"New Program Aims for
‘Livable Neighborhoods’ in Nicetown"

Germantown Courier, Philadelphia, PA – 11/13/02

By Charing A. Ball
Staff Writer

Like many cities around the nation, Philadelphia's urban communities are in the need of attention and repair. Due in part to lack of development and revitalization, and unchecked housing decay, the city is losing residents as well as some of the most historic areas in the country.

But an expanded program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania may provide one local neighborhood with the boost needed to increase healthier, safer neighborhoods through local, state and community collaboration.

At a ceremony held last Thursday, November 7 at the Nicetown Community Development Corporation, 4414 Germantown Avenue, the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic Administrator, Donald Welsh, presented a check for $50,000 to City Managing Director Estelle Richman to assist in the city's Livable Neighborhood program – a neighborhood initiative to get residents of designated area to improve health, safety and beautification through a hands-on approach.

Attending were local political figures such as State Representative Jewell Williams and State Senator Shirley Kitchen, staffer David Yurky from Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's Office, and David Gershon, director of the Empowerment Institute. Also on hand for the occasion were community leaders, block captains and neighbors all around the city who've helped to increase neighborhood revitalization efforts through the Livable Neighborhood Program.

Said Welsh "Most people think that the EPA is only concerned about the mountains and valley regions of our country. But the environment is anywhere where people live and that includes cities and urban areas. lt is our job at the EPA to concern ourselves with enhancing quality of life, whether it is removing toxins from communities to creating neighborhood gardens. This program will be a shining example of how local communities and government agencies can be partners in keeping healthy and vibrant neighborhoods."

"Many people don't know about how to make their homes and neighborhoods are safer. They are unaware about potential lead poisoning, about eliminating fire death through proper usage of kerosene heaters, about deterring water damage through cleaning rain gutters. Through this program we hope to encourage citizens to take actions of their own to make their communities better places to live. This is the goal shared by the city, the state and the EPA," said Managing Director Richman.

Livable Neighborhoods, said Richman, will work in city's already existing Neighborhood Transformation and Safe Streets initiatives, which have already resulted in the removal of thousands of abandoned cars, the cleaning of vacant lots and the removal of blighted houses. But while the program and the grant, said Richman, will allow the city to reach its goal of having 60 neighborhood teams by 2004, the ultimate goal will be to bring community members together to fix what is broken at a grass roots level while connecting them to local and state government resources.

"The city is reinventing itself through Safe Streets and NTI, which just Iike this program was developed to make sure we have livable and desirable neighborhoods. But Livable Neighborhoods take it one step further by allowing neighbors to meet with each other for the first time and transform themselves from being receivers from the city to actual partners," said Richman.

The program itself has already been successfully done in many communities around the country including neighborhoods in Kansas, Wisconsin and Washington State. Livable Neighborhood isn’t a new idea to this area. Evolving from the city’s Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, launched in 2000, Sen. Kitchen spearheaded making the program into a citywide initiative. Locally there are 26 Livable Neighborhood program teams in eight different areas of the city such as Germantown, North Philadelphia, West Oak Lane and Nicetown.

"I see this program as a blue print to bring measures of improvement to environments, changes in households, and in communities around the city. What is great about the Livable Neighborhoods is that everyone, neighbor-to-neighbor, are working together and taking responsibility to keep the environment not only beautiful, but clean and safe for each new generation," said Sen. Kitchen.

Livable Neighborhoods is based on several principals: health, safety, beautification and greening, resource sharing and community building. As it is designed, neighbors would form teams of 5–8 households and meet several times over a four month period to carry out the actions they have chosen from the Livable Neighborhoods Program Workbook. The teams then use the book’s step-by-step planning guide and meeting formats to assess what they want and the best ways to accomplish it.

The idea of the program, said Kitchen, is to promote environmental changes in communities by improving simple health and safety concerns such as energy conservation, lead poisoning education, tree planting, and neighborhood gardens. Previous projects done by neighbors have resulted in projects as big as getting street and alley cleanups to as simple as providing each resident of a street with bath mats.

Through the program, we were able to have regular safety inspections, we got our sewer inlets cleaned, and every home got smoke detectors and bath mats. We were also able to develop relationships with each and build personal contacts with officials," said Bristol Street resident Jonathan Rueben.

According to Majeedah Rashid, chief operating of officer for the Nicetown CDC and the person responsible for bringing Livable Neighborhoods to Nicetown, the hope is that this program is the kick.-start the area needs to begin a grassroots for neighborhood improvement.

"This program has adopted the same essential ideas that we have incorporated to the transformation of Nicetown. It gets results by encouraging block leaders to utilize already existing agencies in Philadelphia such as PhilaGreen and NTI. Hopeful the funding provided will encourage more individuals to get involved in improving our neighborhoods," says Rashid.

Livable Neighborhoods will be one of several new programs coming out of the reestablished Nicetown Neighborhood Advisory Community. The NAC, which closed three years ago, was reinstated on October 1 and is maintaining a temporary residence at the Nicetown CDC while renovations at its previous location, 4300 Germantown Avenue are completed.

Rashid contends that among other services provided by the NAC, which include job training, energy assistance, and crisis intervention, the facility will also provide Livable Neighborhood training to block captains and leaders. "Once our new facility is up and running we will be able to provide the community with the necessary resources needed. Right now, we are in the process of collecting data and putting together a neighborhood plan to present to NTI. But we can’t do everything without the community’s support. It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors," she says.

The Nicetown NAC is currently looking for donations to complete the renovations for its 4300 Germantown Avenue location. To donate or to find out more about programs offered through the Nicetown NAC or CDC, call 215-324-9772.