COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Friday, February 23, 2024 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL, CHAIR COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER
I now note that the hour has come. Mr. Golden, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate that you are present when your name is called.
Present. Good morning, Mr. Chair, colleagues and viewing public.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections regarding Bill No. 10 240013. Mr. Golden, will you please read the title of the bill.
Amending Chapter 9-600 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Service and Other Businesses," by adding a new section regulating the hours of operation of certain establishments and providing for penalties within an area bounded by East Lehigh Avenue, Kensington Avenue, D Street, East Tioga Street and Frankford Avenue, all under certain terms and conditions.
Calling witnesses for Bill No. 2 240013. Mr. Golden, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this morning.
From the Administration, we have Deputy Commissioner Francis Healy from the Philadelphia Police Department. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good morning, Commissioner. Will you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Sure. Good morning, Councilmember Driscoll and -- Vice-Chair's not here -- and other members of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections. My name's Fran Healy. I'm the Director of the Philadelphia Police Department. On behalf of Commissioner Bethel, thank you for allowing the Police Department the opportunity to voice its opinion on Bill No. 240013, creating a commercial establishment curfew in the Kensington area. As you know as part of the Mayor's Executive Order issued on January 2, 2024, the Police Commissioner has been tasked with developing a strategy among other strategies to permanently shut down all pervasive open air drug markets including, but not limited to, the open air drug markets in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Commissioner Bethel appointed Pedro Rosario as our Deputy Commissioner to specifically oversee this development or the development and implementation of the strategy. As such, the PPD is very grateful for any additional tools that can be used to assist and accomplish in our mission. For this reason, the PPD fully supports the creation of the commercial establishment curfew for businesses between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. We believe this curfew can positively impact crime and disorder that historically occurs during the overnight hours. Equally important, we believe this bill can create a synergy with a plan being developed by the PPD to address not only open air drug markets but the overall quality of life for residents in the Kensington area. With that said, I'd like to specifically thank Councilmembers Lozada, Harrity and Phillips for introducing this bill. On behalf of the Commissioner, again thank you for allowing us the opportunity to voice our opportunity and I'll be happy to answer any questions. That concludes my testimony.
Commissioner, thank you for your testimony. I don't know if we have any questions from the panel for the Commissioner.
I just have one question. Deputy Commissioner, thank you for your testimony this morning. Can you speak to what you all in the police department have found within that target area as it relates to business activity that you all have to respond to between that 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.? What is the type of calls you all receive to address in that area? How does it impact the community from your standpoint, and have you all had an opportunity to talk to community residents about figuring out how you improve or change what is happening during the course of that time? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: The overall conditions -- thank you for the question. The overall conditions are as what we've seen, it's public disorder, open air drug use and a lot of it is associated and has a nexus to certain businesses, especially in the afterhours. So being able to actually shut down the business would be incredibly helpful for us to kind of break the cycle that's occurring there on a regular basis. So we're appreciative of that aspect of it. I haven't talked to the community about this personally, but the issue is making sure that the quality of life is really what the whole Kensington initiative is about, open air drug market, that's all a factor of it, but improving the overall quality of life. The ability to actually remove some of the disorder that happens overnight allows us to get a foothold so we can actually -- the plan that is being developed will have a greater likelihood of success if we're not dealing with additional issues overnight. So it's an arrow and a quiver of tools that we can use, so we're very appreciative of that. In the overall, we're going to use everything humanly possible that we can do to address the problem and resolve the problem, but anything that you can offer such as this bill is greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Commissioner. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEALY: Thank you, sir.
And before we call our next panel, I was remiss, Councilwoman Lozada. I just want to thank you for introducing this bill. I think it's very necessary and I commend you on that. And you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. As I mentioned, I'm always grateful for the partners that I have on the ground who consistently talk about ways or as we have been talking about in the past few months, what tools can we add to the tool box to better improve what is happening within that geographical area or not just in that geographical area, but across the 7th Council District as well as in the City. And so, I want to say thank you to community residents who have taken the time to reach out to me, to the community businesses within that footprint who consistently reach out to talk about some of the challenges that they experience even after their business is closed and what they show up to the next morning because of the activities that happen between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. There are many who have reached out who have asked us to try to further expand that target area. And we want folks to know that we hear them. We are working with our Law Department, with our Commerce Department and with others to try to make that possible. At this particular time, unfortunately we've been asked to just specifically stick to the target area where everything is kind of happening at the moment until we figure out what the kinks are and then consider expanding the target area to be able to incorporate those other neighborhoods, but I'm grateful for community input. Everything that we are doing through this bill as well as through the Caucus work has been to improve quality of life for residents, but we also have a responsibility to respond to the businesses in that area because we recognize that they are the economic engines of neighborhoods, and we want to make sure that we are doing what we possibly can to further provide support to those businesses as best we can through our very targeted work. So thank you very much. Thank you to this Committee for setting up this hearing as soon as you have and for all of the support that we've received.
