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Since March 21, workers in bright yellow vests have been hitting the streets to pick up litter, sweep sidewalks and remove graffiti on and around East Passyunk Avenue.
The crew from the Center City-based ABM Janitorial Services will be utilized twice a day, six days a week along the avenue and its immediate area while outlying parts of the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corp.’s boundaries — Federal Street to Snyder Avenue and Broad to Ninth streets — will be tidied up twice a week.
ABM won the contract by the resurrected nonprofit, formerly Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, which halted its cleaning services April 30, 2009 due to ongoing litigation that resulted from its founder — former state Sen. Vincent Fumo — and former head — Ruth Arnao — being convicted of multiple counts of fraud for stealing from the nonprofit. Its board members were forced to resign as part a settlement in the state suit brought on by then-Attorney General Tom Corbett, which included the court appointing Paul Levy as interim conservator to find whether or not the organization could be revived.
Levy saw potential, so it relaunched in January after the court approved his findings. With new Executive Director Sam Sherman Jr., the group made plans to resume some of its cleaning services and maintain its duties as a landlord to many East Passyunk tenants.
“My charge is going to be to build on the assets we created with Citizens Alliance and continue the mission of building a commercial corridor, maintaining the neighborhood services and improving real estate as it becomes feasible to do so,” Sherman said during Tuesday’s press conference at the fountain, East Passyunk Avenue and Tasker Street.
Keeping the avenue clean has been tough, East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District executive director Renee Gilinger said.
“Litter still remains on the ground and unfortunately, a little bit becomes a lot really quickly,” she said noting the corporation’s cleaning program is not something the district, which is partially funding the project, could have implemented on its own.
The debt- and litigation-free organization also launched a greening initiative with Fishtown-based Garden Hangouts that planted 17 trees along the avenue. The corporation has vowed to match up to $2,500 for the district in addition to three area civics — East Passyunk Crossing, Lower Moyamensing and Passyunk Square — that have raised or are raising funds for community greening.
Within the last few weeks, the corporation’s outstanding vacant properties have been or are in the process of being filled. The group is wrapping up renovations of 1737 E. Passyunk, a three-story property, which will serve as a business space for Fabric Horse, an urban accessory shop based in Northern Liberties, with apartments on the two upper floors, Gilinger said noting a tentative April move-in date. A business tenant also is in the works for 1838, but no lease has been signed yet.
With its relaunch, Sherman is focused on the future of avenue, which he deemed a neighborhood and city asset.
“We will work in conjunction [with the district] to make sure that the interests of the surrounding residents are served and that we make the avenue as successful for all the businesses that are located here and the residents that live here,” Sherman said. SPR
For more information, visit www.passyarc.com.
Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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