For some, Winding Roses park is wasted opportunity

NOT EVERYONE in Francisville wants to preserve Winding Roses Park, a small garden at Uber and Brown streets.

"Most people want to see development on these undeveloped lots," said Gerard P. Grandzol, who has lived in the area nearly 10 years and is a board member of the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corp.

Grandzol took issue with a story in Monday's Daily News about some longtime Francisville residents who are upset that a developer is planning to build a house in the middle of the little park.

The developer, William Guzman, bought a lot that is surrounded by vacant lots owned by either the city or the Redevelopment Authority.

But Grandzol said the park that has taken root on those lots was not widely used by everyone in the area. Francisville's boundaries run from Fairmount Avenue to Girard Avenue and Broad Street to 20th Street.

"No one has access to it besides the people who control the key," Grandzol said. He said he has never seen people in the park before he saw a photo in Monday's Daily News.

Una Vee Bruce, a longtime resident and former activist, said the park has been used "as a place of celebration" over the years.

Grandzol said there were maybe 400 vacant lots in Francisville and he and his organization want to see development because "Francisville needs people."

He also said that the city-owned Francisville Recreation Center "has two basketball courts, a rehabilitated baseball field and a pool" that is just a short walk from the Winding Roses Park.

But Bruce, 69, who said she has lived in Francisville all her life, said the "regular people" in the area have to get permission from the city to use the rec center.

"The Recreation Department said it was only for children up to 12 years old and you have to get on a schedule for the kids to play on a city lot," Bruce said. "It's always locked."

For his part, Grandzol said that there are too many vacant Philadelphia Housing Authority houses sitting empty that need to be developed.

But Bruce sees it from a different perspective.

"There's a movement to get all the PHA housing out of here, but they're not replacing it and this is causing low- and moderate-income families to move on," she said.

"There's a whole lot of complexity going on here [in Francisville]. That lot is just one issue that has come up with all the newcomers moving here."

" @ValerieRussDN