Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Mayor's Annual Spring Cleanup is Right Around the Corner!
Just another reminder to join the Frankford CDC & the Frankford Business & Professional Association at the Mayor's Annual Spring Cleanup this Saturday, April 2nd! We'll be across the street from 2nd Baptist Church (1801 Meadow St) from 9am to 2pm - with blue recycling bins and everything you'll need to sign up for Philly's Recycling Rewards program!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The City of Philadelphia's Unlitter Us Campaign
The Frankford CDC wants to make sure you know the requirements for participating in the City of Philadelphia's Unlitter Us campaign and becoming a Litter Free Zone.
Your Litter Free Zone should include as members:
1. Community supporters (block captains, neighborhood groups, residents, CDCs) who are dedicated to cleaning and maintaining at least one block - more if possible
2. If possible, a neighborhood school that will agree to become a Litter Free School Zone
3. If possible, nearby stores or businesses that will agree to become a Business Ambassador
Your Litter Free Zone will have to:
1. Participate in a minimum of two cleanups scheduled by the Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee, or two self-organized cleanups (check the full schedule at PhiladelphiaStreets.com/PMBC)
2. Pledge to maintain the Litter Free Zone consistently after the first cleanup
3. Place Litter Free Zone signs or window clings in prominent locations to identify your approved zone
4. Follow Streets Department trash and recycling regulations available at PhiladelphiaStreets.com
Be sure to contact us at 215-743-6580 to get involved in our efforts to keep Frankford litter free! Several businesses along Frankford Avenue are also involved with the program, so if the store you're shopping in has an Unlitter Us sign hanging up, feel free to ask the store owner about the campaign as well!
Your Litter Free Zone should include as members:
1. Community supporters (block captains, neighborhood groups, residents, CDCs) who are dedicated to cleaning and maintaining at least one block - more if possible
2. If possible, a neighborhood school that will agree to become a Litter Free School Zone
3. If possible, nearby stores or businesses that will agree to become a Business Ambassador
Your Litter Free Zone will have to:
1. Participate in a minimum of two cleanups scheduled by the Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee, or two self-organized cleanups (check the full schedule at PhiladelphiaStreets.com/PMBC)
2. Pledge to maintain the Litter Free Zone consistently after the first cleanup
3. Place Litter Free Zone signs or window clings in prominent locations to identify your approved zone
4. Follow Streets Department trash and recycling regulations available at PhiladelphiaStreets.com
Be sure to contact us at 215-743-6580 to get involved in our efforts to keep Frankford litter free! Several businesses along Frankford Avenue are also involved with the program, so if the store you're shopping in has an Unlitter Us sign hanging up, feel free to ask the store owner about the campaign as well!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Available Properties
The Frankford Community Development Corporation wants to make you aware of two properties - 4664 Frankford Avenue and 4667 Paul Street - available for lease or purchase right in the heart of the Frankford Avenue commercial corridor.
4664 Frankford Avenue has three floors plus a basement, and is 4500 square feet. The first floor currently houses a retail shoe store, while the third floor could easily be turned in to a functioning apartment and includes a kitchen and bathroom. The property also features several new amenities, specifically a nine month old central air conditioning system, a 230,000 btu boiler, a hanging gas space heater, and new high efficiency light fixtures on the first and second floors.
4667 Paul Street contains two floors plus a basement. The 7500 square foot property is currently used as warehouse space, though the second floor has two bathrooms and several offices. Like 4664 Frankford Avenue, 4667 Paul Street also has a hanging gas space heater.
The Frankford CDC believes both buildings would be very attractive to entrepreneurs looking to either start a new venture or expand an existing one. Please feel free to contact us at 215-743-6580 or mfeldman.fcdc@gmail.com with any questions or if you are interested in seeing either property.
4664 Frankford Avenue has three floors plus a basement, and is 4500 square feet. The first floor currently houses a retail shoe store, while the third floor could easily be turned in to a functioning apartment and includes a kitchen and bathroom. The property also features several new amenities, specifically a nine month old central air conditioning system, a 230,000 btu boiler, a hanging gas space heater, and new high efficiency light fixtures on the first and second floors.
4667 Paul Street contains two floors plus a basement. The 7500 square foot property is currently used as warehouse space, though the second floor has two bathrooms and several offices. Like 4664 Frankford Avenue, 4667 Paul Street also has a hanging gas space heater.
The Frankford CDC believes both buildings would be very attractive to entrepreneurs looking to either start a new venture or expand an existing one. Please feel free to contact us at 215-743-6580 or mfeldman.fcdc@gmail.com with any questions or if you are interested in seeing either property.
Friday, March 25, 2011
New Frankford CDC Board Members
The Frankford Community Development Corporation is pleased to announce the addition of five new Board members:
Faye Allen, Special People In Northeast and Frankford Resident
Santo Caruso, Aria Health
Herb Frayer, S & A Cleaners, Frankford Avenue
Fernando Torres, Dreamgirl Fashion & Mark My Flesh, Frankford Avenue
During the March 15th meeting of the Frankford CDC Board of Directors, four new members were added, with Mike Galdi, Century 21 Real Estate, having been added in January at the Annual Planning Retreat. The Frankford CDC can have up to 15 members with 51% having to reside in the Frankford area. In addition to the Board of Directors, the Frankford Community Development Corporation has an Advisory Council and a number of committees.
Chair Marie DeLany said “We are so pleased to have had such a strong response to our invitation for new board members. It is exciting that Frankford is represented by such a broad range of individuals willing to put their time and energy into our neighborhood.”
FCDC is committed to building the assets of the Frankford community by providing increased job opportunities, building affordable homes, supporting the development of increased financial resources and growing stable businesses.
Frankford CDC is continuously accepting nominations and resumes for potential board members. For more information please contact Tracy O’Drain at todrain.fcdc@gmail.com or 215-743-6580.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
ATTENTION FRANKFORD BLOCK CAPTAINS
The Philly Block Captain's rally is this Saturday, March 26th @ the Convention Center 12th & Arch Street entrance. The doors will open at 9am and the event will run until 2pm.
The Rally is a free event for everyone. Come take advantage of workshops, information on various City agencies, entertainment, a box lunch and raffle drawings.
Special guest Mayor Michael Nutter will be speaking to residents and block captains.
