After months of planning, the anti-blight initiative devised by the office of City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (D-6th dist.) was unveiled last week at a community meeting in Holmesburg.
The plan, dubbed CLIP (Community Life Improvement Program), has the full support of Mayor John Street and his administration.
In fact, the mayor and several high-ranking city officials attended the session, held at Callahan’s Irish Pub, 7681 Frankford Ave., and spoke favorably about the program.
What makes CLIP unique is that it seeks to address quality-of-life issues that affect the well-being of neighborhoods. Initially, it will be focused in the 6th Councilmanic District but ultimately expanded to cover areas of Councilman Brian O’Neill’s 10th district.
And other Council members have expressed interest in the program, which essentially is a local extension of Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), the $295 million anti-blight plan that will span five years.
The CLIP plan came about, said Krajewski legislative aide Chris Creelman, when staffers in the councilwoman’s office sought to identify the issues that district residents found most vexing.
The staff analyzed thousands of constituent calls received over the last few years. A common theme emerged immediately.
“People were talking about the quality-of-life issues facing their neighborhood,” Creelman explained. “A different kind of problem exists here than in other areas that NTI will target — high weeds, dog defecation, graffiti, loud music, trash accumulation and other nuisances that detract from neighborhoods.
“So we knew what the problems were,” he continued. “Next, we had to figure out what to do with them.
“With CLIP, our focus was to have a quicker turnaround and enforcement time. People who live next to these types of properties don’t want excuses, they want it cleaned up. These are the types of problems that we thought shouldn’t take thirty days to abate.”
Funded by $2 million of Street’s NTI money, CLIP has a fleet of vehicles and its own equipment, and it will deploy Department of Licenses & Inspections inspectors who are specifically assigned to the initiative and familiar with the area.
CLIP also will have the law and the resources of city government behind it.
CLIP crews will sweep into neighborhoods in full problem-solving mode, acting on complaints logged at a yet-to-be established CLIP hotline or recorded in the past. Inspectors will canvass blocks, looking for code and law violations and issuing citations to the property owners.
Offenders will have 10 days to rectify any nuisance. If the problem is not resolved within that time, CLIP crews will return.
On the 11th or 12th day, assistant managing director Tom Conway said, the city will remedy the problem itself and bill the property owner.
Those who comply with the citations will not be billed. But those who remain obstinate by snubbing the citation and failing to pay a city bill for repair work may find themselves in court.
“If you fail to pay, we will place a lien against your property for the amount of the bill,” said Conway.
His boss, city managing director Estelle Richman, concurs.
“Our goal here is to do what you want done,” she said. “This is your community, and we need to listen to you about what you want and how to get it done. Since this is our prototype area, we want to make sure this gets done to send a clear message.
“We will work with people, but the key to this is short patience. You will have only a short time to fix problems on your property. This is not NTI, this is pre-blight to keep blight out.”
The managing director’s office will supervise the program.
Work will begin in June, beginning in the southernmost portion of Krajewski’s district in Port Richmond. As all reported violations are addressed and resolved, CLIP crews will proceed to the next target area.
The key to CLIP is that it is not a one-time fix. Crews are looking to remedy problems quickly, before they can fester. CLIP is also looking to work with community groups whose members can point crews to local eyesores.
As the effort continues, beautification projects such as plantings will be done at major intersections that are gateways to the Northeast.
Though the Northeast has fewer vacant, trash-strewn lots and abandoned properties than other sections of the city where NTI will be active, Street’s endorsement of CLIP seemingly indicates that all neighborhoods will have priority in his blight fight.
“People who invest in their communities have to know that there is an investment from the city,” he said. “It’s important that you know that we are going to protect that investment