Council-at-large candidate Isaiah Thomas. Photo provided by Isaiah Thomas for City Council At-Large.

As primary elections approach, NEast Philly will interview council-at-large candidates so readers can get to know the names they’ll see on the ballot.

Today we speak with Isaiah Thomas. The Frankford High School graduate has a psychology and social behavior  degree from Penn State University and a masters in education from Lincoln University. His work in the community ranges from his role as executive director at family education center Mature Cradle, Inc and a consultant for United Way. Thomas is also a project director at Sankofa Freedom Academy in Frankford — a natural transition from his decade-long involvement at Freedom Schools.

NEast Philly: Why council-at-large and not a specific district? continue reading »

Jason Dawkins and Maria Quinones-Sanchez comfort Chris Spence's family in front of the Frankford bar where he was fatally shot.

As was discussed at Thursday’s Frankford Civic Association meeting, a hearing has been set of T&T bar. Jason Dawkins, Jorge Santana and the offices of Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez and Rep. Tony Payton have pushed for a ’611 action’ hearing to take action against the bar where Christopher Spence was fatally shot in February. continue reading »

The two and a half hour Frankford Civic Association meeting that started 20 minutes late and ended with heated conversation on the controversy of the moment in that beleaguered neighborhood didn’t feature a single vote.

Local opinion of plans for the Bridge, a celebrated, four-decades-old, adolescent residential treatment facility, to develop a campus on a nine-acre plot of nearby land along Adams Avenue, is split between pragmatic support for a known entity and firm opposition for any more recovery programs in the neighborhood. To develop the property, the Bridge will need a variance from the city’s Zoning Board, which can be influenced by neighborhood group opinion.

After spilling into inaction, Barry Howell, president of the Northwood Civic Association, told reporters that on Monday he was going to sign a neighborhood agreement with Bridge representatives.

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Finalizing a city energy authority and better empowering the city to fight blight are the two top resolutions in 2011 for Councilman Darrell Clarke, he told residents at the Northwood Civic Association meeting Tuesday night.

To a crowd of roughly 12, perhaps limited by clouds and rain, Clarke spoke at length of those two focuses:

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State Rep. Tony Payton Jr. at the February Frankford Civic meeting. Photo by Christopher Wink.

From his office yesterday afternoon, State Rep. Tony Payton Jr. heard the sounds of a metal gate and a staffer alerting him to a commotion outside.

Payton discovered the source: a 16-year-old girl, high on what turned out to be PCP, banging her head on the metal gate outside a medical supply store. Payton helped carry the teen into his office where he asked her friend questions about what the girl had taken.

Despite reports the teen had consumed an alcohol-energy drink concoction, Payton’s staff determined the situation was more serious when the teen began screaming and threatening suicide. Payton and a man who was in the office to fix the copy machine helped calm the girl down until medical help arrived. continue reading »

State Rep. Tony Payton at the February Frankford Civic meeting.

It has become something of a tradition at Frankford Civic Association meetings in the past year.

The first 15 or 20 minutes of the meetings, held in a conference room on the second floor of the old Frankford Hospital, are devoted to typical zoning issues, event announcements and new community concerns. Then something changes.

The meeting becomes more of a conversation and the topic is always the same: recovery homes.

True to form, it happened again Thursday night. Only three or four residents were in attendance, outnumbered by media and legislative aides and almost doubled by the association’s executive board, but the conversation was no less lively.

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The futures of two large neighborhood institutions were discussed at Thursday’s Frankford Civic Association meeting.

First, the now vacant Salvation Army building, on Frankford Avenue near Unity Street, is up for sale, recycling residents’ fear over recovery homes that have beleaguered Frankford for years. Second, the latest chapter in the harried sale of the Frankford Y was announced, including a sale date that passed without action.

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Inside the brightly colored, Spanish-classroom of the Sankofa Freedom Academy in Frankford, a handful of residents were imbued with the global impact and practical cost-saving of properly weatherizing a home Wednesday night.

A representative of the Energy Coordinating Agency, which trains, consults and teaches on energy conversation, particularly to people of low income, was hosted by state Rep. Tony Payton’s office.

During the 90-minute session, Ron Edwards, a representative of the agency, started by describing the generally accepted concept of global warming and talking about projections of the country and the world’s peak oil production. He then pointed out common energy-losing parts of Philadelphia homes and simple, low-cost ways of reducing heat loss.

“That draft under your door means a lot more than a cold living room,” Edwards said last night.

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Frankford residents ask questions at the Dec. 3 Civic meeting about the proposal for the new Frankford Y.

A starry-eyed plan for reinvigorating the century-old Frankford Y has now lost the support of the civic association to whom the proposal was first presented.

Northwood Civic Association President Barry Howell, who presided over the November meeting of his neighborhood group that featured the announcement that a for-profit group would purchase the cherished, nonprofit community center, stood up at Thursday night’s Frankford Civic Association meeting and addressed the issue aggressively.

“I sense a rat,” Howell said, to chatters of approval from the 16 residents and 10 Frankford board members in attendance. “They fed us Disney World, but this ain’t Disney World.” continue reading »

Paul Deery, a spokesman for Urban Eco Electric at left, and three Frankford residents listen to state Rep. Tony Payton's Chief of Staff Jorge Santana introduce their discussion on solar energy opportunities, held Nov. 19, 2009 at the Sankofa School on Paul St. in Frankford.

Five years from now, the most meaningful state and federal solar energy incentive programs may likely be gone, a spokesman from a solar panel leasing company said at a community meeting in Frankford Thursday night.

“For the next three to five years, it makes sense to get out and talk to homeowners,” said Paul Deery from Urban Eco Electric, a solar panel leasing agent based in West Conshohocken, at an event hosted by state Rep. Tony Payton’s office. Deery was one-fifth of those present at the sparsely attended affair held in the meeting room of the Sankofa Freedom Academy at 4256 Paul St. in Frankford.

The attendance last night — four people at peak — was “unfortunately” a common representation of other similar solar meetings Payton’s office has hosted recently, said the representative’s chief of staff Jorge Santana.

Below, get the scoop on these programs and video of Deery pitching his organization.

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