Committee Hearing, April 24, 2002

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON LICENSES & INSPECTIONS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, 4/24/02 10:15 a.m. - - - BILL 010695 - Amending the Philadelphia Code to add various requirements and prohibitions related to students in educational housing districts. BILL 020164 - Amending the Philadelphia Building Construction Occupancy Code to include provisions for the issuance of a code violation notice in a specific amount to persons who are licensed under this section and fail to notify the Department of changes. BILL 020201 - Providing for increased penalties and licensing conditions for carnivals. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO, Chair COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER, Vice Chair COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE MEETING INDEX WITNESS BILL 020201 Otis Haigler, L&I Regulatory Affairs........... BILL 020164 Otis Haigler, L&I Regulatory Affairs........... BILL 010695 Dr. Daniel Curran, Executive Vice President.... St. Joseph's University 8 Greg James, President.......................... 30 Overbrook Farms East Residents Association North Light Leadership Team Ed Dougherty................................... 36 Susan Syrnick.................................. 43 Joanne Dahme................................... 47 Irene Madrak................................... 49 Duane Bumb, Department of Commerce............. 55 Darrell Zaslow, Esquire........................ 73 Counsel, Homeowners Assoc. of Philadelphia (HAPCO) Ted Greenberg, Overbrook Farms Resident........ 83 Mary Kim, Business Owner....................... 88 Joseph Rosen, Overbrook Resident............... 91 Christine Schwartz, Manayunk Resident.......... 95 Joseph Dubrow, Overbrook Farms Business Owner 107 3 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE MEETING

This is the Committee on Licenses and Inspections; we're going to call to order a public hearing, and we're going to consider Bill's No. 020201, 020164, and 010695. Present is Councilman Nutter, Councilman Clarke, Councilman Mariano, Councilman DiCicco. Who else is here? Is there supposed to somebody else here? The clerk will read the title of the bill.

Bill No. 020201, an ordinance amending Title 9 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled "Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions," by amending Section 9-105, entitled "Penalties," and Section 9-702, entitled "Carnivals," providing for increased penalties and licensing conditions for carnivals, all under certain terms and conditions.

The Chair recognizes Mr. Otis Haigler from L&I for testimony.

Good day, Councilman Mariano and members of the committee. I am Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative & Regulatory Affairs 4 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020201 Manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Today I am here to provide testimony on Bill 020201, which, if enacted, will amend Sections 9-105 and 9-702 to allow for the issuance of a code violation notice for each ride or attraction at carnivals operating illegally in violation of the Philadelphia code. The Department fully supports this bill 11 due to the problems we have experienced in the past with carnival operators who begin work without proper licenses and safety inspections. Because of the transient nature of carnivals, the Department believes that this amendment will be an effective way of getting compliance and act as a deterrent to future violations. The bill will allow for the issuance of a standard violation notice with a set fine of $300 per ride or attraction at the illegal carnival. It will also allow for the issuance of a code violation notice ticket in the amount of $25 per ride or attraction, which, after the negotiated settlement, the carnival operator can pay within 10 days, as prescribed by Section 1-112 of the 5 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020201 Philadelphia Code. We believe that once our operators become aware that we will use this method of enforcement to gain compliance, they may come to realize that it is more cost-effective to obtain the proper and have their operation inspected for safety prior to commencing, as opposed to our receiving a complaint, issuing a cease-operation notice and a notice of violation with a stipulated fine attached. The Department thanks Councilman Mariano for his assistance and sponsorship of Bill 020201 and is prepared to enforce the provisions of the bill should Council vote for its passage and the Mayor signs it into law. Thank you. I will be happy to answer questions at this time.

Otis, a real quick carnie question. Explain this in normal language. They come in for a carnival, they don't have the permits, they set up, and then all heck breaks loose on Monday morning, and they want it and are crying 'cause "the Boys' Club" isn't going to get their money. They come down, we try to expedite 6 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020201 this through 'cause we're nice people. This does what?

What this will do, Councilman, is that for those situations where we have illegal carnivals operating and we're notified by complaint that we have an illegal carnival, what we will do is, we will go out and execute our cease-operation notice first to cease the operation because they have not had their safety inspections; our primary concern is public safety. So in this case, we would cease them, and then we would also issue them a ticket for operating the illegal carnival for each ride or attraction of the carnival that's there. The standard violation notice that they would normally get stipulates that there's a $300 fine attached to that for each carnival ride, but they have the opportunity to settle that fine for $25 with the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, the ticket that we would issue, and they could settle for that amount if they pay within ten days, as prescribed by Section 1-112 of the code.

Otis, say Councilman DiCicco and I start our own carnival, 7 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020201 you know, just for saying's sake, and we have a carnival and we come in and this all happens, and then we just pull up tents and we leave 'cause we can't get together, and then we're down in another part of the City, do they ever confiscate their equipment?

That is a part of the regulations that we have. We just adopted brand-new regulations also as a companion to this that would give us the opportunity to confiscate the equipment as well. That's part of the regulations.

Thank you. That's where I wanted to lead you. Thank you Any other questions from anyone on the committee, carnival questions? Councilman Nutter?

No 19

Councilman DiCicco, Rizzo, Clarke, anyone? (No further questions.)

This is an easy one. Anybody in the room want to testify on this? 8 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020201 (No response.)

Nobody? The circus is in town, I thought somebody would. All right, seeing none, the clerk will read the title of Bill 020164.

An ordinance amending Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code, the Philadelphia Building Construction Occupancy Code, Subcode P.M. of the Philadelphia Property Maintenance code by amending Section PM-102.7, entitled "Penalties," to include provisions for the issuance of a code violation notice in a specific amount to persons who are licensed under this section and fail to notify the Department of changes, pursuant to the provisions of Section PM-102.6.3, all under certain terms and conditions.

Mr. Haigler, you're here to testify on this one too right?

Yes. Good day, Councilman Mariano and members of the committee. I am Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections Today I am here to provide testimony on 9 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020164 Bill 020164, which, if enacted, will amend Section 3 PM-102 of the Property Maintenance Code to allow for the issuance of a code violation notice to persons licensed under this section who fail to notify the Department of changes in their licensing information pursuant to Section PM-102.6.3 of the Philadelphia Code. The Department fully supports this bill 10 due to problems we have experienced in the past with providing notification to persons who are licensed, informing them that their property is in violation of the code and their need to take corrective action. The City expends a considerable amount of resources to locate these individuals, and we believe that this bill will be an effective way of recovering the costs expended, in addition to acting as a deterrent for future violations. Also, we believe that by improving our ability to notify licensed individuals in a more timely manner of violations of the code, it will in some instances reduce the time for gaining compliance. The bill will allow for the issuance of a code violation notice ticket in the amount of $75 10 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020164 to licensed persons who fail to provide notification to the Department of changes in their license information, as required by the code. This is in addition to any other fines imposed by the code for violations which precipitated the need to provide notification. The Department thanks Councilwoman Krajewski and Councilman Mariano for their assistance in sponsorship of Bill 020164 and is prepared to enforce the provisions of the bill 12 should Council vote for its passage and the Mayor sign it into law. Thank you. I will be happy to answer questions at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Haigler. I just want to make a note on the record that Councilman Ortiz and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has joined us. Any questions from members of the committee for Mr. Haigler on this bill? (No questions.)

Seeing none, anyone else here to testify? 11 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 020164 (No response.)

Another easy one. Seeing none, the clerk will read the title of 010695.

Bill No. 010695, an ordinance amending the Philadelphia Code to add various requirements and prohibitions related to students in educational housing districts, including amending Title 10, ("Regulation of Individual Conduct and Activity") to define educational housing districts and to provide for parental, college and university, and landlord responsibility for students who engage in certain conduct prohibited under the Code; amending Title 9 ("Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions") to impose requirements on students and universities and colleges related to student notification regarding the student's local address; to impose requirements on students and colleges and universities regarding the students' vehicles; to require colleges and universities to provide the City with a security plan and with their policy regarding student discipline; and to prohibit students from living any dwelling in violation of 12 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 the zoning code; and amending Subcode PM of Title (the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code)to acquire that a landlord obtain a certificate of inspection in order to obtain a multifamily dwelling license when renting to certain numbers of students, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. I understand there's someone from St. Joe's University who wants to testify first 'cause of time constraint. (Witnesses come forward.)

Councilman Nutter want to make a statement for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, let me try to be as clear as possible on the record about this particular bill. One, as you you've called up St. Joe's University to the witness table to testify, I need to say on the record that there have been numerous discussions and meetings and conversations with representatives of St. Joe's University, starting with President Rashford and the executive vice 13 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 president who you will hear testimony from shortly, Mr. Curran. Over the past couple of years, the nature of the relationship between the University and the surrounding community had gone through somewhat of an evolutionary process. We've had at times very good relations, we've had at times somewhat contentious relations, but always a general sense of understanding that the University is going to be there, the residential community is going to be there, and a commitment by both sides to try to appreciate the views and concerns of the other. And I think that you will hear more about that spirit of cooperation and partnership but still the need to get things done so that each can continue to mutually exist in some sense of peace and harmony out in the West Philadelphia community in general and more specifically in Wynnefield, Overbrook, and many parts of Manayunk in the 4th District For myself, as I can seem at times unreasonable and combative on some matters, I think the University would agree that there's always been an open door and an open ear, and that I do not 14 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 personally -- have not in the past, I do not today, I don't anticipate going forward, I don't have any animus towards students. Students can be a wonderful element, an asset to a community. The University is a major property owner, asset, participant in the City Avenue Special Services District, source of employment, and has the potential for other development projects, which will enhance, I believe, the community and also help to solve some of these problems. We want to have an environment that welcomes the student population but that also provides housing for the student population primarily in a supervised environment, as opposed to a virtual free-for-all that at times overwhelms the residential market and precludes non-student individuals from even renting apartments in these particular communities. I know the Commerce Department and the City Administration and, I'm sure, this City Council has general concerns about "the brain drain" that we've called it, the loss of students from Philadelphia, notwithstanding the fact that we 15 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 are a literal mecca of higher education in Philadelphia. But people come here to get an education and subsequently leave. I have no interest in creating an environment where students think that Philadelphia is not a friendly place to be. On the other hand, I need the students, and certainly the University and property owners, to deeply understand that in our welcoming young people to the community, there are standards that we expect young people, even those who are years old and recently out of high 13 school, we expect them to grow up in a certain way, 14 to respect the residential community, and in our 15 efforts to attract young people to live in 16 Philadelphia, that we don't subsequently losing 17 slightly older people who are property owners, 18 taxpayers, and workers. And at the end of the day, it is a net loss in population because not only do we still lose some students, but we also lose our core residential population in these communities. Therein lies the challenge. And this attempt today in Bill No. 25 010695 is seeking to meet that challenge in a 16 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 responsible fashion. There is no question there is more work to be done.

