September 28, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Don’t miss Fall for the Arts this Sunday, Oct. 1.

Seasons change and years go by — you can already feel the bite of autumn in the morning air now — but far too many things stay the same in Chestnut Hill.

Richard Snowden’s ongoing theatrics with his absurd rental signs and eviction notices is well-worn territory… or so it seems.

I first heard of Richard Snowden following a similar stunt in which he boarded up the Blue Moon property at Abington and Germantown avenues in response to a feud he was having with the Chestnut Hill Community Association. The boards eventually came down and the property was reopened, but his reputation as a difficult guy to do business with was sealed.

It was hard to be surprised when I saw the red rental signs blatantly advertising for discount retail, check cashing and dollar stores. It has long been one of Richard’s contentions that many of his vacant properties could be rented to these kinds of establishments but he has refused and has accepted the burden of empty storefronts while he searches out for the perfect business. I’ve never heard a good explanation of why these businesses would want to be here (check cashing in a neighborhood with seven banks?), but I’m no business expert. I also wonder what’s worse: empty storefronts or dollar stores? Again, I’ll defer to the experts.

The signs certainly seemed like more harmless theater. His explanation that they represented the support and leadership of Chestnut Hill’s local organizations was a nice touch, an acknowledgment of his one-man war against enemies real, but mostly perceived.

But then things stepped up a notch last week when Snowden informed Marianne Dwyer that he was being forced to put on the market the building he had generously lent Teenagers Inc., rent free, for six years. This wasn’t necessarily remarkable — a property owner certainly has the right to make money on his real estate — but the letter to Dwyer included a paragraph in which he said the CHCA’s actions had forced him to do it. Dwyer and Teens Inc. have been caught in the crossfire of Richard’s imaginary war.

I wonder now if Teens Inc. is only the first victim of Richard’s war or if more innocent bystanders will be displaced in the campaign. It’s a shame that it has had to come to this.

In the last two weeks, the Local has tried to engage Richard beyond the canned statements he has provided about his signs and now about Teens. Inc. He has refused to discuss these things on the record. I offered him column space to air his grievances. I promised not to edit a word and to even allow one of his representatives to view a final proof before we send it to our printer. He refused that as well.

It will be interesting to see what happens from here. I know many people in the community are interested in talking to him about reversing course with the signs. It is important for everyone who lives here and does business here that some solution be found. Richard’s willingness to displace people in waging a war of his own choosing could turn out to be a big problem.

In the meantime, I suggest he talk to us or use the Local to air discuss his grievances. I promise that we’ll be fair. I know he thinks this paper in general (and me in particular) is not fair. I suggest he is wrong.

Whatever the outcome, he has to realize waging a war that’s only going to harm small business owners and other tenants is not the solution.

Because of substantial demand, the Local has republished the 2001 three-part series on Richard Snowden on our Web site. To read it, visit chestnuthilllocal.com.

— Pete Mazzaccaro

Opinion: Why we can’t all just get along?
by Chestnut Tim

Well, we’re all atwitter aren’t we? As the Five Man Electrical Band once sang, “Signs, signs, everywhere signs.” And who’s taking the blame? Richard Snowden. Some miscreants have even taken to tagging his signs with abbreviated obscenities. I, for one, cannot condone such abbreviations.

It’s time for the community to look beyond the empty storefronts and billboards and for someone to speak sympathetically and supportively of the things Mr. Snowden has done for Chestnut Hill. (There are some who have taken it upon themselves to refer to him in the familiar as Snowden or just plain old Dick. This is cheap and low. His legacy dictates a certain formality and detachment which shall be observed here.)

And what has he done but fix up properties and wait for just the right tenants to show up to pay the rents? Sure, the signs are bilious, obnoxious, and an obvious thumbed-nose at all of us. But we’ve asked for it. We, the impatient and uninformed masses, have done nothing but complain.

Let’s face it, most of us cannot understand the ways in which inherited wealth pressures a person — we’re too busy worrying about mortgages and car payments and putting our kids through school. Well, a man can only take so much. And so Mr. Snowden has been forced to commit the real-estate equivalent of taking his ball and going home.

This could have been avoided. All we needed to do was show a little appreciation. Pay a little homage. Instead, we expected Mr. Snowden to be held to the same standards as the rest of us. To pay his taxes, to live up to his commitments, to recognize that he’s part of a community where his actions affect more people than just the Association he so detests.

