The community came together to make the point that if you want to do business in Frankford, you have play by the rules. Tuesday, October 18th was a beautiful Fall day to sweep the streets. That is exactly what happened on Frankford Avenue as the Pennsylvania State Police, Philadelphia Health Department and L&I swooped in for inspections on the bars that had complaints filed on them. As of last night there were 4 that remained shuttered and others that were cited for various reasons.
This was no accident but the result of a plan put into place several months ago to clean up the Avenue. You can’t expect decent businesses to move there with drugs being sold on the sidewalk and the drunk and disorderly crowd making life miserable for the rest of the population.
Thanks to Kim Washington of the Frankford CDC for hosting the meetings and she says “Thank you Councilwoman Sanchez for bringing all the City departments together so that everyone is operating on the same page. Representative Dawkins and Sgt. Clark thank you for jumping right in and making sure State Police played a role in the task force. Bob Smiley thank you for shining a light on some of these issues by writing articles in the Frankford Gazette, and Ken (McDonalds) thanks for making sure the CDC stayed abreast of the numerous events taking place down there. We are extremely grateful for everyone’s participation. We hope that we can continue to work together to clean up Frankford Avenue. “
The program will continue to bring these businesses into compliance. Other actions are possible now with the passage of the Nuisance Business bill by City Council in June.