Some progress has been made, but we need to stay focused on this issue in an intense fashion to make sure that we keep moving in a way that makes progress and strengthens the relationship between the University, its students, and the residential surrounding community. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to make some opening remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Mr. Curran, do you want to state your name and your job for the record.

Dr. Daniel Curran, Executive Vice President, St. Joseph's University. Councilman Nutter, members of City Council, I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of City Council Bill No. 010695, which would establish new requirements and responsibilities for universities, their students, and landlords who rents to students within an educational housing district. First I'd like to thank Councilman 17 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Nutter for his leadership and efforts to address the needs of all of your constituencies -- Overbrook Wynnewood communities and St. Joseph's University. The challenge of maintaining a good quality of life for residents and neighbors within the vicinity of college or university is not unique to the City of Philadelphia or to St. Joseph's University. The problems associated with student behavior, noise, parking, drinking, and, in general, clash of cultures between hundreds of college-aged students and the adults in a larger residential community across the country -- in fact around the world -- combined with the federal restrictions placed upon universities by such laws as the Buckley Amendment, which strictly prohibits institutions of higher education from revealing much of anything about a student's academic or disciplinary record, it becomes frustratingly difficult, and often impossible, for a community to see that colleges really care about their safety and their quality of life. As you know, Councilman Nutter, from your very active and helpful efforts on behalf of 18 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 our neighbors in Wynnefield and Overbrook, St. Joseph's takes its responsibility to the community very seriously. We strive to orient our new students each year. We inform students about our code of conduct. We vigorously enforce the codes of conduct on and off campus. We encourage the members of the community to report disruptive conduct. We respond rapidly anytime of the day or night. We ferret out the problem of vendors, and to the best of our ability, we try to communicate our actions to the community. Nevertheless, problems arise, often those problems about students living off campus in unsupervised houses and apartment units. In these units, there are no resident assistants or advisors to stop problems before they start, to prevent parties before they begin, to stem the noise before the clamor frays the community's nerves. In these unsupervised units, errant students can hide from our code of conduct, dodging and evading its application because it's too hard to pin a violation on one specific student in a faceless crowd of students. In unsupervised apartments and houses, 19 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 our security staff lacks the authority, and often the basic ability, to gain access to hot spots and troubled areas. For that reason, St. Joseph's has decided to inform incoming students this fall that refresh and sophomores will be required to live on campus in supervised housing. In addition, in order to accommodate growing numbers of students requiring supervised housing, St. Joseph's is doing the following: We are actively exploring additional master leases with local apartment landowners. We are pursuing steps to occupy Merion Gardens at North 53rd and City Avenue. We are meeting with the neighbors in Wynnefield to develop plans for a University- owned residence building on the 5200 block of City Avenue. If successful, those efforts should have a significant and positive impact on our neighbors in the community. Nevertheless, a number of students will pursue the opportunity to live off campus, and, as the statistics show, the risk of disruptive behavior will follow them. That is why I support City Council Bill 20 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 010695. Certainly there are some aspects of the bill that I respectfully suggest should be modified; I will get to those later. But far and away, St. Joseph's University supports the essential elements of City Council Bill 010695.

While the bill creates certain requirements for St. Joseph's University, it also creates additional responsibility for landowners and the City of Philadelphia in a way that would combine to help ensure the quality of life in our local neighborhoods. Let me for a moment review each of the major provisions of the bill. The local address of student registry. At the recommendation of Councilman Nutter, St. Joseph's University began such a registry last fall. It is a useful tool for maintaining contact with our students in the neighborhood and poses no 19 burden on the University. We support this provision. Security plan. Our Department of Public safety has a close working relationship with the police districts in Lower Merion Township and with the 19th District in the City of Philadelphia. This element in the bill merely formalizes the 21 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 close relationship that already exists. We support this provision. Student vehicle identification program. Our Department of Public Safety already maintains a student vehicle inventory. However, we have one operational concern: The registration of vehicles only relates to those students who succeed in obtaining a sticker for slots available on campus. The sticker serves the purpose of allowing those students to park their vehicles in University lots. St. Joseph's University would not want to issue any form of sticker except for those matching the available spaces on our campus. Nevertheless, an effort can be undertaken to register and record any vehicle owner operated by our students in the area much. In brief, we support the general idea behind the provision but respectfully recommend a slight modification in its purpose. Liability for parking violations. This is one provision that causes us real concern. While we support general essence of the provision, St. Joseph's University is concerned that we not be held directly and ultimately liable for parking infractions committed by our students. It would be 22 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 terribly ironic for St. Joseph's University to enforce a security plan that hires additional police officers in the neighborhood only to have them write more tickets that, in turn, St. Joseph's would ultimately have the responsibility to pay for. Please know that St. Joseph's University is not opposed to any provision that would allow the University to pass on those liabilities to the students, but we cannot express support for any wording that would hold the University terminally liable for costs associated with parking violations committed by students. The next topic is vicarious liability for student nuisance behavior. The University is not opposed to any efforts that enhances our opportunity to ensure that our students adhere to the laws and ordinances of the local community. Admittedly the term "liability" sounds unsettling to our university community, but we recognize that this vicarious liability is simply putting our code into a context, into a framework that will allow our disciplinary system to work and allows us to work more closely with the neighborhood and the 23 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 landowners. My only two reservations would be that the provision would not work if it is held only to the University, applies only to the University. It must apply both to the University and to landowners. Second, there must be a specific and limited scope in the area of parking. It is very clearly articulated in the bill. The other areas addressed to this point seem quite vague and do present some difficulty for us. In closing, allow me to make several additional observations: First, regarding the penalties, if the University is required to make penalty payments, there may be some value in the colleges and universities being allowed to establish escrow accounts to accept the penalty payments for the liabilities paid directly by the school.

In that way, the funds could be reassigned or put against additional costs for security in the community. We think this would be very important. We could pay for additional police officers to walk around to observe and to assure appropriate behavior. 24 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Second, regarding the duration of the proposed bill, I am confident that Bill 010695 will have a positive impact on the quality of life in Wynnefield and Overbrook, but since this is a test bill affecting only the 4th City Council District, I respectfully urge consideration of a sunset provision for this bill. At the end of its term, the debate could be given to extend the provision to the entire City or having modifications to the bill to improve unforeseen challenges. That concludes my remarks. I thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts and to express our support for this bill. Thank you.

First, again, Mr. Curran, I deeply appreciate your testimony. I will reread both your testimony and the comments and the suggestions. As you know, again, there have been a number of discussions about various provisions of the bill both from an operational standpoint, as well as there's certainly been a fair amount concerned and expressed about vicarious liability extending to a wide variety of parties. 25 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 You know that in the construction of this particular bill, we, one, by its very nature, by having it apply to the entire 4th District, there are clearly some areas within the 4th District where these issues are non-issues.

Right.

It's just not an issue, but we decided for drafting purposes to kind of work in a rather broad context in a definable boundary area. You know, you could have as many debates as how many angels can fit on the head of a pin when you get into a discussion about what is the actual boundary between Wynnefield and Overbrook; it all depends on who you talk to, when you talk to them, and in what century their civic organization was created. We know that we need some narrowing of boundary. I've had a number of discussion with landlords; I appreciate your perspective with regard to the landlord issue, and I know that Mr. Zaslow will be testifying a little later. The landlords, many of them have a different perspective, and I'm looking at how to address that particular issue more from a we would want 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 landlords to take certain affirmative actions if there is notice made that a violation has taken place or that the violation has been proved. Landlords have a different level of relationship, for instance, with their tenants: They have a lease, they sign, you know, a document that easily has 40 different sections on it -- most of us don't read all those sections.

Right.

But, for instance, we probably would want the landlord to ensure that the tenant, or the lessee, receive a copy of this bill, that they know what its provisions are, that they know that there's a provision in the lease that says that if you're in violation of this bill, we can terminate your lease; and that if they take those affirmative actions, or proceed to eviction proceedings, quite frankly, that may be enough, as opposed to, you know, fining them. The issue here is how to get people to take an additional level of responsibility and have a certain incident to take that responsibility.

Right.

This is not a 27 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 money-generator for the City, but I can tell you, and you have certainly had this discussion -- and you will hear present my constituents -- there are many aggravations in life, and maybe this doesn't get that high up on the scale. But at 2 o'clock in the morning, if you are disturbed out of your sleep, or your children or whomever, from a party that's gone on much too long, and now the exaggerated conversation, the reality is often that police response -- this is no criticism of the police; it's the reality of what goes on in the 19th Police District. Given the level of crime in some parts of the 19th versus the areas that we're talking about the, prospect of seeing a police officer at Lancaster and Sherwood is rather remote for a disturbance involving loud noise, you know, versus a shooting, a car accident, a bar brawl, or whatever else is going on in the 19th District at 2 o'clock on a Saturday morning, from Friday night going into Saturday. So the question is, how to we get the people who have a nexus to these individuals -- their parents, their landlord, their university -- 28 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 to take different levels of responsibility for those actions and create an environment that says, again, come here, get an education, have a good time, but be respectful in how you do it and how you conduct yourself, and you will get a good education and hopefully stay here and enjoy this wonderful community. So there is no doubt that there are adjustments that need to be made in a variety of places. At the same time, you know that, quite frankly, as we speak, I need to keep the pressure on all of the various parties to keep people focused on this particular issue, and we'll continue our discussions and make amendments that clearly need to be made based on these discussions. So I will take the testimony very seriously. I encourage you, if you cannot stay, obviously, if other representatives of the University can stay and listen to the testimony of constituents, I think that they have a compelling story to tell. We will continue to work in partnership because I know of the commitment by the University and actions that you've taken even in recent times 29 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 to send a different message to students and other actions that you've taken to show a commitment here, so we are continuing to work in a partnership on this.

Well, thank you, Councilman, and we're committed to the partnership also with the community, and we intend to be very active participants.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from the committee? Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Gentlemen, I want to underscore your very last statement, and that is that you expect to be a partner with the local community, and being a partners is a two-way street and having expectations on all sides and being forthright and candid every single step of the way with regards to the developments. Councilman Nutter has indicated that efforts are now being made to turn around the view that St. Joe University was being less than responsive and less than candid with neighbors from 30 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 50th Street and City Line Avenue, all the way west, and then back from City Avenue to Wynnefield and maybe beyond Wynnefield. So know that several members on this side of the table are paying attention and are expecting that you will honor up every single step of the way with all of the neighborhood groups around St. Joe, beginning with Rexford Road right there at 52nd and City Avenue. Thank you very much.

