My name is Penelope Giles. I'm a 50 year resident of the Francisville Neighborhood located in the Art Museum area of North Philadelphia. About 6 years ago I started an organization (Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation, aka FNDC) to deal with the inevitable re-gentrification of of our neighborhood. My approach was not to stop development but to embrace, guide and empower existing residents so that our neighborhood would develop equitably. We are a pro-active, pro-development organization and have made significant progress with regard to educating residents on the positives of development. We have a very large and active resident support base and overall we've had great success mitigating the relationship between developers and the community HOWEVER, as development increases we are seeing more problems with what we call the "BAD DEVELOPERS"! These are the contractors big or small who come into the community and show no regard for the residents living near their construction sites.
I recently received several emails from one of our residents who's simply fed up with being powerless against "BAD DEVELOPERS". She touches on many of the issues as she reaches out to the City Planning Commission, our Councilman and others to try to move someone to do something about this growing problem. Bottom line is this is something that will have to be dealt with at the legislative level. The Zoning Code and L&I must put policy in place to give residents living near offenders a real course of action that will result in tangible results! I've created this blog to bring the issue to light in the hope that our collective voice will motivate our elected officials to address the problem!
If you have experienced undue and unnecessary inconveniences or worse because of development near your residence tell us about your experience with "BAD DEVELOPERS" and include suggestions for City Council in terms of legislation to form policy, enact laws etc., to adress the problem.
Blog with a purpose! Together we can make a difference!
Penelope
