Dear Neighbor,
This has been an exciting week for our Mayfair Community. Last Wednesday the School District of Philadelphia, via the School Reform Commission approved an $80,000 Grant to rebuild the Mayfair Memorial Playground. This is a huge step in completing a three year journey that we embarked on in April 2008. Countless neighbors have joined us in our efforts to finally get a play space back at Lincoln High School.
This was further highlighted yesterday evening at our Design Day at which we took input from several youths in the neighborhood as well as many committed adults as to what type of Playground would be installed. We took great care to include equipment for special needs children by including the Director of the Holy Terrors STARS program which is a sports program for children with special needs as well as a local occupational therapist. We incorporated their ideas into our overall designs in order to make this playground ideal for all children in our neighborhood. We have given our ideas to Kaboom, Inc., the project manager, and will receive, in the next week, three drawings that have incorporated our equipment requests as well as color schemes. Once we receive that, we will post them on our website and on our Facebook page for community input.
Another issue that has become quite prevalent in our neighborhood is the idea of the "Bandit signs" ie signs that read "Sell your house". "gutter clean up", etc that are tacked to telephone polls throughout our area. many of our Civic and Business Association members have been scouring the neighborhood and removing the signs.
Our members also spearheaded the effort to clean up the trailer and stage in Pennypack Park following Hurricane Irene so to have it fully functional for the next Pennypark Concert.
Finally, while the opening of a Methadone Clinic is not a positive for the neighborhood, the amount of community activism and togetherness it has spurned is second to none. We successfully collected over 2700 signatures in opposition to this clinic, rented two buses to bring over 125 residents to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, and wrote countless letters. We may not be successful in each battle, but we are battle tested and we are confident we will win the fight.
Our neighborhood may not be exactly as everyone wishes it would be, nevertheless, it is clear that we are strong, we are committed and we have pride. Thank you to everyone that has stepped forward to help fight for our neighborhood. You know who you are but especially the members of the Board of the Mayfair Civic Association, Mayfair Business Association, the Tacony Holmesburg Upper Mayfair Town Watch, the Mayfair CDC, our elected leaders, our neighboring civic groups, business groups and town watches and all our neighbors that give a damn and have stepped to plate to help ensure that Mayfair remains a great place to live, work and play.
Thank you,
Joe DeFelice
President, Mayfair Civic Association
mayfaircivicassociation@yahoo.com
www.mayfaircivicassociation.com
