So I was just surfing the net on Saturday and found my way over to Phillyblog. And there I found a new post by the_town_drunk bringing up the issue of the fire that gutted 1338 Harrison St. Now I’m jre on there and as you can see I pointed him back to our site where I took pictures of the disgusting mess in the front yard a couple weeks ago.
But you know what occurred to me this morning? I didn’t do anything else about it. I shook my head and thought how pathetic it was but went on with my day. That’s what a lot of Frankford residents do. Do you know why we get drug and halfway houses? Because no one complains. Bustleton gets 500 people to show up when they have a methadone clinic coming to Grant and the boulevard. But I’ve been to meetings here where the city pols and social service people outnumber residents. Let’s start to change that, shall we? But let’s take baby steps. I’m gonna start with this freaking mess on Harrison Street. I’m gonna hold someone accountable for this. I’ve sent this email to councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez(Maria.Q.Sanchez@phila.gov) this morning. We’ll start with her and see where it leads. I know she reads her email because she talked to my father after he sent her one about the halfway houses at Church and Griscom. This is what I said:
Councilwoman Sanchez,
I’m a resident of Frankford and the webmaster for the Frankford Gazette news blog(http://gloomyhappy.wpengine.com). I’m writing you in regard to 1338 Harrison St. It looks to have suffered a fire some time ago but it’s wreckage has been sitting in front (what would loosely be referred to as a ) lawn for more than a month. I drive by it every day. I have taken pictures of it and posted it on our blog(http://gloomyhappy.wpengine.com/2009/03/31/frankford-has-burned/). As you can see it is an eye sore, and represents a quality of life issue for its surrounding residents. And we would like this junk removed.
I am emailing you because I think you may be able to spearhead this project. If I have misunderstood your role in constituent services regarding matters like this, or if I need to contact someone else, please let me know. But also let me know if you are going to take actions to resolve this quality of life issue for the residents of your district, as I have published this email to you on our site(http://gloomyhappy.wpengine.com/2010/04/14/the-residents-of-the-1300-block-of-harrison-street-need-your-help-maria/). I’m considering this an experiment on the role of new media( i.e. local news blogs) and interactions between residents and their politicians. I will track the progress (or lack there of) of this issue on the blog for the residents of Frankford to see.
Regards
Jim
She also got my cell phone number. I also copied her chief of staff Quetcy Lozada(Quetcy.Lozada@phila.gov). So now I’m sitting here waiting. I’ll publish her response. I think this will be easy to fix, and after it’s done, let’s all tackle something harder.
[the entire saga] http://gloomyhappy.wpengine.com/tag/1338-harrison/
