Posted on 15 Comments

First Anniversary of the Frankford Town Hall Meeting

Last Wednesday was the first anniversary of  the town hall meeting called by councilperson Maria Quinones-Sanchez.  It was held at St. Joachims on February 3, of 2009 and caused quite a stir at the time.  You may remember that the subject was the recovery house problem in Frankford.  The problem being that there is an overabundance of recovery houses in our neighborhood.   We have been told that this is a difficult problem to solve.  It may be but how do we know.  We haven’t had any official communication from the Councilperson.  We haven’t had any news.

This is not to say that nothing has happened down at City Hall.   What we were promised, is a return to our community of the people involved in that meeting to report on what was going to be done.  We need to know what has been done and what will be done in the future to address this problem. A year is long enough.

15 thoughts on “First Anniversary of the Frankford Town Hall Meeting

  1. Thanks for this reminder. Can we forward this video to our councilperson?

    Rita

  2. Last Monday I emailed her to say that I was going to post a note about the anniversary. I heard back from her once but then nothing further. One of those folks will see it.

  3. How many years are left in her term?

  4. one more year left

  5. Not being mean just asking a serious question. Does any one know of anything that Maria has accomplished that has benefitted Frankford in any way? Just curious.

  6. Maria Sanchez is a fraud.

  7. For me, Ms. Sanchez is a disappointment. There was so much enthusiasm for her; that she was a neighborhood person; that she would listen. We found out very early, when Frankford was fighting Wedge, that she had no intention of spending one drop of political capital on behalf of Frankford. Our councilperson waved us off, told us she had no opinion on the matter and then sent her representative to support Wedge at the zoning hearing.

    In fact, I have lost all enthusiasm for the democratic party (I’m registered democrat). People working in this administration think its a good idea to overwhelm our community with the recovery efforts and let us live with all the other problems that come along like boarding and recovery houses, drop in property values, disinterest from home buyers and investors in the community. Barry Howell said, at the last Northwood Civic meeting that he thinks the city looks at our communities as “Love Canal”. I’m not voting for a party that thinks so little of my community. I’m ready to listen to another voice cause everyone in city hall is talking to each other and talking at us, trying to convince us that all we’re worth is recovery programs and store front churches. Like one big “group think”. I think city hall needs some new voices.

  8. Well said Rita. I agree with you 100%. Sanchez and Nutter are both big disappointments. I will not vote for either ever again. Let’s get some new blood. We need to throw these fools out.

  9. I agree 100% you can add Tony to that list too!

  10. And Chaka!

  11. It is unfortunate that the Frankford Gazette has not been truthful to its readers and is now subscribing to the negative feeling by a few in Frankford. We don’t need folks from the outside talking negatively about Frankford, we continuous beat ourselves up everyday. I have been consistent and thorough in my responses to the many inquiries I have received regarding a problem which has been formulating in Frankford for many years. I have been response to the Gazette and the stakeholders. It is a big tasks which will take time and resources to resolve.

    Ironically everyone wants to use me as a scapegoat when in reality many elected officials and community stakeholders have watched this problem grow for many years and have done little to nothing to resolve it–although some have benfitted financially from these endeavors. I have been in office for two years and I am expected to fix what has taken two decades of decay to create. Incredible?

    I am very pleased with my record in Frankford despite the internal disputes that limit the ability for so-called community leaders to even sit at the same table, let alone work on a common goal. I am committed and will continue to work for Frankford.

    I have spents countless hours bringing developers and city department heads to Frankford to try to get public and private investment, despite having many groups/individuals who spend every minute trying to stonewall any progress for fear I might get some credit, with little regard to the thousands of residents who are hurt by our inability to work together. I have refused, which has frustrated many, to engage in useless battles. There is too much work to be done and the time I invest fighting petty politics is time away from my work on behalf of Frankford.

    For the record,

    I committed and helped to bring a new charter school to Frankford, Sankofa. Hundreds of kids are now provided with a quality education, a vacant church school is now fully utilized and jobs have been created.

    I committed and have revitalized or am in the process of repairing ALL the recreational facilities, including the million dollar plus, Gambrell center, complete with spray park, the completion of Deni Playground and now our work at Overington Park and the work at the smaller passive parks.

    I committed and have been working with the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Office of Housing and community development to create a “real” housing strategy that provides for affordable homeownership and reuses for the large housing people in Frankford have left and have been converted to multi family rental and boarding homes.

    I committed and am working to bringing resources directly to Frankford businesses for improvements and expansions on the corridor.

    I can go on for pages and pages. But I will not. I have confidence that the majority of the folks in Frankford, who live the petty infighting everyday, know that I am working hard for them, despite the pettiness of a few.

    As for the Halfway houses I inherited from the previous Councilpersons, I have led the first major city effort to address the zoning issues, bringing interdepartmental cooperation unseen in Frankford, EVER. Are we were we need to be, NO. We can do better, YES and I will continue to do so.

    There has been an economic downturn and resources are limited. But my record will show that I have made tremendous investments and have leveraged resources unseen in Frankford.
    I understand frustration. But unless it is converted to positive work, its negative and unproductive. And more importantly, it doesn’t move Frankford forward.

    mdqs

  12. For the record I posted my comments on Wednesday, February 17th at 7:50 pm, it was registered differently.

  13. […] Sanchez offered this in response.  It is not her full comment.  You can find that under the original post. For the […]

  14. Guess that answered my question.

  15. […] in February I posted a bit about the recovery house issue.  It was the one year anniversary since the town hall meeting […]

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