We'll keep the channels of communication open. And, again, we're fully committed to communication, and I appreciate what you say, Councilwoman.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for this witness from members of the committee? (No further questions.)

Okay. Any other people from St. Joe's who want to testify? I'm sorry, Greg James from Overbrook Farms East Residents Association. (Witness comes forward.) 31 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Greg, you wear many hats, man. I never knew.

What can I tell you. Greg James, President of Overbrook Farms East Residents Association. Councilman, it's very rare -- in fact, it's an honor -- for me to be in front of a microphone; I'm usually behind a camera, as you all probably know. I'm also cofounder of what we call the "Town and Gown Committee," where the community and St. Joseph's University meet to kind of hash out and solve University and community problems. We've been meeting for, I think, seven years now, since the university decided to build a dormitory in Overbrook Farms. We've done an enormous amount of things, we've solved a lot of problems, but there is an enormous amount of other problems that needed to be solved. The University, the landowners, the apartment-building owners, the City all at one time defer to each other in the problems that we were having, and nothing was getting solved. I thank Councilman Nutter for his efforts in bringing us all together and making us 32 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 see the light that the University has brought this problem to us with its expansion and its constant growing without the facilities to house all of these people that they've brought into the neighborhood. We met with the University, I think, the first time in 1993, '94. The University had approximately 2800 students, most of which were living on campus at the time. They started an expansion to today where they have somewhere in the area of between 36 and 3800 students. We, the community, had to suffer this expansion because they absolutely had no place to live on the campus. So our apartment buildings went to student housing. This student housing that it went to is unofficial. It's a financial boom for the landowners and they took no responsibility; they collect money. We have parties. We all of a sudden were inundated with parties day and night. Our parking was completely eliminated. We -- right now, during the school year, the neighbors, if you don't have a driveway, you don't have a place to park. Two weeks from now, school will be over and you can park anywhere you want to. So the impact 33 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 is definitely from the University. We applaud this bill because this bill 4 shows signs of relief for the community. We applaud Councilman Nutter and the University for coming together so that we could sit down and talk about this and work this thing out so that we can finally (indiscernible). I think most Councilpeople and most people in Philadelphia today should be familiar with Overbrook Farms, as, according to last week's Inquirer Magazine, I think we had four to six pages there, and next week, we're going to have two or three more. We're going to be on the -- we're a part of the Open House Committee, and I think we're on the National Register of Historic Places. Altogether, it's supposed to be one of the wonderful places to live in Philadelphia. In fact, I'd like to say that we are the best neighborhood in Philadelphia, with the lowest crime rates and the most cohesive family in Philadelphia. We have everybody there: All religions, all races, all creeds, all sexual persuasions. And we all live very nice there. I understand the University being 34 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 apprehensive in certain things, but the student vehicle identification program -- one of the major calls that come to me right now is students parking in people's driveways and refusing to move. We have no way of knowing, unless they just happen to have a St. Joe's sticker on their car, who that car belongs to. Then once we find out who the car belongs to, we can call the police, and if they're not busy, they'll put a ticket on it, so that means that the car now in your driveway now has a ticket on it, which means nothing to the student, 'cause he's not going to pay the ticket anyhow. So if the University can insist that all of their students have stickers on it from St. Joe's, then at least we know it's from the University.

And the University can add teeth that even the City can't add, because once these students leave Philadelphia forever, they don't pay the tickets; wherein the University can hold up that diploma, that piece of paper that they're here for four years for until those tickets are paid. Once they know that there's teeth in it, we feel 35 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 that we'll have a lot less disrespect to the community. The vicarious liability for student nuisance behavior. We've been fighting that battle for the last eight years in the community -- well, it's been going on forever, but for the last eight years, it's been amplifying, it's been getting bigger and bigger. We've called everybody you could possibly call, including State Liquor Control Enforcement, in which the one nuisance bar in our area was closed down. And now we're looking to help close down the one in Lower Merion because we found out now that they're drinking in Lower Merion and coming back over to Wynnefield and doing their thing, because the Lower Merion police don't put up with them being over there and there's no reason for them to go to Lower Merion. So consequently, Wynnefield, 54th Street, the 50th Street area has suffered even to the point that these kids can't figure out where they live after they get drunk. They go into neighbors' houses and do all kinds of crazy stuff. So we're looking to put teeth into the 36 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 enforcement to make somebody liable for the behavior of these students. They don't believe that the University will do anything, many of them. Many of them in the past year, I've noted, have been coming up for University discipline, so I think we're stepping in the right direction. I have a number of neighbors here with, me and they're each from a different aspect of Overbrook Farms life. Some neighbors are just private neighbors. We have property owners here and we have a store owner here. So I thank you for your time, and I hope I didn't screw this up too much. And thank you.

Thank you, Mr. James. Any questions for Mr. James from the committee?

Seeing none, North Light and St. Lucy's Leadership Team. (Witnesses come forward.)

State your name for the record.

Yes, thank you, Chairman 37 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Mariano. My name is Ed Dougherty, and I am, as you'll hear, a member of the North Light Leadership Team and a couple other neighborhood involvements that I'll explain. Again, thank you Chairman Mariano and fellow members of Council. We're here to support the bill, and I'd like to explain why. Again, my name is Ed Dougherty. I'm maybe a 15-year resident of Manayunk, and I hope in all of that time I've been -- my activism on behalf of the neighborhood has been to good effect. I certainly love the place and I certainly love the City. So we're constantly doing what we can to make it a better place, and we have had our issues there over the last couple of years, as you'll hear about. My involvement here would be as a board member of the North Light Community Center and a very proud one. In addition, I'm also a member of the North Light Leadership Team. Some of my colleagues here would be a part of the St. Lucy's Leadership Team also in the neighborhood, and both of those entities would be a part of the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project, which, I believe, 38 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 would be familiar to many of you, and it's a very effective, in our view, agent on behalf of the City and on behalf of the neighborhoods that we're involved in. Very briefly, if I can, because we'll try to keep our remarks crisp here, I want to explain to you why it is we support the bill. I should say at the outset that our comments would be Manayunk-specific; that is to say, there has been discussion earlier today about Overbrook Farms, that area of the City, Wynnefield, certainly. While those concerns are well-expressed, we would be describing a slightly different physical sector of the 4th District, which is to say the Manayunk- Roxborough area. I also think it might be worth adding here that while I understand that the areas closer so St. Joe's would feel St. Joe's influence on this matter with a real specificity. With us, while certainly St. Joe's is the biggest feeder of the issues that we'll be describing briefly, in fairness to St. " So in general, I'd just like to convey that Manayunk and Roxborough is appealing broadly to a student population. And In fairness -- and maybe I'm speaking out of my Jesuit training here -- St. Joseph's, I don't want to overly lean on them on this one, though they are the big feeders, as we'll explain. And The other thing I would want to say here at the outset is that I really need to acknowledge Councilman Nutter, who has been a team player on our issues in Manayunk for a long time; this bill is just only the most recent expression of that, but he's been with us and a good soldier with us on all that we've done over the last ten years. Very briefly, our neighborhood has experienced really tremendous change over the last 15 years, and I think some of that change might be familiar to you, though those changes are perhaps beyond the scope of the bill we're discussing here 40 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 today. We think the bill offers a needed remedy to one of the clearest manifestations of that change, which is, namely, a surge in what we would characterize as a frat house atmosphere that has been brought on by the many college students who have surged into the neighborhood over the last 8 years, drawn by perhaps attractive rentals as far 9 as pricing is concerned, certainly drawn by the 10 entertainment complex on Main Street that I think 11 many of you would be familiar with. For a variety 12 of reasons, the area has a lot of appeal to them, 13 and they have surged into the neighborhood in a 14 very significant way. 15 That's certainly been an element and perhaps the leading edge of what is a dramatically different neighborhood today than it would have been a mere years ago.

19 The numbers that I'd be sharing with you 20 now would be pulled from what's referred to as "Census Tract 214," which very precisely captures the Manayunk area that we're describing here; in other words, the overlap between Census Tract 214 and Manayunk is a very exact one. In 1980, approximately 70 percent of the 41 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 homes in Manayunk would have been resided in by the people who own the home; in other words, you had a very high percentage of owner-occupancy, which is certainly one indication of a pretty solid and stable neighborhood, typical perhaps of a lot of neighborhoods in Philadelphia, but 70 percent is a very high number. As of 2000 -- and bearing in mind that that would actually be dated information by about two years -- that number is below 50 percent, and that number is now about 47 percent; our sense is that maybe it's more like 45, 46 percent somewhere now. That's a very big change in what is a relatively brief period of time. Another number that's worth sharing with you here would be the decline of families, specifically what the census would identify as a family. In 1990, there were 914 families in our neighborhood in Census Tract 214; now there's less than 700, also a very significant decline. In our view, this bill is an appropriate attempt to regulate, or at least hold in check, the behaviors that, in our view, are destabilizing to the neighborhood, that have the effect of pushing 42 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 people out or giving them an incentive not to be there, where previously, they were very proud to be there, had lived there a long time; this was home and they were more than happy to keep it home. In addition to that, we would look at the bill as a needed intervention in the neighborhood that has seen a loss in particular of its traditional base of stakeholders; that is to say, families. The people who are going to join the church are more likely to be the people who own a home, who live there. The people who are going to be active with the North Light Community Center more likely to be the people who own a home, who live there. So in that particular way, this surge and change in the neighborhood has been pretty destabilizing across the board. The churches have felt it, the Catholic schools have felt it, a lot of the community centers like North Light have felt it in terms of involvement and various levels of engagement in the neighborhood. And then an additional consideration here would be that, in our view, the bill is a needed attempt to foster in these very students and 43 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 in the adults who, we believe, ought to have responsibility for them a sense of neighborly responsibility. In other words, what we think the bill does is move in the direction of actually having them more connected to the neighborhood by connecting the sense of them being there with some sense of responsibility for their neighborhoods. As you probably know, your neighbor in Manayunk is literally right next to you, couldn't be any closer. So what we're really trying to do here is to have them understand that there's certain protocols that are just a part of good, well-functioning neighborhood. We actually think in the end that this would be a good thing for the City, have them more inclined to maybe want to stay, stick around, but at least start in an early part of their lives that sense that you do have some responsibility to the people who live around you. So for these and other reasons, we're very supportive of the bill. I would like to turn the mic over to other friends who are also active in the neighborhood, as you'll certainly here, but thank 44 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 you for your time.

State your name for the record, please.

My name is Susan Syrnick and I'm from North Light Leadership Team, and North Light is a member of EPOP. Manayunk is a part of the 4th Council District. In my personal experience, out of 34 houses in my immediate neighborhood I live at the 4800 block of Umbria Street, which is a pretty busy street.

