And trash removal won't be once a week as the RCO alleged, but in fact, after every event. Is that correct?
Yes, after each event.
Did you attend the RCO meeting on February 13th?
I did.
What was your experience in trying to secure the meeting over the last several months?
Well, we've had a lot of issues just even getting the meeting scheduled.
We started requesting meetings, I think, in November.
I've asked four or five times and then reached out to you to see if you could get some movement on just getting the community meeting help.
Thankfully, I received an email on January 17th stating when the meeting would be held.
after repeated attempts. Okay, and the refusal was issued May of 2022, is that right? Yes, sir.
Okay, almost a year. What was the, your, I'm sorry, to your knowledge, were there neighbors
in support of your project that had difficulty being admitted to the meeting and were stuck in
the waiting room? Yes, and thankfully that meeting was recorded. I, myself, and some other members
on the call, we held the call up because there were people trying to access the call from the
community and they were not allowed in. Many people said that they kept calling or kept trying
to log into the meeting and just said, waiting for host, waiting for host, and we're not allowed
in. So I stopped the meeting, asked the host if she could let the other participants in. There was
some confusion going on. Somebody asked for some phone numbers. Somebody else said, yeah, people
were blowing their line up, trying to get onto the call. And for whatever reason, no one else
was allowed on. Okay. Then you went ahead after the meeting and met with those folks, showed them
your petition, your refusal, your poster, and secure the circulated petition signatures of over
80 folks that I presented as evidence today. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Around which
days did you do that? Do you remember? I started actually in January and secured about six or seven
I started actually in January and secured about six or seven, and then it was told that that isn't something that would be requested, that would be accepted.
And then it was told that that is.
But then after the community meeting, I know I have tremendous community support.
So I went door to door. I asked another one of the neighbors to help me, and we rounded up everybody that was in the directly impacted neighborhoods.
Because on the RCO call, people who live closer to the event space, the proposed event space, had more say than others, which makes, you know, perfect sense.
So I wanted to be sure that I spoke to everybody that was directly impacted on the streets of Myrtlewood, Hollywood, 29th Street, Gordon Street, Arizona Street, Huntington Street, and Dakota Street.
To make sure that these people in the neighborhood would be excited and something that this was, that they wanted to see.
And the first question that I was asked was, when would I open or how much would I charge for rent?
Because the residents of this area were excited about having an event space.
Another comment that I received was, well, we're glad that we have something that's close by.
We don't have to go far for events any longer, which I was excited to hear about that.
okay and uh is it your understanding that more than about 75 percent of the 80 plus signatures
are all from the immediate um impacted area yes absolutely that given to us by the planning
commission okay very good i have nothing further thank you i have another witness to call though
Okay, why don't we call your other witness and then we'll see if the board has any questions.
Thank you.
I'd like to call Ms. Tia Hardy.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Ms. Hardy?
If you're in the audience, raise your hand, please.
I don't see Ms. Hardy.
her head. Then I'll go to
Ms. Nadia Williams, please.
Ms. Williams?
Ms. Nadia Williams?
Ms. Williams,
can you raise your hand?
Ms. Nadia Williams.
Or Nadia.
Oh, there she is. Hold on.
Could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter?
Ms. Williams, can you unmute, please?
She's there.
She just needs to unmute herself.
Hello?
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
My name is Nadia Williams, N-A-D-I-A-W-I-L-L-I-A-N-S.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
proceed counsel thank you mr chair ms williams uh can can you state your address for the record
please 1832 north metronor street philadelphia and and that's within about two blocks of the
subject property is that right yes okay and what are your feelings about this particular proposal
for a private special event space?
I am in favor for the event space.
I think it's going to be a great asset to the community.
I have nothing further.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. There's two hands raised. One is the first one is Strawberry Mansion Community.
Put Strawberry Mansion Community on first.
Strawberry Mansion Community, you're allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Bonita Cummings, B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S.
