The Samuel S. Fels Fund recently awarded 25 grants to Philadelphia nonprofit organizations to support internships for graduate students during the summer of 2010. These internships are full-time and take place over the summer. The interns are paid a stipend of $6,000. The internship position description and contact information for applicants are below.

The Samuel S. Fels Fund was founded in 1935 by Samuel S. Fels, a Philadelphia philanthropist. The Fund is a private foundation with a broad interest in community programs, education and the arts. Grants are restricted to organizations located in the city of Philadelphia or focused on local issues.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2010
Contact: Mary C. Tracy
215-731-1775

SCRUB Foundation Receives $25,000 Grant from the Philadelphia Foundation to Implement Communication and Marketing Plan.

Mary C. Tracy, the Executive Director of SCRUB, the Public Voice for Public Space, is pleased to announce that SCRUB has received a $25,000 grant from the John B. Gest Memorial Fund and the William J. McCahan 3rd Fund in Memory of Thomas C. McCahan and Florence M. McCahan to support SCRUB's Communication and Marketing program. Announcement of the grant was made by Andrew Swinney, President of the Foundation. The Foundation's Board of Managers approved the grant on February 17, 2010.

Posted on Fri, Feb. 26, 2010

Changing Skyline: Putting Pizzazz into Market East

By Inga Saffron

Inquirer Architecture Critic

What influences the public's perception of Market East more: The mobs of rampaging teens who have descended on the Gallery mall over the last few weeks? Or the building's gloomy fortress walls, which have weighed down Philadelphia's traditional shopping street for well over three decades?

My vote goes to the blank walls.

It often feels as if the Gallery has been in decline ever since it opened in the late '70s, as the nation's first urban mall. Back then, Philadelphia could at least take satisfaction in having a retail amenity associated with the rising suburbs. But now, shopping malls everywhere are fighting for their lives, as anchoring department stores go the way of other general-interest pleasures, and Philadelphia finds itself stuck with an unattractive, underused box in the center of its downtown.

Posted on Thu, Feb. 18, 2010

Daniel Rubin: Some illumination on lighted signs needed

By Daniel Rubin, Inquirer Columnist

Mary Tracy sent out a cyber call to arms recently. She was rallying the citizenry to blast Councilman Frank DiCicco with e-mails, letting him know that his bill to brighten the few dim blocks of East Market Street with fancy building wraps and digital displays was a disaster in waiting.

Is she wrong to envision Las Vegas by the Delaware? Tracy, head of SCRUB, Public Voice for Public Space, has long had religion when it comes to billboards. She started as a young mother in Overbrook Farms, successfully battling Clear Channel over an illegal advertisement for some monster movie that scared the pants off her children.

Since then, the former schoolteacher has helped take down ads that line the city's gateways, erase corporate graffiti, and peel off the tiny "8 sheets" that pock poor neighborhoods like broken windows - signals that no one much cares.

DiCicco's bill would wrap ads around buildings that beg for restoration and renewal, she says. So much money would come from these signs, she says, that landlords would have no incentive to fill the interiors with people.

The Zoning Code Commission released the draft first module of the new code at the ZCC meeting that took place on February 17, 2010.  SCRUB is in the process of reviewing and drafting comments on Module 1, but it is vitally important that your voice is heard at the upcoming ZCC community meetings.  If you cannot make one of the meetings, the ZCC has also setup an online survey in order to solicit public feedback on Module 1. 
Please take a minute or two to take the survey and let the ZCC know your thoughts.

