At Neighborhood Advisory Council, EPIC Stakeholders, Frankford Garden Club plant sale, Frankford Parks group, Campbell AME Church, you are likely to meet Anthony Smith. He seems to be everywhere, lending a hand in one way or another.
This lifetime Frankford resident has deep roots in historic East Frankford and is a community activist.
The Smith family founded the SW Smith Moving and Storage Company almost a century ago. His father was a founder of the Frankford Chargers.
Since his father passed last year, his mother Nancy continues to live in Frankford .
He lives on Mulberry Street and is active in his church, the historic Campbell AME church.
He takes great pride in his family: Wife Lucille, son Anthony and daughters Tanisha and Aykema.
Anthony often makes reference to how he loves the diversity of Frankford. It has always been a neighborhood with people who cared about each other.
The Frankford of his youth was a neighborhood that you could take pride in. It was clean and safe. Now he works to bring Frankford back to that standard.
He was one of the first members of the Frankford Parks group and has been instrumental in working on Wilmot Park and Hedge Street park.
This was related to one of his pet peeves, cleanliness in the neighborhood.
The resurrection of these two parks has made a tremendous improvement in the community and has fostered a better environment for all who use them.
When I asked him how he feels about the future of Frankford, he gets thoughtful. Realistic is his reply.
We have crime to be sure but we are seeing a lot of improvement in how its being handled. He has praise for the new 15th District Police commander. We’ve seeing more police on the streets walking the beat where they are needed.
His other big concern is the youth of Frankford. There is the lack of jobs for the teenagers.
There are not enough places for recreation in the community. The Frankford Community Y, the Salvation Army and the PAL center have all closed in the last few years.
Another problem is that there are new people moving into Frankford who do not know how to raise children with the values.
However, there are a lot of people who care very much about the neighborhood and that is the greatest reason for hope for the future.