The 2011 Block Captain Cleanup shedule has been released by PMBC. The 15th District cleanups are as follows: April 16th, June 11th, and July 30th. All registered block captains should have already received notice of the dates and how to receive bags and brooms. Anyone who would like to become a block captain and clean should call Willie Brown at 215-685-3991. Residents interested in joining the cleanings should contact your block captain.
The Rally is a free event for everyone. Come take advantage of workshops, information on various City agencies, entertainment, a box lunch and raffle drawings.
Special guest Mayor Michael Nutter will be speaking to residents and block captains.
The 2011 Block Captain Cleanup shedule has been released by PMBC. The 15th District cleanups are as follows: April 16th, June 11th, and July 30th. All registered block captains should have already received notice of the dates and how to receive bags and brooms. Anyone who would like to become a block captain and clean should call Willie Brown at 215-685-3991. Residents interested in joining the cleanings should contact your block captain.
Calling All Crafters!
Do you make jewelry? Do you craft? If so, the Frankford CDC wants to talk to you!
We're planning an event to spotlight Frankford's many wonderful jewelers and artisans and want to hear from you as we proceed.
Please contact Michelle Feldman at mfeldman.fcdc@gmail.com or 215-743-6580 for more information or to become involved!
We're planning an event to spotlight Frankford's many wonderful jewelers and artisans and want to hear from you as we proceed.
Please contact Michelle Feldman at mfeldman.fcdc@gmail.com or 215-743-6580 for more information or to become involved!
Update on the City's Budget Hearings
The CDC wanted to pass along the latest on the City's budget hearings, from today's Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110323_Philadelphia_eyes_a_boost_in_real_estate_tax_revenue.html
While the 2011-12 budget appears relatively stable, without any new tax increases, City Finance Director Rob Dubow acknowledged in the first in a series of budget hearings that the city in 2012-13 plans to raise about 20 percent more revenue for the general fund and school district from property taxes. This would be done through a planned citywide reassessment of property values, called the Actual Value Initiative, by factoring in growth in property values.
The roughly 20 percent figure includes the reassessment and corresponding increase in revenue of about 10 percent plus the temporary 9.9 percent tax hike now in effect.
That revenue will translate into an additional $86 million for city coffers and about $120 million for the struggling Philadelphia School District by 2012-13.
The Actual Value Initiative (AVI) is meant to correct long-standing inequities in property assessments across the city. Values are currently so inconsistent or inaccurate that Nutter froze reassessments on most properties last year.
Critics question whether trying to catch up on missed increases in property values - and the increased revenues they bring - will endanger the reassessment project, always a perilous endeavor for any politician.
"It totally puts AVI at risk and threatens to ensure that we never fix real estate-tax values in Philadelphia," said Brett Mandel, an advocate of full reassessment who has sued the city to force it to correct its inequitable property-tax system. "When citizens see that this is a backdoor tax increase, they're going to go nuts."
Dubow acknowledged the Nutter administration's approach on Tuesday, when questioned by Councilman Bill Green during Council budget hearings. Dubow said the city would compensate for the rise in property values missed by a two-year assessment freeze, and up to a decade of incomplete assessments, to capture the growth in the real estate market.
Dubow estimated that properties had increased in value about 2 percent a year for 10 years, but could not provide any data to back up his assertions after the hearing.
"We're projecting that the net impact of the years we've missed is a substantial increase in values," Dubow said. "Obviously it's a projection. . . . If the projection is wrong, we'll have to make other adjustments next year in the budget."
Robert P. Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, is a close observer of Philadelphia's attempts at reassessment, as well as the still simmering controversy over reassessment in Allegheny County.
In Philadelphia, Strauss said, the city and school district's desperate need for funding, and the political fallout that will come with AVI - with or without a tax increase folded in - should override the ideal situation of "revenue neutrality."
"Historical inequities are going to be corrected in one fell swoop, and the losers in this change are going to be very angry," said Strauss.
"This is not a financial situation that you can be a perfectionist - there's just a gaping amount of red ink," he said. "You might as well pick up some more money when everyone's mad at you."
Green disagreed, saying the Nutter administration was doing what the Board of Revision of Taxes had been accused of for years.
"It is the very system that administrations have used for the past 30 years," Green said. "It's a continuation in one, big, final hurrah of the unfair, inaccurate system."
Council's majority whip, Darrell L. Clarke, was unapologetic for wanting to maintain the additional $86 million brought in by the 9.9 percent tax hike. That eliminated the need for a $300 residential trash fee, he said, that would have hurt lower-income property owners more than the tax increase.
When AVI comes online, Council will have to adjust the tax rate downward to compensate for higher assessments. If assessments are based on true property values, and the administration has chosen a target revenue goal, then the tax rate is the only variable that matters.
Kevin Gillen, vice president of Econsult Corp., was a consultant to the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission in 2003, and to the Board of Revision of Taxes to develop more accurate valuation models for AVI.
"Be honest about the fact that you are doing this, and that you should use a change in the tax rate rather than a change in assessments to do it," said Gillen. "Setting a tax rate to achieve a revenue target is fine, but they should openly acknowledge this as well as open it to public debate."
That issue will likely continue to be the subject of debate in budget hearings.
Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 215-854-4565 or jshields@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110323_Philadelphia_eyes_a_boost_in_real_estate_tax_revenue.html
Philadelphia eyes a boost in real estate tax revenue
Philadelphia's citywide property reassessments in 2012 will be used to raise 20 percent more property tax revenue than was collected last year, Nutter administration officials said Tuesday, even as they announced that Gov. Corbett's budget would be less than devastating to city finances.
The 2012 reassessment, in which all properties are to be assessed at market value, will hit each property owner and neighborhood differently, with some seeing higher tax bills, some experiencing lower bills.
But the city expects to bring in about $200 million more than the $1 billion collected in 2010 for the city and school district.
The state budget cuts will hurt education and health care in the city but will not devastate city government, a top Nutter administration official said Tuesday.
After months of fretting about the fallout from Corbett's budget cuts, city officials now say that the expected direct impact on the city's general fund did not meet their worst fears.
"Our analysis suggests while the governor's budget makes some painful cuts to key city services, the proposal will not hit as hard as some may have predicted," Clay Armbrister, Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, testified Tuesday morning in the year's first budget hearing before City Council.
