Community Leader Vern Anastasio calls upon Frank DiCicco to Clean up 9th Street

This is the kind of stuff that the Neighborhood Civic PAC is here to promote: communities being their own voice, leaders taking charge and civic leaders promoting the values of their community.

Courtesy of Politicspa.com

For Immediate Release
1 September 2005
215-435-5857

Anastasio Calls on DiCicco to Remove Blight in Passyunk Square
---------Former Democratic candidate for City Council Vern Anastasio called
on 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco to “develop and implement an
economic development plan for South 9th Street from Washington Avenue to
Federal Street” in the South Philly neighborhood of Passyunk Square.
This section of the Philadelphia Italian Market has been left to decay after
a DiCicco plan to bring a Value Plus Department store to the corridor failed
to materialize several years ago. DiCicco had removed all sidewalk vendors
from the block in anticipation of the Value Plus deal. As a result, blight
and a dangerous beer deli now line the last block of the historic 9th Street
Italian Market.
“In 1994, Joe Vignola and Senator Vince Fumo kick-started the revitalization
of the 9th Street Market. New sidewalks were installed, new streets were
poured, new sewer inlets were put in, merchants suffered through months of
construction and relocation and new awnings began to be installed in
earnest. But over a decade later, almost half of the 9th Street market is
boarded-up and left for ruin because of Councilman DiCicco's lack of vision
for economic renewal from Washington Avenue to Federal Street”, Anastasio
announced.
Anastasio continued, “If, after 12 years, Frank DiCicco doesn’t have a
vision or a plan to revitalize this south Philadelphia block, then he should
step aside and let someone with an actual plan give it a try. The
hard-working volunteers of the Passyunk Square neighborhood deserve a
thoughtful policy.”
Anastasio pointed to the hulking block-long blighted property known as the
“ice house” on south 9th street as the cornerstone upon which his
revitalization plan would be built. Anastasio’s plan calls for the
long-abandoned property to be condemned by the city of Philadelphia, a
responsible developer located and the property conveyed to that developer
for residential and commercial use. Anastasio’s plan would also include the
distribution of façade improvement grants to other property owners to fix
smaller properties.
“If Frank DiCicco spent as much time helping neighbors revitalize their
neighborhoods as he does helping developers with their pet projects, this
part of Passyunk Square would be thriving by now”, Anastasio concluded.
In 1994, the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Daily News praised the
city’s efforts to revitalize the 9th street market. The Daily News
Editorial Board wrote “credit goes to Anastasio” for “spearheading the
effort” while he worked as a legislative aide to the former 1st District
Councilman, Joe Vignola. Anastasio is a fourth-generation Italian Market
resident and is rasing his two children around the corner from his childhood
home.