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Wilmington, Delaware

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For other places called Wilmington, see Wilmington

Template:US City infobox Wilmington, a port in northern Delaware, is the largest city in the state. According to a 2004 estimate, Wilmington had a total population of 71,988. It is the county seat of New Castle County Template:GR. It was named by Thomas Penn for his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister in the reign of George II of Great Britain.

This city is an anchor city for the Delaware Valley metropolitan area.

History

The area now known as Wilmington was first colonized by settlers from Sweden and Finland about 1638, establishing the colony on New Sweden. In 1655 the Dutch arrived and took over the colonies from the Swedes and Finns. Then in 1664 British colonization began, the area stabilized under British rule, with strong influences from the Quaker communities, and was granted a borough charter in 1739 by the King George II which changed the name from Willington, after Thomas Willing the first 'developer" of the land who organized the area in a grid pattern similar to that of its northern neighbor Philadelphia, to Wilmington, presumably after Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.

The greatest growth in the city occurred during the Civil War. Delaware, though officially a Union State, was divided in its support of both the Confederate and the Union soldiers; the northern part of the states was largely Union, while the southern part of the state leaned toward the Confederacy. The war created enormous demand for goods and materials. Older establishments expanded, and many new industries were attracted to the City. The city turned out products including ships, railroad cars, gunpowder, shoes, tents, uniforms, blankets and other war-related goods. By 1868, Wilmington was producing more iron ships than the rest of the country combined and it rated first in the production of gunpowder and second in carriages and leather. The prosperity the war brought to city merchants and manufacturers pushed the city's residential boundaries out to the west in the form of large homes along tree lined streets. This movement was spurred on by the first horsecar line, which was initiated in 1864 along Delaware Avenue.

The late nineteenth century saw the development of the city's first comprehensive park system. William Bancroft, a successful Wilmington businessman, led the effort to establish open parkland in Wilmington and was heavily influenced by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted. Rockford Park and Brandywine Park owe their creation to his generous donation of land and efforts.

In 1860 there were 21,250 people living in the City. By 1920 that number had risen to 110,168.

Both World Wars stimulated the City's industries. Industries vital to the war effort - shipyards, steel foundries, machinery and chemical producers - operated on a 24-hour basis. Other industries produced such goods as automobiles, leather products and clothing.

The post war prosperity again pushed the residential development further out of the city. The 1950s saw a large increase in people living in the suburbs of North Wilmington and commuting into the City to work. This lifestyle was made possible by extensive upgrades to area roads and highways and through the construction of Interstate-95, which cut a swath through several of Wilmington's most stable neighborhoods and contributed to significant population losses in Wilmington. Projects such as urban renewal in the 1950s and 60s, which cleared entire blocks of housing in the Center City and East Side areas. The riots and civil unrest in the city following the 1968 assisination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. also contributed to urban emigration. Then Governor Charles Terry, Jr. deployed the National Guard despite protests from the mayor, and kept them in the city until his term ended in January 1969.

The city in the 1980's experienced tremendous job growth and office construction when many national banks and financial institutions relocated to the area after the Financial Center Development Act of 1981 substantially liberalized the laws governing banks operating within the state. In 1986, the state adopted legislation targeted at attracting international finance and insurance companies. It is the home of many national and international banks, such as Wachovia, BankOne, ING Direct, Chase, MBNA, and others.

Geography

Wilmington is located at 39°44'55" North, 75°33'6" West (39.748563, -75.551581)Template:GR. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 44.1 km² (17.0 mi²). 28.1 km² (10.9 mi²) of it is land and 16.0 km² (6.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 36.25% water.

