By Jon Campisi
Times Staff Writer
If a look around the sparsely attended civic association meeting says anything, it’s that there is a clear lack of involvement among a certain demographic.
The particular civic group in question is irrelevant. The same observation undoubtedly could be made at neighborhood association meetings across not only the Northeast, but across the city in general.
The absent contingent is the twentysomethings, or the Generation X-ers, or whatever other title they are known by.
Civic associations have long existed as coalitions of residents who establish policies to guide development and growth, among other matters, in their communities.
Without a doubt, these groups often see longtime residents turn out for meetings only when an issue moves them to leave the house.
But many civic associations seem to be operating these days without younger representation, people in their late 20s and 30s, a fact that raises questions about the commitment of those community members to their neighborhoods.
In Ed Schwartz’s mind, there could be a number of factors at play to explain the phenomenon.
“I don’t think anyone should get involved in a civic group until they’re forty-five,” Schwartz said in a clearly sarcastic tone.
Schwartz, a former member of Philadelphia City Council, now works with the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, an organization that promotes the ideals of civic and neighborhood involvement.
Schwartz suspects that one reason for younger residents’ indifference to involvement in neighborhood issues or improvements is their feeling that they don’t have a stake in the community. As a result, their time and efforts are devoted to other interests.
“In general, renters, of any age group, are less likely to participate in a civic group than a homeowner,” he said. “They’re simply not as connected to the neighborhood.”
Schwartz acknowledges that there are some organizations across the city with a strictly youthful makeup, but the fact that they may be doing their own thing while trying to establish a voice, rather than working in tandem with other community groups, could hinder their ability to achieve any real change, he said.
“Their connection to the kind of groups I work with is minimal,” Schwartz said. “It’s their own world.
“But I definitely think there is a network in this city of younger people,” he added.
Count Brian Wisniewski among those younger people with a sense of neighborhood commitment. At a youthful-looking 36, Wisniewski got involved with his local group, the Frankford Civic Association, just under a year ago. Today he serves as the group’s vice president.
Wisniewski’s desire to join the Frankford organization was sparked by his sense that changes needed to be made in the neighborhood where he grew up, and one he refuses to leave, even as it struggles to cope with image problems caused by crime and deterioration.
“It was nothing like it is today,” Wisniewski said of the attractive Frankford he remembers as a child, a section of the city that has been referred to as “The Next Great Neighborhood in the Next Great City.”
Wisniewski said his mother still cuts hair at the same salon where she has worked for years. The difference today, he added, is “now you have to get buzzed in at the door instead of just walking in.”
Hence his desire to institute change.
“Just watching my mom work in fear in her own place of business kind of struck a note,” he said.
Wisniewski concedes he’s probably the exception and not the rule when it comes to civic involvement, but it doesn’t have to be that way, he said. Young people can still get involved with their communities, and his brother is a prime example.
“I dragged him to the first (civic) meeting, and he was hooked,” Wisniewski said of his 20-year-old brother, Tim.
Wisniewski said his brother hasn’t gotten too involved in the civic group thus far, but through no fault of his own. He just returned from studying abroad in London and plans to attend the Frankford meetings again as soon as he gets resettled.
John Wisniewski — who’s not related to the brothers — is president of the Normandy Civic Association, and he got his start with the group when it re-formed around 2000. Though he is now in his 40s, it could be said that Wisniewski’s neighborhood pride started early in life.
He is just as pleased that others have the same loyalty to Normandy.
“That’s neat. That shows some type of interest,” Wisniewski said of the fact that many Normandy residents in his age bracket bought their childhood homes later in life, opting to stay in a place they hold so near and dear.
Normandy, a neighborhood of about 500 homes in the Far Northeast, has existed for some 50 years.
Brian and Tim Wisniewski can relate to such hometown pride.
“We live here; we grew up here,” Brian said of why they chose to get involved with a strictly voluntary organization that provides no compensation.
Brian Wisniewski echoed the sentiment of Schwartz, of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, who talked about the issue of younger participation being a two-way street. While civic groups may lack a strong representation of young people, it is likely that those potential members haven’t been actively recruited, Schwartz said.
“There’s got to be an outreach effort,” he added, referring to the civic organizations.
Schwartz suspects that more could be done by civic leaders to lure the younger crowd. Brian Wisniewski concurs that more could be taking place on the outreach front, and he cites the Frankford Civic Association as an example of a group that hopefully is heading in the right direction.
“We are in the process of reorganizing and restructuring,” he said, explaining that a recent change in leadership — most notable was the death of the former president several months ago — is expected to bring new ideas and approaches to Frankford’s revitalization.
One thing Wisniewski wants to do is visit other civic groups, particularly those in areas like Northern Liberties, that serve a younger population.
“I look at other neighborhoods . . . to see what their organizing model is,” he explained.
After Wisniewski bought his house in Frankford, he realized that involvement in the civic association could be the appropriate forum to help deliver positive change. A significant issue in the community right now is drug- and alcohol-rehab centers, and what civic members see as an overabundance of them sprouting throughout the neighborhood.
Under previous leadership, Wisniewski said, plans for such facilities or proposals for other undesirable businesses might have faced little or no opposition, for fear of disturbing the order of things.
“More participation and younger membership would have been a pain,” he said of the sentiment in days’ past.
But now, a younger voice could help propel areas like Frankford in the right direction, Wisniewski said. When he and his brother started to attend meetings, he recalled, “people were like, ‘Here’s some young blood.’”
Wisniewski also observed that if younger people don’t get involved in their neighborhoods, eventually there will be no one left to run these organizations, and that, in itself, should serve as an inspiration to take part and work together for the community’s betterment.
“Getting involved in the civic association is a way to hold our elected officials accountable, a way to get them to do the things they said they were going to do before they got elected,” Wisniewski said. “Once you actually see what it is, and what it’s about, you see that things in your neighborhood are achievable.”
Just the same, noted Schwartz, some younger people may be reluctant to get involved with their neighborhoods if the demographic makeup is mostly older folks. As an at-large member of City Council in the 1980s, Schwartz said he did particularly well in the Northeast, where he devoted much of his time to working on the concerns of people in their 70s and 80s. Senior citizens, he recalled, represented a big support base for him.
“Obviously, if you’re younger, you (feel you) don’t have the same stake” in the community, unless you decide to stay there, he said.
That’s precisely what Frankford’s Brian Wisniewski has done, and now he has made it his mission to rally other young folks with the hope of changing the public’s image of that age group.
He’s a big fan of urging young people to get on board and help chart the course of their neighborhoods.
“I definitely think it’s something that should be done,” he said. ••
Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com