(gentle music) Next to Eastside Charter, however, an electronics recycling company is having success.

And it's run by former Riverside resident Markevis Gideon.

NERDiT Now repurposes used electronic devices.

They come mostly from Amazon and other e-commerce vendors who don't want open items that customers return.

- On an average month, we're getting anywhere between 5,000 and 6,000 devices.

The devices could range from AI cat litter to a 85 inch brand new TV.

I have no idea what's coming in the truckloads generally.

We do a lot with computers, phones, and tablets.

But again, the scale is, it's huge.

It's a huge variety of different things.

- [Cris] Gideon started NERDiT Now in 2015.

He was based outside of Wilmington, but started donating hundreds of laptops and Chromebooks during events at Kingswood and The Teen Warehouse.

A few years ago, Herring leaned on Gideon to move NERDiT Now to Riverside.

- I told him at first, "I don't want to come back," but he said, "Markevis, you are from this community, and you made it out.

Now let's show others how they can do the same thing."

I couldn't see it in the beginning.

It took a little time.

But when he brought the Purpose Built Communities here and shared what they were able to do in other communities, it made a believer out of me.

It just made me really rethink like, you're right, it was people that I saw doing good that encouraged me to do better.

So it would be selfish of me to not really consider going back and trying to help in some way, shape, or form when I have the resources to do such.

- In 2022, a 50,000 square foot warehouse next to Eastside Charter became available, and NERDiT Now took it.

Gideon has about 20 employees and hopes to expand to 75.

And just to think that your business is a hundred yards behind us.

- Yeah, I look back and I'm like, "Wow, my business is there, and I grew up here."

A place I didn't want to come back to.

I would've never thought that was gonna happen.

But I'm proud to be a part of this because it's gonna help build that foundation for everyone.

(upbeat music) - [Cris] So the foundation is set.

But will Wilmington's grand experiment succeed?

What will life, education, and commerce be like in Riverside in a decade and beyond?

Will this corner of town return to its former glory?

Or will the momentum stagnate?

Despite the obstacles that remain, Logan Herring is more optimistic than ever.

- Because if you live in a home, you have some pride, it is your home.

We have the vision of the new Kingswood Community Center that will be built soon.

We have The Warehouse where we're sitting today, which wasn't on anyone's radar, right?

And so the fact that we've been able to accomplish certain things, milestones encourages us that we'll be able to talk about what we're gonna do in 10 years, like restoring Northeast Boulevard and bringing more home ownership opportunities to the neighborhood, and all that we envision and we might envision in the next year or two that we can fully accomplish it because we've done certain parts of it already.

- [Cris] Bass is just as bullish.

He predicts the current wave of investment in bricks and mortar will create the synergy that convinces companies and entrepreneurs to follow suit.

- As the housing changes, as continued investment in the Wellness Center and the STEM hub and The Teen Warehouse and other vital job opportunities are coming about, then you'll also need to have people and other businesses that will then want to flock to this area.

And so I think with that, you'll start to see this renaissance really take place because people are having actions that match their belief.

And I think that's what the change will be.

- [Cris] And should the Boulevard once again thrive, if kids succeed in school, if supermarkets, banks, coffee shops, and doctor's offices are right around the corner, if outsiders drive to Riverside for a meal or a night on the town, if hopelessness becomes a distant memory, Markevis Gideon looks forward to telling anybody who will listen about the transfiguration.

- Because I'm gonna remember what it used to be.

I wanna tell the stories to the community that, "Hey, we gotta appreciate this.

We gotta take care of this because this was a desolate area."

(soft music)