address
Lord Michael Carpenter
all right mr gossett as an officer of the court we'll stipulate that your client would have
adopted your testimony are there any questions from the board no no no no one else would like
to testify in this case if so please raise your hand miss bond uh i'm sorry uh mr chair miss
bond's hand raised a few moments ago i will allow her to speak right now okay thank you
miss bond you have been allowed to speak please wait to be sworn in
please identify yourself with the records by your full name and uh swear you in yeah good morning
Thank you, everyone.
You can't believe in media, Bon.
Tell your first name and last name.
First name, spelled A-M-E-L-I-E.
Last name, B-O-H-N, Bon.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Mr. Gossett?
Yes, Ms. Bon, good morning.
Good morning.
Can you tell, you heard the testimony that I gave with regards to the presentation?
Okay, do you accept everything that I said as truth for this particular hearing only?
Is there anything that you would like to add to the board, for the board to hear?
Well, I can't talk, you can.
Yes, and I will also have the owner of the property to elaborate on something because of my eyesight of English.
I think we got that.
I just want to ask the court reporter, were you able to get, I think it's Bond?
Bond's testimony, did you get her full name?
Yes, I have her name.
Okay, all right, so we can move on, Mr. Gossett.
Any questions from the board?
Would anyone else like to testify in this case?
If so, please raise your hand.
I have a Mr. Kyle Sampson whose hand is raised.
Mr. Sampson, please identify yourself with a record, first and last name.
Good morning.
My name is Kyle Sampson, 255 South 58th Street.
With the West Philadelphia Economic Development Council,
So we were the coordinating RCO for this application.
Would you please spell your first and last name?
K-Y-L-E-S-A-M-P-S-O-N.
Thank you.
You swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, sir.
Please proceed.
We were the coordinating RCO for this matter.
I think the attorney got the numbers a little, the vote a little confused.
But the applicant provided 54 signatures of community support for the project.
Many residents said that a restaurant would be good in the area because there is no restaurant.
And we strongly support this application.
Thank you.
Thank you for your time.
Anyone else would like to testify?
Please raise your hand.
here we have we do have lloyd carpenter who's standing by to testify carpenter yes
lloyd identify yourself first and last name lloyd carpenter l-l-o-y-d-c-a-r-p-e-n-t-e-r
do you swear in the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes please proceed sir i'm opposed to the restaurant for several reasons
one the numbers that they're presenting to you is not the letter that kyle simpson sent to us
it was he suggested that there were eight no's and seven yeses in his letter that was sent to the
46th Ward RCO
and now they're saying that
they have signatures of over
50 some people
so that's depends on who you want to believe and i have a copy of his letter that he sent
so that's
depends on who you want to believe
to zba second of all in the first meeting that we had it was not over 10 people in that meeting
it was the block captain of the 5400 block of north fork was the jason right behind the
restaurant myself the democratic committee person for that division and resident for 5430
webster street there was a miss katherine blunt um who is the chairperson for the rto for the 46th
ward there was nicole crawford another committee person adjacent to my division sir so you're
going to need to speak for yourself. Okay. Well, I'm just saying the letter that he sent us is
not the same thing that he sent to y'all, obviously. He meaning Mr. Sampson? Mr. Sampson.
Okay. We'll look at the file. We'll look at the file. Okay. The other thing is I've been here,
i've been in this neighborhood for over 60 years okay and i have a responsibility
okay to be responsible for what goes on in my area uh the alley that they showed you
there's no way you're going to get a dumpster back there the alley is too narrow
and in the front if you which i should have took the pictures but you have 54th and christian
and you run right into baltimore avenue you got the trolley you have another angle from baltimore
avenue where if you want to go down 54th street cars are coming from that angle you have cars
coming up christian street that's going into baltimore avenue and i'm saying you can sit
there any day and watch cars trying to beat the trolley and almost creating accidents
that aisle in there the barbershop they park up on the island but there is no parking in the
neighborhood plus we've had several shootings in this neighborhood all down 55th street 54th street
so is it safe to say the issue this you hear is the bar the the guy that has the barber shop
he doesn't want a restaurant next to his store because he's saying it's going to create a problem
sir again you need to speak on for yourself you can't speak for the
the barber or anyone else just speak speak to the issue of what your objection is
mr carpenter you can unmute yourself i muted you please do not speak when the chair is speaking
oh i'm sorry i hit by accident no problem there's no parking in that area for a sit-down restaurant
all they're going to do is create a bottleneck and god forbid out of that would come out of that
and the residents on
Norfolk Street, Webster Street, and
54th and Christian are opposed
to this.