Click here to read Public Draft of Module 1 - Administration and Procedures

Community Meetings to review and provide input on The Draft New Zoning Code: Administration & Procedures

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010
The Enterprise Center
4548 Market Street, 19139
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010
Northeast High School
1601 Cottman Avenue, 19111
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Tuesday, Mar. 2, 2010
Central High School
1700 W. Olney Avenue, 19141
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010
Fels Community Center
2407 S. Broad Street, 19148
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Click here to view the meeting flyer

Posted on Mon, Feb. 15, 2010

Pictured left to right, Jean Gavin, Wanda Exline, Tim Kearney and  Marlene Sellers

Little guys win big
Citizens group savors its rescue of Burholme Park
By VALERIE RUSS
Philadelphia Daily News

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 215-854-5987

NOT FAR FROM the clamor of Cottman Avenue, where sandwich shops, hair salons and professional offices dot a bustling corridor, there is a wooded spot in Burholme Park with a creek running through it.

When city officials agreed to carve out some 20 acres of the lush, green park so that the nearby Fox Chase Cancer Center could expand, a group of ordinary residents took a stand. They wouldn't let the park go. Not without a fight.

On Thursday, January 27th, Councilman Frank DiCicco introduced Bill No.10013, which will strip away critical parts of Philadelphia's non-accessory outdoor advertising signage regulations. These regulations were enacted in 1991 "to protect public and private investment, promote economic development and commercial revitalization."

DiCicco's bill allows huge digitized billboards and mega-sized wall wrap ads in Center City where current regulations prohibit all billboards and other non-accessory commercial advertising signs.

DiCicco's bill eliminates a critical portion of Philadelphia Zoning Code, Section 14-1604, which endorses restrictions on outdoor advertising. These regulations require outdoor signage "to promote traffic safety, protect views, minimize sign pollution and protect the historic, cultural, aesthetic, and economic vitality of the City of Philadelphia."

Click here to email a letter to your district councilmember.

Protections against commercial advertising signs were put in place along the Vine Street Corridor at the request of the business community in 1988. The property owner unsuccessfully challenged Court reversals of a variance all the way to the Supreme Court. This case is still being litigated by the owner who reappeared before the zoning board seeking a variance.
Click here for more information.

Read the full text of the SCRUB press release here

Read the text of the bill here

 

A sample of the types of signs that could potentially be allowed on Market Street:

St. Louis                                         St. Louis

Washington, D.C.                            Atlantic City

 

After months of deliberations, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court denied the City's request to turn over 19.4 acres of parkland to Fox Chase Cancer Center for its expansion.

The unanimous decision of the seven member panel of judges dismissed the city's arguments that continuing to use Burholme Park as parkland was not the most beneficial use, and would not best serve the public interest.

The court determined that the language of the law "focuses on whether the original use has ceased to serve the public interest and did not allow for a balancing of benefits."

In the decision released yesterday, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer wrote, "if it did permit such balancing, every donated park in the Commonwealth would be at risk of being leased so that cash-strapped municipalities could balance their budgets."

SCRUB 's team of volunteer attorneys and experts represented neighbors and users of Burholme Park who were granted standing to intervene in the case then before Orphans Court Judge John Herron.

The Commonwealth Court decision is a wonderful victory and will help preserve parkland for future generations by reminding elected leaders that: "so long as a community or neighborhood actively uses dedicated park land, the City is required to hold such land in trust for their use, is legally estopped from divesting such land and is required to maintain these open spaces as public parks." Orphan's Court Opinion -Judge Herron, 12/8/09

Read the court opinion HERE

 

Supporting the Work of SCRUB:

Over five years ago a neighbor and user of Burholme Park contacted SCRUB and asked, "Can you help us save our park?"

Thanks to the support of our members and friends, SCRUB has been there: to educate citizens about the law, to research and help develop policies that benefit the public space, and when necessary... to leverage the law.

SCRUB proudly represented the public interests of this tenacious and dedicated group of Burholme Park neighbors by recruiting a volunteer legal team, working with our clients in the neighborhood, researching the legal strategy that would hopefully win this case and putting in hundreds of hours of hard work.

Please take a moment and celebrate this great victory with us by Donating to SCRUB and providing the resources we need to continue the important work of being "the public voice for public space. "