An estimated 750 people attended a Tuesday night meeting at Lincoln High School to get information about the methadone clinic proposed for the 7900-block of Frankford Ave.

Dennis Kulp and Carl Primavera were booed at a meeting last night to discuss a methadone clinic in Holmesburg, but neither was around to hear it.

Primavera is the attorney for Healing Way, Inc., which has plans to open a methadone clinic at 7900 Frankford Ave. Kulp owns the property.

As the meeting at Lincoln High School got started last night, Mayfair Civic Association President Joe DeFelice announced Kulp had emailed him earlier in the day to say he’d been advised by his attorney not to attend the meeting in case it should interfere with future litigation. Primavera hasn’t answered any attempts to reach him.

DeFelice and Holmeburg Civic Association President Fred Moore cohosted the meeting, which drew an estimated 750 people to the school’s auditorium, and featured guest speakers 6th District Councilwoman Joan Krajewski, 5th District Sen. Mike Stack, 173rd District Rep. Mike McGeehan, 172nd District Rep. Kevin Boyle, 202nd District Rep. Mark Cohen and Karen Grumankin, who presented a letter written by Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz. continue reading »

People lined up outside Guppies Childcare Center last week to sign petitions and T-shirts in opposition of a methadone clinic on the 7900-block of Frankford Avenue.

Organizers are expecting more than 500 people at tonight’s meeting to discuss a methadone clinic set to open on the 7900-block of Frankford Avenue in Holmesburg.

The two-hour meeting at Lincoln High School is organized by the Holmesburg Civic Association, Mayfair Civic Association, Mayfair Business Association and Mayfair Community Development Corp., sparked by public opposition to the clinic.

A panel of speakers will address the issue before taking questions from guests. continue reading »

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

Joe DeFelice has put a lot of effort into that little playground. And a few hundred residents and supporters have all helped in small ways.

In fall 2009, DeFelice, the Mayfair Civic Association president and now a new Mayfair CDC board member, kicked off a $50,000 fundraising campaign to renovate and reopen the Mayfair Memorial Playground at Rowland Avenue and Vista Street. More than a year and a half later, the Mayfair Civic Association has $20,000 and is seeking the opening on a smaller scale.

That fundraising was done dollar by dollar and almost exclusively by volunteers, like himself.

If fundraising for the playground, which closed in April 2008 after a young girl was injured on out-of-date equipment, was kicked off while powerful state Rep. John Perzel was still at the height of his influence, in the middle of this decade, DeFelice says the process would have been quite different.

Instead, in October 2009, Perzel was a month away from an 82-count indictment of corruption and a year away from losing his three-decade grip on a statehouse seat to a freshman Democrat who had never held public office before.

“When Perzel was in power, the CDC was buying houses, [a] movie theater, building [a] rec center, etc., so I’m sure that a little playground wouldn’t have been that difficult to come by,” DeFelice said. “So in the old days, a check may have been written, but now you have a large amount of neighbors who didn’t previously know each other coming together for a common good and coming up with new, innovative ways to raise funds.”

So what’s the biggest impact from Perzel’s indictment, the historic state budget deficit and a shake up of community leaders in a tight knit neighborhood like Mayfair? Perhaps nothing short of a change in how residents improve their blocks forever.

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Update July 19: As of today, the Holmesburg, Upper Holmesburg, Mayfair, Tacony, Holme Circle and Morrell Park civic associations have expressed opposition to the location of the clinic.

Update from Krajewski’s office, July 15: Councilwoman Joan Krajewski has appealed the city permits, and is awaiting notification of a hearing date with the Zoning Board of Adjustment. That hearing will be open to the public, and could result in a second hearing if the ZBA determines this situation requires further review.

Linda Lawrence of Krajewski’s office says the initial permit application submitted to the city was for a “medical office,” but the applicant’s true intentions for the property have since come to light.

