https://vimeo.com/18393255]
Ivan Cox is on his way to the barber shop at Ashmead Street and Germantown Avenue. He stops before he enters the shop, looks down the street and shakes his head at the two abandoned buildings he just walked by.
“That’s just Germantown,” Cox said, “no one cares about us because of how it looks around here. But I didn’t make it like this.”
On a drive down Germantown Avenue, you can count over fifty abandoned properties and the Germantown Conservancy reports over 319 in the area. The avenue is overwhelmed with deteriorating buildings that turn into opportunities for garbage dumping and crime scenes. As the walls crumble onto citizens walking by, businesses on the avenue decline and people lose their sense of community pride.
Sue Gilifan, realtor at Weichert-McCarthy Realtors, located at 6901 Germantown Ave., says, “When I moved here in 1976, the Inquirer reported 35, 000 abandoned houses in Philadelphia, and that number hasn’t changed much.” Gilifan believes there is an incredible amount of lost potential for business in the area. “There were marketing studies done by the city that showed that many people wanted a bakery in Germantown, but I still have to go up to Chestnut Hill to get to a bakery. And where are the restaurants in Germantown? Mount Airy has big parking lots, but in our area, there’s only street parking – there’s safety and convenience issues.”
One reason these properties aren’t selling is high pricing, with most store-front properties listed anywhere from $60,000-$200,000. “Property owners aren’t realistic about the price,” Gilifan said, “They try to sell a property for $150,000 when it should be $90,000, because the cost to rehab the house is over $40,000.”
When properties are abandoned the gates are opened for vandalizing, further deterioration and squatters. So why do owners let their properties get to this condition? When a handful of the addresses in question are ran through the Philadelphia Revenue Department’s real estate tax database, many come up as “paid.”
“There can be many reasons why these buildings are abandoned. Some individual investors don’t take care of the property, maybe because they’re waiting for the area to turn-over. Sometimes elderly owners get sick or go into a nursing home, and then relatives bicker and the property is left,” Gilifan said.
Peter J. Wirs, co-chairman of the Germantown Conservancy, a non-profit Community Development Corp. (CDC), says, “Some are ‘walk-away’s,’ where the person is financially unstable. About half of the buildings taxes we look at are current and are owned by real estate speculators. They pay the taxes, but are waiting for the area to improve before they fix up the property. They are essentially shooting themselves in the foot.”
Wirs filed a petition on Oct. 6, 2009, under Act 135, the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act in regard to 50 blighted properties located in the Germantown area. The filing was refused twice in two different courts before finally being accepted.
The conservancy is trying to accomplish something no other CDC has done before in Pennsylvania and would be a one-of-a-kind civic group in that it can issue a subpoena. “We’re a different beast than any other community organization,” Wirs said, “A conservator has certain cohesive powers that a normal CDC cannot undertake.”
Accountability is a part of the Conservancy’s mission, and holds accountable two parties, one being the owner, who has to agree to get the building up to code and the other is the city, who shouldn’t have allowed this to happen. “When you look at abandoned and blighted buildings, someone needs to be held accountable,” Wirs said, “The owners of these buildings will retain due process protection and given notice to bring their buildings up to code.”
The conservancy plans to use the penalization fees placed on these property owners and the city as a means to rehabilitate the buildings. “The question is, how much will it cost to bring the building back to code? As conservator, we deal with the bricks and mortar – to bring the buildings back to code once they are in our care,” Wirs said.
The conservancy works with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and parallels its plans with the Germantown and Nicetown Transit-Oriented Plan. The Planning Commission is responsible for guiding the development of the city and has a staff of architects, planners, and urban designers.
The Germantown-Nicetown project is funded by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Transportation and Community Development Initiative. It is a “master neighborhood plan,” and “looks at all facets of life in Germantown including land use, quality of life issues, historic resources, recreation and economic development.”
Because of Germantown’s size, the Planning Commission believes “neighborhood specific issues and solutions are not possible,” so the plan is being undertaken by the city. The Planning Commission states that although many plans have been completed in Germantown, this one is more comprehensive and will be more effective because it is endorsed by the city.
The goal of the plan is to attract public and private investment in Germantown with a “special concentration on transportation” by “revitalizing transit stations as centers of activity.” The project will begin with Germantown Station, Wister Station, Chelten Station, Queens Lane Station and Wayne Junction.
Feedback from the community in 2008 consisted of quality of life issues such as “litter, crime, home maintenance, loitering, lack of youth involvement and community volunteerism.” Now 2010, the issues people voice are still the same as are the conditions of the buildings.
Community member Medina-Abdul Mateen sees the trash that accumulates around the buildings as a major problem. “I think the abandoned buildings should be made into places for seniors,” Mateen said, “like day centers and senior assistance programs.”
Germantown resident Yousef Austin would like to see the buildings rehabbed because they bring down property values. “When we see images like this it brings about negativity in the community,” Austin said.
Philippe Duran, a social worker, doesn’t believe there is enough funding to revitalize Germantown, but would like to see the area receive more attention from activists. “I think there’s a great need for housing,” Duran said, “these buildings can be converted into housing for families and apartments for students.”
Rosalind Bowens said Germantown has drastically changed over the past 20 years. “If these buildings were to get funding, I think we need programs for young mothers,” Bowens said, “and places for students to get information about their education.”
While the Germantown Conservancy awaits a ruling this April, the city planning project, which was proposed in November 2008, has not yet been put into motion. For Germantown, the dream is always held hostage by a lack of money and activism.
Dur es tedirete merit mas der umt bint zerich.
La miche ten tarit ja larise miche ven zur.
Shin cint zer den es merit 500-2,000 zullars sen in ser zurchleche!!!