Lt. Casselli of the 15th District PSA 1
I attended the PSA1 meeting on Wednesday night. I was a little surprised that there were so many people there. In the past on a few occasions there were just a small number of folks. Wednesday there were 20 give or take.
Lt. Casselli and Officer Gorman were present. So as usual Casselli went around the room asking what each person had on their mind, the answer was the bar. Well not everyone but about 10 people were there with that issue.
So what bar are we talking about. It’s the old Irish Kitchen now resurrected as Elran’s Place at Pratt and Oakland. New name but the same old problems seem to be continuing.
You may remember the murder at the Irish Kitchen back in June of 2009. Then in May of this year there was another shooting.
The residents say that it is more of a night club than a bar with crowds taking their drinks out onto the sidewalks and partying keeping people up all night. The naturally leave their trash all over. This harkens back the the T&T bar on Margaret Street that had all of this going on until a young man was killed and the community had reached the end of its tolerance.
Casselli is a practical guy. As I type this I am sure he has been or is going over to Elran’s tonight to discuss the issue with whoever is on duty. But he is forthright in saying that it is more realistic to have the owner change how this place is run rather than having it shut down. So its going to be one or the other but the neighbors have had it.
At some point, the neighbors on the block may ask for community support in a march or some kind of peaceful action to focus attention of this problem. When they do, come out and support them. The next time it could be your block that needs help. We’ll keep you informed.
Captain Bachmayer, District Commander for the 15th police patrol district asked us to spread the word about the increase in residential burglary in Frankford. Although arrests were recently made, there is no reason to let down your guard. The area roughly bounded by Torresdale Avenue, Margaret Street, Oakland Street and Unity Street have seen the greatest increase. About a third of the burglaries involve vacant properties. Generally they take place during daylight hours. Owners of vacant property should know that you can lose a small fortune in copper pipes that burglars will take which will make your property uninhabitable.
