The election for the Passyunk Square Board of Directors will be held at the Passyunk Square Civic Association General Membership meeting on May 6, 2014 at 6:30pm. At the April 1, 2014 General Membership Meeting, the Election Committee will present a slate of nominees who will be on the ballot for the May election. YOU can be on that ballot.

Candidates must meet the following requirements to be on the ballot:

• The candidate must be an adult (at least 18 years of age) who:
  • Lives or owns property within the neighborhood, or
  • Is a business owner having a principal place of business within the neighborhood
• The candidate can not have served 10 consecutive years on the Board of Directors immediately prior to this election unless the Board has granted by a ¾ majority vote to extend the term of the candidate

Candidates must present verification of residency, property ownership or business ownership.

Please click on this link for a list of acceptable forms of verification, for information on where to present or send a copy of the verification and for the online candidate information form that must be filled out by 11:59pm on March 28.

In an effort to be inclusive of our Spanish speaking neighbors, the PSCA will now be translating our monthly newsletter into Spanish. Look for the translated newsletter monthly on our website!

Also, the PSCA is sponsoring basic ESL classes for non-English speakers. The classes will be held at the Columbus Square Recreation Center (12th and Wharton) on Tuesday evenings from 6:30pm-8:00pm. The five week session will begin on February 11 and end on March 11. The $20 fee includes five weeks of classes and materials. Free supervised children’s programming will be offered for parent’s wishing to take classes who don’t have childcare options. A prize will be given to participants who attend at least four of the five classes. To ensure a seat, those interested should register in person at the Recreation Center before the first night of class. It will also be possible to register on the first night of class, space permitting. For more information in English or Spanish, those interested can call Chris DiCapua at (267) 467-4307.
 
-Chris DiCapua, Parks Liaison and Outreach

We’re giving you a summer vacation from General Meetings for July and August, so we’ll see you in September with updates from our committees who have been busy working straight through these hot months to make Passyunk Square even better!  Speaking of committees, our 2012 Board of Directors and Committees have been announced:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Pam Zenzola, President
Angel D’Ippolito, Vice-President Outreach
Sarah Anton, Treasurer and Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Karin Morris, Secretary and Planning Committee Chair
Christine Knapp, Immediate Past President
Andrew Emma, Beautification Committee Co-Chair
Chris DiCapua, Parks Liaison
Ilene Wilder, Fundraising and Events Committee Chair
Carmela Fioretti, Trash and Recycling Committee
Cassie Knox, Communications Committee Chair

COMMITTEES
Beautification Clean-ups, plantings, banners, block efforts
co-chairs: Andrew Emma and Sarah Anton
Communications Public relations, external communication
chair: Cassie Knox
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: Carmela 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

In an effort to further open the lines of communication with everyone in the neighborhood, the Passyunk Square Civic Association has set up a way for people to receive important updates about news, events and meetings right on their cell phone. You can use any regular cell phone or smart phone to receive this service and it only costs whatever you pay for simple text messages.

Subscribe by texting PSCA to (215) 987-5555 or email your name and cell phone number to info@passyunk.org with “Text message alerts” in the subject line.

We’ll be using this to send out reminders about IMPORTANT upcoming events like our General Membership meetings and to send out the list of properties being heard at our monthly Zoning Committee meetings (which take place on the 2nd Tuesday of EVERY month). Messages will be short with just the details of where, when and what. And don’t worry: we only plan on sending two or three per month at most. That’s a promise.

We hope to use this service so that people who don’t use email or check our website will be better connected to Passyunk Square Civic Association events. And we get the irony of announcing this on our website! We’ll also be pushing this at events throughout the summer, on printed materials and at all of our meetings. So please spread the word to your friends and neighbors and get connected to us!

What: Passyunk Square Civic Association General Membership Meeting
Where: South Philadelphia Older Adult Center, northwest corner of East Passyunk Ave. and Dickinson Street
When: TUESDAY (3/6) from 6:30pm to 8pm
Agenda:

Ever had some big important thing go on in your neighborhood or near your house and you had no idea it was going to happen? Get in the know! Set aside the first Tuesday evening of every month to attend the Passyunk Square Civic Association GeneralMembership meeting. Anyone who lives between 6th and Broad, Washington to Tasker is a member and entitled to attend and participate in the meeting. We’ll announce the upcoming cases to be heard by our Zoning Committee on March 13. You will get updates from our Trash/Recycling Committee about clean-up efforts, our Beautification Committee about tree care and planting events, our Events Committee on upcoming happy hours and fun(d) raisers and more. It’s like reading this blog… except with people… and snacks.

Our guest speakers for this Tuesday include MaryBeth Hertz from the South Philly Food Co-op who will update us on the Co-op’s progress after nine months of accepting member-owners (so come with your check book if you’re ready to join the Co-op), a representative from the Office of Emergency Management and others.

Who are the Difference Makers in your community? Who are the people who go above and beyond the call of duty to assist others? This is your chance to tell their story. Your nominee can be a teacher, volunteer, coach, doctors or any other professional. 


All the entries will be reviewed by the South Philly Review’s selection committee with the best ones being profiled in their very special Oct. 13 Fall Guide. Those who were selected in 2010 are not eligible. 


In 250 words or fewer, tell the story of your worthy candidate who resides or works in South Philadelphia and send it via e-mail, fax or regular mail. Photos are not required. The entry deadline is noon Sept. 13.


South Philly Review 


12th and Porter streets, Philadelphia, PA 19148

Phone: 215-336-2500 ext. 121 

Fax: 215-336-1112 

E-mail: editor@southphillyreview.com

A few weeks ago the PSCA sent out a survey to gauge how people feel about the neighborhood and get suggestions on what issues the civic association should be focusing on. Over 130 of you responded and provided a lot of great insight. Among the results are:

1. A tie for first between “More affordable than some other areas” and “Good access to downtown” (both at 23%) for what attracted you to the neighborhood.

2. 52% responded that we have made a LITTLE progress over the past year in keeping the sidewalks clean while another 12% said we have made a LOT of progress. 29% said gotten worse or no change.

3. Similarly, 79% think the neighborhood has made either a LITTLE or a LOT of progress over the last two years compared to 10% who said not much change or things have gotten worse.

4. And for the question “How can we make the neighborhood better?” we received a fairly even distribution of answers with “Planning and attracting new businesses or development” and “Making our neighborhood safer (townwatch, organizing police meetings, etc.)” tied for first at 13%, followed closely by “Fixing up boarded houses” (12%) and “Helping our Schools Run Better” (12%).  More information for how you can help improve safety and help our schools run better is coming shortly.

If you haven’t filled out the survey, there’s still time. Click here to find the survey. It takes no more than two minutes but your contribution will help the neighborhood for years. Full results of the survey, including the comments, suggestions and other ideas provided by those who completed it are available at this link (.pdf).

Let us know how we can make this neighborhood an even better place to live!

Please take 2 minutes (really only 2 minutes!) to fill out this survey and make your voice count in Passyunk Square!

Help us answer questions like:

• What can we do to make the neighborhood better?
• What do you like about Passyunk Square?
• Is the street cleaning working?

Click here to begin this short but important survey.

Thanks!

We just made it easier to find for you to find us on Facebook and direct your friends, neighbors, relatives and, what the heck, strangers to our page. We’re up to 310 fans and would like to be at 500 before our next general meeting on May 3. It’s a great way to keep up with everything that’s happening in the neighborhood or share the latest news with us.

Just go to facebook.com/passyunksquare. (I’m not even going to link to it. Just type it in your browser.)

We were fortunate that the good people at Passy Unksqu Are didn’t take name yet.