You wouldn’t think this nice little building would be a source of controversy. The Frankford Day Nursery (4445 Penn Street) served the community for close to 100 years and now is closed and up for sale. At the recent town hall meeting, some residents expressed concern that it was being converted to a transitional residence of some kind. Both state representative Tony Payton and councilperson Maria Quinones-Sanchez said they knew nothing of such plans but would look into the rumor.
At the Frankford Civic meeting last night, the operators of the Joy of Living recovery house attended and talked about their plan to use the day nursery building as a recovery house. They had been in contact with Tony Payton’s office and in fact had some kind construction permit.
So there was some confusion in Tony’s office about what to do and how to do it. When this expansion of the Joy of Life services was being planned, the operators should have come to the Frankford Civic to discuss the issue. It would have been good if Tony’s office had told them about it.
New Rule: You don’t open a drug related facility in Frankford without getting community support from the Frankford Civic Association.
so you’re saying the building is now up for sale? or has it already been sold?
Joy of Living is working on the renovation but there is no record of a sale yet.
Because of all the shouting and cross talk during last night’s meeting, It seemed unclear to me if Joy of Living had contacted Rep. Payton’s office about this project (Frankford Day Nursery) or if Joy of Living had met with Rep. Payton’s office in the past (about their Frankford Recovery House group or other things). Any chance of getting some clarification from either Tony’s office or Joy of Life?
WTF!!!!! When will then end? Can we stop it?
I talked to Dan Lodise the former chief of staff for Tony Payton and he was at the meeting. Payton’s office did not give Joy of Living a green light on Penn Street project. Payton’s position is that there should be no expansion of services in Frankford until the review process is complete. That would be the one going on now with Maria Quinones-Sanchez office.
This is such a beautiful space. I tried to make an offer on it last year to keep it a quality daycare and it was under contract. Changing it to a recovery house would be a waste of space. Does anyone know if it sold yet?
For the past two decades there have been a few bright stars that have risen in the dark night sky of Drugs and decay in the Frankford area. They have picked themselves up out of the dregs of addiction. They closed crack Houses, Chased away Drug dealers, cleaned up properties left abandon and festering with vermin, created jobs and laid a foundation for hope to the Frankford neighborhood. . These same individuals began to organize and voice concerns over fly by night halfway houses in Frankford more than a half a decade ago. through the Frankford Group (now the Frankford Recovery Coalition (“Joy of Living” being a founding member ) because they saw then what the Frankford Civic Association is just now getting up to speed with. I know this to be true because I was the Moderator for what was called the Frankford Group and is now known as the Frankford Recovery Coalition.In fact I still have over 50 postings and meeting announcements from 2005 alone in archive. Joy of Living is and has been part of the solution not the problem. Furthermore it is about time at least one seat on the Frankford Civic Association be held by some of the people who have made the biggest contribution to revitalizing Frankford on a community level “The Recovery Community of Frankford”
[…] it. Just a week after I whine about us being the last to find out about the conversion of the Frankford Day Nursery into another Recovery House, we already have another one in the pipeline. Apparently there’s some halfway house action […]