The city is located approximately 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of America's largest cities. Wilmington Train Station is one of the last stops on Philadelphia's SEPTA rail transportation system and is the immediately adjacent stop to Philadelphia 30th St Station on Amtrak. It is the terminus of an I-295 bypass route around Philadelphia, the other end being Trenton, New Jersey, as well as one of several major cities on I-95. These transportation links and geographic proximity give Wilmington some of the characteristics of a satellite city, but Wilmington's long history as the most important city in Delaware, its significant urban core, and its independent value as a business destination makes it more properly considered a small but independent city in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, or as locals prefer to call it, the Delaware Valley.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 72,664 people, 28,617 households, and 15,882 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,585.8/km² (6,698.1/mi²). There are 32,138 housing units at an average density of 1,143.6/km² (2,962.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 35.52% White, 56.43% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 5.16% from other races, and 1.96% from two or more races. 9.84% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 28,617 households out of which 27.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 26.6% are married couples living together, 23.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 44.5% are non-families. 37.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.39 and the average family size is 3.19.

In the city the population is spread out with 25.9% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 91.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 86.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $35,116, and the median income for a family is $40,241. Males have a median income of $34,360 versus $29,895 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,236. 21.3% of the population and 16.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 30.4% of those under the age of 18 and 20.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Wilmington also has a very active and diverse ethnic population. Many pockets of the city are populated by different groups of people with various European heritages. This ethnic diversity contributes to several very popular ethnic festivals held every spring and summer in Wilmington. The most popular festival is the Italian festival. This event, which is run by St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, closes down six blocks in the west side of the city for traditional Italian music, food, and activities, along with typical carnival rides and games. Another festival that draws large crowds is the Greek Festival, which is run by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. This festival is on a smaller scale than the Italian festival but features traditional Greek food and drink along with a crafts area.

Neighborhoods

Center City ("downtown"), West Center City, East Side, South Bridge, Mid-town Brandywine, Northeast, Old Ninth Ward, Browntown, Hedgeville, Wawaset Park, Little Italy, Cool Springs, Forty Acres (known as "Trolley Square" to newer generations), Hilltop, Highlands, Brandywine Village, Union Park Gardens, and Trinity Vicinity.

Crime

Given Wilmington's central location between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City, the city saw a massive rise in drug sales in the early 1990s. Dealers found that Wilmington's poorly patrolled streets and underfunded police force (at one time only eight police cars would monitor the city at night) made the city a relatively easy location in which to operate.

Drugs and gangs gained a greater profile in the city throughout the 1980's and 1990's. Coupled with this increased presence were increases in violent crimes (murder, assault, armed robbery), which put Wilmington among the most dangerous cities for its size nationally. Many long-time local residents living in Wilmington's West Side and Hilltop neighborhoods petitioned the city government to address these matters, but often gave up and moved out. Vacant homes became a haven for dealers, users, squatters and vagrants.

The socio-economic segregation of Wilmington's blocks made it easy for residents to turn a blind eye. As in most northeast cities, the dense neighborhoods juxtapose the poor against the relatively affluent areas only blocks apart. Two of the city's best private schools, Padua and Ursuline Academy, and the home of Delaware's Senator Thomas R. Carper are located a few blocks from some of Wilmington's most violent streets, separated only by elevation changes or parks. The city also is home to a vast majority of New Castle County's Section 8 vouchered properties. Combined with rampant deferred maintenance on rental housing from absentee landlords and lax code enforcement, this has devastated many neighborhoods like the East Side, West Center City, the Northeast, and Hilltop.

To counter this crime wave, Wilmington became the first city in the U.S. to have its entire downtown area under surveillance: some $800,000 worth of video cameras (some bought with public money, some by downtown businesses) have the exteriors of all buildings in view, and the technicians who monitor them dispatch the city's police to the scene of any crime or suspicious activity they see, while it is still happening. Recently, the City has expanded the surveillance program into some of the more crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Among the residental streets, the Wilmington Police Department started a controversial program known as jump-outs, in which unmarked police vans would cruise crime-prone neighborhoods late at night, "jump-out" at corners where residents were loitering and detain them temporarily. Using loitering as probable cause, the police would then photograph, search, and fingerprint everyone present. This would improve the police's records in case fingerprints or eye-witnesses were available at future crimes, along with catching anyone with drugs or weapons on them. Controversy spread from a cry of violation of civil rights and racial-profiling, while other residents claimed it was helping and the only way to counter the gangs' grip on their streets and homes.

