Concerned Citizens Taking It to a Higher Level

**ArcticSplash** · 10-21-2012, 11:38 AM

One Group Really Hates the New Zoning Code. A Lot. - Philadelinquency

**JakeL** · 10-21-2012, 12:52 PM

How dare they require such burdensome requirements such as bylaws, elections, and meeting minutes! Next thing you know they'll be saying that we can't stuff ballot boxes in RCO votes!

**JakeL** · 10-21-2012, 01:01 PM

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but crime is what pushes people out of communities, not gentrification. The forced movement based on crime is much higher than the disconnected assumptions based on increased home value leading to increased property taxes which leads to unaffordable bills which then leads to people being forced to move. Communities such as deep North Philly have experienced large scale out-migration, not based on gentrification, but on crime. The hollowed out rows of blocks are a testament that development isn't pushing anyone out up there. Point Breeze is no different, except that the hollowed out blocks are now being put back to their original use. There has been an outwards-migration from Point Breeze for years even before Graduate Hospital was a twinkle in a developers eye, the difference is that today there is now an inwards migration.

**ArcticSplash** · 10-21-2012, 08:01 PM

Originally Posted by JakeL

How dare they require such burdensome requirements such as bylaws, elections, and meeting minutes! Next thing you know they'll be saying that we can't stuff ballot boxes in RCO votes!

Or in one lady's case, hauling away voting sheets and running out of a zoning meeting with them.

**MariusPontmercy** · 10-21-2012, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by JakeL

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but crime is what pushes people out of communities, not gentrification. The forced movement based on crime is much higher than the disconnected assumptions based on increased home value leading to increased property taxes which leads to unaffordable bills which then leads to people being forced to move. Communities such as deep North Philly have experienced large scale out-migration, not based on gentrification, but on crime. The hollowed out rows of blocks are a testament that development isn't pushing anyone out up there. Point Breeze is no different, except that the hollowed out blocks are now being put back to their original use. There has been an outwards-migration from Point Breeze for years even before Graduate Hospital was a twinkle in a developers eye, the difference is that today there is now an inwards migration.

Bingo

**Gladys** · 10-21-2012, 08:18 PM

i heard the new code causes heart attacks.

it also is the first sign of the apocalypse.

yeah if i were to build a mansion you know it would be in point breeze.

p.s. wtf is that pic? a guy wearing a fez on his nose?

**torts** · 10-21-2012, 08:25 PM

it's some weird bdsm thing. it's all good.

**ofeibush** · 10-21-2012, 08:42 PM

I am not sure that CCPB is as much in the minority as I once thought. I hear so much chatter about how we are destroying the neighborhood. They have educated people rallying to their cause and our baristas at 18th and South have to deal with a few people complaining about the vacant lot in PB each day. It is depressing that people focus on the legalities of the lot and not the broken system that forced us to take action. Similarly with the coffee shop....educated people continue to argue that I forced a coffee shop on the community. WTF? Why do people not understand how insane that statement is? How does a place of business force itself on a community? I am convinced that for as crazy and racist as CCPB is, they are actually winning. Hell the Councilman and State Rep even marched with them and on the opposite side....the hundreds of neighbors that came to vote in support of our shop sadly don't come in. It makes me question my plan for the Munson Manor....do we all just support from afar? Not everyone gets their news online...if we are not on the ground telling the truth about what is really going on we are losing.

They are winning with boots on the ground and thousands of flyers.....either we are willing to fight for a better neighborhood by spending money and organizing our own marches and meetings or we are not.

**MariusPontmercy** · 10-21-2012, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by Gladys

i heard the new code causes heart attacks.

it also is the first sign of the apocalypse.

yeah if i were to build a mansion you know it would be in point breeze.

p.s. wtf is that pic? a guy wearing a fez on his nose?

Know what's weird? The only instance I can think of somebody building an actual mansion in the Point Breeze vicinity is by... our man Kenny Gamble!

I'm using the term "building" loosely though, since Kenny seems to have run out of money after digging a rather large hole in the ground.

**AngelB** · 10-21-2012, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by JakeL

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but crime is what pushes people out of communities, not gentrification.

Amen!

**MariusPontmercy** · 10-21-2012, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by ofeibush

I am not sure that CCPB is as much in the minority as I once thought. I hear so much chatter about how we are destroying the neighborhood. They have educated people rallying to their cause and our baristas at 18th and South have to deal with a few people complaining about the vacant lot in PB each day. It is depressing that people focus on the legalities of the lot and not the broken system that forced us to take action. Similarly with the coffee shop....educated people continue to argue that I forced a coffee shop on the community. WTF? Why do people not understand how insane that statement is? How does a place of business force itself on a community? I am convinced that for as crazy and racist as CCPB is, they are actually winning. Hell the Councilman and State Rep even marched with them and on the opposite side....the hundreds of neighbors that came to vote in support of our shop sadly don't come in. It makes me question my plan for the Munson Manner....do we all just support from afar? Not everyone gets their news online...if we are not on the ground telling the truth about what is really going on we are losing.

