I am fighting for my family's home. Our comfort zone. I am making my voice heard in fighting this problem of "recovery homes" next door to
families in Frankford. I've heard that there are many and I've even read a post about one on Penn St. having the same problems as mine. I do not
understand why I am the only one showing up at the Civic Meetings wanting to make changes. I have never ever been a person to stand out in a crowd or speak
out in front of a crowd. My own neighbors don't go to the meetings. I figure it's because they don't live next door it and don't see and hear
what my family does. I know there's got to be people living next door to these "recovery houses". I can't be the only one! One hour of one
night a month of your time isn't much to ask for to fight and get laws made so that if you should decide to buy a home and 3 years later a recovery home
wants to move in next door to you, sharing your front steps, you'll be able to stop them. We all can't keep moving because of people wanting to make
money off of addicts who need a place to live and open a house anywhere and call it a recovery home. Please come to the Civic Meetings on the first Thursday
of every month at 7:00 p.m. Have your voice heard or just listen. The worse that came happen is that you will learn about what's going on in your
community.
0 Kudo
I can't be the only one!
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 Margie |
I can't be the only one! |
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Posts: 2 10/07/09 14:20:17 |
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jre |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 72 10/08/09 15:57:34 |
I copied your post and so that it runs on our blog the Wednesday before the next meeting. Maybe I'll keep running it. If I could ask anything for Frankford
it would be for a greater sense of community. Believe it or not, the civic is kind of better than it was when I moved here over two years ago.
I think you're right about people not worrying about things until it's in their back yard. With out singling any residents out there has been at least three occasions where a family will get all up in arms when an investor starts doing things they don't like with a property near theirs. They show up, complain, get told there's nothing that can be done, and never come back. |
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rita |
I'm with you! | #2 | ||
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Posts: 2 10/08/09 17:23:09 |
Margie, you are right. Folks in Frankford need to come together on behalf of one another - cause one day the recovery house that moves in might be right next
store to you. And to call these places "recovery" houses is an insult to our intelligence as well as a blight on anyone who is actually trying to
help those suffering from addiction. These properties are nothing more than boarding houses run by absentee landlords who exploit our community for their own
gain. The shame is that there are laws in Philadelphia against boarding houses but the laws are not enforced here. I suggest we begin to write our
representatives in city, state and federal government, including Mayor Nutter and tell them Frankford is tired of being the dumping ground for all the problems
they can't seem to fix. Any official who thinks boarding houses is a fix for the problem of homelessness that comes with drug addiction is callous and
irresponsible. Callous because they have no empathy for those of us who have to live with this abuse and irresponsible because they have foisted a problem
they should be solving on the backs of the homeowners in Frankford. So write, send an email, let 'em know your mad as hell.
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crazymommy |
Civic meetings are all well and good but voting is what gets results | #3 | ||
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Posts: 70 10/08/09 23:04:47 |
You get what you vote for. MH and MR money comes from the State. If voters wont bother to educate themselves on the issues and then select the right
candidates to get the job done (from either party) they deserve what they get. Corruption, waste and more stupidity. There is a shortage of funding to do well
run recovery programs so the void is filled with these disgusting drug houses pretending to be recovery houses. It comes down to dollars and sense. Instead we
get ACORN and weed! If your elected officials are not willing to help you why do keep re-electing them?
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jre |
#4 | |||
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Posts: 72 10/10/09 12:16:39 |
I don't think you can lay it all on the pols. They'll kiss anyone's ass when properly motivated. It's not them that are are supposed to lead
the community, it's the community that's supposed to lead them. Frankford has the representatio. It deserves. 38 thousand residents and we're lucky
to get 50 to show up for a civic meeting. Put 200 people in a room and our counselwoman will change her tune.
The same goes for the press. They're too lazy to dig for a story, they want it on a silver platter. They aren going to do the commnities dirty work for them. I've known five or so reporters that have come digging for leads from our blogging about Frankford. I can't go to any of them and too them to do the leg work on Frankford's issues. But if you put 100 residents in an intersection shouting down a halfway house and I can get the media to pay attention. Hell you wouldn't even need my help. It all starts with the community and the communities focus should be it's civic association. |
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smile138 |
#5 | |||
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Posts: 60 10/11/09 16:48:32 |
There are a few things going on here that play into the hands of apathy. One is the history of getting nowhere in this kind of fight. A lot of people have
simply given up. Another is that not everybody is as concerned about this issue as we are. The most significant problem to me is a lack of coordination and
cooperation among the various groups and individuals that have a stake in this community. We have a CDC, 2 Civics, a future of Frankford Committee, some other
activist groups and our city council rep and state representatives. What we do not have is leadership who will step, say something is wrong and do something,
come hell or high water, about it. Leadership is tough. You have to make tough choices.
The only way we are going to get anywhere is to organize this ourselves. We can't rely on any of the above to get this done. As has been expressed before, having 50 people in the middle of Frankford Avenue blocking traffic at Church Street sends a much more powerful message than attending a meeting. It tells those folks up the chain that we are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore. Right now they would rather string us along without making a commitment to us. If you would like to organize, email us at: organize@frankfordgazette.com |
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Margie |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 2 10/11/09 20:24:38 |
Thank you jre, that's exactly what I was talking about -I don't think you can lay it all on the pols. They'll kiss anyone's ass when properly
motivated. It's not them that are are supposed to lead the community, it's the community that's supposed to lead them. Frankford has the
representation.- . "You get what you vote for" is crap and a cop out! Everyone lies to be elected.
To fight this issue, I think anyone who lives next door to these houses needs to also stand up. I'm yelling and being heard, I just don't want to be the only one. I think we'll be stronger in numbers instead of just me telling how my family has had to make changes in what we do because of a bogus recovery home. |
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crazymommy |
laws are made by legislation not protests or civic meetings | #7 | ||
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Posts: 70 10/12/09 14:00:09 |
Margie wrote:It is not a cop out to educate your self on who is running for office, what their priorities are and whether they are running to do a good job for the community or to feed the machine. There are good candidates who run because they want to create much needed legislation, for example new laws to regulate drug rehab houses. To suggest that electing the right people to do the job is a cop out makes no sense at all. That kind of thinking makes no sense. Keeping elected officials in office that don't act on issues that effect the community by not voting them out of office is a cop out. |
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rita |
This conversation is heartening | #8 | ||
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Posts: 2 10/15/09 17:03:45 |
Just want to say that this conversation among the people of Frankford is long overdue. We must overlook our political biases and come together and, yeah, if
our representation doesn't hear us at meetings or other venue then maybe they'll hear us in the voting booth. I will no longer vote for anybody who
doesn't take care of my community - regardless of political party. And I agree, we need to organize, we need to march, we need to rally. I'm ready.
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smile138 |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 60 10/18/09 22:50:40 |
As I see it, organizing into a group is the only way that we can exert any influence at all on the people who have the power to fix this situation. They have
told us plain and simple, if we want to have the power that the people in Bustleton have, we need to turn out in force and make noise. Frankford has not been
able to do that in a long time. The leadership now is fractured. We will need many more people but right now we need to establish a core group who can start to
plan. That would mean establishing a goal and laying out a strategy to achieve that goal and from there recruiting other people.
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crazymommy |
yes, like the Frankford Plan? | #10 | ||
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Posts: 70 10/21/09 22:17:08 |
Did that didn't work. Vote for candidates not party.
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smile138 |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 60 10/22/09 23:36:32 |
We can't count on the candidates to deliver what they promise unless there is somebody to hold them accountable between elections.
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