The cuts include:
- $7.5 million less for the city's Department of Human Services, specifics to be determined.
- A $2.4 million cut in the Human Services Development Fund for homelessness.
- A $2.3 million reduction in Human Services Development Fund money for HIV prevention, lead abatement, and services at city health centers.
- $1.9 million less for after-school and summer youth programs.
While the 2011-12 budget appears relatively stable, without any new tax increases, City Finance Director Rob Dubow acknowledged in the first in a series of budget hearings that the city in 2012-13 plans to raise about 20 percent more revenue for the general fund and school district from property taxes. This would be done through a planned citywide reassessment of property values, called the Actual Value Initiative, by factoring in growth in property values.
The roughly 20 percent figure includes the reassessment and corresponding increase in revenue of about 10 percent plus the temporary 9.9 percent tax hike now in effect.
That revenue will translate into an additional $86 million for city coffers and about $120 million for the struggling Philadelphia School District by 2012-13.
The Actual Value Initiative (AVI) is meant to correct long-standing inequities in property assessments across the city. Values are currently so inconsistent or inaccurate that Nutter froze reassessments on most properties last year.
Critics question whether trying to catch up on missed increases in property values - and the increased revenues they bring - will endanger the reassessment project, always a perilous endeavor for any politician.
"It totally puts AVI at risk and threatens to ensure that we never fix real estate-tax values in Philadelphia," said Brett Mandel, an advocate of full reassessment who has sued the city to force it to correct its inequitable property-tax system. "When citizens see that this is a backdoor tax increase, they're going to go nuts."
Dubow acknowledged the Nutter administration's approach on Tuesday, when questioned by Councilman Bill Green during Council budget hearings. Dubow said the city would compensate for the rise in property values missed by a two-year assessment freeze, and up to a decade of incomplete assessments, to capture the growth in the real estate market.
Dubow estimated that properties had increased in value about 2 percent a year for 10 years, but could not provide any data to back up his assertions after the hearing.
"We're projecting that the net impact of the years we've missed is a substantial increase in values," Dubow said. "Obviously it's a projection. . . . If the projection is wrong, we'll have to make other adjustments next year in the budget."
Robert P. Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, is a close observer of Philadelphia's attempts at reassessment, as well as the still simmering controversy over reassessment in Allegheny County.
In Philadelphia, Strauss said, the city and school district's desperate need for funding, and the political fallout that will come with AVI - with or without a tax increase folded in - should override the ideal situation of "revenue neutrality."
"Historical inequities are going to be corrected in one fell swoop, and the losers in this change are going to be very angry," said Strauss.
"This is not a financial situation that you can be a perfectionist - there's just a gaping amount of red ink," he said. "You might as well pick up some more money when everyone's mad at you."
Green disagreed, saying the Nutter administration was doing what the Board of Revision of Taxes had been accused of for years.
"It is the very system that administrations have used for the past 30 years," Green said. "It's a continuation in one, big, final hurrah of the unfair, inaccurate system."
Council's majority whip, Darrell L. Clarke, was unapologetic for wanting to maintain the additional $86 million brought in by the 9.9 percent tax hike. That eliminated the need for a $300 residential trash fee, he said, that would have hurt lower-income property owners more than the tax increase.
When AVI comes online, Council will have to adjust the tax rate downward to compensate for higher assessments. If assessments are based on true property values, and the administration has chosen a target revenue goal, then the tax rate is the only variable that matters.
Kevin Gillen, vice president of Econsult Corp., was a consultant to the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission in 2003, and to the Board of Revision of Taxes to develop more accurate valuation models for AVI.
"Be honest about the fact that you are doing this, and that you should use a change in the tax rate rather than a change in assessments to do it," said Gillen. "Setting a tax rate to achieve a revenue target is fine, but they should openly acknowledge this as well as open it to public debate."
That issue will likely continue to be the subject of debate in budget hearings.
Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 215-854-4565 or jshields@phillynews.com.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Annual Spring Cleanup is Around the Corner!
Remember to join the Frankford CDC and the Frankford Business and Professional Association for the 4th Annual Philly Spring Clean Up on Saturday, April 2nd, from 9a to 2p! We'll be across the street from 2nd Baptist Church (1801 Meadow St.) - with blue recycling bins and everything you need to sign up for Philly's recycling rewards program!
We hope to see you there!
We hope to see you there!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Save Summer Jobs Campaign
WorkReady Philadelphia - a series of summer employment and college prep programs for youth, funded with private and public monies and run through the Philadelphia Youth Network - needs your help! Last year they provided 11,000 young people with meaningful summer jobs, but are in danger of losing 5,000 of those positions this coming summer.
That's why they've launched the Save Summer Jobs campaign to help raise funds and awareness. You can check out the website here: http://www.savesummerjobs.org/.
We all know that good summer jobs open countless doors for high school students, so please consider helping out WorkReady Philadelphia if you can!
That's why they've launched the Save Summer Jobs campaign to help raise funds and awareness. You can check out the website here: http://www.savesummerjobs.org/.
We all know that good summer jobs open countless doors for high school students, so please consider helping out WorkReady Philadelphia if you can!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
4600 Block Storefront Improvements
The Frankford CDC is working with the Special Services District, the Business and Professional Association, Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez and State Representative Tony Payton on a storefront improvement project for the 4600 block of Frankford Avenue. Check out this article about the project in the Northeast Times: http://www.philly.com/community/pa/philadelphia/netimes/Frankford_Avenue_is_sitting_pretty.html
Merchants on the 4600 block of Frankford Ave. should be getting some visitors — if they haven’t already.
Michelle Feldman, Frankford Avenue commercial corridor manager, will join Tim Wisniewski, executive director of the Frankford Special Services District, and Jason Dawkins, an aide to City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez (D-7th dist.), to ask business owners if they’d like to have their buildings pret- tied up.
And pretty much all they have to do, at least initially, is say yes.
The city has $200,000 it is willing to spend on facade improvements along the avenue’s 4600 block, said Tracy O’Drain, managing director of the Frankford Community Development Corp.
The block has the greatest concentration of active business on the avenue, she said. Devoting money to spruce up the 4600 block will have the biggest impact on making the business district more attractive, cleaner and safer, O’Drain added.