Economy

Founding of Wilmington stamp.(See New Sweden.)
File:Craneskyline.JPG
The Wilmington skyline.

Much of Wilmington's economy is based on its status as the most populous and readily accessible city in Delaware, a state that made itself attractive to businesses with pro-business finance laws and a longstanding reputation for a fair and effective judicial system.

Wilmington has become a national financial center for the credit card industry, largely due to regulations enacted by former governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV in 1981. The Financial Center Development Act of 1981 eliminated the usury laws enacted by most states, thereby removing the cap on interest rates that banks may legally charge customers. Many major credit card issuers, including MBNA Corporation, Chase Card Services (part of JP Morgan Chase & Co., formerly Bank One/First USA), and Juniper Bank, are headquartered in Wilmington. Many banks as well are "officially" headquartered in Wilmington, but operate out of other cities. The Dutch banking giant ING Groep N.V. headquartered its U.S. internet banking unit, ING Direct, in Wilmington. In 1988, the Delaware legislature enacted a law which required a would-be acquirer to capture 85 percent of a Delaware chartered corporation’s stock in a single transaction or wait three years before proceeding. This law strengthened Delaware's position as a safe haven for corporate charters during an especially turbulent time filled with hostile takeovers.

Wilmington's other notable industries include insurance (American Life Insurance Company [ALICO], Blue Cross/Blue Shield), retail banking (including the Delaware headquarters of: Wilmington Trust Company, PNC Bank, Wachovia Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., HSBC, Citizens Bank, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Artisans' Bank), and legal services.

Delaware chartered corporations also rely on the state's Court of Chancery to decide legal disputes, which places legal decisions with a judge instead of a jury. The Court of Chancery, known both nationally and internationally for its speed, competence, and knowledgable judiciary,[1] is based on a centuries-old English legal system. Wilmington is a venue for the Court of Chancery, along with Dover and Georgetown in Kent and Sussex Counties, respectively (the venue is chosen by the judge hearing the case). Delaware has among the strictest rules in America regarding out-of-state legal practice, allowing no reciprocity to lawyers in other states.[2] As a result, Wilmington has a much larger population of high-priced lawyers than would otherwise be expected.

Transportation

Wilmington is served by the Wilmington Rail Station, with frequent service to New York, New York, and Washington, DC, via Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, with additional local service to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania via SEPTA Regional (commuter) Rail. Two freight railroads also serve Wilmington, CSX and Norfolk Southern. Both railroads operate major freight yards in the city; CSX operates the Wilsmere Yard and Norfolk Southern operates the Edgemoor Yard, both located in the northeast part of the city.

DART (Delaware Authority for Regional Transit) operates public bus service with approximately 40 bus lines serving the city and the surrounding suburbs. Greyhound operates interstate bus service out of the downtown bus terminal. Interstate 95, also known as the Delaware Turnpike, splits Wilmington roughly in half, and provides access to major markets in the Northeast and nationwide, as does I-495 just east of the city.

Wilmington is also served by the Port of Wilmington, a modern facility handling mostly international imports of fruits and vegetables, automobiles, steel, and bulk products.

The closest major airport is Philadelphia International Airport. A few miles south of Wilmington is New Castle County Airport which has only private, charter and military flights.

Education Institutions

Wilmington is served by the Red Clay, Brandywine, and Christina School Districts for elementary, junior high, and high school public education. There are also private schools such as Salesianum, St. Mark's, Ursuline Academy, Wilmington Friends School, Tower Hill School, Tatnall, and Padua Academy. Wilmington also hosts several charter schools, including the Charter School of Wilmington and East Side Charter School.

Universities and Colleges

  • Wilmington College
  • Delaware College of Art and Design
  • Drexel University at Wilmington
  • University of Delaware - Wilmington Campus
  • Delaware Technical Community College
  • Springfield College
  • Widener University - Wilmington Campus (School of Law & University College)

Points of Interest

Notable Persons From Wilmington

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