Is that below Fountain?

Between Fountain and Lamont.

My aunt Kitty lives -- Kitty Rush is my aunt.

Doesn't Kitty live on the other end?

Do they still have pizza pie -- tomato pie at Marciano's?

Yes, they do.

All right, that's my question. 45 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Out of 34 houses, there are rental properties -- that's one-third of -- 4 I'm only talking about my immediate block. For 5 example, one rowhome last fall had three couples, 6 six individual students, a ping pong table in the 7 front room, broke the window, and stayed in the 8 house for, like, two, three months after that. 9 This was winter, they had broke the front window. 10

This is right on 11 Umbria Street?

Right on Umbria.

Where do they all park, in that parking lot?

In the parking lot at --

So you can't park there when you come home.

No, no, I am parking in the parking lot.

Do they park in the parking lot?

We only have parking on one side of the street.

Do the students park in the parking lot? 46 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

They park on the street, you know, they learn how to parallel-park, and then down in the lot. This particular house had a party before Halloween last fall. Halloween was Wednesday night, Wednesday night is trash night. They had 8 bags of trash. It started at the house and ended 9 at the curb. 10 What was normal for -- well, I don't 11 want to say this was normal. They would have 12 parties on the weekends. They are in a small row 13 next to other families. One gentleman came out of 14 the house to urinate against his wall; I mean, he's 15 right there, and there was no reason to do that. I think my husband was coming home late one night and yelled at him, and then one of the people in the house came out and got him and brought him back in the house. This isn't even -- this is typical, this is not even worst-case scenario. This is happening all over Manayunk. Rentals are $1600 a month, so you need four or five people in these houses. Some of these students are people -- I mean, they graduate, they 47 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 stay. There needs to be some education here, they need to know how to live in a rowhome, they need to know how to live in a dense neighborhood. Parking on the pavement has become a problem. I know you're not from Philadelphia if it's a Texas license plate and you're on the corner. It's still a pedestrian neighborhood, I still walk around; I have to walk in the street. I can walk in the street but I don't know about the little old lady who lives down the street can walk in the street. There lots of schools; the kids are walking in the street. We've been having discussions with the police about ticketing. And that's causing a problem. The school -- St. Joe's -- and all of the schools -- Villanova -- they need to be educated. This bill would educate them. And also that this is not confined to Overbrook; it's spreading our way.

And it's not just Umbria Street, right? It goes up Fountain.

Up Cotton, Fountain, Grape Street, all -- right behind -- yeah, right behind 48 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Main Street. It's very difficult. That's it.

I should have stayed in Manayunk; I could have made a lot of money.

Good morning. My name is Joanne Dahme, and I'm with St. Lucy's Leadership Team and --

I got a question for you: How come they don't have the picnic on 4th of July anymore in the woods? What happened? St. Lucy's picnic?

What picnic? That was before my time.

They don't have it anymore?

We'll talk to Father about reinstating it. St. John's has a picnic on 4th of July. Irene invites you to that one.

I was just going to state in general terms about the goodness of the Councilman's bill regarding quality-of-life issues because regarding quality of life and blight as we think of them are crumbling houses, vacant lots, 49 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 deteriorating neighborhoods. However, we feel like the seeds of blight can be found in the aversion of civic responsibilities; you know, just essentially the basics of living together. All citizens are required to abide by some very basic behaviors -- and that includes residents, tenants, students just following the rules of living in a community together: Taking care of their trash properly, to bring it on the street; parking; noise; parties; that sort of thing. And that's why we believe that the Councilman's bill is a good first step in requiring colleges and universities to take responsibility for their students, for their presence and impact on the neighborhoods and communities in which they are living. And it also provides the universities with an opportunity to assist in other educational institutions, to view students as ambassadors in those communities and neighborhoods, and an opportunity for them to teach their students what the proper behavior is and how to blend into the communities and how to enjoy the amenities that 50 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 attracted them to the community, but also how to respect those amenities and respect their neighbors. So essentially, that's why we feel that this is a terrific bill and a good first step.

Very good, thank you.

Hi, my name is Irene Madrak, and I'm the executive director at North Light Community Center and also a member of the Leadership Team and also a lifelong resident, 44 years in the neighborhood. And I was there during college when I was a commuter to Temple, but I worked too many hours to have much fun at that time, so I only got wild in my 20s, and by that time, everybody knew me so I couldn't have much impact in the neighborhood.

So you never parked your car on the sidewalk when you were going to college.

Kind of my biggest concern is, you know, we look at the City and why people leave, and lately, we've been hearing a lot about City wage tax, and we always hear about schools, 51 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 and they are problems. But when I talk to the several hundred people that pass through North Light on a daily basis, directly when we listen about development and all of the things that are concerning them, it comes down very often to that the cohesiveness of the neighborhood has changed as the rentals rise, and particularly the destabilizing of students who are the most transient because they can change almost every semester. And when I hear why people want to leave, that's what I hear all the time. All the other things they think are workable, but this one, they don't know how to get a handle on. And that's why we've done so much work around it. I know as the University expands enrollment, that can be a good thing but, as Greg said, as they expand enrollment, they have to think about housing, and if it's not on campus, how do they take responsibility for the students and where they live. Where they are in their neighborhood, they are often on their own for the first time, and there needs to be supervision and some tools in 52 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 place to make that happen. And how to educate students, as we've said over again, about being good neighbors. I also agree with Councilman Nutter in looking at the City around the brain drain kind of effect. We run into and employ so many students during the year. I happen to think young people are our best resource, and we've met many wonderful ones through work-study on a seasonal basis. We probably employ about 40 students a year. But, again, I don't think having students kind of live unsupervised and living in that kind of party frat house in the neighborhood is something that makes them see a neighborhood as what it is and as a place where they want to stay. I think they see it exactly as a temporary stop-off where they can kind of spend this part of their life. So I think, you know, if we want to engage students, that this doesn't chase them away; I think it's one of the things that could help them see the community in a different context, in a longer-term context. So thank you. 53 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Thank you. Question from Councilman Nutter?

Thank you. I want to first thank all of you for your hard work and your continued persistence, and I've explained to some of my colleagues here at the table that in a slightly different fashion and compared to the Wynnefield-Overbrook problem, that there is a combination of issues in the Manayunk community not only involving students but the whole illegal conversation issue. My colleague Councilman DiCicco was talking to me about some of the strategies that he's used in terms of zoning overlays and a change in the classification. In most of the neighborhood, it is actually zoned single family. We have that other great, fine Jesuit tradition, which is that it's always easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission. We just have people who ignore the law and choose not to get the zoning variance that they need in the first place, go ahead and make the conversation, and subsequently go to the Zoning Board and say, Oh, we didn't know, we had no 25 information. Please legalize what we are now 54 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 presently illegally doing. With that in mind, could you briefly share with us on the record -- my recollection is that yesterday, there were a number of cases that were supposed to go to court, that fiasco. Can you tell us briefly what happened?

I don't think it was a fiasco. It certainly represented L&I working with us very closely to Group Eleven Properties in our area to come to court, and often it's not even an illegal conversation; it's just the more than three unrelated. So, in fact, it becomes a zoning issue.

Right.

But the property is not actually converted in any way; it's just kind of jammed up. Only three of the property owners were there when those cases were heard. We're not sure how many of the others were properly served, but any that were will be in default. And we've had further communication with L&I about grouping those others and continuing to be vigilant around these changes. And so I feel that it's been a 55 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 successful partnership and that they're looking at this with us, and I also realize kind of the demands on L&I when it's not an emergency situation, but they're looking at it with us in a more practical way, which I think is a wonderful thing.

Good.

Thank you. Thank you for adding that to the record. I just wanted to get that update. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Any other questions from members of the committee for these witnesses? (No further questions.)

Seeing none, we're going to call up Duane Bumb from the Commerce Department. (Witness comes forward.)

Duane, state your name and spell it for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of Council. My name is Duane Bumb, and that's D-U-A-N-E, B-U-M-B. I'm the deputy director for the Department of Commerce. I'm here to give 56 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 some testimony on Bill No. 010695, which creates the educational housing districts. Sort of as a preface for my comments, I wanted to talk briefly about the City's efforts to actually increase our focus on the knowledge industry, which the universities and colleges are an integral part of. We have, as I think many of you know, undertaken student retention efforts. We've also undertaken efforts in a regional context to actually increase the number of students that come to this area; the thinking there being that the more students we have in the region, that the more potential we have to keep a highly skilled workforce here, and that highly skilled workforce actually will drive much of the new economy. And so in that context, we've worked with the Pennsylvania Economy League and others to look for ways to actually increase the number of students in this region. Currently, we have approximately a quarter of a million students in the Philadelphia region, and of that quarter of a million, approximately 80,000 actually are students residing within the City of Philadelphia. Our 57 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 interest is actually to increase the number of students, again, to increase the skilled workforce that the local economy needs to thrive. The idea of what we have here, a college town, is sort of a concept we'd like to sort of expand. It's certainly not unique to Philadelphia. When people think of college towns, they often think of places like Boston, which, in fact, does have many more students than Philadelphia does, even though the city is somewhat smaller than ours. And there are other metropolitan areas across the country which have larger concentrations of students than ours. And so, not to minimize the sort of concerns that have been raised this morning by residents, and quality of life is certainly a central issue for this administration, I think we we'd like the opportunity to explore how other comparable cities have addressed the same sort of problem. Again, a place like Boston that has 50,000 more students living in the city than we have, obviously, they've got some impact on neighborhoods, how they address that. We'd like to learn from other cities, as we work with you, how 58 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 to craft an ordinance with the intent that you have. City Council has been our partner as we've looked to expand our knowledge industry. Just last year, you provided funding to help us create the Innovation Philadelphia. And, again, it is all about how we actually make learning an integral part of everyone's life. Lifelong learning is something we sort of need to move toward. That takes me to some of -- we've got -- my preface for all of that is to say that we certainly don't want to send the message out unintentionally that we do not want to attract more students or encourage students to come to Philadelphia institutions or institutions in this region; they are, in fact critical, to our long-term success. And we would want to work closely with Councilman Nutter to look at this bill and potentially modify it to make sure that we are not subliminally or overtly sending out a message or people perceive a message that we don't want students in this region; we certainly do. This 59 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Council and Councilman Nutter in particular have worked with us to actually encourage student retention and student attraction. All of that being said, I just wanted to sort of touch on a couple of concerns we have with the existing legislation. Although it is currently limited to impacts within the 4th Councilmatic District, given some of the requirements here, it will have citywide and, in fact region-wide impacts.

