My name is William Brennan. I live at 624 South 26th Street. I've been a resident of this area, my family has, since 1832. I'm against the L&I function as they stand because it's dead space. There are no eyes. There are no homes. Now, the same thing would happen with the school, the school expansion. There would be no eyes, no one to see what was going on. And I'm particularly concerned about the safety issue, because my wife was held up at gunpoint, and the same dead space. So what we don't need there is more dead spaces. We need eyes. We need families. We need people. 114 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 That's all I have to say.
One more thing. I want to thank President Verna for her prompt response to my letter.
Hi. I'm Stephanie Lanchoney. I live at 2526 Naudain Street and I am across the school and next to -- on the same street where the property sits. And I just want to make a point here, that a big concern of mine is security. I've been living here. All my friends live in the suburbs, and I wanted to live in the City, and I found a great neighborhood. And we looked for a long time. And Naudain Street provided the safety and security that we felt we could raise our children and live here 115 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 for a long time and live in the City. There's reasons why we decided to buy. Number one being security and the neighborhood feel. You don't get this anywhere else in the City, except really -- we couldn't find it anywhere else except right here on Naudain Street. Everybody knows each other. Everybody looks out for each other. And that is something so important when you are a young couple looking to buy and you are getting forced to live in the suburbs, but you want to live in the City. So we said, You know what, we're going to live in the City. The L&I building right now, it's not pretty, but it's secure. I would love to see homes there, and the reason we'd love to see homes there is not that I'm against a school. I love kids. I have a nine-month-old and I hope to raise him in the City and I hope to send him to public school, and I think by having homes here, it's going to increase 116 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 our security for the eyes and ears. When I walk home, I park my car on 25th Street or Naudain Street, and just to walk that one block, it's not pleasant to walk down that one block to have an empty building with no eyes, no 8 neighbors looking out for you. And I'm afraid if a school goes up there, when they get the money, when they decide to build, which we don't know when that is, there's not going to be someone looking out for me when I walk from my car. And neighbors do that, and that's a big difference. You can't do that with a school lot. You can't do that with an empty property. I want to reiterate that there's been a lot of break-ins recently. This wasn't -- I haven't lived here except for maybe three years, but we never saw this the first year. In the past six months, we've seen two break-ins and we've seen -- my neighbor across the street, which is right next to the school 117 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 parking lot, was robbed at gunpoint on her doorstep. Can you imagine how she feels security-wise? And then when she asks the school -- because the guy that broke into her house jumped over the fence that is a part of the school property. Can you imagine how she would feel when they say, Well, you know what, that's something we have to decide later. We don't have later. I have an alley that would sit directly behind the new lot, the alley that would connect directly behind that school lot. My concern is security. How can I be concerned -- or how can I be sure that they're going to secure my alleyway and all my neighbors' alleyways when on the other side of the street they haven't even done anything and there's been two robberies and a guy that broke into her house from their property and they've done nothing about it? So my concern is how can I be sure that they're going to do something 118 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 about the security on my lot?
My name is Sandy Rosenfeld. I live at 2505 Naudain Street. When I saw the sign saying "vote yes for education," I kind of felt like the people who were here today in opposition are against education, and that's so not true. And I, for one, I worked more than years for the School 16 District of Philadelphia. I am very much 17 in favor of education, and I love kids, 18 and I even love the little squealing that 19 I hear from the playground. And I do 20 hear it. It did bother me like in the 21 morning, so I moved my bedroom from the 22 back of the house, which faces the 23 present school on Lombard, to the front 24 of the house, which is on Naudain Street. 25 Well, if there's a school at Naudain 119 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 Street, I have nowhere to move. And I do have a problem with the people on Naudain Street being sandwiched in between two schools. As Marianne said, we already have a Philadelphia School. One should be enough. If they wanted to build upwards, that could be an option. If they wanted to find another site -- and there are some sites nearby -- that could be an option. But to sandwich us in, to basically take us and unwillingly make us -- they're incorporating us into their campus. We don't choose to be part of their campus. And I do have to say this, sadly: I keep hearing about their being a good neighbor, and from my personal experiences, where they have the parking lot and the fence, they own that strip of maybe 40 or 50 linear feet, which for 20 years of my living there they never once shoveled. There were patches of ice there that would stay there until they 120 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 melted, sometimes for weeks. And it wasn't until I sprained my ankle falling on their ice that I went in that they started occasionally, after years of 6 never shoveling, they did occasionally 7 shovel. 