My wife says there might still be a compromise out there, a mediation, a solution. I’m with her. I don’t want to be part of the problem. I want to help. I’m begging those of you who are filled with rage and ill will to keep your vengeful intentions in check. Those signs belong to Bowman properties.

Do not abbreviate any more obscenities. Do not, even though they are fastened with a mere three wood screws, go under the dark of night and take them down. And certainly do not, even though it would be easy and quick to do, slice them at the corners with a box cutter and let them lay where they fall. And whatever you do, do not call the phone number provided — 215-753-3308 — and leave phony messages from people with made-up names. Instead, let’s see if we can offer an olive branch.

The latest community endeavor, AbZOOlutely, offers a chance. If it’s not too late, I suggest that we begin a drive to sponsor an animal in Mr. Snowden’s honor. I have plans for a huge and noble piece — genus Equus, species Asinus. Let’s color it bright yellow. Like Mr. Snowden, it will be one of a kind.

A little fiscal sanity, to go
by Ed (Love me, hate me, but don’t tickle me there) Feldman

As the Darwinian Dialectic claims animal after animal on the mean streets of the Hill, allow me to propose some fundraising schemes that might actually work. Wait …(the sound of a teletype — kids ask your folks what that was) this just in…The Department of Licenses and Inspections has been called and Richard Snowdens’ illegal, racist, signs have been reported. Maybe L&I will apply the discipline so lacking in his formative years.

We can help too. But can we look to the Chestnut Hill Business Association? Apparently not, if the published comments of Bob Previte and John Levitties are any indication. Their strategy seems to be one of blissful ignorance. I never could pull that off. When I see something that offends me, and denigrates others, I do something. That’s why I will now start attending Chestnut Hill Business Association meetings, as an Interlocking Member of the CHCA. Because I need a new hobby.

The newspaper is happy and running smoothly, free of the carbon based detritus that strutted and interfered (in between lavish vacations — how did they get those vacations?). So maybe the business association can use my particular brand of assistance. After all, I’m a business person. I opposed McDonald’s back in the late Cretaceous Period, and the black hole that will be Commerce Bank on the grounds that they were detrimental, contrary to the unique commercial environment of our ‘hood. So maybe I can help them. I’ll write more on this after I’ve attended a few meetings. Or after they’ve threatened to call the police to have me removed. Like Sanjiv used to do at the CHCA meetings. Whichever comes first.

But wait again — the Local is in trouble? Financial trouble? But how? It makes money. It’s the only entity in the Byzantine superstructure of the CHCA that does make money, a superstructure so confusing, so overlapping with various corporations, different tax obligations, that only a handful of people have any idea just what kind of legal entity it is! No handbook explains it. The by-laws ignores it. Yes, those by-laws, thicker than the Chestnut Hill Phone Book but without the compelling narrative. All for the governance of a neighborhood that’s 10 blocks long and six blocks wide. Insert Albert Einstein’s comment about the citizens of his adopted home, Prints ton N.J., here: “They’re like midgets jousting on stilts.” I hear there is a committee working on the by-laws now. Here’s a suggestion, think pamphlet. Maybe then we’ll read it.

So, if the Local makes money but doesn’t have enough to pay its bills, where does the money go? Maybe it was gross negligence, mismanagement or worse by previous administrations? Five figure-training programs run by friends of now departed staffers. Training sessions that resulted in the firing of talented writers, if they had the temerity to question the validity of the program (one week before Christmas). Or maybe it was institutional. Because. It has been revealed to me, and now you dear reader, that on many occasions, when a financial shortfall has occurred in the CHCA’s myriad mire of muck, they have, legally, according to the semi-trustworthy individuals I have queried on this matter, RAIDED THE LOCAL’S PROFITS TO COVER THEIR DEFICITS! No wonder Pete needs help to pay the printing bill. No wonder the paper often seems to be written by two people. No wonder — well, no wonder.

This must stop. The CHCA may own the paper, but if it can’t keep its own financial house in order, it should look for help elsewhere, without financially diminishing the one consistent source of pride this community has. Stores, administrations, Realtors and zoo animals may come and go, (and soon I hope), but the Local is the beacon. And we just changed the light bulb. Who will it shine on next? You can hide, but not for long.

So finally: A Simple Plan For Fiscal Sanity (aren’t you glad I saved the math for the end?)

Raise the membership/subscription fee from $30 to $50. We can afford it.

Sell the building that amateur real estate “players” had no right buying in the first place. Its sale will wipe out our $520,000 debt (yes, you heard me). See, I told you we were amateurs. Buy government bonds with the sale profit. We’re a government. Invest in America.