They are winning with boots on the crowd and thousands of flyers.....either we are willing to fight for a better neighborhood by spending money and organizing our own marches and meetings or we are not.

Winning what? They can't possibly make Point Breeze worse. If you do anything to improve the neighborhood, however small a contribution you think that it may be, you're still on the winning side. CCPB can never "win", because they've already lost everything: their neighborhood is a ghost town and wasteland. Their only purpose is to prevent anyone else from fixing up a neighborhood they let rot, and lets face it, they can only delay the inevitable for so long, because if you don't develop Point Breeze Ori, somebody else will. Maybe not next year or even ten years from now, but there will always be somebody else. Things change, CCPB can't deal with that, and they can't accept that they might have to live with people of a different race or socio-economic class, and if history teaches us one thing, its that those who fought against the changing times always ended up succumbing to the times in the end. You either adapt to the world as it changes or you become increasingly irrelevant.

Put another way: as long as there are people willing to move into those new houses in Point Breeze, the neighborhood will change. It doesn't matter who builds them, as long as somebody is willing to buy them. And that my friend is something CCPB can't change because behind that are things way beyond their influence; perceptions and trends that are moving millions of people across the entire country.

**ArcticSplash** · 10-21-2012, 09:27 PM

Ugh... lbphilly quit the board--but she moved into G-Ho way before there was any commercial development going on. I wonder if during the process it hit this low point before the tide started to turn in that neighborhood. If it's the case--then perhaps it's wise to not really let this opposition bother you so much as to just laugh at it and keep pressing forward.

**ofeibush** · 10-21-2012, 09:28 PM

I was not the first and will not be the last....not the point. Neighborhoods don't just naturally get better. It may happen on its own but it may not. What happens to PB next year if tax abatements stop being issued and AVI is implemented. Will people pay $6k a year to live here? Maybe. Maybe not.

We cannot assume progress will naturally move forward. Either we stand up (and out on the street) or we don't. I don't like leaving things to chance and I hope you don't either.

**Ozymndius** · 10-21-2012, 10:04 PM

Is the date/time on the flyer for public comment correct? I don't see it on the city council website.

**ArcticSplash** · 10-21-2012, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Ozymndius

Is the date/time on the flyer for public comment correct? I don't see it on the city council website.

The hearing is Special Resolution 120638:
Master Detail Report

It's sitting in the Rules Committe and you're right, they haven't updated legislation.phila.gov

It's one of those things where you just have to call City Hall staffers periodically to check where the hell it really is.

**Ozymndius** · 10-21-2012, 11:38 PM

Thanks Arctic.

**Eastcoast** · 10-22-2012, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by ofeibush

I am not sure that CCPB is as much in the minority as I once thought. I hear so much chatter about how we are destroying the neighborhood. They have educated people rallying to their cause and our baristas at 18th and South have to deal with a few people complaining about the vacant lot in PB each day. It is depressing that people focus on the legalities of the lot and not the broken system that forced us to take action. Similarly with the coffee shop....educated people continue to argue that I forced a coffee shop on the community. WTF? Why do people not understand how insane that statement is? How does a place of business force itself on a community? I am convinced that for as crazy and racist as CCPB is, they are actually winning. Hell the Councilman and State Rep even marched with them and on the opposite side....the hundreds of neighbors that came to vote in support of our shop sadly don't come in. It makes me question my plan for the Munson Manor....do we all just support from afar? Not everyone gets their news online...if we are not on the ground telling the truth about what is really going on we are losing.

They are winning with boots on the ground and thousands of flyers.....either we are willing to fight for a better neighborhood by spending money and organizing our own marches and meetings or we are not.

Ofe,

Have you considered putting together another website (I know more work) that expands on the RE search side of NakedPhilly? Essentially a bit of a how-to guide exclusively for Point Breeze showing vacant lots for sale, thoughts on the block/section, how to permit and start building before the land grab juggernaut rolls down the block. Additionally the same type of detailed look at existing homes in need of reno would help to move these even quicker...possibly a grading system based on price, condition, square footage, distance from public transit/amenities, condition/density of given block, etc...

I think more importantly is going to be the rehabs of existing rowhouses...the type where the stalwart can purchase a house that's on the edge and live/restore the property. It wasn't more than 6 years ago that you could walk around Bella Vista on the weekend and hear circ saws and pneumatic tools chugging away all day as the homeowners were busy restoring just about every inch of that neighborhood.

There, see how easily I can spend your time and resources!

**ArcticSplash** · 10-22-2012, 09:58 AM

I emailed Jannie's office last night and I haven't gotten back a response.

I'm gonna have to *67 her office the old fashioned way---fake being a supporter of the resolution and ask to testify in favor so they'll spill the details.

**gijyun** · 10-22-2012, 10:43 AM

Part of me is just mildly impressed that they actually put their org name and contact information on a flyer for once instead of distributing anonymous, racist, incendiary, nameless, terroristic flyers throughout the neighborhood.

**seand** · 10-22-2012, 11:16 AM

So all they have to do is register to be an RCO, have bylaws and a board, etc. whats the issue?

Is it that hard to run yourself like a reputable organization?

Also how does zoning make the city do reassessments?