El of a Mess

A West Philly restaurateur mulls a class-action suit against SEPTA.

by Rod L. Wilson

business

IN THE RED ZONE: Mohamed Ali stands outside his restaurant at 51st and Market, under the SEPTA tracks that he says have destroyed his business. : Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Mohamed Ali wanted to become a successful restaurateur, but all he's ended up with is despair, poverty and health woes, all of which he blames on SEPTA's ongoing Market Frankford El reconstruction project.

"I came here to feel free, to practice my freedom, my equal rights, but I never knew I would end up like this," says Ali, a 43-year-old father of 10 who emigrated from Sudan in 1991.

Ali says it all started eight years ago when he attended a meeting in which city and SEPTA officials informed the West Philadelphia community of the project to reconstruct the Blue Line between 46th and 63rd streets. Ali left thinking it would enhance the community, as well as his business opportunities. Construction, they were told, would end by 2005, so Ali began hiring contractors to work on his restaurant and meat market, Elamin Halal Food Center, at the corner of 51st and Market, which opened in November 2004.

"I figured they only had a little bit to go, so this would be the best time," Ali recounts. "I had to do business."

When the project didn't close in 2005, Ali says he started losing money daily. To stay open, he was forced to close another business he owned, the Chestnut Farms produce market at 4319 Chestnut St. "When I opened here, there was no income," he says. "People could not get here, so any money I made had to go to the restaurant or I would lose it. I could no longer pay my rent for the produce market, and I was eventually evicted."

After losing the produce market, Ali pulled equity from his home in order to feed his children; that put him $163,000 in the hole, so the mortgage company foreclosed. He moved his family into a two-bedroom apartment above the restaurant.

Meanwhile, SEPTA continued to periodically shut him down and block the street, making it difficult for customers to get there. Others on the block have complained about constant basement flooding, an influx of rats and concerns that it's difficult for police to respond quickly to calls in the area on account of the street blockages.

According to Ali, SEPTA officials offered no help — he says one contractor even smashed the neon sign outside his store — and couldn't estimate when they'd be done. Their excuse? "Things happen."

Though he acknowledges that the project — about two-thirds complete, it's now slated for completion in 2009 — has caused hardships in the community, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney says the agency has done "everything within its legal and community-devotion powers" to help those affected by a project that will see four new stations constructed. He likened the process to "rebuilding your house from the basement to the attic while still living in it."

"We had a difficult decision to make: Should we shut down the whole line for a couple years or can we continue to run regular service? It's an engineering nightmare, but it's been successful," Maloney says, attributing some of the delay to a legal struggle with a contractor who, he claims, didn't provide solid work. "We could have done the project faster, but we would have had to close down Market Street for a couple years.

"Some businesses have no doubt suffered, and we have done everything within our capability to help them. But, this is a big, huge, dirty, noisy project."

He needn't tell Ali that.

Since portions of the street were regularly blocked off, the city told locals to put their trash on the southwest corner of 51st and Market, directly in front of Ali's restaurant. Plus, SEPTA contractors surrounded his restaurant with gates, and when they began sandblasting — fully clothed in protective suits and respirators — it soiled the air with dust, debris and unknown, potentially hazardous substances, he claims.

Soon, Ali says he began experiencing health problems. "I had a few friends come by and they saw how sick I was," he says. Ali found out that the maladies he was experiencing were symptoms of poisoning from the lead paint on the tracks. (They ranged from lumps and bumps on the body to migraines and diarrhea.)

He immediately called the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, which took samples that determined lead paint was present in the dust. But a letter from Peter Palermo, CLPPP's acting program director, stated that the lead construction was proceeding from 5200 Market toward 5100 Market, but had not begun outside of Ali's establishment.

" I wrote [Mayor] John Street, [Gov.] Ed Rendell, [Councilwoman] Janie Blackwell and the whole world," Ali says, "but the response [sending an air-management inspector who said if no dust was visible in the air, there was no violation] does not satisfy me as a father of 10 kids, as a taxpayer. They should be here to see what I'm talking about, but they ignore me."

Maloney, who hadn't heard of these health complaints before being contacted Monday, says that "because this is a federally funded project, we are specifically prohibited from reimbursing businesses for any losses incurred by this project." He notes that Blackwell has worked to raise city and state funds to help locals, and that SEPTA has set up an office in the neighborhood, open six days a week, to help residents.

While Ali's original plan was to provide an upscale restaurant in an inner-city neighborhood with good, healthy food for affordable prices, he has changed his menu to what Ali calls and considers junk food. "Pizza, buffalo wings, cheese steaks," he says. "That's not food. You should eat that once or twice a year because it's bad for you. But now, my own kids are eating it."

Since no law firm has taken Ali's case against SEPTA and the city, he has started a petition for a class-action lawsuit asking for compensation, and for medical attention. With streams of tears running down his face, Ali cries out, "I work hard every day and I struggle to feed, clothe my kids and pay my bills. They are treating me like an animal. They are killing me, I'm sick and can't even taste my food. Why is that?"

(editorial@citypaper.net)