Pa. Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-172nd, led last week’s panel on methadone clinics. Photo/Tiffany Goforth

Beverly Haberle, executive director of The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc., opened the Frankford Civic Association meeting Thursday by addressing an issue that has residents of several Northeast Philadelphia neighborhoods up in arms.

On Jan. 30, Pa. Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-172nd, held a hearing at the Mayfair Community Center discussing methadone clinics, their impact on neighborhoods and access to treatment. With zoning approval for two Holmesburg clinics pending, no one is quite done talking about the issue. continue reading »

Community leaders in Frankford are trying to prevent a drug rehab house from operating at 4834 Penn St. Image/Google Maps

A petition is circulating in Frankford and online to prevent a drug rehab facility from opening at 4834 Penn St.

“No community input was asked for and no civic association was notified,” Frankford Gazette Editor Bob Smiley wrote in an email, asking interested parties to sign the petition. He’s looking to get 100 signatures to send to the Zoning Board of Adjustment requesting that its members stop the applicant from going forward. continue reading »

NEast Links: Bringing you additional Northeast news

Lawncrest residents awoke to find a corrosive substance had been dumped on their cars. Police are investigating the incident, which involves several cars on the 600-block of Van Kirk Street [NBC10].

A Frankford man was shot early this morning in his home in front of his children. Two children witnessed the 4 a.m. home invasion and shooting on the 1900-block of Fillmore Place near the Whitehall Commons [CBS3]. continue reading »

If you had a bad experience in the past with the city’s once notorious Licenses and Inspections department, it’s time to give it another shot.

So went the address Thursday night from a representative of the city agency charged with enforcing its zoning code and related statutes.

“Let’s be real: things were bad,” said Maura Kennedy, the L&I director of strategic initiatives, of the agency before current Commissioner Fran Burns came on. “But we’ve worked very hard to get things in order in the past three years, and we want you to give us another try.”

Kennedy, who was speaking at the Frankford Civic Association meeting, outlined how her agency has changed and, along the way, took questions on a longstanding neighborhood beef with L&I over recovery homes.

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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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Joe Hohenstein, the clerk of the Frankford Friends School board committee and a 1979 graduate, discussing expansion plans at the Sept. 9, 2010 Frankford Civic Association meeting.

Updated: 9/10/10 @ 3:56 p.m.

A $1.6 million expansion project that would remake the capacity of a fixture of Frankford was given approval Thursday night by the neighborhood’s civic group.

The Frankford Friends School, at the corner of Penn and Orthodox streets, would see a modern, single-floor, multi-use, 32-foot additional building constructed east of its historic 1833-era school house if the city’s zoning commission approves a change to the property’s zoning distinction.

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In February 2009, neighbors noticed a change in 1522-24 Church Street in Frankford. Furniture was being moved and the noise began.

Since then, at nearly every Frankford Civic Association meeting, the property was criticized for noise and lewdness violations. Neighbors who’ve declined to go on record call the property an “illegal recovery house.” One that, the neighbors allege, allows their residents to continue to use, distribute and sell illicit narcotics.

State Sen. Tony Payton’s Chief of Staff Jorge Santana has called it an example of “the worst of the neighborhood.” At Thursday’s Frankford civic meeting, rumors surfaced that a change was at hand.

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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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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 »