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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Philly Cutbacks: Potential for Urban Blight
Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 8:20 am - by Stephanie Marudas. Filed under: Budget, Economy.
Crews in Francisville this June working under the Community LandCare program on abandoned and overgrown Ogden Street Park
A neighborhood with overgrown and trash-covered vacant lots is a perennial issue often facing poor neighborhoods. So how does a community nip this sort of problem in the bud? In Philadelphia, one of the answers has been the municipally-funded Community LandCare (CLC) program. But it’s now at risk of being wiped out as part of Mayor Michael Nutter’s $108 million budget cut plan.
The Community LandCare program has been the bedrock for helping Philly’s low-income communities to start managing vacant land. Established in 2003, CLC first provided funds to eight community-based organizations to clean up and maintain 1,600 vacant parcels. This year, 15 groups have been given contracts and manage more than 3,000 parcels. While there’s no official count on the number of vacant land parcels in the city, representatives from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society estimate there are between 35,000 and 40,000. In their definition, a parcel is an address that can vary in size from 660 square feet to over an acre.
Community LandCare results in Francisville: Total makeover at Ogden Street Park. Park was originally fenced off, and the mural used to be hidden behind overgrown plants and weeds. See photo above.
Thanks to the G.I. Bill, Giles’ parents bought a house in Francisville after World War II. They were among the few black families living in what was a white working and middle-class neighborhood at the time. Since then, the neighborhood has suffered major population loss. It’s now predominantly African-American and low-income. With sweeping views of the Center City skyline, Francisville is the next neighborhood over from the Fairmount section. It’s nestled in an area north of Fairmount Avenue, east of the Eastern State Penetentiary along Corinthian Avenue, south of Girard Avenue, and west of Broad Street. The neighborhood’s historic core, which is known as Greene Towne Countrie, was once home to vineyards belonging to Philadelphia’s founder William Penn. As a result, traces of grapevines can be found around the neighborhood today.
View of Center City skyline from Francisville
Francisville has reaped the fruits of the CLC contract, according to Giles. She says the money has been used to clean up and maintain more than 400 vacant parcels, reclaim green space, plant seeds for an orchard and clear an area for the Francisville Urban Farm that will cost an additional $25,000 to create and maintain.
FNDC executive director Penelope Giles next to one of four large compost piles on proposed site for the Francisville Urban Farm
Besides the tangible benefits, Giles says the CLC funded clean-up effort has helped expose once hidden vacant spots in Francisville where illegal dumping, prostitution and drug dealing regularly took place. Though not completely gone, she says these problems have diminished. Thousands of trash bags later, Giles looks to the new homes being built in the neighborhood as one barometer for success.
New homes in Francisville are going up, like this one half a block away from the recently recreated Ogden Street Park
But the recent news about the forthcoming city cuts affecting vacant land management has left Giles rattled. She was counting on seeking additional funds to do regular upkeep on the vacant parcels Francisville cleaned up this year. Now, it looks like that’s no longer an option. Giles fears her community will slip backwards without any financial resources to keep the momentum going.
Money in Philadelphia for vacant land stabilization programs, and other projects like the CLC, comes from the city’s Office for Housing and Community Development (OHCD) through a $4 million contract with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). Known as the Green City Strategy, PHS administers and manages the money. Though, the contract is now being reduced by 50% under Mayor Nutter’s budget cuts. With $2 million less, PHS officials are taking steps to redesign programming and say they’re heeding Nutter’s directive to help shoulder the burden during these tough economic times.
With budget cuts for vacant land management, what will be the future of large vacant lots like this one in Francisville that was cleaned up and stabilized this year with Community LandCare funds?
But as the budget cuts stand now, PHS will have no money in 2009 for community groups to continue regular upkeep of nearly 5,000 vacant land parcels previously cleaned up and stabilized over the last five years. Officials at PHS consider this operation a top priority, which is why they’re now reeling to find other financial streams outside the city budget to preserve the initiative. There’s a fear that the lack of regular upkeep will eventually unearth the blight that communities have worked so hard over the years to bury.
