Philly blocks still not recovered from '85 bombing

By KATHY MATHESON Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Twenty-five years after Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a residential block, the neighborhood is still struggling to recover.

Police were trying to arrest members of the militant group MOVE on May 13, 1985. The botched operation killed 11 people and started a fire that incinerated 61 row houses.

The city has spent more than $43 million on redevelopment. It has two blocks of boarded-up eyesores to show for its efforts.

The homes built to replace those lost in the inferno were so shoddy that officials stopped making repairs and offered buyouts.

Now that a long-running lawsuit over the replacement houses has ended, Councilwoman Jannie (JAY'-nee) Blackwell says it's time to make peace with the past and fix up the properties - again.