Both Boyle’s and Krajewski’s offices confirm the permit obtained is legal, but the fight against the methadone clinic is a quality-of-life one, not a legal one.

For the better part of the past two weeks , my staff and I have been vigorously working with city and state agencies and other elected officials to confirm reports that the property at 7908 Frankford Ave. is intended to be a methadone clinic. It is my responsibility to inform you that indeed the Pennsylvania Department of Health has received an application for a narcotic treatment facility from Healing Way at that address. The power to issue a license now rests with the state Department of Health.

continue reading »

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

You can find an update to this post at the bottom of the article, from the April 12 Holmesburg Civic Association meeting.

About $10.6 million was funneled directly to the Mayfair Community Development Corp. since 2000, granted from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, according to its website. Much of it went into street cleaning and senior citizen programs.

The document states $800,000 was used toward the Devon theater.

The same state department gave the Holmesburg Civic Association and the Friends of the Holmesburg Library $5,000 each, according to state records.

continue reading »

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

Kevin Boyle has made a conference room out of John Perzel’s closet.

The young freshman state representative from the 172nd district in the Northeast beat out the indicted former state Speaker of the House last fall and is settling in his first year of elected office. It’s just a matter of form that his constituent services are taking place in the same Frankford Avenue storefront that Perzel held dominion for a portion of his 32-year career. (Boyle is a Democrat; Perzel a Republican).

“We just needed another place to get work done,” Boyle told NEast Philly during an interview last month, standing in the small, undecorated, white room with a table and four chairs. Boyle’s chief of staff Seth Kaplan says the conference room was formerly a closet when Perzel had offices there.

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Mayfair’s neighborhood organizations have written a letter of approval for a proposed Wawa at Tyson Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.

The Mayfair Civic Association, Mayfair Business Association, Mayfair Community Development Corporation have given approval of the structure after meeting with a representative, developer and attorney attached to the project. Wawa will now have to go before the city’s Zoning Board for final approval. continue reading »

Brian Patrick King at Mayfair CDC. Photo by Morgan Zalot.

Brian Patrick King announced this afternoon he’ll step down from his position as executive director of Mayfair CDC.

King has accepted the position of Director of Institutional Advancement at Father Judge High School. He released the following statement: continue reading »

Mayfair resident Mike Ennis designed the logo for the Second Annual 5k Fall Heroes Run, which will honor a firefighter John Redmond.

From the Mayfair Business Association:

The Mayfair Business Association is excited to announce its Third Annual May Fair festival along Frankford Avenue and its Second Annual Mayfair Fallen Heroes Run.

MBA President Mike “Scoats” Scotese, owner of the Grey Lodge, is excited to announce a new wrinkle to this year’s May Fair with the incorporation of the 15th Police District’s Advisory Council’s Community Day at the triangle at Cottman and Frankford avenues, as well as the addition of multiple live bands and acoustic acts along the Avenue.

Scotese said: “I am proud that the PDAC has joined our efforts and we will have an abundance going on at the triangle, as well as along Frankford Avenue.  The Fallen Heroes Run has become our lead-off event and we are excited to have the strong cooperation of Fire Fighters Union Local 22.  This May Fair Day is increasingly becoming the premier family fun day in Mayfair” continue reading »

In this two–part series, we examine the effects absentee landlords have on neighborhoods, and what residents are doing to fight them. In the first part, we hear from Mayfair residents.

During their patrols as Mayfair Town Watch President and Vice President, John Vearling and Len Roberts heard the same complaints from residents over and over again.

The owner of this property did not shovel his sidewalk when it snowed. This owner failed to maintain the lawn. The renters in this household would not put their trash outside at the proper time on the proper night. The sound of barking dogs and blasting music that came from this apartment never ceased, day or night.

Roberts said the gripes escalated as time passed. Some neighbors told him that certain properties on Cottman Avenue were known drug houses. Vearling heard from others that residents would move out in the middle of the night. continue reading »