City Takes Another Stab At Restoring Neighborhood Destroyed In MOVE Bombing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The city of Philadelphia is going to -- once again -- try to rebuild the neighborhood destroyed, 31 years ago, when police dropped a bomb on a West Philadelphia house occupied by the group MOVE. The redevelopment authority, on Wednesday, put out a request for proposals from developers to rehab 36 vacant houses there.
The bomb and the ensuing fire destroyed 61 rowhomes, which were rebuilt poorly, and soon became uninhabitable. The city bought 36 of them back, but -- with the rest of them still occupied -- it was unable to either knock them down or renovate.
Fred Purnell, deputy director of Housing and Community Development, says it's now decided to ask private developers to step in.
"The RFP is going to allow for some creativity on the part of the developers to insure that not only do we do a good job in bringing the units back, but the folks that remain on site are accommodated as considerately as we possibly can," he said.
Purnell says the site presents considerable challenges, but the city is committed to getting it done.
"This will be a great day when we finally get this back to what it was," he said.
