Author: Jim
New Philly Media Outlet Metropolis Produces In Depth Expose On Frankford
We got an email from Mike Newall a month ago looking to do an interview a couple weeks ago for a story about crime and development in Frankford for a new Philly-centered news website called Metropolis. Inside his four part series he scored some notable misses(like Friends restaurant was opened for under a year, it was Mozaic that opened during a so-called reneasance). Anyways check out all of his piece, it’s nice to see Frankford get some in depth attention. Although it does make me cringe when the title of part one is “The Frankford Story: In a Free Fall”. It’s like he asked someone from Mayfair for the title. If he had come in and done just that story it would have been the regular bullshit that Frankford gets from the area media. I am so sick of hearing where Frankford has been. Yes it sucks. I know how awesome it used to be. Try telling me why it sucks now and point out some things I can do to start changing it. So this bastard spends the next three articles doing just that. It is by far the most comprehensive report on the past, present and future of this neighborhood I have ever seen. And it’s a testament to this so-called “media revolution” that it should come out of a web based outfit as opposed to print. If paper and ink are too valuable to waste on forgotten places like Frankford, then let the printing presses die.
Part 2 covers the crime and drugs. Crime reporting to me is generally sensational, but tell me everything you can come up with about the drugs, especially about the drug rehab houses which he talks at length in part 3. I think the more residents know about how they open up and operate, the better prepared they are to fight it.
Part 4 is my favorite and most important to helping understand what’s going in Frankford now.
Here’s a quote from the piece about the political infighting I always considered too nuanced to even try bringing up:
Factions at war
It’s civic and business organizations are beset by nasty political fighting. Frankford has had had three city council representatives in the last four years – Rick Mariano, Dan Savage, and now Maria Quinones-Sanchez. All three have tried to stuff the boards of the local organizations with their own followers and now it’s all a big mess.
The Frankford Civic Association has had some recent success in fighting the zoning of recovery houses. But the civic consists almost entirely of Savage supporters seemingly more focused on winning the former councilman his seat back than taking bold action for Frankford. For her part, councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez has been no great friend to civic association, seemingly putting politics above constituent need.
“The political fighting is destroying the neighborhood,” said Rita Lugrine, a member of the Frankford Community Development Corporation.
But at the end of the day, what am I, a lone resident, able to do to help?
“We’ve been telling the community folks, pick a parcel of land, come up with an idea, shop it around to developers,” said Michael Thompson of the City Planning Commission.
I’m gonna think on this one, I’ll get back to this.
Overall I’m a huge fan on this piece of reporting, if this is how the future of reporting is going to be, it’s going to be an exciting time, not just for Frankford, but for any forgotten section of Philly. Mike Newall is a Philadelphia reporter who writes about neighborhoods. Yeah he does.
I’ve Been Invited To A Brain Storming Session
I spoke with a reporter a couple months ago named Sean Scully. He was fact finding about what the William Penn Foundation could do to assist emerging journalism trends as they relate to local areas. He asked a lot of really good questions, questions about how the foundation could possibly nurture and support locally oriented online communities in Philadelphia. And he asked me if I needed any money for the Frankford Gazette. He didn’t say I’d get any, but I suppose the foundation was evaluating whether funding was an issue.
I did a lot of babbling with Sean but the one thing I tried to impress upon him what I thought the William Penn Foundation could do a lot with a little by helping put local communities out on the web. I told him I’d like to see the foundation help put the local civic associations up on the web so their local residents can see what’s going on. A while back Jon Campisi wrote a piece about how no one under 40 were involved with their local civic associations. So it almost goes without saying they probably are a little bit behind the times when it comes to technology, let alone blogging. But I think it’d be a great asset to any community to have it’s CDC or civic association or town watch run a blog or yahoo group or email exchange list, or message boards or whatever. I think if the WP foundation were able to do an outreach and mentor technology use in getting out neighborhood information, it would create more informed, tighter knit communities.
Anyways, here’s my invite:
December 8, 2009
Jim Smiley
Webmaster, Frankford Gazette
Via Email
Dear Jim,
J-Lab invites you to participate on January 7 in an important brainstorming and visioning session to explore possibilities for new kinds of public affairs journalism for the Philadelphia region.
Your involvement is especially valued because of your generous contribution of time and insights for a media research project J-Lab conducted with a grant from the William Penn Foundation.
At this small gathering, we expect to share those research findings and invite your feedback as a fulcrum for exploring the community’s appetite for amplifying Philadelphia’s unique media assets in innovative ways.
This convening will begin at 9 a.m., with breakfast available at 8:30 a.m. in the main conference room at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, 190 N. Independence Mall West, 8th floor, (the American College of Physicians Building). We will go through lunch. In the interest of encouraging candid conversation, we ask that discussion comments by individual participants be on background, not for attribution. We also want to limit the size of the group in order to be able to have a meaningful conversation; therefore, this invitation is not transferrable.
Sincerely,
Jan Schaffer
Executive Director
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Topographic Map of Washington’s Valley Forge Encampment
Amoung the tons of stuff at the Historical Society of Frankford, I snapped a quick shot of a topographic map of the grounds of Washington’s 1777 winter encampment at Valley Forge. I don’t know the date of the map although it is sporting some seriously old looking script.
The information in this post was compiled with the help of Debbie Klak, current member and former president of the Historical Society of Frankford. Sources include the archives of the historical society and her recollections.
HSF collects, preserves and presents the history of Northeast Philadelphia and the region. Recognizing the neighborhood of Frankford as the historic and geographic gateway to the region, HSF documents and interprets the history of the people, places, events and traditions of the greater Northeast Philadelphia area and serves as an advocate for the preservation of the region’s historic resources. Through its collections and programs HSF provides opportunities for its members, the surrounding community, and the general public to explore and appreciate the history of Northeast Philadelphia and its place in the world. Check out other posts in our series here.
BREAKING: STUDY REVEALS HISTORIC HOUSE ON RUSH ESTATE BUILT BTWN 1830-1850
A study commissioned by the owners of Greenwood Cemetery and the Philadelphia Historical Commission into the purported residence of Benjamin Rush has found the house was built between 1830 and 1850, precluding the possibility that the Signer of the Declaration of Independence could have spent any time inside it since he died in 1813. It would have been a nice feather in the area’s cap if it had been Rush’s house since he was a player in the country’s founding and it would have led to more speculation as to what other founding fathers may have visited or even stayed in the house.
It’s still an old house though and the press release indicates that these findings clear the way for the structure’s restoration back into it’s correct historical context, i.e. a house from the middle 1800s. It also coincides with the re internment of some 3000 graves currently being moved from the back of the cemetery to the front so that Cancer Centers Of America may build a parking lot and possibly buildings on land adjacent to their center.