For example, address notification, which, I think, is probably achievable -- certainly St. Joe's said that they could do that. It makes sense for all schools to know where their students live locally for lots of reasons, but for a university to know whether it's impacted by this bill, it needs to know if at least 100 of its students live within the district that's been created here. They can't know that until each and every one of them actually complies with the bill, which is to say we certainly know that schools like St. Joe's and Temple and probably the University of Pennsylvania are going to be impacted, but other 60 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 schools, including schools outside of the City, like Villanova, could easily be impacted; they could have at least 100 students living within the impacted area there. The enforcement for that we sort of have to think through, how do we get to those schools, especially those schools sitting outside of the City limits, but also recognizing that many of the schools and certainly all of the schools in the, City Community College, all are going to have students potentially hitting that threshold within the targeted district. And then beyond that, how do we -- sort of the broad definitions that the bill creates. Right now, a student is defined as anyone either full- or part-time that resides within the targeted district. It's very possible, for example, that St. Joe's has a successful night program, attracts lots of people who are full-time employed somewhere else into the night program, and collectively, those full-time workers now constitute yet another population, which will be characterized as students. If they take courses either full-time or 61 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 part-time there, by definition, students by this bill, that requires those students, those individuals to put that sticker on their car as well; they could have very well been longtime residents for communities. The idea that anyone years or younger 8 is by definition "a ward of their parents" is 9 probably not always going to be accurate. You 10 could have -- you could have students who are 11 married at that age. Again, there could be lots of 12 people who are actually just part-time students who 13 are full-time workers somewhere else. 14 These are just some of the sort of 15 issues that we'd like the opportunity to work with 16 you on. 17 I've heard from the community group 18 here; they certainly have very legitimate sorts of 19 concerns. There's no question but that we need to 20 work on quality-of-life issues in all neighborhoods 21 of the City. We are not looking to pit students 22 against other residents of the City; we're concerned that this looks like it could be come of the sort of "Town and Gown" sort of rivalry we would want to avoid. 62 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 We need to find ways to make all neighborhoods attractive in the City, to actually make neighborhoods attractive to new residents in those neighborhoods, whether they are students or just residents new to the City or to those neighborhoods. And anytime you have new residents in a neighborhood, you're always going to have to work through how do we notify those new residents what the appropriate trash day is, what the social norms are for when it's appropriate to have stereos on. Again, there's a stereotype that students do that all the time but, in fact, that is not unique to students. To sort of stigmatize students will not, in many cases, address the underlying sort of concern that I think we're trying to get to here, which is to make neighborhoods more attractive. I guess I could go through some other sort of various issues that we have with the bill. I want to say that we understand the underlying intent, and we want to work with you to fulfill that intent.

We think that if we had the opportunity, we could help to refine those areas, potentially target better so that in high-impact 63 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 areas and, I think, as we heard today, those neighborhoods immediately around St. Joe's, defining terms that would create -- that would qualify those for special consideration and attention are areas I think we'd like to explore further but not to sort of create such a broad definition geographically and use-wise that might have unintended consequences. Again, I think that there's no question that this administration and this City Council has worked well together to support the expansion of knowledge industries, and we've all recognized that students are an integral part of that. And so with that, I'll thank you, and I'm available for any questions you might have.

Any questions for this witness, Councilman? Councilman Nutter.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Mr. Bumb, one, thank you very much for your testimony, for your insights and your concerns. I look forward to working with you and other members of the City Administration. I know you heard my opening comments about the need to -- 64 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 quite honestly, as a broad public policy matter on behalf of the City, we certainly do need to encourage as many students as possible to not only come here and get an education, but also live here. As a city that's lost more population than any other city in the United States of America, we're pretty much open for business and just about open to anybody who wants to work in compliance with the laws of Philadelphia. So I look forward to the opportunity to work with you and other members of the Administration. If we don't have a copy of your testimony -- I don't know that I have one. I'd certainly like to either have that or have the opportunity in memo form for you to just lay out a listing of the concerns and issues that you've raised today, or you can take a copy of the bill 20 and mark it up, and we'll have, you know, the usual back-and-forth. I'm going to certainly say this in the most polite fashion that I can: This bill was introduced on November 29, 2001. Today is April 24, 2002. And I appreciate this opportunity at the 65 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 hearing today to know of what the concerns of the Administration are. I'm in a situation, the community's in a situation where we're getting toward the end of a school year, we've been working on these issues for over a year, and school will start back up, as -- Councilman Ortiz will know this better than myself. What is it, the swans return to where?

Capistrano.

Yes, the swans return to Capistrano -- swallows, swans, some entity returns to the -- right, students will return in September. Whatever we're going to do, I think that we need to have it in place as soon as possible so that all of the various parties can be notified. Everyone knows what the game plan is and what the deal is -- the students, the University, the residents, other universities, anybody else we think we need to notify, because from a pure element of fairness, I think that people should get as much notification as possible. Now, some group of students will leave and will not return -- all of the graduates. But 66 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 for everyone else, they need to know as early as possible that there is a new game plan in town, and not in a town-and-gown situation. I took down what you said that, no, we don't to want to pit students against neighbors. But I can tell you, in many instances, somewhat lighthearted, some of the most serious nature, leading toward potential -- and you know I'm not one much for exaggeration, but fatal consequences. There are situations where students are pitted against neighbors because some behaviors will not be tolerated, and they have driven some of my constituents at times to take matters in their own hands. If you were a person minding your business in your own home and someone knocked on your door in the middle of the night or broke your window of your residence and scared you or other family members with unknown activities and behavior, you know, you'd have -- and I'm not talking about you individually. I mean, it gives a person a slightly different view of what the reality is of dealing with these particular behaviors. 67 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Now, unfortunately, yes, that person was a student. All students are certainly not bad, and most of the students get in no trouble. And there are other people throughout our City, even in the 4th District, who are not students, who do bad things. So, you know, we will deal with them. Some of these policies and procedures actually, I think, will affect other people's behavior. We are trying to establish certain standards of conduct that are acceptable, that are not acceptable, and we have a particular situation that does involve students. We have a cooperating university, we have a lot of people who want to be partners in this particular issue. So I welcome any research. Clearly, we know that Philadelphia's not unique in this particular situation. Wynnefield, Overbrook, and Manayunk are not unique in this situation. There's a little university that I attended out in West Philadelphia, probably the largest in the area; they've probably had some students problems from time to time in the University City community. Somehow, some way, they've figured out a way to coexist out there. 68 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 So whatever lessons we can learn from the Penn-Drexel experience, the Villanova experience in the suburbs, Boston, Atlanta, a wide variety of cities across the country, I'm more than willing to explore those. Bill 695 is, you know, 900 degrees away from any kind of brilliance or genius; it is a response of frustration to a situation that we felt there was no other recourse. We understand that there is more work to do, but we had to start somewhere. At the same time, I can't afford to study this problem forever, because we will take some action, we will have some level of enforcement about these issues. I'd like to do it in a cooperative fashion, but I need to have something done as the school year is ending and before another one starts up. So whatever anybody's going to come up with, I'm more than willing to be open and to be accommodating, but I don't have forever. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'll be happy to respond with a memo 69 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 outlining the sort of concerns we have for you and all of the committee members.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My one concern here is that I think the problems enumerated in this bill really are all problems that are already in the books as violations, but my concern is, why didn't the administration sends someone from the Police Department here? 'Cause I would have asked -- I would have liked to ask the Police Department, why is it that the reclamations and complaints of citizens is going unheard and unnoticed, it seems, and unserviced and really leading and forcing this issue to be then put into an ordinance form, that if history is any -- is going to tell us anything, it's probably going to go on unenforced also because it's going to necessitate the Police Department to enforce these new ordinances. So I was wondering, why don't we have the Police Department here? 70 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Um --

Instead of the Commerce Department. You work for Commerce, right?

I work for Commerce.

I mean, I think the Commerce -- but what the community has described here are really violations of the peace and some of them vandalisms, and those I don't think the Commerce Department has any authority over. I mean, you may be concerned about Main Street and the restaurants and the pubs in Manayunk and so on, but this is a sort of a law-and-order ordinance 14 here. And I would have liked to have heard from the Police Department, the captain, the inspector of that district as to why is it that these citizens don't get any answers from them? Why is it that their cries for help from the Police Department go -- 'cause it is against the law to urinate in a public place. It is against the law to break a window of another -- of a private home. It is against the law to be hugely loud at 2 o'clock in the morning. And I believe these are problems that 71 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 should not be elevated to this point unless the citizens finally are fed up because they get no 4 answers from the law enforcement entities. So I don't -- I'd rather have the Police Department here, I'd rather have the inspector and captain of those districts to answer about these issues than the Commerce Department. I mean, I have -- I have certain problems with the bill also, but the residents have real viable complaints that we have to take care of, and that really is -- comes down to the lack of enforcement of the laws that are on the books. So I -- Estelle is here, the Managing Director is here. So I would wish -- I would wish that we have law enforcement answering to these things and law enforcement responding to the neighbors' complaints. To me, it's no excuse. Wynnefield and that neighborhood is a neighborhood that really is a middle-class, professional, and I just don't understand why the lack of response from the Police Department. I mean, it has forced this issue to be put into an ordinance, when I believe the 72 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 ordinances are on the book, and, you know, I think the ordinance is very broad and has some problems, but I believe that this is a problem that should have been taken care of. And we need not be here, we need not be here if the job was being done by the law enforcement officers, okay? So I don't blame you because I don't think you have the capacity to answer those questions, but I would request the main sponsor of this bill, my good friend and brother here, to really -- I think we need to have the Police Department come in and answer why it is that they're so busy that they cannot answer to these problems, okay?

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman DiCicco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm leaving the building and will be out of the building for about 45 minutes. Should a vote occur in my absence, I'd like to be recorded as voting yes on all bills and amendments. Thank you. 73 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Thank you, Councilman. Due noted. Any other questions for this witness from the committee? (No further questions.)

Thank you.

Seeing none, we will go to Mr. Zaslow from HAPCO. (Witness comes forward.)

Thank you for your patience.

