I admit it.  I don’t get it.  Why does it take state legislation to regulate recovery houses in the city of Philadelphia?  Is there something in the constitution of the Commonwealth that prohibits a county or city from controlling this issue?

The Inquirer, for some reason today, decided to pay some attention to this issue.

Jorge Santana, a former chief of staff for State Rep. Tony Payton who volunteers for the lawmaker on special projects, walks by from Payton’s nearby Frankford office and shakes his head. “This is what we’re dealing with,” Santana says of the beat-up commercial corridor.

Along the 4300 block of Frankford Avenue, with its discount stores, fast-food joints, and vacancies, the building with the blue door is one of four recovery houses in a three-block stretch that also hosts an alcohol-treatment center.

“It’s hard to get businesses to open up here,” Santana says of the disinvestment along the avenue.

His aim is to help build community through economic empowerment. Part of the challenge lies in an entrenched market. In the last five years, Santana says, Frankford has become an epicenter for drug- and alcohol-recovery houses. On one block, a recovery house sits across from an Irish pub. On another, a recovery house sits paces from a well-trafficked drug corner.

You can read the rest of the story here.  Please comment and tell me why we have gone nowhere on this issue in the four years we have been blogging about it.

The primary election on May 17th was a low turnout event as was expected.  Councilwoman Maria  Quiñones-Sánchez defeated Danny Savage for the Democratic party nomination for the 7th District City Council seat.  Congratulations to them both for a hard fought contest.

I was curious about who was supporting which candidate.  Sanchez raised over twice as much money as Savage did, so I took at look at the contribution reports.  Both candidates got  a lot of money from other politicians, businesses, unions, lawyers, PACs and such.  There were also many small donors in the hundred dollar range.

There was only one surprise and I found it on the Sanchez contribution list.  The 8th largest contributor gave $5,200 on April 4th.  This contributor, COSAN LLC is the owner of the property where the Bridge has proposed to relocate on Adams Avenue.

A zoning variance is required before that can happen since the property is now zoned G2 heavy industrial.  At present the Northwood and Juniata Civics have both indicated that they would write a letter of support to the zoning board for the change (past coverage here).  Tony Payton, State Representative has also indicated support.  Councilwoman Sanchez at last hearing said she was undecided.

Jason Dawkins Says:
April 14th, 2011 at 12:04 pm edit

Bob, Councilwoman Sánchez did not express any decision on the Bridge. She stated before that she was going wait until all community members voted, before making any public decision.

There is nothing wrong with giving to the candidates.  Many of the donors gave to both candidates, I guess to cover all the bases.  Many of the donors gave to other candidates for other offices in the election.  The donors make their donations for various reasons.  See the Inquirer story from Sunday about the donations from the soft drink folks.

Thanks to a commenter, I have another surprise.  I did not know Terrence McSherry but he is the CEO of NET (Northeast Treatment Centers).  He donated $100 to the Savage campaign and $100 to Sanchez.  Thanks Kathleen. If anybody finds anything else, let me know.

Elections cost a lot of money.  Money has to be raised and there is nothing inappropriate in taking any donation you can get.  That is a fact of life.  It’s politics.

You can see what the donations for Sanchez and Savage look like below.  If nothing else, it’s interesting.  Thanks to the Committee of Seventy for help in finding the information.

Sanchez donations here.

Savage donations here.

I missed the Frankford Civic meeting last week but I knew both NEastPhilly and John Loftus of the Northeast Times would have it covered.  You can read both accounts linked above.  Sounds like it was a good meeting with an energetic exchange of opinions.  The issue is whether the Civic will support the application by the Bridge for a variance so they can move onto that property on Adams Avenue.

Northwood and Juniata Civics have both voted to support it.  Councilwoman Sanchez is undecided and Representative Payton is for it.  (thanks to Jason Dawkins for the correction.) The vote by the Frankford Civic will be at the meeting on May 5th.

The issue is the large number of rehab/recovery related businesses and services in Frankford.  My opinion is that there does not seem to be a plan for dealing with it.  If there was some confidence that this situation was under control, I doubt that the Bridge application would be in debate.  It is a fine program and everyone wants it to find a good home.

This tip from Lisa came in yesterday afternoon.  There is a lot of property for sale in Frankford and I didn’t pay much attention till I saw the possible uses for the building.  Is this the best idea Unity Street.  You be the judge.  It’s been two years since the Town Hall meeting on this very subject but we still seem to be no closer to a legislative approach to controlling this problem.

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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.