Heard in the Hall

Butkovitz Blasts North Philly Developers

City Controller Alan Butkovitz released a report today blasting developers in North Philadelphia, near Temple University's campus, for a variety of sins, including illegal dumping of construction debris, closing streets without a permit and allowing dust and runoff to pollute the neighborhood.

17 comments

Butkovitz Blasts North Philly Developers

POSTED: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 12:16 PM

Troy Graham @troyjgraham

Butkovitz said five city agencies - Licenses and Inspections, the Water Department, Streets, Public Health and the police - failed to properly monitor and enforce the city's rules for construction sites. He said the under-staffed departments often didn't understand which was supposed to police certain activities.

He said investigators from his office visited 19 sites this spring and summer, many of them residential projects for Temple students between Girard Avenue and West York Street, and Broad Street and North 19th Street.

The review, Butkovitz said, was spurred by repeated complaints from residents, who felt "powerless" against developers churning out housing in the hot real estate market around Temple's campus.

"We need to embrace revitalization, but we also need to ensure current residents aren't trampled in the process," the controller said.

Butkovitz recommended the city create a Memorandum of Understanding among the five city agencies to provide guidance and authority for any inspector to address building code violations. He also urged the city to develop a mobile app that would allow any of the departments' employees to collect pictures and videos of violations and deposit them into a central location where each department could review the evidence.

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17 comments

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Comments (17)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:29 PM, 10/10/2012

This problem is not just a problem in North Philly, it is a problem all over our city. Developers in Center City and South Philly do the same thing. Any time a complaint is made, the response is always "its the price of progress" - it's not - it is the price of greed and ignorance towards neighbors. I am so happy to see some light shed on this problem so that we can manage our growth and rejuvenation - this is NOT the wild west.

— Phillyhicks

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:47 PM, 10/10/2012

That's right! The City is the only one allowed to trash our streets! The HUGE piles of bricks, concrete blocks and equipment dumped on Front Street behind the Sheraton are the only trash allowed!!!! The $7,000 per unit "Big Belly" compacting trash cans that soil/infect anyone who uses them are the only trash allowed!

— hotelguy

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:53 PM, 10/10/2012

Truly Laughable Politician - These departments of lazy, good for nothing city employees who didn't know who was responsible for what have all been around for decades - how is it they don't know who does what. And don't make boogey men out of entrepenuer developers who are risking their money trying to turn a ghetto into a habitable neighborhood. Before there were these piles of debris, there were piles of dead bodies. Current residents aren't being trampled by progess - the issue here is the "current residents" thru their indifference and wholesale suport of the democratic party, allowed their neighborhood to be torn to shreads by their youth and young adults - who made it into the war zone it became.

Now, they're being "trampled on"? The people who were trampled on were the thousands and thousands of hard working people who had to flee that neighborhood due to the crime.

And what does the City Controller have to do with this - wouldn't this be something the Managing Director or the highly paid heads of these agencies should coordinate? What, exactly are they getting paid to do?

— PhillyDaniel

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:57 PM, 10/10/2012

Shouldn't he be blasting the city departments that didn't do their jobs?

— byoak

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:02 PM, 10/10/2012

It is not "developers" trashing the city, but their contractors. I would bet that the contractors responsible are non-union, unlicensed to work in the city, and hire predominantly undocumented labor. So why would they care about permits, regulations, waste disposal, or keeping sediment and debris out of the sewers?

Why don't I see protesters blocking these construction sites with giant rats and bottles filled with pee?

— Lancer248

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:36 PM, 10/12/2012

Not true. It is both. A GC can hold up money. The GC should also have dumpsters on the job. Do you think EVERY sub should have their own dumpster? If so then you would end up with 15 dumpsters at a time for each house.

— ebola

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:02 PM, 10/10/2012

It is not "developers" trashing the city, but their contractors. I would bet that the contractors responsible are non-union, unlicensed to work in the city, and hire predominantly undocumented labor. So why would they care about permits, regulations, waste disposal, or keeping sediment and debris out of the sewers? Why don't I see protesters blocking these construction sites with giant rats and bottles filled with pee? (HTML deleted)

— Lancer248

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:06 PM, 10/10/2012

that's right, blame illegal immigrants. "Lance, who dumped this here?" "Illegals, they were average illegal height with average illegal complexion." what a joke, the city's worst slumlord was a native. why don't we protest to protect your right to gouge lance? it's probably your buddies on their way home to south from union jobs where they rip off taxpayers doing this.

— dreinterests

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:51 PM, 10/10/2012

So the Controller had his investigators visit all of these sites in the SPRING and SUMMER, but didn't share his findings with anyone until the FALL. Did I get that right? His offcie was aware of code and law violations but didn't call Police, Streets, L & I or perhaps the MAYOR? Really? Those of you simply blaming City employees are flat out clueless. Politicians decide what happens and to whom. The workers you so quickly blame only do what they are allowed to do.

— Getinline