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Frankford Civic Meeting

The Frankford  Civic Association meeting, which had been delayed by inclement weather, was held last Thursday night at Aria Health.  There was a fairly good crowd, with some new faces, considering the 25 degree temperature outside.

First off was Nick Esposito, project manager for Portfolio Associates who will be making a presentation on the proposed improvements to Womrath Park in regard

Nick Esposito

to storm water management.  We posted information about the upcoming meeting last week.  You can read that post here.

Toby Biddle

Next, Toby Biddle spoke seeking support for a zoning variance for the legalization of the conversion of 1837 Harrison Street to a duplex.  He is a real estate investor who bought the property at sheriff sale and then found out it had been illegally converted from a single family home.  The civic raised several questions about his intended use of the property to determine whether Mr. Biddle was looking toward making it a rooming house.  Biddle says he intends to manage the property as a duplex and nothing more.

The most significant discussion of the night centered around the long rumored move by the Bridge into Frankford.  Barry Howell, President of the Northwood Civic Association spoke about discussion they have had with the management of the Bridge.  Also attending was Kate Clarke, president of the Juniata Park Civic Association.

1100 block of Adams Avenue at Unity

The Bridge is being forced to move from their present Fox Chase location by the owners of the property who have other needs for it.  The owners of the vacant land in the 1100 block of Adams Avenue (near Unity and Adams) are looking to develop the land which is zoned industrial.  The Bridge is seeking support from the community to move into a new building to be built on that site.

The discussion raised these issues:

  • The Bridge offers a good quality program
  • It is not a methadone treatment program
  • The community would like to see a better use for the property
  • Once the Bridge moves in they may change the services that are offered
  • What is they become another drug treatment facility
  • The community can get provisos as part of the approval process
  • Once they are in the community will have no control over what they do
  • Nobody will want to develop new businesses near the facility
  • NET on Bridge Street is looking for a new location so it could be worse
  • Doesn’t Frankford have enough of these services, why not some other location

There will be a presentation with full details of the Bridge proposal at the Northwood Civic Association meeting on Tuesday, February 15th.  The next meeting of the Frankford Civic will be on March 3rd.

2 thoughts on “Frankford Civic Meeting

  1. Might be a good idea to find out why they are being forced to move from their present location. What are the services provided by The Bridge? I always thought The Bridge was a drug rehab. center. Don’t we have enough of those in Frankford? Many times I see numerous people hanging outside the drug center on the 4600 block of Frankford Ave. The people who run this drug center said the people of Frankford would not see people hanging outside their facility. Well, that turned out to be false. Frankford is a dumping ground for drug centers, section 8 housing, store front churchs, and any other non-profits that are simply drawing in the “under-belly” of society into our area.

  2. The Bridge, the only adolescent residential substance abuse treatment program in Philadelphia, will transition to a more family-based approach that takes into account the need of male adolescents ages 14 to 18 with co-occurring disorders, use the evidence-based treatment interventions, Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (MET/CBT) and Family Support Network (FSN), and implement a family- and home-based continuing care program. Approximately 90 percent have co-occurring conditions. Sixty percent are court-mandated. Nearly 100 percent are on medical assistance.
    http://www.thebridgephiladelphia.org/site/

    MinimumAge: 14 Maximum Age:
    Total Client Capacity:
    Maximum # of Philadelphia Clients: 35
    Total # of Direct-Care Staff: 23
    Staff Turnover During Previous Calendar Year: 10
    http://www.temple.edu/prodes/adobe/TheBridge.pdf

    On a related note, as it mentions Globe Dye Works and industrial Zoning:

    [PDF] A new use for industrial sites: Industry
    http://www.sbnphiladelphia.org/images/uploads/A%20new%20use%20for%20industrial%20sites.pdf

    Northwood Civic Association will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. at St. James Lutheran Church, at Castor Avenue and Pratt Street.

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