8 They removed some trees and for 9 years left stumps where the trees were. 10 But the biggest problem for me was when 11 they put in an air conditioning system 12 that was so loud, so very loud that I 13 could no longer sit in my backyard and 14 have dinner, because it was on all day 15 until 7 o'clock at night. Actually, 16 until 8 o'clock at night. I'm sorry. 17 And finally when they were asked to do 18 something about it, to put in some 19 soundproofing, their answer was, We can't 20 afford it. So they really thumbed their nose at us for years, and I understand why some of the neighbors are very resentful, but basically our quality of life is going to be changed for the worse 121 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 forever if a school goes on this site, and I see no reason for it. They already have a site. They have a school. They could find an alternative place, another little site, especially if it's only for 50 students, or they could build upwards. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your patience. My name is Georgia Boulias and I live on 2521 Naudain Street. I'm adjacent to the famous parking lot, and the back of my house faces Lombard and, of course, the school building. And now with this proposal, the school is proposing to come right in front of my house, which means I am surrounded by the school, from my back side, from the east side and it will be from my south side. 122 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 Now, I have had a lot of problems with the school after about a year that I have moved in. And I'm not going to -- I know that there's too much to discuss and I'm sure that you don't want to hear all the details, but the issues were noise, number one, and the other one was, they were hitting my house, actually hitting my house, with their cars. Now, Anna Verna's office is very much aware of the record of this, and we had a lot of problems. Anyway, for two years, they were dragged kicking and screaming into doing something about the noise that's coming from their air conditioning system. Now, while they did some of it, it is not complete. We still have noise. My house gets the biggest of the noise from all the other surrounded houses. Now, it still needs work. They don't want to do anything about it. I have noise that comes from their school yard. Now, we all love 123 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 children. I love children. And like Sandy says, I'm for education. I teach at the Community College of Philadelphia. I see the product of the students that come out from the public education of Philadelphia. I have recently had a student who was in her 40's and she had never seen fractions, mathematical fractions, in her life. Now, that is the need for education. By putting this school here, the City is actually subsidizing the private school for all this money, the tax money, that will be going to the public school system. Anyway, I don't want to talk a lot about this, because other speakers spoke about that, but I do want to get back to the noise issue. I have noise coming from their roof because of their mechanical systems that they chose to use without soundproofs. I have noise coming from the school yard, for which I love the children, but if you listen to the 124 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 children, even your own, from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 every day -- and this is not only when my windows are open. Even if I have my windows closed, I can still hear the noise from the children in front of Naudain Street, which is about 200 feet away from where the school yard is presently now. If they come across the street from me, that's feet from 11 my front living room window. So I will 12 have noise from the back, noise from the 13 front. As my neighbor says, stereophonic 14 noise. 15 Now, I would like to invite any 16 of you before you make your decision, if 17 you would like, to come and sit in my 18 living room while the school yard is full 19 of children, and if you think that you 20 can live with those conditions -- it makes my house nearly unlivable now. If they come right in front of me, which is 20 feet from me, could you please tell me what am I supposed to do? I'm all for TPS. I'm so happy 125 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 they're successful. I want to help them be even more successful, but could they please do it not at the expense of my living room? I have to be able to sit in my living room and read and do my work just like everyone else, and I cannot do that. Right now I can do it if I close the windows and I hear it a little bit. If they come right in front of me, what am I supposed to do? So would you please, please consider the impact that this has. And it's not only me that has this problem, there are other neighbors who have the same problem. And I am sorry that my husband could not be here today, because he is teaching and could not get off from his work, so he can tell you what he thinks about this as well.
Thank you. I would like to thank everyone for their testimony today, both pro and 126 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 con. It is clear to me that regardless of what ends up happening with this site, there needs to be some discussion among the neighbors and the operators of the school. So I would encourage you all to get together.
But I'm saying it's regardless of it, because a lot of the issues that were brought up today are about existing conditions.
I understand what you said. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. This concludes the public hearing. We will now go into the public meeting. Councilwoman Tasco, can I 127 10/31/07 - PUBLIC PROPERTY - BILL 060689 please ask for a motion on Bill No. 3 060689.
Mr. Chair, I move that Bill 060689 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended so that this bill 9 can be heard at Council's next session. (Duly seconded.)
The ayes have it. Bill No. 060689 is reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation, with a rules suspension as to allow reading at the next session of Council. (Applause.) (Committee on Public Property and Public Works adjourned at 3:35 p.m.) 128 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 31, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-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.)