At the Frankford Civic Association meeting held on February 7th, zoning issues were at the top of the agenda.
Applicant for a variance for a second floor deck at 5013 Charles Street made her case. In addition, the applicant for a day care center at 1829 Fillmore Street also was present to ask for support. The board at a private meeting voted to support the Charles Street applicant but did not favor the Fillmore Street applicant.
Beverly Haberle and Fred Martin of PRO-ACT (Pennsylvania Recovery Organization – Achieving Community Together) made a presentation on recovery in response to the House Democratic Policy Committee hearing in Mayfair at the end of January. They believed there were some facts misrepresented which should be corrected. An allegation that there are more drug treatment facilities in Frankford than any other neighborhood in the city is incorrect. Precise data for Frankford itself which is only part of zip code 19124 is not collected but it is clear from city wide data that Frankford is not first. However, Frankford does rank high in numbers of recovery residences.
They discussed the issues of recovery and methadone treatment. One point made was that studies have shown methadone treatment facilities to be very highly regulated and that crime patterns around them are less than found in the area of convenience stores.
Fred Way, Executive Director of PARR (Philadelphia Association of Recovery Residences), also talked about the problem of recovery houses. PARR is an organization of recovery homes in Philadelphia.
Carol Rogers of Healthy Philadelphia, spoke on the need for a new city run health center for zip codes 19124, 19111 and 19120. They are organizing the community to contact city representatives to push this as a priority.
The next Frankford Civic Association meeting will be on March 7th at 7PM at Aria Hospital.
