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Kenny Gamble
Kenny Gamble could have settled almost anywhere
after a songwriting career that earned him and partner Leon
Huff 175 gold and platinum records for producing hits like
"Love Train" and "Me and Mrs. Jones."
Instead, he went home to South Philadelphia. Looking to give
something back to the city that inspired his music, Gamble
in 1990 shrugged off fear of crime and drug dealers and moved
into a rehabilitated brick row house in the blighted neighborhood
where he grew up. Since then, the co-architect of the Philadelphia
Sound has been on a mission to rebuild the area, block by
block.
The nonprofit firm he founded, Universal Companies, has purchased
hundreds of abandoned houses, refurbished old storefronts,
and is constructing scores of tidy new townhouses to replace
a demolished high-rise public housing project. The group opened
a charter school, blocks from Gamble's boyhood home, and a
business support center that can help arrange loans for black
entrepreneurs. This year, the company's role in the city got
even bigger.
In August, Universal became one of several outside groups
brought in to take control of dozens of city public schools.
Universal has operated three, all in South Philadelphia. And,
in one of its most ambitious proposals to date, the firm said
it wants to build and operate a new school to replace Audenried
High - a distressed, sometimes dangerous school that Gamble
said has become a symbol of failure. "Our intention,"
he said, "is to try to make a model out of this area
in South Philadelphia."
The road from songwriter to community activist was a short
one for Gamble. The production company he founded with Huff,
Philadelphia International Records, had a series of hits with
socially conscious songs like "Ooh Child" and "Let's
Clean Up the Ghetto" in the 1960s and '70s. Gamble, 59,
converted to Islam in 1975 and said he takes his faith's demand
of charitable works seriously. He also said he felt an obligation
to do more for the city's poor, black neighborhoods than write
songs about them. "That's why I'm back. My consciousness
has been lifted. I started thinking, 'What is the best thing
you can do with your life?'" he said. "There has
to be some kind of commitment from people in the community.
It can't be your goal just to leave."
Universal's president, Abdur-Rahim Islam, said the company
plans to develop or rebuild between 1,500 and 2,000 homes
in South Philadelphia over the next seven years and destroy
hundreds more that have deteriorated beyond repair. The organization,
which relies on a mix of private donations and public grants,
has already invested $200 million in a variety of projects,
Islam said.
The goals that Gamble has set for Universal aren't easy, and
it has yet to be seen whether he will achieve the success
as an educator that he had as a songwriter. The three public
schools managed by the company are among the state's poorest,
and have had some of its worst-performing students. Some critics
said Universal hasn't yet shown it can do a better job managing
them than the city did. "They have not brought a lot
of change," said Barbara Goodman, a spokeswoman for the
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. "It's been an uneasy
transition."
One of the company's biggest efforts, however, the rebuilding
of several blocks of housing not far from the offices of Philadelphia
International Records, has drawn mostly praise. "It's
bringing working class people back into the neighborhood,"
said City Councilman Frank DiCicco. "People walk through
that neighborhood now who would have never walked through
that neighborhood before, because they didn't feel safe."
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