Tag: Drug Treatment Facilities

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Salvation Army Building Available

Some readers have noticed activity in the old Salvation Army building at 4342-44 Frankford Avenue.  They packed up shop last year and since that time it has been vacant.  Since our unfortunate experience with the opening of NET and Wedge without our support, people are very concerned about any changes on the Avenue that may be counter productive to improving our community.

I contacted Jorge Santana, Chief of Staff for Tony Payton and he updated me on what is happening with the property.  It is listed for sale with Ken Blum of Benjamin Jacobson Associates for 1.2 million dollars.

As Jorge reported:

Since getting in touch with Ken Blum, I have been working very closely with him.  I have made it clear to him that the building cannot by any means be sold for a purpose the Frankford community does not want, and that the community is ready and willing to use any legal means necessary to ensure the building falls into good hands.

That said, I see this as a major opportunity for Frankford.  I believe the building is perfectly suited for a charter school or vocational/trades school like Devry, Thomson, or Orleans Technical.   We will be reaching out to local charters to see if they are interested in the property.  We also have meetings throughout January planned to show the property to other reputable charters not currently in the neighborhood.

Its good to know that Payton’s office is on the case.  I agree that this can be an opportunity and it will be if we all stick together and make sure it goes that way.  It’s a simple issue.  Our political leaders will do what we tell them to do if we speak loudly enough and in the right way.  We rolled over too easily for Wedge and NET.  Let’s make sure it does not happen again.  Stay tuned for further information.

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Merry Christmas

Seems appropriate to report on the Christmas Toy Drive organized by Jeanna Goodwin, Frankford Recovery Coalition & Mike Mawson, Frankford Town Watch.  We posted an invitation to donate toys back on December 6th.  Last night it was time to wrap it up and make deliveries to some families in need, so I went over to New Desires on Leiper Street to get some pictures.

Jeanna said she would over there with, as she affectionately call them “her guys” organizing, wrapping and then delivering the packages so they would be ready for the kids on Christmas morning.  So I got there about seven, walking a few blocks over ice and snow with my camera in its heated, insulated box. 

I got there just as they were getting organized in the front room with those 12 foot high ceilings.  Some additional donations were brought in at the last minute by Brian Ropars who had been out making the rounds trying to make up for what did not turn up in the donation box at Tony Payton’s office. Times are tough all around this year.

Jeanna’s guys started sorting out every item into age groups for the kids.  That took quite a while and then the wrapping began and things got serious.  There was enough to give the kids in at least three families with a very nice Christmas.

I believe this is the fourth year for this noble effort.  I mentioned to one of the guys that they are heros.  He said there are no heroes here.  That’s what you would expect a hero to say isn’t it.

Click on any of the above pictures for a larger view.

 

 

 

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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.

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A Win for Frankford

zba hearing

Tim Savage, Margie Rivera, Brian Wisneiwski, Pete Specos

The hearing at the Zoning Board of Adjustment for the 1522-24 church Street application was scheduled for 4:00 pm Wednesday.  This issue goes all that way to March of this year when we became aware of the new owners plan to use the properties for recovery houses.  Since the houses are near a church, school and home for young girls, it did not sound like a good idea.  Margie Rivera who is lives closest to the houses did not think it was a good idea either.  She was besieged at all hours of the day and night by noise in the house next door and people coming and going at all hours of the day and night.

The houses are zoned as single family dwellings and cannot be used to house more than three unrelated people.  Neighbors observed many men living there.  At some point, the men were moved out and women moved in.  The owner then applied to convert the houses into duplexes that would have permitted six people to legally live in each one.  The community came together to oppose that maneuver.

Petitions, letters from city, state and federal officials and all other stake holders were collected and a hearing was scheduled.  The owner sent a request for a delay at the first hearing.  At yesterday’s hearing the attorney for the owner sent a notice that he was withdrawing from the case.  The owner did not attend and the case was dismissed.

Attending the hearing were Pete Specos, Tim Savage and Brian Wisniewski from the Frankford Civic, Margie Rivera, Rita Lugrine and Joe Fernandes Legislative Assistant from Maria Quinones Sanchez office.  This campaign took a great deal of effort on the part of the civic to coordinate the drive.  They all should be applauded.   The unsung here in this is really Margie Rivera who stepped up and just said no.

This is not over however.  Now the line is clearly drawn.  No more than three unrelated people in those houses.  L&I has to enforce this.  We will see how it goes.  You can be sure that the community is watching.

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Section 8 Bomb To Be Exploded This Saturday?

4618 leiperI got a tip on a link for this real estate auction going this Saturday for several large apartment complexes around Frankford.  Nothing jumps out as abnormal other than they’re all chopped up from former homes.  Let’s do a little math.  There are 4 properties with a total of (let’s say) 27 units with a total rental income of $144360 a year so that gives us an average monthly unit rental at $445.55.  Pricing that cheap concerns me, of course I hear that when properties change hands the rents go up but anytime there’s a sale in Frankford it doesn’t seem to go well.  I dunno, maybe I’m just a worrier.  Anyways be at 4618 Leiper St this Saturday at 1 pm to see the action.  That property, along with 4904 Penn St, 4906 Penn St, and 5022 Griscom St are up for auction.

Along with the link from our tipster came the statement “what the hell does the Frankford CDC?,doooo?the Mayfair CDC would buy those shits.”  It’s definitely a good question.  My response was that they were handling their tax issues.