The document proposes a project to involve community organizations and residents in Grays Ferry to address blight by cataloging vacant lots and finding uses for them. The goals are to provide green spaces, tot lots, meeting places and neighborhood gathering areas. The project will form partnerships in April, conduct outreach in late April, have a community cleanup in early May, and celebrate with block parties on Labor Day. It aims to empower residents to take ownership of their neighborhoods and maintain the improvements.

1. PROJECT FOR GRAYS FERRY
SUBMITTED BY: L. Warren Bullard
BEATING
BLIGHT
Formulating clean and safe spaces
The Greening of Grays Ferry:
Reclaiming our neighborhoods

2. The numbers are rather sobering. According to PlanPhilly, there are 32,000
potential Land Bank properties — 24,000 are vacant, tax delinquent and privately
owned. The remaining 8,000 properties are publicly owned by the city with no
current plans for development. The report also states there are 2,100 vacant lots
sitting next to homes that are up to date on their taxes city wide. Noteworthy and
of consequence is that the City Planning Commission redrew the map of Point
Breeze and Grays Ferry under the justification of Blight Recertification on
September 15, 2009 in order to hasten (personal viewpoint) the gentrification process
of both areas.
Above is the new Land Bank process intended to return land to viable use? The question is;
does it fit into neighborhood plans for vacant land use and does it serve to facilitate
congruenentcy and the integrity of certain targeted neighborhoods and how these
neighborhoods can best make use of the process?

3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
To Involve community organizations, block Captains and residents with the aid
of certain City agencies to find a subjective approach to blight spiraling out of
control within certain communities, to convene a task force to catalog various
vacant lots in the area and how to best make use of them on the short term.
In order to provide residents of the various closed neighborhoods encompassing
the Grays Ferry area with a quantity of comfort and voice in having a sense of
input within their communities, our goal is for them to take vested ownership of
the blocks they live on and to make use of the vacant lots contained within, in
order to provide green spaces within certain blocks containing these properties
and make use of them for beautification projects, tot play lots, meeting places,
gardens and to be used as spaces for neighborhood gathering places/block parties
etc.
GOAL:
To color the ways in which neighborhood alliances, networks, urban planning
initiatives and the City of Philadelphia think about neighborhood blocks and the
features that are or will be contained within each area.
First Step: Forming Partnerships: First two weeks of April
First step of planning will be to utilize various the City data bases, as well as the
canvassing, block by block of RCOs and Block captains, encompassing the
boundaries of Washington Ave. from 25th
South to Dickerson Street and West to

4. 28th
Street in order to identify lots, initiate contact, gauge interest and to hold
meetings under the umbrella of the lead organization/RCO Residents Organized
for Advocacy and Direction (R.O.A.D) and its members
Second Step: Community Outreach; Handing out Flyers,
making contact via Social Media, Phone trees, email etc and
establishing meeting for Last week of April
Having contacted the various organizations and individuals, the lead RCO will
gather all pertinent and essential data needed to make contact via various
media and grassroots efforts such as telephone contact, handing out of flyers,
email and social media contact-----create a blog and Face Book page to
disseminate information regarding the initiative and the meetings as planned.
Third Step: Last week of April-----meeting
Assign Block Captains to contact necessary City Streets Departments for supplies
(brooms, garbage bags, rakes, trash receptacles if necessary and gloves etc.,
gather volunteers’ together and to ask for contributions/donations of and for
seating on lots once cleaned and cleared of debris. The head planning
organization will contact The Philadelphia Horticultural Society for various
plantings as desired by each area Black Captain. Establish date for cleanup of lots
for first week of May.

5. Fourth Step: Clean Up Day. First week of May
All involved parties, neighborhoods are now engaged in major clean up of the
various targeted lots within their respective areas. Block Captains will circulate
petitions to be signed for street closings in order that the blocks involved may
have block parties on Labor Day to celebrate their new clean and green and safe
areas. The lead RCO of the initiative will visit each area, make note of the
conditions of the lots, take pictures, and post them to the Clean Neighborhood
Blog and on Face Book. At the same time, each individual block captain will be
informed of the upcoming presentation of “Best” of Award of Achievement, at
the next coalition meeting as voted upon by the major players involved in the
overall effort.

6. Fifth and final Step: Time to party
Labor Day block parties commence with the informing to the communities
involved of the need for the continuation of keeping the areas clean and green for
continued use. All parties involved will be encouraged to visit other blocks, make
contact and alliances, and provide feedback. Lead RCO will conduct presentation
of “Best” of Achievement award to block deemed the winner, take pictures,
names etc. for later posting to social media and neighborhood newspaper.
Ultimately the intent and the agenda is that once this imitative has taken place,
groups/stakeholders will continue to buy into their communities while
maintaining interest with the definitive outcome being that they will eventually
create enough continued interest to expand a plan to acquire and preserve the
lots as a community trust with all having a vested interest.