My name is Darrell Zaslow, and I'm legal counsel to HAPCO, the Home Owners Association of Philadelphia. HAPCO owns many hundreds of thousands of housing units and has thousands of members here in the City, and HAPCO members are very concerned regarding the vicarious liability for student misconduct, which is being placed upon the property owners of the City. Mr. Chairman, who is it that should be responsible for the wrongdoing of another person; in this case, the misconduct of a college student? Should it be the parents who fail to instill good behavior? Should it be the School District, which 74 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 failed to teach it? Or the police who failed to prevent bad behavior? The television violence, which flows over all of our society? The university, which the student attends? The property owner who rented them a dwelling? Or the person who did the wrongdoing. The very nature of vicarious liability is blaming someone else who had nothing to do with the crime. If, distinguished members of Council, you feel compelled to blame others vicariously for someone else's misdeed, there's a long list I just placed upon the record. Perhaps we can blame parents and schools and society in general when their children and their students misbehave. But by what fair justice can you blame and penalize your loyal and tax-paying property owners? Many of us here have been college students; some of us behaved and perhaps some of us did not. But when you went off to college, who could predict what your behavior would be? And who can guarantees good behavior; did the parents, did the school, did the police, did the university that accepted them? No. Then how can you blame the property owner who's renting them a property? 75 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the Philadelphia property owners perform a valuable service to our community: They work hard to provide decent and affordable housing in difficult economic times, and they do so at private, not public, expense and at a fraction of the cost of public housing. This new concept of penalizing property owners and placing vicarious liability on them for the acts of their student-tenants is an unconscionable burden. Philadelphia's property owners urge you to withhold your approval of this bill in its present form. The bill under consideration would impose significant penalties upon property owners when their student-tenants commit violations of Chapters 9, 10 of the Philadelphia Code relating to zoning, noise, damaging property, defacing property, littering, or committing conduct prohibited in a public place. Philadelphia property owners recognize their responsibility to comply with the codes, and endeavor to do so. But noise caused by others, damages they have done, damages that they have 76 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 caused, property they have defaced, their performance of prohibited conduct in a public place must be their responsibility. Their misconduct is not, and should not, legislatively be made by you into a penal code against property owners. HAPCO wishes to commend Councilman Nutter. Private property owners being the backbone of Philadelphia's search for secure shelter for our citizens appreciate, as I personally do, the Councilman's sincere service to his district, his anguish over the discontent of some of his constituents which they have expressed to him and their complaints about some of the young people that live among them. HAPCO is appreciative of the Councilman's willingness to meet with representatives of the housing industry and exchange genuine views for correction of societal ills in general. But HAPCO believes, and we advise this committee today, that the bill imposing vicarious liability on property owners for wrongful acts of others is overbroad, unfair, discriminatory, and dangerous.

It sets a precedent of making one 77 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 person responsible for the wrongdoing of someone else over whom the one who is vicariously liable has no control. Beyond the real concerns of property owners, the public generally should fear the invasion of privacy rampant in this bill's notification requirements against anyone who is or may be a student. Residents of surrounding districts should be concerned that the bill 11 targeted by this bill at just the 4th Councilmatic District will likely create an unfair spill-over into surrounding districts and indeed the entire City. As a legal matter, giving standing, the right to sue, to any private citizen, as this bill 17 does, is a vast and entirely unwarranted expansion of centuries of common law, which, until now, has governed this Commonwealth. We appreciate your time and your consideration. The president of HAPCO also asked me to thank Councilman Rizzo for responding to him; he had sent correspondence to all members of City Council and asked me to specifically thank the Councilman for his response, which was received in 78 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 a timely and appreciated fashion. Councilman Nutter, in our several meetings as recently as this morning, has expressed a willingness to remove or modify the vicarious liability provisions of this bill and to modify the bill in other ways to make it so that the owners of the property, instead of being completely in opposition to this bill as we are, instead of that, we could become willing and supportive partners in support of this process to make it work and to improve the residents' plight and to make housing better in the area which is under consideration. Again, we appreciate the Councilman's efforts to mediate between the University and the students, but we suggest again that the property owners are not the proper place for the liability to fall. We support enforcement of leases, and the Councilman has suggested that property owners should be vigilant, and he has requested the assistance of property owners that when leases require, as they all do, that there are rules of conduct required of a tenant, any tenant, that property owners enforce those rules. And we are 79 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 going to advise our membership, at the Councilman's directive and in an attempt to assist him, that if there are rules regarding behavior in a lease that you cannot do all of this prohibited conduct, those violations are, in fact, violations of the lease, as well as being violations of the law, and that the violation of the lease enables the property owner to evict tenants who are misbehaving. And the Councilman has our pledge that if there are specific instances where we know of tenants who are violating the law, that we would ask the police and the City to come in and correct those violations of the law, and if there are violations of the lease, we would pledge that those tenants who are in violation of their leases should be evicted. " It doesn't work that way. We will endeavor in all ways to correct this problem because good, decent, safe housing enjoyed by all residents is the goal of HAPCO and the City as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Any questions? Councilman Nutter.

Thank you again for your testimony, and we've had some good conversations and I know we will have others going forward. You know from our conversations, again, my interest and, I would think, the interest of my colleagues and even the City, again, is not to create an even more onerous circumstance and environment for property owners, good property owners who are, you know, exercising the wonderful opportunities we have here both in the City and in America to basically be in business. You're providing a service, and people have the opportunity to take advantage of the service. What we're asking is that they not take 81 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 advantage of our good will and our accommodation in the community. And to the extent that property owners can do all within their power -- and I am much more interested in affirmatively encouraging people to utilize their power, their authority to correct certain behaviors than I am in trying to create more fines and additional negative contact with the large bureaucracy called the City of Philadelphia. But we do want the owners to take action when they can take action and to take action when they are notified of nuisance behavior. I think that similar to the universities, your reputation as property owners rises or falls based on the behavior and the activity of your tenants. Tenants come and go; the property stays, and what people know is, this owner does not care if no action is taken, if they don't see people, you know, in essence disappear from the neighborhood, that is -- for the average person, that is some acknowledgment that the owner does not care and is only interested in making money, that they don't care whether they have a good reputation or a bad reputation in the neighborhood. 82 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 And what we're saying is, not only is that bad for students, not only is that bad for the various universities, but it is also bad for property owners. Have a partnership with us. Be good friends, be good neighbors. Take action where necessary. There is clearly, you know, no lack of demand. And so turning away student X is only going to get you students Y and Z and A, B and C up and down the line. There is no lack of people looking to rent apartments in the Wynnefield- Overbrook community or probably even in the Manayunk community as well. Your acceptance, though, even benign acceptance, of that behavior is unacceptable, and we need a higher level of scrutiny. We do not expect you to be parents to these young people, but we do expect a certain adherence to the law and an accommodation of the concerns that people in the community have. That's what we want to have, and that's the kind of partnership that we're talking about. So I look forward to our continued conversations. 83 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

Thank you, Councilman. We certainly look forward to that partnership, provided it's not a partnership under penalty, but a partner in strength, working together. Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you.

Any other questions for this witness? (No further questions.)

Seeing none, we'll bring the next witnesses up: Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Dubrow. Anyone else want to come up? Everybody else come up at once.

You can get three or four people up at the table. (Witnesses come forward.)

State your name for the record.

Ted Greenberg. I am both a property owner and a resident for 28 years of the Overbrook Farms community. As such, I work both sides of the fence here. I can tell you, over the 28 years, of many instances similar to the ones that have been 84 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 mentioned by the folks from Manayunk: Property damage to my property, noise and so forth. Over the years, yes, the University has become more cooperative, the town-and-gown situation has been helping. We still have an issue that relates very largely to the students' indifference to the community and to its residents. As late as two weeks ago, in an apartment building that I had, I had some students, women, who had had quite a few drinks. At 4:30 in the morning, one of their guests set off the fire alarm. I was awakened at home, had to come out only to, after I turned off the alarm, which woke several families with a one-month-old and a three-month-old, to discover a drunken student threatening an 81-year-old man with bodily harm if he didn't shut up. This man was sitting there shaking. This has been reported to the University. The University is taking action, there is stuff going on. The parking issues absolutely, as discussed, need to be addressed. As a property owner -- and I feel like 85 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 one of the good property owners, because I have evicted tenants for noise and other issues over the years -- the burdens put on this by the vicarious liability are very much, as Mr. Zaslow pointed out, an onerous burden. The parents, the University perhaps, in loco parentis, more have a control. I acknowledge to Mr. Nutter his help in putting something forward that has helped all of us try to resolve these issues and acknowledge this as a work in progress. The definition of "student," as has been pointed out by the gentleman from Commerce, is way too broad. I have a 40-year-old nurse who goes to Hahnemann; technically, she's a student under the terms of this definition. We also have to deal with where the violations occur. So, yes, this is a bill that address a necessary evil -- an unnecessary evil that needs to be rectified. I very much thank Councilman Ortiz for his comments regarding the police. We have had some cooperation. We got cooperation from the Liquor Control Board, as Mr. James pointed out, but 86 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 there still is more to do. And sometimes another stick to wave at a parent or someone else is what is necessary. And I would then continue with what Mr. Nutter said is that, yes, penalties perhaps to landlords that do not enforce the codes of their lease. I have specifically a clause in my lease that says "no kegs" right up front, "no kegs."

No party balls or nothing?

No party balls. And, again, it limits the number of people who may be in the property. This is not a code regulation, but I consider this a safety issue for fire egress, plumbing, just basic issues. And that's a clause I would like to see in leases. You know, that would help. But, again, it's up to the landlord and there are other issues to resolve this. And, again, like everybody else, I look forward to working with you, Councilman, to see what we can do to fine-tune this to the point where it becomes a good piece of legislation that gets the results that we've all been frustrated from 87 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 having.

Right

Thank you.

Thank you. Next witness? I'm sorry. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me assure you that I will be working hand in foot, toe and nail with Councilman Nutter on this legislation as a observer and as a member of City Council-at-large, and for other reasons, I'll be working very, very closely with him and paying close attention to what's happening on all sides around this bill. I would like to state for the record, Mr. Chairman, that I must leave on Council business, but I'd like to be recorded as voting aye on all bills and the amendments during this hearing.

