Vandalism - 4th and Fitz - Page 5 - PhillyBlog

Eddy333 · #41 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgander

Two questions: Do Philadelphian's who are provided subsidized housing and/or living assistance, loose said housing and/or living assistance if they are convicted of committing a crime? If not, why?

Notice I do not say nor assume that all crime comes from residents residing in PHA housing - just curious.

In theory, and according to the latest standard lease, they would be evicted from RCA. I say "in theory" because we who live right next door have no way of knowing what goes on there. The company that manages the place makes no attempt at transparency or working with the rest of the neighborhood.

I have doubts that they follow-through to the degree they should be. Probably costs them too much.

jgander · #42 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy333

In theory, and according to the latest standard lease, they would be evicted from RCA. I say "in theory" because we who live right next door have no way of knowing what goes on there. The company that manages the place makes no attempt at transparency or working with the rest of the neighborhood.

I have doubts that they follow-through to the degree they should be. Probably costs them too much.

Thanks for the info... So basically, assuming that a criminal is a PHA resident, and with Philadelphia's revolving door court system there is truly no repercussions to the criminal element in our city - it seems very sad.

IronEagle · #43 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy333

Do you know how much money was pumped into the redevelopment of RCA?

Serious question: How much money was pumped into the redevelopment of RCA? Anybody have a good estimate of the amount?

Eddy333 · #44 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgander

Thanks for the info... So basically, assuming that a criminal is a PHA resident, and with Philadelphia's revolving door court system there is truly no repercussions to the criminal element in our city - it seems very sad.

I know of a couple of people in my neck of the woods that were put away for a good while, but both of them were repeat offenders (drugs) and both ended up turning up again in the neighborhood once their parole kicked in. It seems like there are no serious, long-term repercussions, no.

Eddy333 · #45 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronEagle

Serious question: How much money was pumped into the redevelopment of RCA? Anybody have a good estimate of the amount?

http://www.phila.gov/ohcd_old/conplan28/28south.pdf:
Located in the vicinity of 4th Street and Washington Avenue, the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview (formerly Southwark Plaza) is surrounded by Queen
Village and is one of PHA’s largest developments. With a total development cost of approximately $58 million (!!!), Courtyard Apartments at Riverview (formerly Southwark) is supported primarily by $39.5 million in Major Reconstruction of Obsolete Projects (MROP) grants supplied by HUD to PHA,
with additional contributions of limited partner equity proceeds and CDBG funds of $2 million. Developed by a joint venture of Southwark Development Corp., Affordable Community Housing Advocates Inc., Housing Association of Delaware Valley and the National Housing Partnerships Inc., the renovated development consists of 165 units of elderly housing in the one remaining high-rise building and 305 newly constructed townhouses, for a total of 470 units. The development was completed in Year 26. The Queen
Village Neighbors Association, funded by OHCD, has been a leading force in involving PHA tenants and residents of the surrounding community in joint
projects and dialogue.

random · #46 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddy333

Yeah, dude, the entire white, upwardly mobile population of QV are nothing but sheep being constantly preyed on. You should see the death and desolation here. Oh, the horror! What, are you living in some kind of post-apocalyptic Schwarzenegger movie?

I live in philadelphia and I have eyes and ears. Your description of it is accurate, depending on where you are.

Quote:

Actually, the police could control a lot more of what happens on the street if they had the resources and they had a fire lit under their asses.

That's the crux of it. Police won't be motivated if an arrest is nothing but an invitation to a revolving door.

Quote:

To answer the first part of your post, if the residents of Queen village banded together and engaged the Councilman's office, the Mayor's office, 3rd District police, and the RCA management company en mass, it would be pretty hard to ignore. Form a citizen/police alliance committee to target problem residents and areas. Threaten AIMCO (or whoever the current management company is) with a lawsuit unless they fund security or allow PPD patrols (we have enough lawyers in this neighborhood, right?), form a neighborhood 911 call ring to bombard central dispatch when suspicious behavior or persons are seen, form a neighborhood watch patrol that walks every night at random times, pressure the RCA management company for records of incidents and evictions from the housing units, meet with the RCA resident board and find out what suggestions that have for improving things, etc., etc.

That's actually a pretty good plan. Why don't QVNA and the other NACs band together to do this? They are wasting a huge amount of resource on fighting other issues they think affect them. Personally, I'd rather deal with traffic on del ave when headed down that way than have to carry just to walk through their "village" in the wee hours.

