Business groups name new director
by JAMES STURDIVANT
Robert Previdi, Executive Director of the Chestnut Hill Business Association and the Chestnut Hill Business Improvement District (Chestnut Hill District).
Chestnut Hill’s Fall for the Arts and Garden festivals, both sponsored by the Chestnut Hill Business Association, are meant to turn people on to the neighborhood. They did the trick for Robert Previdi.
“My wife and I first came here in 1996 for the Garden Festival, and we both just fell in love with the place,” Previdi told the Local this week.
They loved it so much, in fact, that the family moved here from New York in 2003 — and, as of Oct. 3, Previdi will find himself in charge of these annual events as the newly-hired executive director of the Chestnut Hill Business Association and the Chestnut Hill business improvement district (Chestnut Hill District).
In stepping into this dual role, Previdi fills the position vacated in June by Suzanne Biemiller, who left to work for the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Previdi, a native New Yorker, stepped down as chief spokesperson for City Council president Anna Verna in order to take the executive director’s job. He announced last week that he was also resigning from the board of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, where he served on the executive committee and as chair of the traffic and transportation committee.
For Previdi, the new job means stepping full-time into a role he relishes — that of working to improve the neighborhood.
“To me, this is Main Street, USA. People try to copy Chestnut Hill, and we all know it’s great, and we all know it can get better. And, coming from a background in transportation, I just love the idea of trying to make this place click,” Previdi said.
Previdi brings administrative experience to the executive director’s job. Before moving to Philadelphia, he was the director of new technology implementation for New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority. Between this job and working at City Hall, Previdi probably knows as much as anyone about dealing with city bureaucracy —a useful skill for someone in his position.
“It [working with City Council] has given me an opportunity to see what the process is, and how the city has struggled in the past few years with its budget. But there’s also a lot of positive trends,” he said, noting the growing interest in easing the tax burden on businesses and improving public transportation.
“People want to get the 23 trolley going. I know Farah Jimenez in Mt. Airy wants to get it going. I know Donna Reed Miller wants to get it going, and I think with my MTA experience we can jump start that,” he said.
Regarding the business privilege tax, Previdi said he would be “down there representing Chestnut Hill businesses and saying, ‘this thing needs to be cut.’”
Previdi said that he plans to “partner with the community” in turning some of the recommendations of recent BID-funded parking and streetscape studies into reality.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to do some basic, simple things, as the streetscape project suggested — a little tree trimming, crosswalks, lighting. I’ve already had my first meeting with the police department, Northwest Detectives. I’m going to be setting up a relationship with them, and with the Center City District,” he said.
John Levitties, board president of the Chestnut Hill District, said that Previdi has the qualifications to build on the work begun by Biemiller.
“Suzanne Biemiller was tremendous in laying groundwork, getting the BID passed, doing studies,” Levitties said. “We’re looking for somebody to help us take the next step [by] raising funds to help to implement these programs.”
“We feel as though Bob is someone whose attention to detail is matched by his vision,” he continued. “He is someone who understands how the city works, the state — he can identify resources to help us implement some of these plans.”
As a committee chair with the CHCA, Previdi spearheaded a traffic study of Willow Grove Avenue and Winston Road that highlighted the impact of the recent closing of Cresheim Valley Drive. He also worked to raise community awareness of streetscape issues and implement a plan for improving traffic patterns on the lower Hill.
As executive director, Previdi said he hopes to continue his work to make Germantown Avenue “more pedestrian friendly, and safer for drivers,” work with the Parking Foundation to solve problems and marketing experts to glean more information on the shopping habits of those who patronize the Hill.
“I’m feeding off of everybody else’s energy,” he said. “I’ve never seen a town like this … Chestnut Hill just blows them all away. There’s just such a heart and such a soul on the main street. And it’s got a diversity — a diversity of businesses, of housing stock, of people … that’s what makes a successful place.”
“The goal is to generate excitement about Chestnut Hill. And we really don’t need to do too much, we just need to buff the apple, and Chestnut Hill will show itself.”
