This was in response to my post two weeks ago. Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez offered this in response. It is not her full comment. You can find that under the original post.
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.
I can’t say I disagree with any of the above. I think we would all like to hear more.
I will say that these efforts, enumerated by Councilwoman Sanchez do temper some of my anger towards the Democratic Party. Yet, it is my feeling, that many of these projects would be unnecessary if we had a stable community. Simply, the sense that Frankford is a desirable community of live and work and run a business would vitiate these issues.
The main problem in Frankford among those of us who live and own homes here is the disregard of the city towards our community evidenced by the overwhelming number of rehabilitation programs and the utter abuse of our resources by so called recovery houses. You can’t get 3 to 4 Frankford home owners together without this subject coming up. You can’t go to a civic meeting in Frankford or Northwood without this issue taking up the greatest part of the discussion. Northwood is actually filing a law suit against Volunteers of America because they are putting a “residence” in that community, funded in part by the City. I’d say Northwood takes the recovery issue pretty seriously. No matter what terminology is coined, its all the same to us.
Am I angry? You bet! I have lost all faith, hope and good will I ever held for the Democratic Party. Officials from City Hall, elected and appointed, have come to my community and told us how its gonna be, have tried to define my home, my neighborhood in their notion. The party will not insist that the rest of the city share in the burden of the recovery problem and all the ills that attend it. I am an American and, at least when I grew up, I understood that I define myself and I determine my worth, not City Hall.
Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. In that spirit I will not vote for any more Democrats from the Governor on down. And if the opposing parties do not have a worthy candidate then I’ll be happy to write in a name. I know its a small gesture but its the best I got.
And one more thing, there has been infighting here but not by the people who own homes, get up everyday and go to work, pay their taxes, send their kids to school. I am tired of the citizens of Frankford being regarded as political toadies. I am tired of the city dismissing and interpreting our concerns as some sort of political agenda. To me, leadership rises above this fear and considers the everyday folk.
Rita Lugrine
i couldnt have said it better. 70 years of corruption is enough already! Time to get all new people in and start again enough with the tax and spend liberals and marxists and the corruption. We can’t afford it we are drowning and we are working to support these scumbags and pay for them with their drop programs, scandals, patronage, lies, huge utility costs and high taxes. Vote them all out! The government is supposed to be by the people for the people not buy the office live off the people!
Vote her out of office. Can’t wait for election day!
Sanchez is a disgrace! She pushed for Wedge and took away an engine from the Frankford Firehouse. Now, the Frankford Station has no water or hoses. Take a look at the house at Harrison and Darrah Streets. Thank you Councilwoman for the eyesore.
I live down the street from Deni and I know for a fact that Dan Savage, when Councilman, re-did the playground. How dare she say she did.
If there was any work completed after Dan left office, then she is entitled to say “the completion of Deni Playground “. She didn’t say she did it, just that she completed it.