Philadelphia on Monday plans to temporarily shut down a stretch of Kensington Avenue — a street known worldwide as an open-air drug market — to clear out homeless encampments. Kensington has for years been a safe haven for drug addicts to freely shoot up, but Mayor Cherelle Parker signed an executive order declaring a public safety emergency and calling for strategies to dismantle open-air drug markets, including Kensington, as her first act in office in January.
Kensington has globally showcased the worsening effects of lethal substances infiltrating the illicit drug supply. On any given day, drug users can be seen openly injecting themselves with needles as children walk by or passed out on the pavement covered in drug-induced flesh-eating wounds from an addictive animal tranquilizer called xylazine.
The area has also become a focal point for crime in Philadelphia, with among the worst drug crime rates citywide over the last month, data compiled by The Philadelphia Inquirer showed. On Parker's 100th day in office, the Philadelphia Police Department released a report detailing a five-phase initiative called the Kensington Community Revival aimed at curbing high crime and eliminating public drug use.