In today’s paper, I wrote about a new program Philadelphia is rolling out. For various reasons, just a portion of my article could make it in the paper so here’s the full version that goes into more detail about how this effort can work in various areas. Start about midway if you read the article in the paper.
Philadelphia is launching a pilot program aimed at addressing issues adversely affecting narrowly defined sections of various neighborhoods.
These so-called “Public Service Areas,” or PSA, (a temporary name for now) is an initiative that brings 28 different city services and agencies together with police districts, neighborhood leaders and other stakeholders in a coordinated fashion to improve the quality of a community, said Rich Negrin, managing director of Philadelphia.
The effort is modeled on a program used by law enforcement in cities called police service areas to fight crime in sections of neighborhoods.
Philadelphia put a twist on the program by making it broader in scope and focused not just on crime but other quality of life issues in a micro area. It doesn’t cost the city extra since it reallocates existing services.
Eventually the city plans to roll out multiple PSAs. An area will be designated as a PSA only after the city conducts preliminary research, figuring out geographic boundaries, what issues need to be addressed, devising a customized plan and establishing a partnership with neighborhood leaders, said John Farrell, deputy managing director. Each PSA meeting focuses on a single issue and figuring out ways to resolve it. For now, it is experimenting in a handful of neighborhoods.
Once a PSA is formed it will continue indefinitely, Negrin said.
“In the past, the city and other city services have come in to an area and left,” he said. “The key thing here is this needs to be sustainable.”
The city had decided to create a PSA along East Market Street in an section defined by Chestnut to Arch streets from Broad Street down to 8th Street.
“What a PSA does is show that the administration and the mayor are focused on this area and that it’s a priority and a PSA is critical to the success of what the street can become in the next year,” said Danielle Cohn, vice president of marketing and communications for the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.
While Market East has some bright spots, it also could be improved especially in light of the expanded convention center set to open in March, Cohn said. It lacks animation, the perception of safety and panhandling are issues, among others, Cohn said.
“I think things can happen very quickly with partners working together,” she said.
Aside from commercial corridors, the city is targeting residential areas, too.
The city formed within the past month a PSA in West Philadelphia in an section bounded Girard, Arch, 66th and 67th streets. Sheila Washington, who lives there, has been worried about abandoned houses behind her property that were supposed to be demolished but never were. Not long ago, a person emerged from one of those houses and robbed Washington, she said.
About four weeks ago, she received a flier in the mail about the city holding a meeting at the local library about organizing a PSA. At the meeting were representatives from L&I, trash, police, fire, housing, Fairmount Park, among others.
“Every department you could think of and ones I never heard of were there,” said Washington, who is a block captain. “The first meeting we talked about the abandoned houses behind me. Within two weeks they were removed. It does work.”
The next issue being tackled is prostitution.
The first PSA was established nearly a year ago in the Hartranft neighborhood of North Philadelphia. Its problems include crime, drugs, lack of housing, unemployment, health and safety, among others.
“I’ve always wanted to turn the ’hood back into the neighborhood,” said Diane Bridges, executive director of NET Community Development Corp.
Of the successes brought about as a result of the PSA include the reopening of a long-closed indoor swimming pool at a local community center and some vacant housing was knocked down.
“We’re still struggling along but what they are doing is offering us some resources,” Bridges said. “It’s a different way of reporting problems and now there can some accountability.”