Graffiti Pier People
at least a few anyway
plus
Checking the
shot
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December 3, 2017
These three guys looked at me. I
looked at them. I raised my arms in a "what?" gesture,
and they did the same. My regret: I didn't ask them how
the hell they got up onto the eastern viaduct. One of
them is holding a skateboard. |

July 16, 2017

August 6, 2017

April 29, 2018

June 4, 2017

July 23, 2017

April 24, 2015

February 19, 2017

December 10, 2017
The two homeless guys
in sleeping bags were addicts who overnighted at the
pier with Eddie Zampitella. Eddie is the guy in the
photo below waving from his elevated sleeping spot
in the columns of the eastern pier structure. He
didn't tell me his last name or that he owned and
ran The Last Stop, a well-known drug recovery
center, then a storefront on Kensington Avenue in
the heart of an infamous drug neighborhood. I
learned that online where I also learned Eddie was
in trouble with the city for, among other sins,
allowing down-and-out people to sleep there despite
a zoning ordinance. He slept there himself, but
possibly relocated to the pier when the city began
enforcing the ordinance. I don't know where he slept
after Conrail and Philadelphia police cracked down
on Graffiti Pier trespassers in 2018. While Eddie
was in residence he kept his area of the pier clear
of empty paint cans and other debris. He brought in
trash cans and posted signs urging people to use
them. He also posted Last Stop signs, some of which
are probably still there. According to a March 2019
news story, Eddie settled his differences with the
city and moved his recovery center to a new location
on Somerset Street.
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December 10, 2017
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