We're going to look at...
I need to interrupt you. You keep
talking about other folks. So we're going to look at
the file and see
if we can make sense of
what you're saying and what Mr. Simpson
is saying. But obviously there's conflicting
statements.
So we'll look at the file.
Okay. All right.
Anyone else who will testify in this case?
Mr. Chair, I have a Celeste Hardister with her hand raised.
I will allow her to speak right now.
Good morning, ma'am.
Please identify yourself with the record.
Spell your first and last name.
Provide us with your address.
Good morning.
I'm Celeste Hardister, C-E-L-E-S-T-E, Hardister, H-A-R-D-E-S-T-E-R,
at 368 Green Lane, Philadelphia, 19128.
You're swearing up for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And where is Green Lane in relationship to 5405 Christian Street?
Green Lane is nowhere near.
I am testifying in the capacity of being a longtime friend of Amelia Bond.
She took care of my mother in her last days.
I know Amelia to be a responsible person who would fulfill what she says she will fulfill.
So if she says she's going to take care of the trash, she will do that. I can see in the photograph
that a dumpster is not a possibility here, but that certainly doesn't mean that trash can't be
A dumpster is not a possibility here, but that certainly doesn't mean that trash can't be taken care of responsibly.
So she would do that.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
We have no one further, Commissioner.
Thank you.
Planning Commissioner.
Thank you, Chair DeChico.
I'm so sorry, Chair.
If I could interrupt before Ian gives his recommendation.
there are two more hands up would you mind if they speak oh okay i'm sorry i thought we were
finished yes thank you i have a miss nicole crawford i can allow her to speak right now sir
good morning miss crawford please identify yourself with a record first and last name
spell your name i'm sorry my name is nicole crawford n-i-c-o-l-e-c-r-a-w-f-o-r-d i am
a community person for the 20th division 46 ward um and i live and do you swear and affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth indeed i do please proceed um i live off of 55th
Baltimore Avenue, which is about a block away from the proposed restaurant. When we met with
Ms. Bond, we did share a lot of our concerns with it. As Mr. Lloyd said, one of the concerns or my
concerns is the parking and the foot traffic. We have had a lot of shootings around that area
and it's already a high trafficking area. If it's a sit-down restaurant, and I do believe based on
what I mean, they wanted to be a BYOB. I definitely oppose of that because when it's a BYOB,
generally people can bring as much alcohol at their table as they would like. And we just don't
want any type of loitering and open bottles any more than what we already have, as well as possible
people stumbling out intoxicated and public urination and things of that nature. It is a
residential block even though that property has been used for a commercial use before but
it's been a very calm kind of a usage so that so the neighborhood we know we supported that but at
this time I don't believe that this is a good match for our neighborhood at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, anyone else?
I have a Ms. Sylvia Murphy whose hand is raised,
I can allow her to speak right now.
Thank you, Ms. Murphy, please identify yourself
with the record and I swear you're in.
miss murphy please unmute yourself okay can you hear me okay awesome please identify yourself
and i'll swear you in my name is sylvia murphy i live on 733 south of the coast street
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i think you have another device on
pardon me
we're getting an echo
do you have on two devices
oh yes
you have to mute one of them
because there is an echo
okay great
all is well
okay so my concern is
parking in the area
I live
one block around the corner
from the establishment.
And the parking definitely affects all the way around the corner.
Traffic flow,
just trash, and people walking to and fro,
it's overwhelming, it's congested,
especially during rush hour
in the area.
um the the um uh i forgot my point that that's just a major concern i have a 10 year old daughter
who who um goes to the corner sometimes and i just don't want her to be uh overwhelmed or or
afraid because there is has been a lot of shootings um there is a corner store as well
the children frequent to go get potato chips and pretzels and she's afraid to go over there now
and afraid of crossing the street in that area. So that's just some points.
crossing the street in that area. So that's just some points.
I also have my black captain, Gerald Dabney, that would like to speak on Norfolk Street,
if he's allowed. Yeah, please, sir, please give us your full name,
personal last name, spell your name for us. My name is Gerald Dabney, G-E-R-A-L-D,
be any why.
You're swearing for him to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and we're getting a lot of feedback.
Do you have another device on?
Okay, try it again.