Most days during the summers — sometimes well into the evening — Delores Lawrence is outside her home in Germantown weeding, watering, and otherwise tending her garden.
Her small front yard is where she grows tomatoes, blackberries, purple daisies, and orange and yellow lilies, all planted closely together. There’s also a narrow strip on the side where Lawrence cares for a mix of potted calla lilies, peonies, and other vegetation.
The land around her home is her peace.
It’s her little slice of the American dream.
But instead of being able to enjoy another summer growing season, Lawrence is livid about how the construction of a new apartment building next door has disrupted life on the block where she has lived for more than 30 years.
Her garage is no longer standing, her brick driveway damaged, and the construction noise at times was absolutely unbearable.
Lawrence, who worked in nursing before being injured, doesn’t know what to do. “I want my garage built back up. I want my driveway reconstructed,” she told me recently over the phone. “It makes me angry. It makes me upset. I even went to the doctor. I can’t even sleep.”
I recently paid a visit to the 200 block of East Bringhurst Street and walked with Lawrence as she pointed out the shambles the construction had made of her beloved yard.
There was a stack of old bricks that had been removed from her driveway. The remnants of an old stone garage where she would do arts and crafts projects. “These are iron beams that they took off the roof,” she said. “It was a building back here.”
There was more — a tree trunk lying on its side with its roots exposed, what looked like electrical cables in the rear, and containers of paint that she said belonged to the builders working next door.
Taking in the scene, I thought to myself that this is a whole situation — and I saw how it has turned into a court fight that is shaping up to be as messy as Lawrence’s backyard.
On one side, there’s Lawrence, a 70-year-old homeowner who has filed a lawsuit demanding compensation for damage to her property caused by the construction of a new four-story, 15-unit building immediately adjacent to her driveway.
On the other side is Danilo A. Burgos, the cofounder of Burg Properties and the 29-year-old son of State Rep. Danilo Burgos, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018 and who serves the North Philly neighborhoods of Kensington, Hunting Park, and Feltonville. The four-story, 15-unit building is under the charge of the younger Burgos and has been in the works since 2024.
Given everything going on in Philly right now, it would be easy to ignore the situation between a politically connected developer creating much-needed affordable housing and a senior citizen upset about its impact on her property. But I can’t help but feel for Lawrence.
Besides, hers isn’t an isolated situation. What’s happening to her in Germantown is actually emblematic of similar struggles playing out between residents and developers in neighborhoods around the city.
Residents of Chinatown successfully pushed back against a proposal to build a new Sixers arena along Market Street. In Northern Liberties, several neighbors on Brown Street are suing a developer, claiming their homes were damaged by the construction of a nearby apartment building. In 2024, my colleagues at The Inquirer produced an entire series called Crumbling City about how housing redevelopment created construction issues among some rowhouses.
What sets the situation in Germantown apart is the reality that the developer is the son of a state legislator.
“This is about entitlement and privilege,” Kevin L. Valentine, Lawrence’s attorney, told me in an email.
I reached out to Burgos, the state representative, who said: “My son has not done anything wrong. The lady, she’s suing him, and they’re in court. That’s it.” He added, “They have everything documented, and when the court case comes, everything will be squared away, God willing.”
As for the son, he says he’s doing good for the community by providing affordable housing. Philly is in the midst of a “severe housing crisis,” which is why Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has made building and restoring roughly 30,000 homes a cornerstone of her legislative agenda.
But developers still need to respect neighbors in the communities where they build. Christopher Edwards, a block captain and president of the Baynton Hill Neighbors Association, is deeply concerned about the impact the new Bringhurst Street apartment building will have on the narrow street with limited parking.
“We can see where this thing is going to become very unpleasant, especially for those of us who have lived there for years,” he told me.
After meeting with residents who aired their concerns, Burgos, a Temple University graduate, said he purchased a nearby lot that he intends to convert into a parking lot for his tenants’ use. Neighborhood residents, he said, will have priority when it comes to renting units.
As far as the garage in the rear of Lawrence’s home that had been negatively impacted, Burgos said that “it wasn’t a structure. It wasn’t a garage. It was like freestanding walls scattered [around]. Because some were up. Some weren’t.”
He said his workers knocked down a party wall the properties shared. “We notified her of the wall that we were going to knock down,” Burgos told me as we stood with his attorney in front of his new apartments. “Everything we did, we didn’t do it behind her back; we did it with her knowing what we were going to do.”
I liked hearing him say he was prepared to fix any of the property damaged by his workers. But Burgos said he is awaiting permission from Lawrence to do it.
“We’re willing to put it back to its prior condition,” Burgos said, adding that he’s willing to negotiate. “We’ve been open to dialogue the entire time.”
It sounds to me as if a meeting with all parties involved needs to happen quickly.
“I want him to sit down with my client and for him to make her whole,” Valentine said. “I’m just trying to get some justice for this woman.”
Councilmember Cindy Bass is willing to convene such a gathering. “If we can get all parties together, we’re certainly willing to do that and to do it soon,” she said.
Meanwhile, the proverbial clock continues to tick. Time is money. That’s not something Lawrence, who worked at Shriners Hospital for Children, has much of.
The more I think about what Lawrence is going through, the angrier I get. I’ve never been in her situation personally, but who would want workers coming onto their property and damaging it? People work hard for what they have. Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary. You may not have a say in what goes on around you, but you’re the custodian of what goes on inside your proverbial picket fence.
“I’m here minding my business. I’m not bothering nobody,” Lawrence told me. Her voice broke into sobs as she added, “How long do I have to put up with this?”
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