“It looks nice, but they’re still shooting like it’s Iraq out here,” said Shawn Govan when asked about all the new and rehabbed housing being built in the Ludlow neighborhood. This statement was promptly shot full of holes itself by several other residents of the area. Still, there is a kernel of truth in Shawn’s statement. It is not the statement itself, but what his making the statement says about the neighborhood.

By and large those who live and work in Ludlow …

Addiction is in the news a lot these days.
While most of stories found in the local media tend to focus on their subjects due to celebrity or social status. Some are professional athletes or in Philadelphia their coach’s sons; others are musicians and entertainers. But most of the victims of addiction are found in neighborhoods like Ludlow, where the tales of anonymous struggle often remain untold.  
It is not hard to find signs of addiction in this city.  Abandoned housing, crime and homelessness–all of these issues have a direct correlation to the consequences of addiction.…

Baseball has been a staple of early life for generations of American youths, but in some inner-city neighborhoods many children never get a chance to get in the game.
In communities where parents sometimes struggle to keep their kids in school and off the streets, extra-curricular activities like baseball have often taken a backseat.
“Baseball has slipped through the cracks,” said Mike McKeown, the director of recreation at the Cruz Recreation Center in Ludlow and home of the Cruz Cardinals 14-and-under baseball team.

…

They come to learn, to play and to pray.

For the past 15 years, children and young adults from the Ludlow community and the surrounding area have gathered each and every Tuesday night at the Sixth Street Mennonite Church for a Bible study taught by volunteers and church leaders.
While the reasons for attending vary from youth to youth, there is one underlying theme that is stressed. They help the community by taking the kids and helping them have and learn about God and Jesus,” said Bible study participant Dante Ray.
The lessons the students learn go beyond just scripture, however. The …