Posted on

Real Estate Transactions in Frankford

Thanks to our friends at CitySpace, here are some transactions from June of this year:

4515 E Stiles St $83,000 3\1\1
951 Dyre St $169,900 3\1\1
5232 Marlowe St $25,000 3\1\0 19124
1734 Brill St $56,000 3\1\1 19124
1102 Anchor St $59,100 3\1\0 19124
2056 Fraley St $84,900 2\1\0 19124
4727 Worth St $42,500 2\1\1
5235 Ditman St $84,900 4\1\0
1350 Fillmore St $104,900 3\1\0
1230 Haworth St $176,000 3\2\1
1326 Fillmore St 3\2\0
2125 Shallcross St $52,000 3\1\0
5274 Glenloch St $77,500 2\10
2050 Carver St $79,900 2\1\0
2056 Fraley St $84,900 2\1\0
Posted on 7 Comments

Town Hall Meeting on Recovery Homes in Frankford

Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez hosted a town hall style meeting on the topic of recovery houses in Frankford at Sankofa Freedom Academy last Tuesday night.  This was the followup to the meeting held in February of 2009 at St. Joachim.

There was a very good crowd on hand with representatives from both Frankford and Northwood Civic Associations, the Frankford CDC and a large number of residents of Frankford.

Councilwoman Sanchez lead the meeting.  Jorge Santana attended for Representative Tony Payton.  Roland Lamb, the director of Addiction Services, was there.  Doctor Arthur Evans represented the Department of Behavioral Health.  Thomas McDade represented L&I.  Fred Way was there for PMHCC.

All of the experts on the panel made their pitch explaining their function in addressing the problem.  There is no comprehensive legislative approach to solving this problem because, as was pointed out, this problem is really multiple problems manifesting as one.

You have drug treatment providers, good recovery homes,  bad recovery homes, boarding houses and some people that are just plain nuisances.  We have people of good will, ill will and no will.

So where does that leave us?  We as a community have to keep up the pressure.  It doesn’t matter too much to us what the source of the problem is.  The solutions are where we are headed.

  • There are some things that can be done legislatively to limit providers and regulate recovery so that certain standards are maintained.  We have to stand together as a community and demand that those changes be made.
  • We have to stand together with the best of the recovery homes and demand that any others either be brought into compliance or shut down period.
  • We have to demand strict regulation of the drug treatment providers and demand that no others be allowed to set up shop in Frankford.
  • We want to demand that the the Zoning Code Commission add recovery houses and rehabilitation centers to the Zoning Code’s list of Regulated Uses (§
    14-1605); or, at the very least, to the prohibited uses list found in the Frankford Special Services District
    Controls Overlay (§ 14-1623).

Now here is the hard part.  We cannot change the economic forces that made Frankford ripe for exploitation but we can decide to work together to fight them.  Time is on our side.  In ten years, give or take a few, our problem will be how to preserve the neighborhood from becoming another Northern Liberties.  Right now are are waging a holding action until the tide changes in that direction.

Now a word of praise for a guy who does his best to just tell a story.  Toward the end of the meeting questions were taken from the audience.  That is always interesting in Frankford but in this case there were a lot of good questions from very sincere people.  At the end, john Loftus of the Northeast Times stood and said something that kind of hit the mark.  Paraphrasing it, he said there is nobody in this audience who doubts the need for recovery services.  That is not the issue.  The question is why are they all here.  Why should they all be here. Why are they all here, far in excess in proportion to the population.  That is what the community wants to know and there has not yet been a satisfactory answer to that question.

The process is ongoing.  Thanks to Councilwoman Sanchez for having this meeting and pledging to meet with the Frankford Recovery Coalition.  The more parties at the table, the more likely we are to make some progress.  A followup meeting may be scheduled for as early as September.

Read the full story from Northeast Times here.

