PhillyRising coming to Lawncrest, but boundaries don’t include Lawndale

Things were going well at the Lawncrest Community Association meeting until Manny Citron laid out the boundaries for the city’s new PhillyRising target: LawncrestRising will comprise Tabor Avenue to Godfrey Avenue to Hasbrook Avenue to Comly Street.

More like CrescentvilleRising, if you ask the association members.

Citron is the assistant managing director for the City of Philadelphia and oversees the Northeast branch of the PhillyRising initiative, which began in Frankford.

Citron spoke for 10 minutes at Tuesday’s Lawncrest Community Association meeting before taking questions from residents, who were mostly from Lawndale.”You completely left out Lawndale,” was one of the first responses he got after explaining PhillyRising and its move into Lawncrest in 2012.

In the video below, Citron explains how PhillyRising works.

Citron says the boundaries are flexible, while LCA President Bill Dolbow assured the crowd, “We’re gonna have that changed.”

Questions about the boundaries persisted, prompting Citron to explain, and only resident and realtor Phil Cunningham spoke up to relieve pressure on Citron.

“Everything spreads into Lawncrest,” he said, referring to the crime and quality of life issues slowly creeping in Lawndale. “Why not the good stuff?”

PhillyRising targets areas within a police district experiencing quality of life, litter and major crimes, and Crescentville meets those qualifications.

As voices rose over the boundaries, Citron fielded questions and Dolbow finally stepped in.

“This is another tool to help us make this neighborhood better,” he said of the initiative. The boundaries will work themselves out.