Well, thank you, Councilwoman. No 20 question, your passion not only for the folks that need help down there but the people that live there and the businesses that are trying to conduct commerce, so we appreciate that. Mr. Golden, could you call the second panel.
Ms. Kimberly Washington, Executive Director at the Frankford Community Development Corporation. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good morning. Can you please state your name for the record?
Good morning, Chairman Driscoll and other members of the Committee. I'm Kimberly Washington. I'm the Executive Director from the Frankford Community Development Corporation. As most of you know, our neighborhood is just north of Kensington. And so, I want to start off by commending the residents and the organizations in Kensington. They have really been resilient in their efforts to have the City officials address what we believe is cleaning up Kensington, improving the quality of life and providing services that are vital to the City's success of showing up as a world class city. I also commend Mayor Parker for placing this issue at the top of her agenda in her 100-day plan, action plan for the City, and the Councilmembers who have recently formed the Kensington Caucus which aims to execute a neighborhood-driven plan to address this crisis. And finally, I commend Councilman Jones on his recent bill 22 to ban the gaming machines because we also see it as part of these nuisance businesses that operate 24/7 and kind of contribute to this. However, I want to caution the City from looking at this as an isolated issue that only impacts Kensington. While Kensington is ground zero and has by far seen the worst of the epidemic and certainly deserves every resource and enforcement effort, the Frankford neighborhood which is only separated by one train stop, that's the area in Torresdale Station, is also a very vulnerable neighborhood with very similar demographics when it comes to racial makeup, poverty, educational attainment, vacancy, blight and disinvestment. Bill No. m. m. We understand and appreciate the need for this legislation because similar to Kensington, Frankford has a number of what we call smoke shops and businesses that operate with food establishment licenses, but they barely sell any food that have hours that extend for 6 hours. 7 These establishments have 8 also served as a nuisance on our 9 commercial corridor. And several 10 of them have been shut down on 11 numerous occasions by L&I and by 12 the Health Department, but they 13 soon open right back up within a 14 day or two. They have been a site 15 for illegal drug sales, 16 prostitution, shootings and other 17 violent crimes. 18 During COVID we've seen a 19 number of these 24/7 convenience 20 stores open up along the commercial 21 corridor, leaving us with about 22 three or four every block of 23 Frankford Avenue between Church 24 Street and Bridge Street. That's how concentrated it is. So again, we understand and appreciate what you're aiming to do with this bill. However, to limit the bill from Lehigh to Tioga leaves Frankford in a very vulnerable place. Like I said, we're only separated by one train stop. , right, because L&I is not out there to shut them down, Health Department is not out there, a lot of people are not out there calling the cops, so that is the height of the activity. If you close it down in Kensington from 11:00 to 6:00, they can come right up the street, and we have three to four on every block on our commercial corridor, and that activity will simply move from one place to the other. So again, we are in support of the bill. We are just simply asking that you consider extending the boundaries from Lehigh to Bridge Street because that's where the close transit connectivity between the commercial corridor ends. There's a significant difference between the commercial corridor and Frankford. And where you pick up Driscoll in Mayfair, there isn't those same types of businesses. It isn't that dense corridor. So folks would have a long distance to travel before they pick up another smoke shop that's operating 24/7. So please consider us in this legislation and extend the boundaries. Thank you.
Well, thank you for your testimony. For the record, I want to note that Vice-Chairman Squilla has joined us. And I know that Councilwoman Lozada would like to make some comments.
I want to say thank you for all of your work along the Frankford corridor. I know that you are a small CDC, but your work is great, your work is broad. And so, I just want to make sure for the record we note that or I note that we appreciate your work. Completely understand your concern and I agree with what you said, right. Deputy Commissioner Healy left, but we have had this conversation with Deputy Commissioner Rosario who will be responsible for that Kensington initiative, who has also spoken to the Inspector and the Captain at the 15th Police District, ensuring them that the work that we're doing in Kensington will expand out to that Bridge and Pratt terminal. And so, although it's not part of the very targeted area that is specifically identified here, know that we have had those conversations because we do understand the concern. And we have heard from you and the residents in the Frankford community. And so, we need your support. We need the residents to keep us aware, to keep us accountable of what is happening in your community as soon as it happens so that we can make the necessary adjustments and provide the resources necessary to be able to protect that commercial corridor. You have that commitment.
