Activist is taking charge
of her community

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Margaret Philippi recalls just one instance of someone trying to silence her at a local civic meeting.
Philippi was inquiring about a proposed facility during a meeting of the Parkwood Civic Association when the woman sitting next to her barked, "Stop asking so many questions!"
Philippi didn’t stop, nor did she fire back with a nasty comment. In fact, no bad blood resulted from the exchange at all.
"We’re friends now," Philippi said of the woman.
In fact, most of her fellow Northeast residents eventually assume the "If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em" attitude when it comes to Philippi’s often exasperating approach to addressing quality-of-life concerns in the community.
After all, many of the individuals aren’t necessarily disagreeing with Philippi’s focus on issues like trash and blight. It’s just that they wonder how, at age 63, she doesn’t tire of fighting to get things fixed.
"I don’t want to be a pain," said Philippi, who lives in the Latham Place community near the Franklin Mills mall, "but all these little things add up to a crappy community."
Philippi has become a regular figure at meetings in her own community and at other group gatherings throughout the Northeast. She wants to see how other communities handle problems, she said.
In her neighborhood, Philippi spends time plucking illegal business signs (political placards also get her riled) from the streets, picking up litter and returning shopping carts to their proper places — all by herself. The Mayfair native also keeps up her own property and cleans both sides of her street.
"If I didn’t do it, it would be messy," she explained simply.
Her clutter-curbing tactics include everything from making her husband stop the car during a red light so that she can remove a sign from the road to brandishing a 12-foot-long pruning pole to remove hard-to-reach objects. Both methods have helped Philippi capture more than 350 signs from sites throughout the Northeast since December.
"That’s a lot of jumping in and out of the car," she said.
Philippi has been so successful in her personal cleanup campaign that city workers from the Community Life Improvement Program, which tidies up blighted properties, offered her a job (Philippi believes they were joking, but at least one local politician thinks there may be some seriousness to the overture).
And if ever a problem arises that’s too big for Philippi, she hunts down the right people for the job. Her relentless inquiries get her answers so often that the girlfriends in her walking group continually come to her with questions about various city services.
Philippi, a housewife and former stay-at-home mother, will tell you that part of her productivity comes from organization. For most of her life she’s been a meticulous list-maker, going back to the days when she detailed directions for tasks when her two sons, now 29 and 39, were growing up.
But her considerable coordination really kicked in when several relatives went into nursing homes and Philippi, who survived a bout with breast cancer in 1993, needed to keep track of bills and doctor visits.
Her recordkeeping has even helped Crown, Cork & Seal, one of several companies for which Philippi does temp assignments, become more organized.
"My stupid logs have saved the day," Philippi said with a laugh.
At home, Philippi documents her cleanup work by filing away pictures, databases and correspondence in color-coordinated binders. She also tracks the date, time and location of where she saw the problem, and even makes up cards that she distributes to people to empower them to do the same.
Her husband Walt, a retired bank executive, knows not to put an object anywhere but in its appropriate place in their home, which the Philippis bought as newlyweds in the 1960s.
"No matter where I put something down, five minutes later it’s somewhere else," he said.
But even he has gotten the cleaning bug.
"I just got disgusted the one day. There were four shopping carts from different stores (at Franklin Mills) and I think I took them all back," Walt said.
Philippi, who in her spare time walks with friends and visits shut-ins from her church, doesn’t want kudos for her competency.
"If I work on something and it gets done, that’s my payment," she said.
Philippi does wish, however, that others would pitch in to keep their communities safe and clean.
"If we could get someone in every community to get working on things, it would help," she said. "If a group of five people went once a week for fifteen, thirty minutes, you could get a lot done." ••
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com

She’s a pillar of the community: Click here for our editorial . . .