Duly noted, Councilwoman Thank you. Go ahead. 88 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

My name is Mary Kim. I am a business owner for the 63rd Street, which is -- I've been living there for years in business and 5 residence also, which is my next neighbor, he is -- 6 they are like a St. Joe's student. And I had a 7 student neighbor for the eight years, and started 8 like St. Joe's getting bigger. 9 And my problem is, which they've been 10 partying and so much noising [sic], and I couldn't 11 really sleep, not even on the weekend, and even 12 there is not (indiscernible) all night. Even sometime at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, they starting party and they go on my roof to party. And around this, seven years ago, they on my roof and they walk around partying, and I call the St. Joe's security, and they said this is off-housing campus [sic] so we can't do about it. And they denied it. (Indiscernible), which is a St. Joe's problem which is finally, I got some cooperation from St. Joe's, and still, though, the student now really take seriously what kind of punishment to the school. I already had last Saturday at 2 o'clock 89 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 in the morning, they still noisy and partying, and also they play instrument. Yes, they have very good time, but they wake me up. But week before, they had a party that was until 5 o'clock in the morning. At that time, I don't go to St. Joe's security because my husband sleep (indiscernible) and he can't go back asleep until 6 o'clock in the morning. So I suffer to myself for the noising and I have to wait for the next day and then called them to either try to talk to them. We had a meeting. You're not allowed to do that. And they say, Well, I talk to my roommate, and still a week later, same situation. So this time, I call the school, the school try to contact that kid, but now the kid is upset with me because I call the school. I talked to them before the meeting. I don't want to interrupt your future. I do have a teenager, I do understand you're into partying, but control your party. I don't mind with it if doesn't wake me up or it doesn't make (indiscernible) and I be fine with it, because I'm also (indiscernible) business owner. 90 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 But this is over line, and this is -- and I've been talked to James Greg, and he even get upset with me, How come you suffer from that kind of partying alone? It doesn't matter, you are the business owner. Also you are the resident; you got the right to sleep and in quiet and your lifestyle. And why you have to suffer like that? So, oh well, finally, okay. But which is my suggestion, St. Joe's, they don't (indiscernible) it's not really to come around. They got a information for a security number. If you got any problem, you can call, you can contact us. I never had any information before I talk to James Greg. He gave me most information what I need for. So I contacted James and also the school. But before, I have to suffer for myself, I have to angry, I have to fight with them. My problem. And finally, I got to come over this and (indiscernible), which is Michael Nutter's bill, and I definitely agree it has to be the parents or the University, and I even talked to some parents over there. You got to come over to weekend to their party. Forget it. That's not their party. 91 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 That's like way wild animal there. Even I had a friend, she in California, her daughter is in college, I even talk to her. You got to go over weekend to check her if she not behave her, grab her to bring her home to stay with home. You can't just let her go over like that. I've been (indiscernible) the college for years. Now I know every detail. They are 10 lying and everything, so you can't do that. 11

Thank you. Thank 12 you very much. Next.

Good afternoon. My name is Louis Rosen. I was born and grew up in Philadelphia, attended public schools here. I've lived most of my life in Philadelphia. For the last 18 years, I've lived on the 5900 block of Overbrook Avenue. We live between St. Joseph's University proper and many of the boardinghouses and apartment complexes that people are complaining about this afternoon. I am here to testify in support of the bill as it's written. Perhaps there are certain minor modifications to the bill that can be made 92 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 but I would like to point out the fact that there are institutions and there are people who are renting to students, who are making money, who are benefitting from the presence of students in the community, but who aren't taking responsibility for the actions or the misdeeds that the students are perpetrating on the community. I would just like to point out, with respect to St. Joseph's University, that while there appears to be a certain additional cooperation of St. Joseph's, that varies with the climate of the University and who happens to be in charge at any one particular time. There is currently going to be a change in the administration of St. Joseph's. We don't know whether that change will be for the good, for the worse, or whether it will be indifferent. But what is clear is that there is a need, and a direct need now, for there to be an ordinance which is targeted toward specific problems in the community as it relates to student housing. And just very briefly, because I know the Council probably wants to break. Certain of 93 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 the individuals that testified about the ordinance 3 talked about refining its terms. I think it's more accurate to say that those individuals don't want to refine the terms; what they want to do is substitute weaker language, language which won't actually get to the root cause of the problem. Other people have indicated that they want to explore the terms that are enunciated in the ordinance, but what I really think happens is that these individuals want to obfuscate and bog down on holding any landlords accountable, on holding St. Joseph's University accountable. One example I can mention is the concentrated effort on the issue of vicarious liability. I think vicarious liability is a good thing; it works in the private sector, it works in the public sector. What is vicarious liability? Vicarious liability, in the assurance aspect, is an ability to hold those responsible who have a reason to be held responsible and who have an immediate control of the conduct of the individual who needs controlling. That is what vicarious liability is. Someone is in the shoes of the person 94 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 who commits the misdeed, someone who is financially able to make good for the damage that is being done. That can be done through insurance, that could be done through requiring a certain fee to be paid by students prior to the beginning of the school year. A fund can be organized, a pool can be organized. The University can administer this fund, can pay whatever fines are necessary out of the fund, can pay whatever vicarious liability is required, can pay its insurance premiums pursuant to collecting a fee, in the nature of an activity, fee so to speak, the kind of activity fee that we hope doesn't go on but we know does go on and for which the student and the parent may be liable to pay. The University can do many other things. It can withhold the diploma, it can withhold the grades, it can withhold an ability for a student to come back for another year. All of these are things that the representative of St. Joseph's University omitted in his presentation. He stated that he was fully able and willing to comply with every provision of the ordinance which wouldn't cost St. Joseph's 95 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 University any money, which wouldn't cost St. Joseph's any money any hardship.

But when it came even to issuing a sticker for those who would not park on the St. Joseph community parking lot itself, they refuse to do that. They don't want the St. Joseph's University student to be able to be targeted to be identified so that St. Joseph's University itself can be held responsible. So with that, I merely urge the Council to pass the bill, to pass the bill in substantially the form in which it's proposed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Rosen. Next, please.

My name is Christine Schwartz. I'm also speaking on behalf of my husband and son whose other responsibilities made their participation in this hearing impossible. My family has lived in Manayunk for three years. Last year, we expressed our confidence in this wonderful city by transitioning from renting to owning a home 310 Cotton Street in 96 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Manayunk. I'm also a member of two civic associations: Wissahickon Neighbor Civic Association and Central Manayunk Civic Association. I am here today to express my support for Councilman Nutter's bill, 010695, the educational housing district bill, and to express my concerns. Dr. Curran's remarks indicate that St. Joseph's University's perception is that this problem exists only in the area immediately adjacent to the University. However, as you know, the shops, bars, restaurants, and convenient transportation makes Manayunk an attractive place to live, especially for college students. The majority of residents in our community now mostly rent, rather than own, their homes. This does not mean that renters do not care about the community they live in. My household and I were good neighbors when we rented and are now good neighbors as homeowners. However, in both the neighborhoods we've lived in, we've had problems with noisy parties hosted by college students. Let me be clear on this point: I do not 97 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 dislike college students per se; it just seems that in the three years I've lived in Manayunk, all of the parties that have disturbed the peace have been hosted by college students. It's just unfortunate that their parties and my desire to sleep conflict. Of immediate concern to me are two groups of college students who live on our block whose yards abut on mine. The college that one group attends is unknown to me. However, all last fall, as long as the weather was warm, a group of St. Joseph college students played horse shoes every weekend night. Of course, you can't play horse shoes without beer, it seems, and the noise level rises steadily so that by midnight, it's impossible for anyone to sleep with or without the windows open. Every time this happened, we called the police. We had to do this not once but several times. m. Whatever consequences the students incurred certainly did not deter them from repeating their behavior. And in response to Councilman Ortiz's 98 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 remarks who -- you obviously read my comments in advance -- we've had three captains in the 5th District in the three years that we have lived in Manayunk. The attitude, the response to quality-of-life concerns has been abysmal, almost contemptuous. Whatever consequences the students incurred certainly did not deter them from repeating their behavior. As you know, Councilman Nutter, this is one instance in which quality-of-life issues are ignored by the City. There are laws already on the books for these petty crimes, but the police ignore them. Breaking up drinking parties, arresting students for public urination, spreading trash, parking on the sidewalk, and otherwise disrupting the peace in neighborhoods has none of the urgency that more high-profile crimes attract. However, as the President of Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association wrote to you, Councilman Nutter, the ineffectual response of the City to these problems greatly contributes to the exodus of citizens to the suburbs. Quality-of- life crimes erode neighborhoods, yet little is 99 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 being done to address these issues. Therefore, the major concern that I have with regard to the educational housing district bill relates to enforcement. We already have laws against all of these quality-of-life crimes, but they are not enforced. L&I, I understand, will be responsible for implementing the proposed law.

L&I, at this point, is incapable of fulfilling its present obligations, in spite of the best efforts of the hardworking people in the Department. Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you, ma'am. Councilman, Ortiz, sure.

That goes to my point, the point that I was making. If I'm a parent -- and when I was a student at college at a university, we used to be quite rowdy, but the one thing that really would have been of great concern if I went out of state to a university, the one thing that would have been of great concern was if my mother would have gotten notice in New York City from where I was in college, out of state and so on, that I had been arrested for disturbing the 100 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 peace or public urination or whatever. Not a fine. Because parents who can, you know, are not -- but the book is full of these laws. And the issue that I want -- that's why I wanted the Police Department here. And I'm very angry that the Administration did not read this bill in time and they sent somebody from the Commerce Department. We're talking about bad behavior that fringes and goes into criminality because vandalism, destruction of property and so on, those are criminal acts that take place. Public urination, again, is a criminal act, it's an obscene misbehavior of public exposure. And I want to know why the Police Department is not functioning and not taking care of these citizens' complaints. And, obviously, there are more than one. If the police had ignored one complaint because I was the only one that came in, then you could say, oh, well, you know, that's, you know... But obviously, they're ignoring multiple and multiple and multiple complaints going on. And 101 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 there is no assurances that this is a solution to that because if there's no enforcement by the Police Department -- and I think, ultimately, it comes down to the Police Department. If vandalism, urination, all of these other things happen, and the Police Department does not take a hand in it, it will continue, it will continue. So I would have wanted today, but Councilman Nutter told me that the Administration didn't read this bill until yesterday, and they wanted to have a meeting about the bill today, and today was the hearing. But, obviously, they sent the wrong person down. And these things should not be happening in any neighborhood in the City, by anyone. And so, I'm really baffled why these things are not taken care of.

Thank you, Councilman Ortiz. Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Schwartz, one, I appreciate certainly your testimony and all who have testified 102 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 thus far. One, you're absolutely correct; there has been a fair amount of turnover, if you will, specifically in the 5th Police District over the last three or four years. As you experienced the change, I also experienced the change. I've taken at times to almost not putting the captain's name on my Rolodex, just keeping the phone number, and knowing that I'll just call and ask for the captain. Whoever I talk to, that's the captain. I would say to you a couple things. One, we've, in the most recent round of promotions -- actually, every police district that covers -- or the three main police districts that cover the 4th Councilmatic District, the 5th, the 19th and the 39th, all of them just recently received new captains. I'd like to take that as the opportunity, both with this bill, as well as a new program that you will be hearing about very shortly, to deal with some of the Main Street, Crescent Street commercial-corridor issues and a zero-tolerance policy that started literally in the last few weeks of Captain's Smith's tenure in the 103 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 5th and actually, shortly before interim Police Commissioner Johnson became full Commissioner Johnson. You will actually be hearing very soon about a new zero-tolerance policy for Main Street, Crescent Street, the whole Main Street corridor district, with the new captain's full support, Captain May. In the 19th, we've also received a new captain recently, and so the timing of the bill 12 literally coincides with the new tenure of a captain in the 19th as well. So I'd like to take this kind of from the eternal optimist, if you will. I'd like to take this as the opportunity -- new legislation, new captains. We know we're going to have them at least for a little while for the implementation of the bill, and take that as a positive sign that we're going to at least have about a year or so, maybe two, of consistency in police enforcement on both sides. Certainly, as Councilman Ortiz has suggested on a couple of occasions, we will make sure that the Police Department is fully involved 104 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 in the enforcement aspect of this particular bill. But you are absolutely right. We could pass all the laws we want, and we have passed many. Without enforcement, and whether it's the Police Department or L&I, we are left to having a law that no one can get the proper relief from. And the responsibility for enforcement is clearly on our side. We understand that there are representatives actually here from the Department of Licenses and Inspections and our Law Department who have listened to every testimony that has been given and fully understand what it is that we're trying to accomplish. I deeply appreciate you coming in this morning. I'm sorry. Mr. Greenberg and then we have Mr. Dubrow. I'm sorry.

