The Passyunk Square Civic Association (PSCA) is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation. The mission of PSCA is to enhance the quality of life in the neighborhood, preserve the neighborhood’s unique historic character and to promote a cohesive community of residents, businesses and institutions.
Regular Meetings
First Tuesday of the Month (except July & August)
6:30 PM
Meetings are held at:
South Philadelphia Older Adult Center, E. Passyunk Avenue at Dickinson Street map it
BOARD OF DIRECTORS;
Christine Knapp, President
Christine has lived in Passyunk Square since June of 2006 after buying and renovating a house on the 700 block of Earp St. She chose to move to the neighborhood because of its great culture and diversity, walkability, and abundance of restaurants. During the day, Christine is the Manager of Public and Client Relations for a U.S. Department of Energy project on energy efficient buildings at the Navy Yard. Naturally, many of her interests in the neighborhood have to do with making it cleaner and greener.
Pam Zenzola, Vice President, Events Committee
Pam moved to the neighborhood in November 2008, becoming immediately involved with the Passyunk Square community. While living in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Horsham or Philadelphia, Pam always gets connected with the local organizations. Why? Because Pam believes her home is not just her house but her community as well.
Pam is excited to be the Chairperson of the Events Committee. Contact Pam if you want to have a good time while organizing a happy hour, plant sale, or many other types of events for the community.
Karin Morris, Secretary
Karin Morris has lived in Passyunk Square since 2002, and works as the Manager of the Office of Smart Growth at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Originally from Cleveland, Karin has a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. She enjoys gardening, hiking, reading, and fulfilling all her earthly needs south of Washington Avenue. Karin heads the planning committee.
Angel D’Ippolito, Treasurer and Outreach
Angel moved to Passyunk Square with her husband in 2007 after having lived in the Bella Vista area for six years. She grew up in Berks County, Pennsylvania and moved to Philadelphia after graduating from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University. She is a business and real estate lawyer, a child advocate, and a lover of plants, music, food, good wine, cake decorating, photography, travel, animals, friends, and family. Angel is looking forward to working with the community to bring positive change and growth to our incredible neighborhood.
Andrew Emma, Beautification
Andrew moved to the South Philly area where generations of his family were raised in August of 2005, after finishing his Bachelor’s Degree in Geography & Urban Studies from Temple University. He discovered his love of community beautification a few years later, and from then has become increasingly interested in making Passyunk Square serve as a model of sustainability for Philadelphia and beyond. He enjoys way too many things to list here, such as sports, music, delicious food, and anti-consumerism, but lately they’ve all been surpassed by his greening ambitions. All you need to know is that he wants your ideas, whether it’s creating more community gardens, planting more trees, recycling more items, or meeting more good people, and he wants them to become realities.
Dan Pohlig, Communications
Dan and his wife, Alison Fritz, moved into the Passyunk Square neighborhood in 2008. Born in the Roxborough section of the city, Dan grew up in Upper Darby, attended St. Joseph’s Prep and has a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University. Throughout his career, Dan has been a teacher, coach, and roofer as well as the Policy Director on a statewide U.S. Senate campaign, and the head of multi-year journalism project at WHYY. He is currently the Vice President, Digital for a major political consulting firm. In his spare time he helps with outreach for the South Philly Food Co-op and is on the vestry of Christ Church Philadelphia. Dan works to publicize and promote the efforts of the civic association and is interested in recruiting others who would like to write stories about life in the neighborhood for this website. You can contact him by emailing dan.pohlig (at) gmail.com (put in the subject line: “I want to write for Passyunk.org!”).
Chris DiCapua, Parks Liaison
Chris moved to Passyunk Square in 2007 after living for a number of years in the suburbs. He was attracted to the neighborhood because of its vibrancy and the sense of community it offers, its proximity to Center City and his work, as well as its many terrific restaurants, bars and cafes. He has been slowly updating his home, which is located on Columbus Square. He is currently the Vice President of the Columbus Square Advisory Council, and serves as that park’s liaison on the PSCA Board. By day he is a professor of Spanish at Community College of Philadelphia, where he also chairs the College’s Department of Foreign Languages.
Sarah Anton, Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Sarah has lived in Passyunk Square since 2003. She enjoys advocating for arts and culture, cooking, and general adventuring in the neighborhood. She looks forward to encouraging the creation of interesting sites and places, working to make the neighborhood clean and safe, planting trees, and meeting lots of her neighbors.
Ilene Wilder, Fundraising
Ilene moved to Philadelphia from Chicago in 2003 and found her home in Passyunk Square in 2004. She was attracted to her house for many reasons, not the least of which was that it had a tree in front of it and a beautiful park across the street. Since living on South 13th Street, she has seen the neighborhood evolve into a wonderful mix of people comprised of long time residents and newcomers who share a strong sense of community. A devout “urban hiker”, Ilene loves the proximity of the neighborhood to Center City and is delighted at all the new restaurants and shops on Passyunk Avenue. Following her passion to help make the community a progressive, vibrant area, Ilene is currently the President of the Columbus Square Advisory Council, and now the fundraising chair on the PSCA Board. She works at the University of Pennsylvania as the Director of Marketing and Business Development for Business Services.
COMMITTEES
Beautification
Clean-ups, plantings, banners, block efforts
co-chairs: Andrew Emma and Sarah Anton
Communications
Membership, public relations
chair: Dan Pohlig
Zoning
Monitoring zoning change requests
chair: John Digiulio
Outreach
Giving every resident of the neighborhood a chance to become involved
chair: Angel D’Ippolito
Safety / Passyunk Square Town Watch
chair: Kim Davis
Trash & Recycling
chair: Carmella Fioretti
Planning
Convening stakeholders to help choose what we want the area to look like in the future
chair: Karin Morris
Fund Raising/Sapling Program
For association activities
chair: Ilene Wilder
Education
Supporting schools in the neighborhood
chair: Open
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Passyunk Square Civic Association
PO Box 18052, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Washington Avenue to Tasker Street & 6th Street to Broad Street
Click here for a directory of businesses operating within the boundaries of the Passyunk Square Civic Association. Want to add your business to the list? Email planning@passyunk.org.
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Passyunk has also been known as Passayunk, Passyonck, Passuming, Passajungh, Perslajongh, Passajon, and Paisajungh. All related to the Native “pachsegink”, meaning “in the valley” or “place between the hills.”
Copyright © Passyunk Square Civic Association
A non-profit 501(c)(3) group
P.O. Box 18052 Philadelphia, PA 19147
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