Updated 10/20/10 @ 2:30 p.m.

The shooting that left a 19-year-old in critical condition outside a former adult theater in Frankford brings to light the ever-present battle with irresponsible absentee landlords, says Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez.

The reason so many absentee landlords are able to remain derelict in their responsibilities to maintain safe, clean and community-orientated properties, Sanchez said at Tuesday night’s Northwood Civic Association meeting, is because the city doesn’t have the man power to track them down.

“Part of the problem has always been about resources,” Sanchez said last night to nearly twenty residents in the basement of St. James Church at the corner of Castor Avenue and Pratt Street.

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District Attorney Seth Williams addresses the Frankford Civic Association meeting Thursday, March 4, 2010 inside Frankford Hospital. Image from Frankford Gazette

District Attorney Seth Williams will assign his assistant district attorneys to specific geographic areas to increase accountability and familiarity, according to his presentation at Thursday night’s Frankford Civic Association meeting, as reported by the Frankford Gazette.

The meeting also featured a series of updates from City Councilwoman Maria Sanchez’s office, including her hesitance to support Mayor Nutter’s proposed “soda tax.”

See video of Williams and other updates from Jimmy Smiley at the Gazette.

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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Jim Sanders, a representative for 311, explains the number's purpose to attendees at the January GBCL meeting.

“[The Northeast] is the envy of the city.” That’s what 311 employee Jim Sanders told attendees at last night’s Greater Bustleton Civic League meeting as he began his presentation on the city’s answer to the abundance of 911 calls.

Sanders, the Citizen/City Council Engagement Coordinator for 311, explained to Bustleton residents the background story around 311, and its purpose in Philadelphia. continue reading »

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 »

Resident frustration over what some called a lack of enforcement of a variety of issues became the central theme of last night’s Frankford Civic Association meeting.

“If this were Center City Philadelphia, we wouldn’t have any of these problems,” said Galen Ettinger of the 1800-block of Ruan Street. Watch video of the meeting exchange below.

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The backyard of Frankford resident Majorie Rivera's neighbors, where she says she's seen drug deals take place.

It was early afternoon on Feb. 28, 2009 when Frankford resident Marjorie Rivera got an unexpected scene. She was getting ready to celebrate her wedding anniversary with her husband when they noticed a moving van outside of their two-story home. That chilly February day would be the first time Rivera would learn that the house next door was being turned into a recovery home for men.

As a mother of two daughters and aunt of many nieces, Rivera panicked as the thought of living right next to a recovery home settled into her brain.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh wow, I got problems. These are all men. Recovery home? Well that’s for drugs. And don’t courts usually send people to them? What if these guys did something?’ I don’t want that next door to me,” she said. continue reading »

The Frankford Civic Association board at its Oct. 1, 2009 meeting at the Frankford Hospital.

The 15th police district is often unresponsive to resident concerns about quality of life crimes, particularly so-called recovery homes, according to an impassioned call to action from state Rep. Tony Payton’s chief of staff at last night’s Frankford Civic meeting.

“We have to harass the police to get them to harass the criminals,” said Jorge Santana, Payton’s top legislative staffer.

Santana’s call came after another of the neighborhood’s monthly civic meetings broke down into a open venting of frustration over the ongoing battle with private boarding houses that are known citywide for selling themselves as places of recovery for people suffering from an array of addictions and instead devolving into havens for drug activity.

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Frankford residents are worried the owner of 1734 Harrison St., whom they say is currently housing 29 people, is disregarding zoning laws. Photo by Christopher Wink.

Roughly 10 people showed up for last night’s Frankford Civic Association meeting – an unusually low turnout, as some attending members mentioned – to hear the latest on several zoning issues in the neighborhood.

Four properties in the neighborhood are all on the group’s list of ongoing, resolved and upcoming zoning issues. continue reading »

By Shannon McDonald

Northeast Treatment Centers wants to open a methadone clinic at Grant and the Boulevard in Bustleton.

If all goes as planned, NET will open the clinic in April in the old MRI buliding, which will serve up to 300 meth addicts every day. City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez thinks the addicts – and the community – would be better served if those who needed help could get treatment in hospitals.

Many residents are concerned about the effects the clinic could have in the neighborhood, especially given the problems other neighborhood, like Frankford are battling.

NET members will hold a community meeting tonight at the Anne Frank School at Clark and Lott streets, during which time residents can voice their concerns.