Don’t play the stock market with community funds. That’s a job for investors that pay attention. WE DON’T.

Hire, don’t elect a Treasurer for the CHCA. If it’s all about the money, why allow a series of well meaning but obviously unqualified amateurs to run our finances, just because they got voted on the board and wanted the job no one else wanted?

Stop raiding the Local’s funds. Put it in writing. That’s it. It’s simple. Gotta Go. I’m meeting with the Attorney General about some of you.

Opinion: Things are looking up for Neighborhood Interfaith Movement
by George Stern

It often seems that newspaper columnists and reporters take the old saw, “No news is good news,” all too seriously. It gives me great pleasure, then, to share some really good news with you. As executive director of Neighborhood (formerly Northwest) Interfaith Movement, I have had the pleasure recently of welcoming to our staff and community Anna Guarneri, one of the first 15 Philly Fellows.

Anna is an extraordinarily accomplished University of Pennsylvania grad, who completed her degree in history just this past May. Her campus and community activities included the Race Dialogue Project, the Penn Dance Company and Penn’s Center for Community Partnership. She tutored at Drew Elementary School, served as a counselor in an arts camp program in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., and studied at the Universitéé Gaston Berger in Senegal and the American School of Paris (she speaks French). She has taken courses in painting and drawing. She is a community organizer and multicultural enthusiast. And she is giving a year of her time and talent to NIM through the Philly Fellows program. We couldn’t be happier.

The Philly Fellows program was started by two bright and entrepreneurial local grads who decided to do something positive about reports that say Philadelphia attracts thousands of students to its colleges and universities but does not retain many of them after graduation. Recent articles in the newspapers about Philadelphia’s distressingly high poverty rate point to some of the reasons for the exodus of graduates, including a failure of creativity on the part of civic leaders to respond to the major economic changes that began eroding our job base in the 1950s. Unlike Boston and Chicago, Philadelphia has been slow to reinvent itself.

Tim Ifill, a native of Abington, and Matt Joyce, from Freeport, Maine, roommates at Haverford until their graduation in 2003, decided to do something about it. Thus was Philly Fellows born. This past summer they placed the first cohort of 15 area grads in local non-profits. NIM was one of the lucky ones among the 60 applicants (of course we are proud that we were chosen and grateful to all the people who have supported us for 37 years and made us into the exciting organization we have become).

Philly Fellows supporters include AmeriCorps*VISTA, The William Penn Foundation, PennSERVE: The Governor’s Office of Citizen Service, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Department of Community and Economic Development, The City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce, Roach Family Charities, The Patricia Kind Family Foundation, The Samuel S. Fels Fund, The Allen Hilles Fund, and Mt. Airy’s own Ted and Stevie Wolf.

A number of corporations and organizations gave in-kind gifts, and, of course, Philly Fellows has many local smaller donors. NIM and the other recipients also contribute their own funds towards the project.

Quite exciting for me since we applied a year ago is to have met Matt and Tim, interviewed bright, enthusiastic students, and met with and spoken to some of Philly Fellows’ creative and forward-thinking supporters like those listed above. Spending time with such folks renews my confidence in the potentials of this city. And, of course, the most exciting thing of all is to have welcomed our first-choice Philly Fellow candidate, Anna Guarneri, who started work on July 31.

In 2005 NIM completed a long and fruitful strategic plan. In January 2006 we launched the NIM Council, meant to serve as a gathering place and think tank for representatives of our 50 congregations and faith-based organizations. Our hope for the Council is that it will develop community programs through which the religious values we espouse will find public and effective expression.

Anna will help keep the Council moving, creating a delicate balance between community-based decision-making and staff-driven enthusiasm to get new initiatives started (we are fortunate to have a person capable of such a balancing act). Based on requests made at earlier meetings with congregational representatives and by clergy she has met with one-on-one, Anna has gotten commitments from several congregations to participate in a teen “service learning program” in which young people will learn about each others’ faiths and engage in community projects together.

NIM is teaming with the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia to make this program available at no cost to the congregations. She has also helped write a grant proposal to fund an anti-violence youth imitative that will teach teens how to engage in grassroots organizing to create the right atmosphere for real and systemic change.

You are more than welcome to add to this good news column by calling Anna at 215-843-5600, ext. 105, to learn more and lend your expertise.

George Stern is the executive director of Neighborhood Interfaith Movement (NIM), a coalition of fifty congregations and faith-based institutions now in its new home at 7047 Germantown Avenue.