Posted on

CALICO PRINT WORKS AT COMLYVILLE

We walk the historic streets of Frankford everyday and most of us give little thought to what has gone before.  I have been fortunate over the last few years to talk to people in Frankford who know far more than I about our history.  So we are offering this space to let our local historians tell us the story from time to time.

Our first offering in this series is from Joe Menkevich and it follows below.  It contains an interesting description of Frankford about the period of the early 19th century (correct me if I am wrong Joe). You can also read an illustrated pdf version here.  In the future, these posts will be linked all together under the History Corner in the Quick Links section above.


CALICO PRINT WORKS AT COMLYVILLE. 2

IN the November Number of the Lady’s Book, we furnished a Lithographic view of Comlyville, near Frankford, with a brief description of the works, and scenery in that neighbourhood. In the sketch prefixed is presented a view of a part of these works taken from a different point, intended to exhibit the Calico Manufactory in bolder relief than it was shown in the former picture.

The situation of these works combines advantages which are rarely found to belong to manufacturing establishments. They are at a convenient distance from the city, being in the vicinity of Frankford, a pleasant and flourishing village. The scenery immediately adjoining is picturesque and beautiful, presenting an agreeable variety of hill and dale, forming a striking and interesting prospect. The Frankford creek flows through the settlement, and is crossed by a covered bridge from which the accompanying view is taken.

Beside the Print Works exhibited in this view there are several factories, in the village, one, particularly, belonging to Mr. J. Steel, which employs one hundred and fifty hands; with two hundred and sixty-four power looms, in weaving bed-ticking, cords, &c. being the most extensive in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. There are likewise a number of mills, driven by water, for sawing mahogany, grinding logwood, expressing oil, &c. In addition to the larger buildings there are about thirty neat stone and wood tenements for the accommodation of the workmen and their families. The neighbourhood is remarkably healthy. 3

Notes:

  1. http://books.google.com/books?id=7tQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA337&dq=%22Comlyville%22&hl=en&ei=2jQjTNShA8KB8ga42LmrBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAg
  2. Godey, Louis Antoine, and Sarah Josepha Buell Hale. January1831. Godey’s magazine. New York [etc.]: The Godey company [etc.] this article is also available at Accessible Archives
  3. My experience with Google Books it that their scanned books are difficult to cite as Google will not guarantee their accuracy. See incident:

Re: [#465893271] other

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 3:30 PM

“Thank you for contacting Google Books support. I understand you received an incorrect volume from Abebooks after searching for it in our program. I also understand that you weren’t able to locate a certain legal brief based a book citation in Google Books.

Joseph, I apologize for any trouble you experienced in these instances. I’ve forwarded your observations to our product team as feedback, so that we may improve our program.

One matter I’d like to point out, though, is that for listings such as these, we automatically acquire identifying information from third-party metadata sources. As such, we don’t have control over the nature of this material. I apologize that I am not able to provide you with more helpful information about the legal brief in which you are interested.

That said, we do greatly appreciate your feedback and hope you will continue to let us know how we can improve Google Books.”

This Presentation © Joseph J. Menkevich

Posted on 11 Comments

Trouble at Overington Park

From Park friend:

I posted something on the message board about what has been going on in the park. Last night (Monday June 21st) they chewed through a tree ripping it in half and killing the tree. This makes 5 dead trees! They think this is funny. The city and PHS thought we were worth giving the new trees to make our park a better place, these thugs are making us all look bad. Someone has to see who is doing this damage. All we need is a picture of the guy in charge of the dogs that we can give to the police. If you see the dogs on the trees call the cops, or snap a discreet picture of the man and send it to me I’ll pass it on to the police. This guy won’t stop until all the trees are gone, then he thinks all the good people will leave the park to him to do his business. We must stop this PIG from taking our park! Please put the word out, we need help.

I was over there yesterday to get a picture of the tree.  No sign of the perpetrator but if there had been I would have been all over 911.  You just can’t let these things pass.  That park is too beautiful to let it be taken over by vermin.