Not quite a clean sweep

With help from the city and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, Steven Avinger soon will see a dramatic change in his neighborhood.

Not only did the senior pastor of Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, 2319 Fitzwater St., receive a $1.5 million grant from Shyamalan for using the church’s exterior in The Sixth Sense around the time of the film’s 1999 release, but he also secured $1.3 million from the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The program aims to eradicate blight in the city.

The combined funds will be used to build a child-development center on the 2600 block of Christian Street, 19 townhouses nearby and at least 10 homes on the 2100 block of Carpenter Street. The market-rate "affordable" dwellings should be built by next year.

"We’re trying to make sure there’s a mix of housing in this area," said the pastor, also president of the Greater St. Matthew Community Development Corp. "This area is a highly sought-after real-estate market."

A combination of NTI funds and private dollars made the projects possible, added Avinger, who also credits the initiative with clearing out dilapidated housing and revitalizing vacant lots in his community.

While blessed with the fruits of NTI, the pastor also identifies flaws in the program, including the potential emphasis on demolition, not construction.

"We wanted to make sure there was a balance between demolition and building. This has been achieved in this area because the market is such that there are private partners involved," he said. "In other areas, this may not be the case."

IMPLEMENTED IN 2001, the $30-million Neighborhood Transformation Initiative was billed as a way to improve the quality of life in all city neighborhoods.

Data from Mayor John Street’s office seems to underscore the need for the initiative: The city has removed more than 224,000 abandoned cars and 44,000 tons of debris from vacant lots and streets. More than 21,000 new housing units – affordable, low-income and market-rate – are completed or planned.

"NTI’s purpose was to eliminate blight where it occurred and make it more feasible for private developers, homeowners and neighborhood CDCs [community development corporations] to invest in these neighborhoods," said Kevin Hanna, secretary of the city’s Office of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation.

On May 24, Street took a tour of some of NTI’s touted successes, including the Reserve at Packer Park, 20th Street and Pattison Avenue. The property, developed by the Westrum Development Corp., once was the home of the U.S. Navy’s Capehart housing site.

"John Westrum was one of the first developers to see the mayor’s vision for NTI and we’ve worked with him from the very beginning, as an independent developer and now head of the Building Industry Association," said Cynthia Bayete Torres, NTI’s assistant director. "He’s really seen the potential of all Philadelphia neighborhoods."

As the initiative’s efforts spur development and increase property values in certain neighborhoods, other communities are feeling shortchanged.

Claudia Sherrod, president of the Point Breeze Development Coalition, said she is unaware of any NTI development projects in her neighborhood.

"We really haven’t been a benefactor," she said. "Of course, we have trees and our corner lots are looking better, but we need more than that. People need homes."

Taking action, Sherrod and other community groups have focused their efforts on implementing a full-scale revitalization plan for Point Breeze.

Sherrod, who is seeking funding for the project, said the anchor for the new development is the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, 1717-21 Point Breeze Ave.

The community would love to use any NTI funds that "may or may not be left," said Sherrod.

Although development efforts are only "starting to take off in Point Breeze," more drastic changes have occurred in Grays Ferry, noted Hanna.

Replacing Tasker Homes with Greater Grays Ferry Estates, a new low-income housing development at 3001 Moore St., is a prime example of the initiative’s attempt to lure private developers to the area, added Hanna.

"Although it is still public housing, it has a homeownership element," he said. "That blighted area was not only eliminated, but replaced with something really, really nice."

Signs of development also have sparked surrounding homeowners to invest in their own property, Hanna noted.

ACCORDING TO THE Grays Ferry Community Council, 255 houses in the area are intended for demolition.

To council vice president Robert Gormley Jr., the initiative’s actions have not lived up to his initial expectations.

"We thought it would be blockfuls of houses getting knocked down," he said. "All you see is one here and one there."

Contractors hired for many NTI jobs come from various locations outside of the city, taking away employment from residents, Gormley contended.

Hanna noted the city is working on employing more local contractors.

Though it has its share of success stories, the initiative still has its obstacles.

"We’re trying as best as we can not to displace people to assemble sites for larger development. That’s still a challenge," said Hanna, who also credited the nonprofit Universal Companies for bringing development to the area. "We don’t want to run people out, especially pillars of the community who have stayed through the bad old days. We don’t want them to leave through the good old days."

Rather than repair all of the city’s woes, NTI was positioned as a steppingstone for a brighter, cleaner future, Hanna added.

Despite some community grumblings, NTI’s Torres said her office did the best it could to disperse funds where they were most needed.

"We’re pretty much in the final year of spending the funding," she said. "There’s never enough money for all of the needs, so we had to spread it around to make some improvements in every area of need."