Bruce Baldwin of South Philadelphia dedicates his life to helping 7th Street residents

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI): You may have never heard his name, but Bruce Baldwin is royal on 7th Street, South Philadelphia.

“We respect Mayor Kenney, but we consider (Baldwin) the mayor of 7th Street,” Bernadette Wells, a lifelong friend of his.

“Mayor” is a title won by a 64-year-old man with decades of work in his community, much through the Ford PAL Recreation Center

“It’s a blessing because a lot of people need someone in their life to give them hope and love. It’s there for them,” said Officer Joseph Ellerby, who is assigned to the PAL Center.

Since the pandemic, Baldwin has organized COVID-19 food gifts, tests for the neighborhood, and two weeks ago gave away 200 bikes and scooters to neighborhood kids.

Now synonymous with respect, his name used to scare the neighborhood.

“Interestingly, as kids, we used to run away from him,” Wells said.

“I’m cut from the same fabric as the other young guys out on the street,” said Baldwin, who is now president of the Seventh Street Community Civic Association.

He was in and out of prison for a decade from the age of 17, but tragedy changed his life.

“I was in state prison, I lost my little brother because of AIDS, HIV and I wasn’t home,” he said.

He started writing behind bars.

“When they stole our dignity and took us out of the house,” he said reading one of his poems.

Writing became his output and how he processed emotions. Now, it’s like honoring your neighbors. He has written 4,000 poems, including one for each member of his community who dies.

“The hardest words I’ve ever said were saying goodbye to my baby,” she wrote about a 16-year-old girl who died in her neighborhood.

For 30 years, all of Baldwin’s work has focused on a few blocks of 7th Street, but his reach goes far beyond that because of all the people he has helped.

“The reason this community means so much to me is because I pulled a lot of things out initially. That’s what happened. So I had to put it back in,” he said.