Right. And I swore you in earlier today, so I don't have to swear you in so you can start testifying.
Okay, great. I just wanted to say that at this time, with the volatility of shootings and crime, specifically instrumentation, that this venue or type of venue is not, is injurious to the health, welfare, and safety of the most impacted neighbors.
we were not given um as evidence the petition so we don't really know who was on it
but the people that were in that meeting um were people who live on 20
But the people that were in that meeting were people who lived on 29th Street and the 2900 block connected to that property, connected to 2352 North 29th Street.
The people who live closest to the corner end of Hollywood Street, the 2400 block, Murderwood Street, the 2400 block, the block captain and assistant captain in the 2400 block of 29th Street and the neighbors closest to the corner, 2900 block of Arizona Street is impacted.
this is this uh property is really not even being described as it is more than just two units on a
floor above a um an event space it's it's several properties um collected together as one this
building is situated in a residential block it's residential it's a residential community it's not
a commercial corridor. So the impact to the community is agitated by what we are fighting
to secure peace in our neighborhood from an adjoining a property right across the street,
a nuisance business right across the street, which we've shown in our photos, that is a nuisance
business to our community right now who hold that corner up with violating uh our residents
with noise and um parking is blocking the 49 bus from turning on down onto york street which is
curving around the corner of that property that wants to be the event space the um
thing about people not getting on the the um meeting was hosted to the attorney so i'm not
really sure what went on with that so it may have been you know some situation around that but there
was no impropriety with people getting on the uh in getting on the meeting there was no intent of
keeping anyone out of the meeting the meeting was a proper meeting and the proper meeting was held
people that came to that meeting are people who are fear are in fear right now they're under
a lot of stress because every night on both ends of that corridor the the residential corridor the
2400 block of 29th street are two businesses that as you can see a lot of loitering goes on that
nobody seems to be able to get under control and what we're saying is that the agitation of
another type of business that brings the same type of atmosphere is what we're asking for
relief from at this time there may be a time when we can revisit it but at this time with the violence
and with the type of uh people that that venue bring whether it's small whether it's a birthday
party you can't say that you're in control of things somebody's drunk bring your own bottle
was discussed a lot of the things that the applicant is saying now she didn't say at the
at the meeting she didn't say when we asked about prior experience of even running on this type of
location so some of the things that are being addressed um today when we asked at the community
meeting like even you know other use now all of a sudden she's saying about people that did not
come forth when um at the meeting we asked about you know a consideration of maybe some other type
of business for right now so now it's like oh nobody wants to be in that space so these are um
things that are not true and and the the most important aspect to this is that this is a
residential community those photos that you see they don't show you the whole side of the street
that's residential property though there are families there there are families in arizona
street the the um insulation she's talking about is not proper insulation for audio the audio will
bounce out of that building back onto the arizona street uh community it'll bounce out onto the
york street side of the community it'll bounce out onto the 29th street side of the community
because everybody knows what how djs uh you know how they do with their music so we're saying as
the community that we have a lot of stress and a lot of violence right now at that corner and
along that street. Shootings that didn't make it to what the attorney presented are things that
are missing from that. We just had a shooting. A young man shot, ran up Stanley Street. He was
shot not in front of a lot. He was shot in front of a store. He was shot in front of a person's
residential property along that York Street corridor. So that's not true that, you know,
So that's not true that, you know, shootings only take places in front of lots.
So shootings only take places in front of lots.
These shootings.
These shootings are taking place in front of our properties and we're picking our children up off the ground.
Mothers are running around corners while their child, their children are trying to dial them on cell phones to say that they're shot.
And we're holding their hands and holding them and trying to, you know, survive them until some kind of ambulance or something can get there.
So we're saying for Philadelphia, and as we all know, right now is just too volatile and nobody can control the violence that can break out of a venue such as that.