The theory is that businesses that collectively are more attractive and better lit will attract more customers, and more customers will attract more businesses to the block. Right now, eight stores are vacant.
The improvements will be inexpensive and upgrade building exteriors. For example, old signs and brackets will be removed, and lighting will be improved. If warranted, a building could be painted. No architectural work will be done.
During a meeting of representatives of Frankford groups and city departments last Friday at FCDC offices on Griscom Street, Feldman said she already has commitments from 10 merchants, and she thinks that 10 others are interested in the project.
Merchants would be asked to cover a small percentage of costs. Some businesses are looking good and don’t need improvements, but Feldman still wondered whether store owners who said they weren’t interested in taking part might have looked at the proposal as too good to be true.
Dawkins and Wisniewski plan to join Feldman in revisiting the business owners to promote the virtues of the proposal.
“Some people will be a harder sell than others,” Dawkins said.
Once businesses have signed on, said Karen Lockhart Fegely of the mayor’s office, the city will solicit bids for the work and hire a contractor.
Not all of the city’s $200,000 will be spent on exterior improvements. About $4,000 will fund a consultant who will help business operators with marketing and merchandising strategies, said Fegely and Sandi King, business services manager for the city’s Commerce Department.
Dawkins said he’ll have to review businesses that enlist in the program to make sure they’re current with payment of real estate taxes, business taxes and water and utility bills.
“We don’t normally give awards to businesses that owe taxes,” Fegely said.
Participants at last Friday’s meeting stressed that the project is just getting started. Fegely also acknowledged that there are a few hurdles to clear — getting permits for lighting improvements, for example.
O’Drain hopes that work on Frankford Avenue’s 4600 block will spur more improvements on the business corridor.
“This is not going to stop here,” O’Drain said.
Business owners on the 4600 block of Frankford Ave. can get more information by calling Tim Wisniewski, 215-535-2637, or Jason Dawkins, 215-686-3448. The Web site at www.frankfordcdc.com also has more details.
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
Frankford Avenue is sitting pretty
By John Loftus
Times Staff WriterMerchants on the 4600 block of Frankford Ave. should be getting some visitors — if they haven’t already.
Michelle Feldman, Frankford Avenue commercial corridor manager, will join Tim Wisniewski, executive director of the Frankford Special Services District, and Jason Dawkins, an aide to City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez (D-7th dist.), to ask business owners if they’d like to have their buildings pret- tied up.
And pretty much all they have to do, at least initially, is say yes.
The city has $200,000 it is willing to spend on facade improvements along the avenue’s 4600 block, said Tracy O’Drain, managing director of the Frankford Community Development Corp.
The block has the greatest concentration of active business on the avenue, she said. Devoting money to spruce up the 4600 block will have the biggest impact on making the business district more attractive, cleaner and safer, O’Drain added.
The theory is that businesses that collectively are more attractive and better lit will attract more customers, and more customers will attract more businesses to the block. Right now, eight stores are vacant.
The improvements will be inexpensive and upgrade building exteriors. For example, old signs and brackets will be removed, and lighting will be improved. If warranted, a building could be painted. No architectural work will be done.
During a meeting of representatives of Frankford groups and city departments last Friday at FCDC offices on Griscom Street, Feldman said she already has commitments from 10 merchants, and she thinks that 10 others are interested in the project.
Merchants would be asked to cover a small percentage of costs. Some businesses are looking good and don’t need improvements, but Feldman still wondered whether store owners who said they weren’t interested in taking part might have looked at the proposal as too good to be true.
Dawkins and Wisniewski plan to join Feldman in revisiting the business owners to promote the virtues of the proposal.
“Some people will be a harder sell than others,” Dawkins said.
Once businesses have signed on, said Karen Lockhart Fegely of the mayor’s office, the city will solicit bids for the work and hire a contractor.
Not all of the city’s $200,000 will be spent on exterior improvements. About $4,000 will fund a consultant who will help business operators with marketing and merchandising strategies, said Fegely and Sandi King, business services manager for the city’s Commerce Department.
Dawkins said he’ll have to review businesses that enlist in the program to make sure they’re current with payment of real estate taxes, business taxes and water and utility bills.
“We don’t normally give awards to businesses that owe taxes,” Fegely said.
Participants at last Friday’s meeting stressed that the project is just getting started. Fegely also acknowledged that there are a few hurdles to clear — getting permits for lighting improvements, for example.
O’Drain hopes that work on Frankford Avenue’s 4600 block will spur more improvements on the business corridor.
“This is not going to stop here,” O’Drain said.
Business owners on the 4600 block of Frankford Ave. can get more information by calling Tim Wisniewski, 215-535-2637, or Jason Dawkins, 215-686-3448. The Web site at www.frankfordcdc.com also has more details.
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Next Frankford Business and Professional Association Meeting
Come join the Frankford Business and Professional Association at our next general meeting, on March 22nd at Frankford ARIA Hospital (4900 Frankford Avenue), starting at noon. Please email Michelle Feldman at mfeldman.fcdc@gmail.com with any questions. We hope to see you there!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Frankford Garden Club Membership Drive
The CDC wants to make sure you know about another great opportunity to get involved in Frankford!
Frankford Garden Club's 2011 Membership Drive is gearing up. Membership dues are $10 a year for individuals and $15 a year for families.
Contact Janet Bernstein, Frankford Garden Club President, to join at jamberstone@gmail.com!
Frankford Garden Club's 2011 Membership Drive is gearing up. Membership dues are $10 a year for individuals and $15 a year for families.
Contact Janet Bernstein, Frankford Garden Club President, to join at jamberstone@gmail.com!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Census Workshop
The Frankford CDC wants you to know that CORA Services and Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz are hosting a workshop on the 2010 census. Here are the details:
"CORA Services invites you to attend The Census and You: Accessing 2010 Data a presentation by US Census Bureau personnel.
The event is presented by Rep. Allyson Schwartz and CORA and is an overview of the key highlights and features of the 2010 Census and American Community Survey.
The presentation will help you identify and access the valuable economic, demographic and social data available from the census enumeration.