One comment. If the police do respond when they do respond to parties and other issues, if they take an incident report with names, that is our primary peace of ammunition for evictions.

No question.

So I've had them in 105 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 where they've broken up the party and say, "If you all go home, we're not going to take down names." We need the reports.

Right. Well, I would say, though, two things, especially -- and I don't know how far the St. Joe's security goes. As you know, St. Joe's University does not have a police force, similar to Penn and Temple. It is not a state university or a state-affiliated university and cannot have a police force. They do have, though, a security force. And whether or not the Philadelphia Police Department can respond because, as all of you well know, at least as residents of the 19th, there's a lot of action in the 19th Police District. Certainly, St. Joe's University security force is not as busy as the Philadelphia Police Department. They can certainly respond, they can take a report, they can make a report to the Philadelphia Police Department, because you are absolutely right: In order to get that violation notice, something has to have actually taken place and a report written. That peace of information is what we want to get to the landlord. 106 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 I appreciate Mr. Rosen's perspective, and you've heard me at least lay out that this is not a "gotcha" situation. If the landlord does all that the landlord can do, I'm less interested in fining that landlord than I am in him encouraging their affirmative behavior to take the action that they can take. If they get that notice and see that a violation has occurred and that there's been an adjudication of that violation, then our expectation is, enforce every provision of your lease and get that person either under control or out of your building. That's what we want. If people want to be here and live here and comply with the laws, you can have as many parties as you want -- within reason. Don't let your good time make a bad time for someone else. That's the message that we're trying to convey here. Your enjoyment should not infringe on my enjoyment. And as you said, Ms. Schwartz, your having a party should not interfere with my ability to sleep. Somehow, some way, both have to be able to coexist. You should be able to have your friends over, have a have good time, keep it within 107 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 the building, and you really don't have to shout to your friends ten feet away at the top of your lungs to say good night, you really don't. And these seem like rather minor things in the whole of schemes, where in other parts of the 19th District, somebody might be getting shot or there's a man with a gun or somebody's breaking into somebody's house. But if it's important to you at that moment, it is seriously important. Mr. Dubrow?

Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Joseph Dubrow. I'm a resident of Overbrook Farms and also a business owner in that area.

Absolutely.

Yes. I'm just here -- I came in late so I didn't get a chance to even look at the bill that's trying to be passed here, but I just wanted to comment on some of the experiences that I've had as a resident and a business person in Overbrook Farms.

Mr. Dubrow, before you go into your testimony, I do need to ask you one question. It's 12:20. Did you happen to bring any of the product to the hearing here this 108 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 morning? (Laughter.)

I'm not saying that that would affect any of our judgment here; I want to convey to my colleagues that not only are you a resident, but you have great food over at Dubrow's Soul Food restaurant, and we'd appreciate a little bit of that lunch today.

Next time I'll bring some.

Councilman said somebody about soul on a roll.

Councilman wants to take a recess and go out to Dubrow's.

Some of my experience that I have had with the students, I'm sure, has been mentioned here over and over -- urinating on our properties, the that they're parties having in the apartment buildings that's leased out to St. Joe's. What my concern is, we know some of the problems, we know where they stem from, but I want to know, what are we doing before they go outside of the buildings to create havoc for the homeowners? What is being done about that? I could sit in front of the building on 109 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 any given day and see kegs, cases. You know there's going to be a party this afternoon. So what are we going to do to deter that once they start? You know, they haven't caused any problems by bringing the beer in, but once they start drinking the six-packs of beers, the kegs, or whatever, now we know there's going to be a problem this afternoon or this evening. What do we about that? Defacing the property. I live adjacent to Lancaster Court Apartments. They have the fire tower. I've reported on several occasions that they use the fire towers -- or the fire escapes there as a smoking patio, and they toss the cigarette butts in my driveway. You know, I go to the apartment manager, and he does nothing about it. Last year or a year and a half ago, they was doing some renovations in the building. Paint buckets was left in the fire tower. Where does the paint bucket end up? On top of my truck, in my driveway. I reported that. They came and tried to remove the paint out of my driveway. What did they do? They dug a hole in my driveway. Never heard 110 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 any more about it. I have a dog on my premises. I have beware-of-dog signs. So I guess one of the fraternities or someone came and took the beware-of-dog signs, took it is off the gates, they're no longer there. They've broken my fence on several occasions. I just want to know what is being done by St. Joe's security or the management person in the building -- I forgot the proper term that they use for the people that's supposed to be overseeing the students. I think they're partying with them, to be honest, you know. So what can we do, or what can City Council or the Police Department do, before this overflows out into the streets? We know they're partying in those apartments. What can we do about that?

Let me try to --

I mean, we say the Police Department, but St. Joe's has to take responsibility as well before it gets to that point. 111 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

There is no question about that. And as I said, even though there has been a certain level of positive response and cooperation, we are nowhere near the level that we should be. And, again, some things, as you point out, are not rocket science or nuclear biology. If you see three young people with a couple cases of beer at 4 o'clock in the afternoon or 8 o'clock in the evening, going into a building, I think that you can reasonably assume that there will be a serious party tonight. The question is, if you have good security, one, they should see that. Two, there must be a policy, and there has to be an issue even about the whole underaged-drinking issue, because there's no way in the world I'm ever going to believe that everybody who comes to the party is 20 or over. It is not possible. It exceeds the 21 bounds of the laws of average in anybody's common sense. So you have to have a zero-tolerance policy on underage drinking to start. Now, does that mean that every young person is going to adhere to that policy or no 112 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 young person is ever going to have some drink of alcohol? No. I mean, it's not even realistic. The question is, how much is going on, what's the level of it, and is it one can of beer or is it ten? Because we know that there is a big difference in just behavior with the one versus the other. So all of those issues have to be dealt with, at least in accordance with the bill, a much more stepped-up security plan, a much more intensified examination of the behaviors and activities that are going on, a much more watchful eye. In the buildings where they have the master lease situation, it is my understanding -- you may have a different experience 'cause you're right there -- that some of those behaviors have been modified. My concern, though, is also in the buildings where there's not the master lease situation, where you just have people renting in the open marketplace. I think there has to be a requirement that the University put people in those buildings once you cross a certain threshold. 113 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695 Because what you are really having the experience of is a dormitory-like experience in an uncontrolled environment. So those are the kinds of things that we're looking to do. We know we have work to do. Your testimony is helpful to this situation. I'm sure some of you are wondering why you came up at the time you came up. Obviously, we needed to have the City people on, we needed to have some of the building owners on, but I thought it also important that we kind of conclude the hearing with additional testimony from residents so that we are left with what the real deal is.

Can I just add one other thing, please?

Sure

Also, I'm sure, I always like to believe that -- I know it's not the whole student body. I always like to say it's at least 10 percent. I mean, why can't they target that 10 percent? I'm sure it's repeated and it's happening in the same areas, the same buildings every day, so it's just a small percentage of students, not the whole student body. 114 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE, BILL 010695

We will work on that.

Thank you. We also have some letters that have been given to the so stenographer for the record, and the committee members have received them. Is there anyone else to testify? (No response.)

That concludes the public hearing. We will now go into the public meeting for the amendment to Bill 020201. - - - 115 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE - PUBLIC MEETING

Amend under Section 3 9-105, Penalties, Subsection and Subsection by inserting Chapter 9-702 to the list. Amend , 9-702, Carnivals, under Subsection 2 a. by removing the statement "hold or conduct a carnival" and inserting the statement "operate any ride or attraction at any carnival." Amend , under Subsection (d) by inserting the language, "a temporary carnival license will cover all rides and attractions in operation at a carnival. The failure to obtain a temporary carnival prior to operating any ride or attraction at a carnival may result in [.1] a fine of $300 for each attraction or ride that is illegally operated. Each day the ride or attraction is operated without a license shall constitute a repeat violation." Add "[.2] The immediate issuance of a cease-operations notice." Change the existing Subsection d. to Subsection 8.

Okay. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter for a motion on the amendment to Bill 020201. 116 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE - PUBLIC MEETING

Mr. Chairman, I move that the amendments, as read into the record, to Bill 020201 be adopted. (Duly seconded.)

All those in favor. The amendment passes. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter for a motion on Bill 020201, as amended.

Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill 020201, as amended, be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and a further recommendation that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session. (Duly seconded.)

Duly noted and seconded. All those in favor? Anybody opposed, no? The ayes have it. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter for a motion on Bill 020164.

Hold on for a second. 117 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE - PUBLIC MEETING Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill 020164 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation.

Do we have a second? (Duly seconded.)

Seconded. All those in favor? Opposed? None. Seeing no opposition, that bill 12 passes -- out of committee at least. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter for Bill 010695.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me just make a quick statement. Mr. Chairman, obviously by the testimony at the earlier public hearing, there's additional work that needs to be done on this particular bill. At the same time, as I mentioned earlier, I do need to get a bill passed before we get out of session. What I'd like to ask is if we could have this bill reported out of committees. I will not request any action be taken in terms of second 118 4/24/02 L&I COMMITTEE - PUBLIC MEETING reading and final passage until there's a full set of amendments having been discussed with all of the various parties who are concerned about this bill, but I would like to have the bill out of committee and I'll keep working on it and bring a full sets of amendments in and share them with all the members of the committee. Having said that, I would ask that Bill 10 010695 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)

A motion has been made and it's duly seconded. All those in favor, aye? Opposed? Seeing none, it passes out of committee. And this concludes the public hearing and the public meeting. Thank you for Licenses and Inspections.

Thank you. (Proceedings end at 12:37 p.m.) - - - 119 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia's meeting of the Committee on Licences and Inspections of Wednesday, April 24, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: Ordinance No.'s 010695, 020164, 020201 _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)