At the close of a year that was defined by significant national and international events, it is especially important to remain connected to the forces that sustain our city and its neighborhoods – the critical places where we live, do business, learn, and connect with others.

For Mt. Airy Community Development Corporation, 2025 was an especially significant milestone year, marking 45 years since our founding in June 1980. In the ensuing years, we are proud to have been the impetus for positive changes that have honored our mission of preserving, empowering, and enriching a vibrant and diverse Mt. Airy.

As a result of this work, the 6600-6700 blocks of Germantown Avenue now feature essential services and thriving small businesses that create employment in the community, as opposed to blight, vacancy, and criminal activity. The commercial corridor’s business association, once all but defunct, now boasts over 80 members and constitutes a productive force for marketing and advocacy. Tens of thousands of low- and moderate-income families have achieved the dignity and wealth-building promise that is home ownership, maintaining Mt. Airy’s hard-fought identity as a diverse middle neighborhood of opportunity.

Years after beginning the implementation of the Mt. Airy 2025 Neighborhood Plan, we’re proud to continue responding to the community’s needs through our services. Whether it was celebrating the disbursement of $100,000 in donor-funded grants to first-time home buyers or the completion of a 300-plus block street-cleaning initiative that measurably decreased gun violence in Germantown and Mt. Airy, our CDC continued to innovate and find new strategies for improving people’s lives in Northwest Philadelphia in 2025.

Looking ahead at the year to come, 2026 holds promise as a time when Mt. Airy CDC stands to achieve compelling results from longstanding work across our programs. It will bring the planned completion of two recreation center improvement projects we’re managing, including the Simons Rec campus – ensuring that generations of local youth will enjoy the benefits of state-of-the-art athletic amenities in the neighborhoods where they live.

Meanwhile, we hope to break ground on our first new construction project in Mt. Airy in over 10 years, transforming a vacant lot on Germantown Avenue into new affordable housing and prime commercial space. With support from the William Penn Foundation, our youth literacy impact will continue to grow through the design of new family-friendly installations at Lovett Library and other sites in East Mt. Airy. And we will leverage tourism marketing partnerships and our own successful events, like Supper Sessions, to ensure that Mt. Airy is well represented in the constellation of citywide celebrations during America’s 250th anniversary.

Now more than ever, it’s important to remember that our past success does not guarantee future impact. We are counting on our elected representatives to continue supporting community and economic development work, on our committed local donors to lean in and sustain local programs, and on our business and resident stakeholders to continue to champion the values that keep Mt. Airy a beacon of hope and a special place in our country. I look forward to working with all of you to champion this work in 2026.