And to say to us that you would place your property management person who is not the police, who to our understanding has no police authority in harm's way with what we know will be a problem because already is congestion at that corner with people who are parking all out into the street to get into the store that's open 24 hours.
that store is open 24 hours it never closed it's lit up all night long all kinds of problems are
going on with that location so our contention is that we need to be safe and right now that's
difficult and we're asking the board to not place us in a situation where we have to be burdened
with another venue that will add to the problems of what we're experiencing right at 2400
North 29th Street, which is directly across the street from that venue. And at the other end of
that corner is young men with vicious dogs. There's all types of things that go on in that
hundred that prevent us from even walking on the sidewalk. So we're trying to get our community
under control. We're the ones that's working to fight against the nuisances in our community,
and we've done the best that we can do, and we're continuing to work, but we're asking
that you not put more burdens on us while we have to stay there and live with it.
Ms. Altrina goes home with a proposed security person and a property that's not even completed,
so it's nowhere for him presently to either sleep. So even that was presented as if the
building was already completed. The building is not completed. So we're just saying that this is
too much violence. There's too much nuisance going on at that corner. Okay, I understand.
Thank you. Mr. Chigar, opportunity to cross-examine, please. Go ahead. Thank you.
Ms. Cummings, thank you for testifying this afternoon. The nuisance business that you speak
of across the street, are you aware that it is in fact code compliant?
If it's code compliant, it's code compliant because of the efforts taken on by my person
as a community organization.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
What I mean is-
Council member, Catherine Gilmore Richardson,
the fight that we have taken on,
we placed ourselves every day in harm's way
because we try to-
I'm sorry, ma'am.
I think you misunderstood my question.
Are you aware that it's zoned CMX-1
and the use is compatible with CMX-1?
miss you can unmute yourself that's what i meant by code compliant
are you aware that the use is a cmx1 use just like our property but as a cmx1 use
with you are aware of that is that correct i understand it's a nuisance i just want to make
sure you want you do understand that is that right well you're asking me but it's not just
that simple. It's not just, oh, it's a CMS-1. Ma'am, it's a yes or no answer, please,
so we can move this along. Thank you. I appreciate that's a yes. You answered that in the affirmative.
Speaking of the signatures, did my client not attempt to discuss with you collecting and
submitting signatures to you prior to the RCO meeting? We had no signature presented to us
prior to the meeting. She started prior to the meeting. We had no signatures submitted to us
prior to the meeting. Is it not true that you told her that you would not take into account
any signatures given to you? No, what I said was that it's to try and use petitions of farther
away people than people closest to that venue that came out. Sometimes we don't even get
the attendance that we got in such a volatile situation because of the fear that people have.
the attendance that we got in such a volatile situation because of the fear that people had,
but people came to that meeting that lived near that venue.
Ma'am, I just asked you about the signatures. Did you tell her not to bother with the signatures?
I did not tell her not to bother with the signatures.
Okay, thank you. Again, you testified that this is not just one single property,
but in fact it's a series of properties. Did you get a chance to review the refusal?
yes okay and do you did you we've lived in that community
ma'am again did you were you able to read the area where it says address and in fact it just
identifies one property uh seeking the appeal to the refusal 2352 north 29th no other properties
Were you able to review that?
And you spoke about the sound mitigation and noise absorption materials that my client hopes to use if she's granted the variance, either permanently or on a temporary basis.
And you said it wouldn't be enough.
Did you get a chance to review the materials that we were going to use?
Only from what you sent as a exhibit, your exhibit material.
Okay, so the answer would be no, you didn't really get the chance to look at any specific specs on any materials that we are proposing to use for sound mitigation. Is that right?
For that, no, you're right.
And you're not a sound engineer, is that right?
No, but I've worked with sale engineers, and we've done many event venue matters, and we are intelligent and educated to what that requires.
I understand. Are you familiar with a Daryl Roundtree, Ms. Cummings?
Yes, I am.