Businesses and non-profits can rely on census data to make targeted and wise strategic decisions. Civic associations and individuals can view a statistical portrait of their community, the numerical basis for distribution of federal funds for infrastructure and services as well as determination of representation in Congress.
The Census and You: Accessing 2010 Data offered by Rep. Allyson Schwartz and CORA as part of our 40th Anniversary Celebration!
Thursday, March 31 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon
CORA Services, 8540 Verree Road, Philadelphia, PA 19111
PLEASE CALL 215-701-2538 OR EMAIL tdevlin@coraservices.org"
"CORA Services invites you to attend The Census and You: Accessing 2010 Data a presentation by US Census Bureau personnel.
The event is presented by Rep. Allyson Schwartz and CORA and is an overview of the key highlights and features of the 2010 Census and American Community Survey.
The presentation will help you identify and access the valuable economic, demographic and social data available from the census enumeration.
Businesses and non-profits can rely on census data to make targeted and wise strategic decisions. Civic associations and individuals can view a statistical portrait of their community, the numerical basis for distribution of federal funds for infrastructure and services as well as determination of representation in Congress.
The Census and You: Accessing 2010 Data offered by Rep. Allyson Schwartz and CORA as part of our 40th Anniversary Celebration!
Thursday, March 31 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon
CORA Services, 8540 Verree Road, Philadelphia, PA 19111
PLEASE CALL 215-701-2538 OR EMAIL tdevlin@coraservices.org"
Friday, March 11, 2011
Annual Spring Clean Up!
Come join the Frankford CDC and the Frankford Business and Professional Association for the 4th Annual Philly Spring Clean Up on Saturday, April 2nd, from 9a to 2p! We'll be across the street from 2nd Baptist Church (1801 Meadow St.) - with blue recycling bins and everything you need to sign up for Philly's recycling rewards program!
We hope to see you there!
We hope to see you there!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
LiHeap Drive
We want to make sure you know that Councilwoman Sanchez is hosting four days of LiHeap (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) appointments. You can call the Councilwoman's office (215-686-3448) for more details, and to schedule an appointment to help lower your energy bills! The dates, times and locations are below, and here is a link to learn more about LiHeap's PA program: http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/foradults/heatingassistanceliheap/S_000960
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Centro Musical
464 W. Lehigh Ave.
10:00AM -2:00PM
Monday, March 14, 2011
Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School
4322 North 5th Street
9:00AM—3:00PM
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Centro Musical
64 W. Lehigh Ave.
10:00AM -2:00PM
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Centro Musical
464 W. Lehigh Ave.
10:00AM -2:00PM
Community Development Block Grants
As you may be aware, the House of Representatives recently voted to dramatically cut funding for Community Development Block Grants. These grants provide critical support for organizations like the Frankford CDC. Without them, we would not be able to continue our efforts to help small businesses along Frankford Avenue, fill vacant storefronts, and, in general, create an even stronger Frankford community.
As the Senate, House, and President Obama continue negotiating, we encourage you to write or call Congressman Brady, Congresswoman Schwartz, and Senators Casey and Toomey in support of Community Development Block Grants. We have included their contact information here:
Senator Casey
393 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6324
Toll Free: (866) 802-2833
Fax: (202) 228-0604
Senator Toomey
B-40B Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4254
Fax: (202) 228-0284
Congresswoman Schwartz
1227 Longworth Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6111
Fax: (202) 226-0611
Congressman Brady
102 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4731
Fax: (202) 225-0088
As the Senate, House, and President Obama continue negotiating, we encourage you to write or call Congressman Brady, Congresswoman Schwartz, and Senators Casey and Toomey in support of Community Development Block Grants. We have included their contact information here:
Senator Casey
393 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6324
Toll Free: (866) 802-2833
Fax: (202) 228-0604
Senator Toomey
B-40B Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4254
Fax: (202) 228-0284
Congresswoman Schwartz
1227 Longworth Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6111
Fax: (202) 226-0611
Congressman Brady
102 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4731
Fax: (202) 225-0088
Northeast Times Celebrates Lorenzo's Anniversary on the Avenue
Check out this Northeast Times profile of Lorenzo and his barbershop!
http://www.philly.com/community/pa/philadelphia/netimes/Frankford_barber_has_the_long_and_short_of_it.html
Lorenzo Della Valle has seen more than hairstyles change during the decades he’s been in business.
After all, John F. Kennedy was president when Della Valle opened his barbershop on the 4800 block of Frankford Ave. There was only one phone company. The space program was in its infancy. There were no cell phones, home computers, CDs, MP3s or HD TVs. All the rock stations were on the AM band, not the FM. Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet, and Casey Stengel had yet to ask the hapless Mets if any of them actually knew how to play the game.
In the 50 years that Della Valle has been operating, he has gone from being a hair cutter to a hair stylist; from regularly shaving customers to shaving no one. In those decades, nine other presidents have been in the White House, and the Phillies won two World Series. William Penn’s statue atop City Hall ceased being the tallest point in Philadelphia. Cassette players and VCRs became the rage and then faded away.
People disappeared, too. Because so many Philadelphians packed up for the suburbs, the city’s population fell by about a half-million.
Some are returning, Della Valle said last week during an interview at his brightly lighted shop, Hair Styles by Lorenzo.
“Some customers I haven’t seen for twenty years,” he said. “They moved to Bucks County, but they came back.”
Those returnees give Della Valle hope for continued neighborhood improvement.
“I don’t look back,” he said. “I look forward.”
If asked, however, he’ll talk about Frankford Avenue’s heyday. He has seen changing trends in the kinds of businesses that operate on the avenue. For example, there used to be many more clothing stores.
He has seen some odd behavior over the years, too. Now and then, people stop in front of the church across from his shop, pray, and then talk very loudly to no one in particular, or just to no one.
Like most other Frankford Avenue business owners, he would like to see fewer parking tickets issued. Della Valle also thinks the city should tear down some vacant properties and replace them with parking lots.
“Tickets drive business away,” he said.
Della Valle’s business has seen its own trends, some of which continue. He smiles while describing his place as the original unisex barbershop. Seventy-five percent of his customers continue to be women, he said.
“Just cut and style,” he said, adding that he doesn’t do any coloring.
And he’s seen some unusual, maybe outlandish, hairstyles. The most non-traditional — as well as the most difficult to achieve — has been spiked hair, Della Valle said.