The contract reduction also means no funds will be available in 2009 to give out Community LandCare contracts, like the one Francisville received. The price tag this year for the CLC program was $1.3 million. The costs included the contract awards, administration, education, training, and regular monitoring of the contracted groups by PHS staff. Here’s the list of all the organizations that received CLC money this year. Notice that the contracts add up to 2,600 parcels. But in reality, PHS officials say more than 3,000 parcels have been cleaned up and maintained this year. That’s because most groups, like the one in Francisville, exceed the contracted requirement and clean more parcels at no extra cost.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Thanks for this story about my neighborhood and our noble, fearless, unstoppable leader, Penny Giles. I’ve been a homeowner in the neighborhood almost 20 years and the transformation since she created FNDC is truly astounding. It will indeed be a serious setback to our efforts if we can’t get funds to keep our forward momentum going.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I live on Corinthain Ave., right on the edge of Francisville. It’s a great area that has even more potential, and it would be a shame to not - as the commenter above said - see the momentum continue. I guess with such massive cuts though, it’s impossible to not step on everyone’s toes a little bit.
December 24th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
For some six years, I live and own a business amidst a long abandoned City owned vacant lots. One can notice the marked difference, a result of the hard work of the Francisville Community Land Care Program in maintaining these and other lots in the Francisville neighborhoods. It is rather unfortunate that this critical program that’s improving quality of life and hoped to help community building is affected by the budget cuts. I hope that the administration will reconsider providing the necessary funding for organizations such as Francisville which surpass its goal under the CLC contract.
July 9th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
CLC in danger…again.
July 9, 2010
–Philadelphia Halts Greening of 3000 Vacant Lots–
New budget proposal cuts the acclaimed Community LandCare Initiative, eliminating more than 100 local green jobs, and casting doubt on the city’s commitment to sustainability.
On June 29,, 2010, cleaning and greening was happening on more than 3000 of Philadelphia’s 35,000 vacant lots. Local crews funded by the city’s Community LandCare Initiative were tending gardens, mowing, clearing rubble and eliminating waste. At the Village of Arts and Humanities, this meant preserving a legacy of public art space, community gardens, and performance parks.
On July 1, due to dire economic circumstance, Philadelphia stopped funding its Community LandCare initiative. The cleaning and greening of those 3000 lots came to an abrupt halt. 100 new local green jobs vanished.
Since 2003, Philadelphia Horticulture Society has distributed Community LandCare funds to more than 15 community organizations including The Village. CLC and the larger PHS Vacant Land Stabilization program have revitalized over 10 million square feet of vacancy into green, well-managed open spaces. That’s the equivalent of nearly 200 football fields.
The environmental impact of the funding cut can already be seen. The Village’s parks and public art spaces are now tended by a skeleton crew or left untended resulting in unnecessary loss of vegetation, overgrowth of weeds, rapid accumulation of litter, deterioration of structures and defacement of public art.
The sociological impact is looming. Illegal dumping, prostitution and drug dealing will return as it becomes apparent that the lots are, once again, abandoned. The Community LandCare initiative, once a symbol of city’s commitment to resolve urban blight and to support those who participate in the renewal of their community, will now serve to reinforce a feeling of mistrust and abandonment that permeates Philadelphia’s underserved communities.
The budget cuts cast serious doubt on Mayor Nutter’s true commitment to greening Philadelphia. “At a time when Mayor Nutter is trying to position Philadelphia as the ‘Greenest City in America,’ it seems strange that he would cut funding for a program that has received national recognition and such tangible results towards making Philadelphia a safer and greener place to live,” says Brian Kelly of The Village of Arts and Humanities.
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED
PHS and The Village of Arts and Humanities strongly urge the city to reinstate funding for Community LandCare.
The Village of Arts and Humanities is immediately seeking alternate funds from sources including health organizations, environmental groups, individuals and corporations in order to continue the important work initiated by Philadelphia’s Community LandCare Initiative.
July 23rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I attended a community meeting last night at SCEE where the community objected to the funding of a commercial farm project in a Nature Preserve Area. The community pleaded with Farm Organizers to find another location. Yours looks perfect!! Go to http://www.east33.org for more information. I would like to support your idea for the your vacant land areas. NJ