The Northwood Civic Meeting on November 16th was my first outing after a few weeks off for personal business. NEastPhilly did a fine job of reporting the details and I won’t duplicate anything they offered. You can get their report here.
At that meeting, Jorge Santana, Chief of Staff for State Rep Tony Payton made mention of a proposed meeting of the various groups in Frankford and Northwood for the purpose of working on an economic development plan. The big news is that all of these groups will work together on something. Nothing is going to happen here until we all get on the same page and start pushing in the same direction so this is the big news.
We need economic development here. We need investment. We need singles who work to buy homes or rent those new condos along Deal Street that will be going into those old buildings in 2010. We need families to buy those new town homes that will be going up over in East Frankford. None of that will happen until we all start pushing in the same direction.
This is how it starts. We’ll let you know when that meeting happens.
If it’s any comfort, about half of the economic development stories I monitor on a daily basis seem to be of this general type. Different governments, or the government and the private sector, are finally going to get together on their vision and work toward common economic development goals.
The obvious paradigm shift we’re seeing in the economy of the country seems to have taken its toll on relationships among various groups, who now see that they will have to work together more closely to succeed.
Best of luck you you.
Necessity, then, is the mother of cooperation. We’ll take it any way it comes.
I have thought for a long time that because of frankford’s access to public transportation it would be a great food destination. Thousands of people a day go through the terminal’s, imagine if the Avenue had bakeries, butchers, fish mongers and more to offer those people. Tea shops, coffee bars, flower stalls. One stop shopping. Imagine too if Womrath Park or even the old Art Holiday was a farmers market along the lines of the Italian Market or the Reading Terminal. In these tough economic times the one thing people always need and will spend money on is food.
I know there have been discussions about that idea. We still have the issue of getting people passing through on the el to stop long enough to shop. Right now, most will pass on that idea because of the perception of crime in Frankford. But build it, make it attractive enough and they will come. The money for that development will come when investors see that Frankford is unified and serious and ready to move forward.
I wish these “various groups” much luck in coming together with an economic plan for Frankford. If the various groups at these meetings are predominately non-profit groups or religious groups then Frankford will remain as it is now. If you want people to move into Frankford who can afford to buy homes and maintain their homes then you have to offer them something that will attract them to our area. If we want to attract the working middle class then we have to stop putting all our resources toward the uneducated and non-working people.
The group will likely be made up of the political representatives, the Civics and the CD.
Well let’s hope they have some new ideas for Frankford.