Just the same, he keeps up with the changes.
“I’m old,” he said, “but I’m up to date with styles.”
There’s no doubt that Della Valle is proud of his longevity in the business and his years on Frankford Avenue.
“I’m glad to serve for fifty years,” he said, “and I appreciate my customers’ loyalty.”
It used to be that Della Valle would see some of his regular customers every month for a shave and a haircut, but he no longer gives anyone a shave. Fears of transmitting the AIDS virus, something unheard of when he got his start, had prompted state regulations that require use of disposable razors, not the old-fashioned belt-sharpened straight razors long associated with a barbershop shave, so he just stopped offering them.
Like many barbers, Della Valle, 72, is ready with a joke. Raising his eyes toward his own well-diminished hairline, he said bald people have to pay more for their cuts.
With less hair to work with, he said, “I can’t afford to make mistakes.”
Hair Styles by Lorenzo, 4848 Frankford Ave., is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday (closed Sunday). Call 215-743-9685.
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
http://www.philly.com/community/pa/philadelphia/netimes/Frankford_barber_has_the_long_and_short_of_it.html
Frankford barber has the long and short of it
By John Loftus
Times Staff WriterLorenzo Della Valle has seen more than hairstyles change during the decades he’s been in business.
After all, John F. Kennedy was president when Della Valle opened his barbershop on the 4800 block of Frankford Ave. There was only one phone company. The space program was in its infancy. There were no cell phones, home computers, CDs, MP3s or HD TVs. All the rock stations were on the AM band, not the FM. Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet, and Casey Stengel had yet to ask the hapless Mets if any of them actually knew how to play the game.
In the 50 years that Della Valle has been operating, he has gone from being a hair cutter to a hair stylist; from regularly shaving customers to shaving no one. In those decades, nine other presidents have been in the White House, and the Phillies won two World Series. William Penn’s statue atop City Hall ceased being the tallest point in Philadelphia. Cassette players and VCRs became the rage and then faded away.
People disappeared, too. Because so many Philadelphians packed up for the suburbs, the city’s population fell by about a half-million.
Some are returning, Della Valle said last week during an interview at his brightly lighted shop, Hair Styles by Lorenzo.
“Some customers I haven’t seen for twenty years,” he said. “They moved to Bucks County, but they came back.”
Those returnees give Della Valle hope for continued neighborhood improvement.
“I don’t look back,” he said. “I look forward.”
If asked, however, he’ll talk about Frankford Avenue’s heyday. He has seen changing trends in the kinds of businesses that operate on the avenue. For example, there used to be many more clothing stores.
He has seen some odd behavior over the years, too. Now and then, people stop in front of the church across from his shop, pray, and then talk very loudly to no one in particular, or just to no one.
Like most other Frankford Avenue business owners, he would like to see fewer parking tickets issued. Della Valle also thinks the city should tear down some vacant properties and replace them with parking lots.
“Tickets drive business away,” he said.
Della Valle’s business has seen its own trends, some of which continue. He smiles while describing his place as the original unisex barbershop. Seventy-five percent of his customers continue to be women, he said.
“Just cut and style,” he said, adding that he doesn’t do any coloring.
And he’s seen some unusual, maybe outlandish, hairstyles. The most non-traditional — as well as the most difficult to achieve — has been spiked hair, Della Valle said.
Just the same, he keeps up with the changes.
“I’m old,” he said, “but I’m up to date with styles.”
There’s no doubt that Della Valle is proud of his longevity in the business and his years on Frankford Avenue.
“I’m glad to serve for fifty years,” he said, “and I appreciate my customers’ loyalty.”
It used to be that Della Valle would see some of his regular customers every month for a shave and a haircut, but he no longer gives anyone a shave. Fears of transmitting the AIDS virus, something unheard of when he got his start, had prompted state regulations that require use of disposable razors, not the old-fashioned belt-sharpened straight razors long associated with a barbershop shave, so he just stopped offering them.
Like many barbers, Della Valle, 72, is ready with a joke. Raising his eyes toward his own well-diminished hairline, he said bald people have to pay more for their cuts.
With less hair to work with, he said, “I can’t afford to make mistakes.”
Hair Styles by Lorenzo, 4848 Frankford Ave., is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday (closed Sunday). Call 215-743-9685.
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215-354-3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
Friday, March 4, 2011
50th Anniversary of Lorenzo's Hair Styling!
The Frankford Community Development Corporation would like to congratulate Lorenzo's Hair Styling, which will celebrate its 50th year on Frankford Avenue on March 16th! Stop by the shop (4848 Frankford Avenue) and get your hair cut to celebrate!
PhillyRising is Coming to Frankford
Mayor Nutter announced in his budget address yesterday that PhillyRising - a program to help fight crime and blight - will be coming to Frankford. Read the Daily News article detailing how successful the intiative has been in the Hartranft section of North Philadelphia:
http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-03/news/28649548_1_mayor-nutter-drug-dealers-operation-safe-streets
NOBODY in City Council will mistake him for Little Orphan Annie singing "The sun'll come out tomorrow," but Mayor Nutter will part the dark clouds of his recession-ravaged budget today just long enough to deliver a ray of hope to the city's most distressed neighborhoods.
He calls it "PhillyRising" - and it works.
Before the swollen streams of government cash flow dried up, Philly mayors used cops as Glock-toting magicians, sending occupying armies of police officers into the city's most crime-ridden communities to make drug dealers disappear with headline-grabbing numbers of arrests.
Operation Sunrise in the late '90s begat Operation Safe Streets in the new millennium, both of them multimillion-dollar mayoral fantasies of overachievement fueled by mind-boggling amounts of police overtime.
When the money ran out, the cop armies left, the drug dealers returned from their revolving-door arrests and residents went back to living in fear, awaiting the next mayoral magic show.
It ain't happening.
About five minutes after Nutter took office, the recession ate his budget and burped red ink.
For the first time in many years, a Philly mayor has been forced to get real, and real cheap, about a grassroots fix for the city's most troubled neighborhoods.
For the past year, quietly, almost secretly, Nutter has.
Since last winter, PhillyRising, which is about to go citywide, has done bargain-basement wonders for its first target: North Philadelphia's Hartranft neighborhood, a small but disproportionately violent area between 6th and 10th streets from Lehigh Avenue to York Street.