Quote:

I'm not an apologist for the f*cking lowlifes that see an easy score in QV when they want more rock, but at the same time whining about "those people" and how the cops aren't doing their job is pointless. Have you seen what the cops are having to clean up everyday in this town?!

True, but I think step one is to stop being afraid of discussing facts. RCA is a source of crime -- that's a fact. Focusing resources on RCA is not racist or classist, just realistic. Your ideas above acknowledge this so hats off to you. That's the first step.

Quote:

I'm not blaming anyone for not accepting it, and I don't accept it. I just think sitting around and grousing about the current reality in vaguely racist and classist tones and engaging in fantasy about kicking people out of their subsidized housing is a supreme waste of time. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to put up with it, but Philadelphia is most definitely far from perfect, so...

There should be more follow up on kicking criminals and those who harbor criminals (the larger problem there). If there was a genuine threat that if live in boyfriend got arrested there, the girlfriend got evicted, not only would thug be gone but other residents there would be a lot choosier about housemates. If that happened, the decent people who live there would have better living conditions as well as making your "village" a better place.

Eddy333 · #47 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by random

That's actually a pretty good plan. Why don't QVNA and the other NACs band together to do this? They are wasting a huge amount of resource on fighting other issues they think affect them. Personally, I'd rather deal with traffic on del ave when headed down that way than have to carry just to walk through their "village" in the wee hours.

A valid point, depending on one's neighborhood priorities, but I wouldn't characterize the efforts of QVNA or the other NACs as a huge amount of resources, QVNA recently lost a bunch of their NAC funding and had to cut their massive paid staff from 1.5 employees to 1 employee. That one employee handles all the legwork for the things the organization does in the area. It's a thankless job, especially when complainers in the neighborhood imply that somehow QVNA has piles of money and is some kind of power hungry Nazi organization. It's just a bunch of people volunteering their time.

Personally I think they should spend less time on Casinos and more time on quality of life issues, but I can understand a lot of people in the neighborhood being freaked out about having freakin' Foxwoods crawling up their rear end.

To get back the the point, though, even if all the local NACs banded together to address the issue and put pressure on those mentioned, it would still take a lot of support from the rest of the community (a la the anti-casino effort) to force some change.

Quote:

Originally Posted by random

There should be more follow up on kicking criminals and those who harbor criminals (the larger problem there). If there was a genuine threat that if live in boyfriend got arrested there, the girlfriend got evicted, not only would thug be gone but other residents there would be a lot choosier about housemates. If that happened, the decent people who live there would have better living conditions as well as making your "village" a better place.

Totally agree. The company that manages that place needs to get their ass handed to them by the surrounding community and their elected officials.

alesis · #48 (**permalink**) 09-07-2007, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronEagle

Serious question: How much money was pumped into the redevelopment of RCA? Anybody have a good estimate of the amount?

This is their famous quote that just cracks me up.
With public and private investments totaling over 1.2 dollars, PHA's "stock" is soaring!

That Quote always cracks me up-its directly from PHA's own annual report.
470 units at Riverview

PHA capital 1.6 million
LIHTC equity 18.3 million
Bonds 32.8 million
Private investment 4.5 million
-------------------------------------
Total 57.2 million

121,700 per unit

Its a long story as to how these numbers benefit no one but the Friends of Street society, but here's a cliffnote version....

LIHTC equity loans are created by HUD through chosen corporate investers who in turn get A DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR TAX CREDIT FOR THEIR INVESTMENT!!! Not a bad return.. Mind you, this is not a deduction-its a credit, which is the equivalent of free frickin' money which usually becomes a bonus for the executives of the corporation.

Meanwhile, the PHA procurs bonds, sets the rates, and guess who benefits? Many times the same people, along with some donors who get the equivalent of a "sure thing" investment. Meanwhile the property manager and PHA spend next to no money to get their feet off the ground, and also get several grants for demolition, surveys, and everything else-to the point where much of the LIHTC and bond money gets usurped into other development. Everyone is making money, and no one can do a thing since this multi-billion dollar corporation is purely controlled by Street, Blackwell, and three stooges they control.

The only way to change the system in a backdoor fashion is to rewrite the PMAA(Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Act) to force these public municpal projects to have more than a minimum of five boardmembers that oversee billions of our dollars. PHA is only one of many municipalities that operate under this antiquated concept with absolutely no input from its constituency.

Its a long story, a complicated money and papertrail, and I've got a hangover from a culmination of traveling, a concert, thursday night football, and plenty of vodka from said activities yesterday. I'll try to give more detail sometime this weekend.