I just want to say that that activity -- so notifying when it starts, that activity is already afoot in Frankford. So I understand expanding enforcement. However, if we allow them to remain open, then again that activity just increases. So I appreciate the City's efforts to expand enforcement up there, but I think that businesses need to be closed so that they don't have access to what they have access to in Kensington. So I think that's the important piece that we're looking for, closure.
Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions from -- Councilman Phillips.
Thank you, Chairman Driscoll. I too want to cosign and say thank you for your testimony. We in the 9th District, and I know other City Councilmembers are also looking to initiatives similar to this because we're greatly concerned about this issue not just being an isolated issue in Kensington, but an issue that is around the City of Philadelphia. We're in conversations as well with how this looks. We want to at least talk to residents and stakeholders to see because at the end of the day, what the Mayor wants and what the Kensington Caucus, especially with Councilmember Lozada, we have no 18 intentions in the City to make sure that this becomes an issue for someone else, you know. So once we clear this up, it's going to be clear. And I want you to know that this Council is committed to making sure we're not dumping it off to some other place. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. Any other questions or comments for the panel? (No response.)
Thank you. And do we have any other testifiers, Mr. Golden?
That's for public comment. We'll get to that shortly. Mr. Golden, will you please call the first person making public comment we have to testify this morning on the bill before this Committee today.
The first person for public comment is Archie Farley. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good morning. Can you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Yes. My name is Archie Farley. I'm here representing the Community Action Relief Program, CARP. We're located in Kensington at Kensington and Lehigh. We come out and we try to show people that they are still humans, that we care just because they're being a human being. I spoke with this young lady about the shelter system and our way of trying to help when people think there is no help. I'm here as the voice of Kensington Avenue as saying we're trying to take Kensington one block at a time. Like I said, we're called Community Action Relief Program. We come out every Sunday. We give out food. We give out clothes. We have two on-call nurses for people for wound care. We have two registered counselors. If you're really serious and you want to get your life together, we can make a phone call and get you in somewhere. This is one of the volunteers. We try to show people that they are still human beings out there and that Kensington Avenue needs to be addressed as a whole, not part here, part there. It needs to be addressed as from Bridge Street to Front Street. Because if you move them from there, they're only going to find somewhere else to go. If there's nowhere for them to get the treatments and things that they need to better their life, they just going to be -- it's just going to be a revolving door. I've been on both sides of that table so I know what it is to be -- I walk up and down Kensington Avenue. I talk to anybody that listens and tell them as long as you're part of that picture, you can't see yourself. But if someone can pull you from that picture and paint it to you with no sugar coats, no rose-colored glasses, nothing, 9 times out of 10 they're not going to want to go back to that picture. Everybody in Kensington knows me as Uncle Joe. And I have people run up to me and say, that conversation that you talked to me that day, you changed my life, my mom lets me back in the house now, she's not following me around thinking that I'm going to take something because you talked to me that day, and I'm in the program now, you know, can I buy you something. And I say, I don't want anything from you. You want to make me happy, continue doing what you're doing. Tell someone else your story because just talking to someone might change their life. Thank you for letting me speak.
Thank you for what you're doing down there and thank you for your testimony. I would like to recognize Councilman Squilla.