Instead of the transitory magic of an occupying police army, PhillyRising has worked wonders by substituting big money with big ears - listening to the Hartranft residents' most desperate needs from stalwarts like Bridges, then fulfilling them with existing city services.
Cops run the PAL center. An L&I crew demolished the dangerous houses. A community-minded deputy managing director meets constantly with Hartranft residents to keep the renewal mojo moving forward.
"Let's not even talk about money 'cause we don't have any and the city's broke," Bridges said, leading this Daily News reporter on a walking tour of PhillyRising's Hartranft renewal.
"We have been underserved for over 25 years," said lifelong resident Diane Bridges, executive director of the Neighborhood Enrichment and Transformation Community Development Corp. "When the money was going around, where was our share? We've gotten nothing."
In just 12 feverishly busy months, PhillyRising has opened the long-shuttered Hartranft Community Center pool for year-round use, brought a Police Athletic League center and a public computer lab to a neighborhood that never had them before, demolished 14 dangerously deteriorated houses and prepared to demolish the crumbling sections of an old stone church.
The Hartranft transformation is going so well that Nutter plans to prove his neighborhood chops today by announcing his $573,000 plan to take PhillyRising citywide.
After years of being ignored, Bridges and her equally outspoken neighbor Arnetta Curry have finally allowed themselves to trust the promises of city government because, they said, seeing is believing.
A big part of their newfound faith is their breakthrough friendship with 26th District Capt. Michael Cram, who said: "High poverty, high crime, high out-of-wedlock birth rate, low high-school graduation rate and the narcotics trade are all here."
"From January 2007 to November 2009, there were 30 shootings and homicides," he said. "For such a small area, that's extremely violent."
From the moment he arrived two years ago, Cram followed his irrepressible need to befriend the people he serves and hit the streets with his aide, Officer Michelle Winkis.
"We kept walking through the neighborhood, knocking on doors, asking people what they needed," Cram said. "We did it the old-fashioned way. When you get a police captain knocking on your door, people tend to say, 'OK. We'll listen.' "
Cram made only promises he knew PhillyRising could keep. "You're not going to get by if people think you're just blowing smoke up their tail," he said.
Reopening the long-shuttered indoor pool and opening the PAL center gave 700 kids two after-school safe havens and won community trust, Cram said.
His main objective, eliminating violent crime, didn't happen overnight, he said, "but the residents' response to crime has changed, dramatically.
"I try to give people my cell-phone number and they tell me they don't need it because they have my cops' numbers," Cram said. "And they use them."
After several recent armed robberies, Cram said, his officers quickly nabbed the suspects because residents called the cops' cell phones.
"That's a big deal," Cram said. "That's a victory."
During PhillyRising's first year, from February to December 2010, "Part 1 crimes" - such as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault - declined 16 percent in Hartranft.
Cram attributes PhillyRising's success to his knocking on doors, befriending community pillars like Bridges, and to his remarkable partnership with Deputy Managing Director John Farrell, who is so similar that these guys are like a two-man Band of Brothers.
Both served in Iraq - Cram with his Army Reserve unit, Farrell commanding a Marine infantry platoon.
"John's a Marine, so I have to explain things to him very slowly," Cram wisecracked. "But, seriously, John's the engine driving this train. We do the boots-on-the-ground thing together in the neighborhood."
Farrell's been PhillyRising's steadfast bridge between residents' needs and the city's response to them.
He helped the School District of Philadelphia - which owns Hartranft Community Center and maintains its indoor pool - partner with the city's Parks & Recreation Department, which provides the lifeguards.
He got the Police Department together with Hartranft Elementary School to establish the PAL program in the school's gym. He partnered Temple University with the school to create the new community computer lab, which is run by tech-savvy neighborhood volunteers.
No. 1 on PhillyRising's to-do list is a 30,000-square-foot church on Lehigh Avenue near 9th Street, which developed a gaping hole in its crumbling second-floor wall after massive stone blocks came crashing down last summer.
The church's visibly deteriorating bell tower appears ready to follow them.
Frightened Hartranft residents notified PhillyRising, which alerted the city's Department of Licenses & Inspections, which determined that the church was "imminently dangerous," shut it down and fenced off the sidewalk.
When the owner - Church of the Living God, in Washington, D.C. - was slow to comply, L&I brought the case into Equity Court, where it awaits a hearing.
Also on the to-do list: Arnetta Curry, who captains her block of 9th Street, between Huntingdon Street and Lehigh Avenue, with an eagle eye and a lion's heart, wants PhillyRising to remove two dead trees - one of which has a crack in its trunk where, she said, dealers hide drugs when Cram's beat cops get too close.
Farrell said the trees will soon be history.
PhillyRising is ready to extend its reach into West Philadelphia's 19th Police District, then to Frankford's 15th and then into the 6th, on the eastern half of Center City.
Managing Director Richard Negrin said, "We're empowering people by telling them, 'You don't have to stay in the muck. You can rise up.' We want to look somebody in the eye and say we're going to get this done. And then get it done.
"We asked ourselves, 'How can we go into a neighborhood, make a difference, keep on going and never leave?" Negrin said. "The answer is PhillyRising. It's here to stay."
http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-03/news/28649548_1_mayor-nutter-drug-dealers-operation-safe-streets
City's grass-roots fix for troubled areas a happy success
NOBODY in City Council will mistake him for Little Orphan Annie singing "The sun'll come out tomorrow," but Mayor Nutter will part the dark clouds of his recession-ravaged budget today just long enough to deliver a ray of hope to the city's most distressed neighborhoods.
He calls it "PhillyRising" - and it works.
Before the swollen streams of government cash flow dried up, Philly mayors used cops as Glock-toting magicians, sending occupying armies of police officers into the city's most crime-ridden communities to make drug dealers disappear with headline-grabbing numbers of arrests.
Operation Sunrise in the late '90s begat Operation Safe Streets in the new millennium, both of them multimillion-dollar mayoral fantasies of overachievement fueled by mind-boggling amounts of police overtime.
When the money ran out, the cop armies left, the drug dealers returned from their revolving-door arrests and residents went back to living in fear, awaiting the next mayoral magic show.
