Sneak Attack

Blindsided by Youth Study Center plan, Fallsers brace for Street brawl.

by Ted Hesson

cityspace

CAN WE TALK? Ralph Wynder demanded that the mayor meet with residents about moving the YSC to Henry Avenue. The mayor declined. : Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

On Sept. 5, Mayor Street called a press conference to announce that the Barnes Museum would finally be moving from Lower Merion to the Ben Franklin Parkway. To make room for the museum, however, the city needed to relocate the Youth Study Center detention facility, and Street announced that a site had already been found. He acknowledged one problem, though: The city hadn't officially told neighbors yet.

In fact, Ralph Wynder, Democratic leader of the 38th Ward, where the site is located, was informed of the proposal just one day earlier. So after the announcement, a slighted Wynder approached Street and repeatedly requested he personally meet with residents. Onlookers saw the exchange grow heated as Street stalwartly refused, saying that he would send a representative.

"The conversation," says Wynder, "became a little intense."

But it doesn't seem to have changed a thing.

Today, the city plans to put the Youth Study Center in the old Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (EPPI) on Henry Avenue, a state-owned East Falls property that has been shuttered since 2004. This, because attempts to move the Youth Study Center to 46th and Market in West Philly have been thwarted for several years by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. Now, the city has found what it claims to be a temporary solution. Aside from the buildings that would be used by the Youth Study Center, part of the EPPI site will soon become home to Gaudenzia House, a drug and alcohol treatment facility. Community leaders had hoped to develop the site, but a property shared with prisoners and drug addicts might not be the most marketable.

"They know we're highly interested in that area," Wynder says. "They know that there's a strong appeal for a hospital. And there's also some interest in EPPI for some other kinds of development that the community needs and wants."

Despite the perceived snub, the city wasn't required to alert residents, according to Bill Kramer of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. "Just because you make a [zoning] application doesn't mean you have to run out and talk to the community," Kramer says. "If you're smart, you definitely talk to people so people know what's coming."

After filing a zoning application, it usually takes eight to 12 weeks for a case to come before the board. This generally gives the city time to meet with community leaders and residents, and possibly even consider another site.

"At that point, if they've not spoken to the community, it's not gonna be pretty," says Kramer. East Falls residents will probably show up to the hearing, he says, and they might have a lawyer with them.

There's a track record for this. Community groups fought the TrumpStreet casino, which would have been located across Henry from the EPPI site, until the state rejected the proposal this February. Back then, residents garnered some support from Democratic mayoral candidate Michael Nutter, their 4th District councilman. Today, Nutter is assuring residents that if elected mayor, he will not allow the Youth Study Center to stay at the EPPI site permanently.

Nutter's replacement, Councilwoman Carol Ann Campbell, did not respond to requests for an interview, but the Daily News quoted her as saying, "There are some things you can stand and fight and some things you can't." Campbell and others on City Council, Street and Gov. Ed Rendell were all directly involved in the decision, says mayoral spokesman Joe Grace.

Although many local leaders have complained that the city worked covertly, some East Falls community leaders were actually alerted to the plans back in early August when they met with city and state officials, including Managing Director Loree Jones. Adam Carangi, the president of the East Falls Community Council, recalls that officials discussed the move as a possibility, but emphasized that the decision wasn't final and that the news shouldn't be disseminated throughout the community.

"They basically asked us to keep it quiet for a while," Carangi said. "Which we did."

Carangi suspects that the city wasn't going to formally announce the plans, so he plastered the details on the front page of the September issue of The Fallser, an East Falls monthly paper. He worries that the detention center will stifle development in the area.

"It may be cheap now," Carangi says, "but what's it going to do to the potential of that site?"

On Monday night, city officials met with community leaders and agreed that they'd need to hold another meeting on Sept. 19. Locals still aren't too sure what to expect, but they know one thing: Street probably won't be at that meeting, either.

(ted.hesson@citypaper.net)