Jim Foster Chel Ten Pulaski Youngblood

8/7/2019 Jim Foster Chel Ten Pulaski Youngblood

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IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM

I think the Chelten & Pulaski project challenge is best opportunityin many years for the citizens of Germantown to take back controlof their community. The subject made it to the forefront in theDistrict Council forum last night and apparently all candidateswere opposed to the way this has been handled politically.

Frankly, I think the outcome of this one project is even moreimportant than who wins that election.

Since the mid-1970s Germantown has been told what it will geton a clear “take it or leave it” basis. Every major project formCricket Court Commons on through subsidized housing, so called“shopping centers” have been top down insider- arrangedsweetheart deals that ran roughshod over any civic attempt toopen bidding, making them more transparent, and better servingof the area needs. The Central Germantown Council is aworthless affiliate of the Council Office that consumes city money,does absolutely nothing, and rubber stamps what it is told torubber stamp - - period. So many key locations throughoutGermantown have substandard development that make fastmoney for a few, and dialed out the majority. Some stand closedand most are underutilized.

The message has to be sent to the larger political structure - - andto the those other local developers who have played the game

with the politicians for their own benefit in exchange for“Omerta” - - that Germantown is no longer that huge butfragmented community that can be misused and manipulated atwill, and at the same time be a conduit for channeling publicmoney to insiders for deals where performance and adherence tocommitments are optional.



Forget for the moment whether a Trader Joe’s or specific upscalestore of any particular type would want to test the Germantownmarket after years of absence, but focus on what is being donethat telegraphs the message that this community “just doesn’t

count” when it comes where political emphasis is placed thatwould encourage private development in new directions andredirect general economic development.

Chaka Fattah lives within a mile of this site. Dwight Evans hasfunded and crafted the past deals from 2006 but does not want toeven talk about the fact that the commitment to begin majorupgrades immediately never happened, let alone talk aboutwhere the money went and how the properties changed handswithout some very basic requirements. Two very convoluted

“double flip” land transfer deals that included city tax forgivenessand sidestepped environmental issues on what clearly had beenindustrial land, need amplification and explanation.Councilwoman Miller admits she has known about this project for

a year, and yet never mentioned or informed the communityabout what can easily be seen as an opportunity to put a freshface on Germantown and tie it to the kind of urban planning thatis turning inner cities across this country into safe and viableliving and working space for all economic and social levels.

Hundreds of millions are being spent to create from scratch Transit Oriented Developments - - and we already have thetransit!

So, bottom line we have a big corporate enterprise with manycorporate names and affiliates (Sounds like Settlement doesn’tit?) that is actually the recipient of hundreds of millions in publicgrants and loans for not just grocery stores, but other projects of substance, that in this particular case did not want all theattendant publicity that it received on the other urban FreshGrocer deals and food-related deals. One has to only visit theirwebsite and learn how 7 large stores were the recipient of RCAP

Grants, New Market Tax Credits through the ReinvestmentFund, loans from Bancorp, the Fresh Food Initiative, City of Philadelphia Gap Financing and various state equipment andmachinery funding.





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Jim Foster Chel Ten Pulaski Youngblood