It ain't happening.
About five minutes after Nutter took office, the recession ate his budget and burped red ink.
For the first time in many years, a Philly mayor has been forced to get real, and real cheap, about a grassroots fix for the city's most troubled neighborhoods.
For the past year, quietly, almost secretly, Nutter has.
Since last winter, PhillyRising, which is about to go citywide, has done bargain-basement wonders for its first target: North Philadelphia's Hartranft neighborhood, a small but disproportionately violent area between 6th and 10th streets from Lehigh Avenue to York Street.
Instead of the transitory magic of an occupying police army, PhillyRising has worked wonders by substituting big money with big ears - listening to the Hartranft residents' most desperate needs from stalwarts like Bridges, then fulfilling them with existing city services.
Cops run the PAL center. An L&I crew demolished the dangerous houses. A community-minded deputy managing director meets constantly with Hartranft residents to keep the renewal mojo moving forward.
"Let's not even talk about money 'cause we don't have any and the city's broke," Bridges said, leading this Daily News reporter on a walking tour of PhillyRising's Hartranft renewal.
"We have been underserved for over 25 years," said lifelong resident Diane Bridges, executive director of the Neighborhood Enrichment and Transformation Community Development Corp. "When the money was going around, where was our share? We've gotten nothing."
In just 12 feverishly busy months, PhillyRising has opened the long-shuttered Hartranft Community Center pool for year-round use, brought a Police Athletic League center and a public computer lab to a neighborhood that never had them before, demolished 14 dangerously deteriorated houses and prepared to demolish the crumbling sections of an old stone church.
The Hartranft transformation is going so well that Nutter plans to prove his neighborhood chops today by announcing his $573,000 plan to take PhillyRising citywide.
After years of being ignored, Bridges and her equally outspoken neighbor Arnetta Curry have finally allowed themselves to trust the promises of city government because, they said, seeing is believing.
A big part of their newfound faith is their breakthrough friendship with 26th District Capt. Michael Cram, who said: "High poverty, high crime, high out-of-wedlock birth rate, low high-school graduation rate and the narcotics trade are all here."
"From January 2007 to November 2009, there were 30 shootings and homicides," he said. "For such a small area, that's extremely violent."
From the moment he arrived two years ago, Cram followed his irrepressible need to befriend the people he serves and hit the streets with his aide, Officer Michelle Winkis.
"We kept walking through the neighborhood, knocking on doors, asking people what they needed," Cram said. "We did it the old-fashioned way. When you get a police captain knocking on your door, people tend to say, 'OK. We'll listen.' "
Cram made only promises he knew PhillyRising could keep. "You're not going to get by if people think you're just blowing smoke up their tail," he said.
Reopening the long-shuttered indoor pool and opening the PAL center gave 700 kids two after-school safe havens and won community trust, Cram said.
His main objective, eliminating violent crime, didn't happen overnight, he said, "but the residents' response to crime has changed, dramatically.
"I try to give people my cell-phone number and they tell me they don't need it because they have my cops' numbers," Cram said. "And they use them."
After several recent armed robberies, Cram said, his officers quickly nabbed the suspects because residents called the cops' cell phones.
"That's a big deal," Cram said. "That's a victory."
During PhillyRising's first year, from February to December 2010, "Part 1 crimes" - such as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault - declined 16 percent in Hartranft.
Cram attributes PhillyRising's success to his knocking on doors, befriending community pillars like Bridges, and to his remarkable partnership with Deputy Managing Director John Farrell, who is so similar that these guys are like a two-man Band of Brothers.
Both served in Iraq - Cram with his Army Reserve unit, Farrell commanding a Marine infantry platoon.
"John's a Marine, so I have to explain things to him very slowly," Cram wisecracked. "But, seriously, John's the engine driving this train. We do the boots-on-the-ground thing together in the neighborhood."
Farrell's been PhillyRising's steadfast bridge between residents' needs and the city's response to them.
He helped the School District of Philadelphia - which owns Hartranft Community Center and maintains its indoor pool - partner with the city's Parks & Recreation Department, which provides the lifeguards.
He got the Police Department together with Hartranft Elementary School to establish the PAL program in the school's gym. He partnered Temple University with the school to create the new community computer lab, which is run by tech-savvy neighborhood volunteers.
No. 1 on PhillyRising's to-do list is a 30,000-square-foot church on Lehigh Avenue near 9th Street, which developed a gaping hole in its crumbling second-floor wall after massive stone blocks came crashing down last summer.
The church's visibly deteriorating bell tower appears ready to follow them.
Frightened Hartranft residents notified PhillyRising, which alerted the city's Department of Licenses & Inspections, which determined that the church was "imminently dangerous," shut it down and fenced off the sidewalk.
When the owner - Church of the Living God, in Washington, D.C. - was slow to comply, L&I brought the case into Equity Court, where it awaits a hearing.
Also on the to-do list: Arnetta Curry, who captains her block of 9th Street, between Huntingdon Street and Lehigh Avenue, with an eagle eye and a lion's heart, wants PhillyRising to remove two dead trees - one of which has a crack in its trunk where, she said, dealers hide drugs when Cram's beat cops get too close.
Farrell said the trees will soon be history.
PhillyRising is ready to extend its reach into West Philadelphia's 19th Police District, then to Frankford's 15th and then into the 6th, on the eastern half of Center City.
Managing Director Richard Negrin said, "We're empowering people by telling them, 'You don't have to stay in the muck. You can rise up.' We want to look somebody in the eye and say we're going to get this done. And then get it done.
"We asked ourselves, 'How can we go into a neighborhood, make a difference, keep on going and never leave?" Negrin said. "The answer is PhillyRising. It's here to stay."
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Mayor's Budget Address
The Frankford CDC wants to make sure you know that Mayor Nutter's 2011 budget address to City Council will be held this Thursday.
The Committee of Seventy has published what they would like to hear from the Mayor here: http://www.seventy.org/OurViews_The_Budget_Address_We_Need_to_Hear.aspx
Let us know what you think Mayor Nutter should address!
The Committee of Seventy has published what they would like to hear from the Mayor here: http://www.seventy.org/OurViews_The_Budget_Address_We_Need_to_Hear.aspx
Let us know what you think Mayor Nutter should address!
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