I'm going to reiterate what Mr. Chair said. We appreciate the services. And understanding the whole Kensington plan, it's not to move people around and put them into different neighborhoods and to spread them into East Oak Lane or Southwest. The goal is to understand and control an issue that's happening in an area, but this is a citywide program. This is going to be a citywide program that's going to be not only dictated by an area where Deputy Rosario is, but all other Captains in areas and places throughout the City will also have the same direction. Now, there will be a lot of resources in that area to hopefully address -- that is the epicenter of some of the challenges we have to help the people off the street. So the goal is to get as many people into help as you can. And you're doing part of that with us, and we want to partner with anybody who's trying to help people get into recovery and get off the streets, but the goal is not just to move them north or west or east or anywhere. So --
No, I wasn't insinuating that we were moving people to different places. What I was saying is that if you clean up the Kensington area like we've been seeing them coming in the morning telling people they can't sleep out here, they can't sleep in front of businesses, I've seen -- I've been all over the City and I've seen places where they used to didn't be and they are now because the police activity has been increased in the park they call Needle Park. So now that they're not allowed to be there after certain hours, they're going into areas where they're infesting areas that --
Those other areas will have the same rules as the areas you see in Kensington. So if they're going to tell somebody that you can't be in a tent in front of somebody's house on Kensington Avenue, if they move into South Philly --
-- they're going to say, listen, you can't be in a tent in front of somebody's house there. If you go into West Philly and you're in front of somebody's house and you want to put your tent up, they're going to say you can't put your tent -- we want to help those folks get into services. The goal working with our outreach workers that are citywide, the focus is in the Kensington area, but we have outreach workers throughout the whole city of Philadelphia. And our goal is to address those wherever the need is, right. And if somebody wants to move from Kensington into West Philly or South Philly, then when they do that, our outreach workers will --
Yes, we spoke because I'm also one of the members of Act Up, an organization that comes out at 15th and Cherry every Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. and we have counsel there. We have food. We have non-perishable items that we give out. I try to stay busy in the City. I'm part of like three different nonprofit organizations that I volunteer with that we try to help in the City as best as we can. And with y'all help and our hope, we should be able to conquer this.
Thank you so much for the services that you provide in that community. I think it's important to know and to just follow up on what Councilmember Squilla just mentioned, you know, the work that we're doing in Kensington is going to take all of us. And every single provider out there providing a service is important, but they need to be responsible providers, right.
I think for a really long time we have seen billions of dollars getting poured into the Kensington community for the same types of services. We have some providers that are better than others. And what you should know is that we will continue to work with those providers who are responsible providers, who are good neighbors to the residents of Kensington with the goal of breaking up the concentration that is happening there because containment has not worked for a really long time.
And we are not looking towards moving people into other neighborhoods but into programs that will provide them opportunities to live healthy lives because they deserve it, right --
-- because the neighbors of the Kensington community deserve it. And so, while these decisions that we are making at the moment may be difficult and everyone will not agree with us at the beginning because change is hard, they are necessary. Change is necessary, but we are committed to working as partners with everyone that is in that footprint that is providing a service to those who are suffering from addiction or to the residents who call Kensington home to ensure that quality of life is restored in that community.
And to me, you couldn't ask for anything better. I mean, I lived on Clearfield and Wolf. I watched Kensington go from a flourishing community to walking zombies. And like I said, I talk to anybody that listens. And I tell them, this is a lie. And as long as you're part of this lie, you can't see yourself. But if someone can care enough about you as a human being to pull you from this and show you with no sugar coat or nothing, I might just save your life. And one time in my life I was one of those people and someone talked to me and I listened. And that's why I'm here today and this is why I do what I do because everyone deserves a chance. What you do with that chance is between you and God, but everyone should deserve a chance.
Thank you for your testimony and thank you for coming today.
You're welcome. Mr. Golden, will you call the next presenter for public comment.
With that noted, I would like to thank all of the witnesses joining us today. There being no further questions from the members of the Committee and no other witnesses to testify on Bill No. 240013, I will ask if there's anyone else present in this hearing whose name we've failed to call and that wishes to offer testimony on the bill being considered? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank the panels and the witnesses for their participation today. We do value your opinions. This concludes the public hearing of the Committee. We will now go into a public meeting to consider the action to be taken on the bill before this Committee today. We will now convene the public meeting. Mr. Golden, will you please call the roll.
Present. The Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 240013.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 240013. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 18 240013 be approved.
The Chair notes that Councilmember Phillips seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill 1 No. 240013 be approved. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The 9 ayes have it, the motion carries 10 and the amendment to Bill No. 11 240013 has been approved. 12 The Chair recognizes 13 Councilmember Squilla for a motion 14 on Bill 240013 as amended. 15
Thank 16 you, Mr. Chair. 17 I move that Bill No. 240013 18 as amended be reported from this 19 Committee with a favorable 20 recommendation and further move 21 that the rules of Council be 22 suspended as to permit the first 23 reading of this bill at the next 24 session of Council. 25
The Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Phillips seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 8 240013 as amended be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. And this concludes the business before the Committee on Licenses and Inspections today. Thank you all very much for your attendance. (Committee on Licenses and Inspections concluded at 10:40 a.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL