Frankford home of the week

It's true that sometimes I do some cropping to frame the image of a house to cut out those on either side. Sometimes I find a gem in the middle of a group that are just ordinary. The homes this week are actually 4 in an entire row that overall is outstanding. There are others in Frankford, to be sure, but these homes on Church Street are the homes of the week.


You always see a theme here. On this cool Fall day it's Halloween but Christmas will be going up probably in a few weeks now. It's interesting to see how these four identical row houses have evolved over their lifetimes.

Councilman Dan Savage

This week's Northeast Times brings us an article on Dan Savage's accomplishment's during his time in office. It does a better job than I could in listing them and I have to admit I did not know about all of the things noted in the story.

The most important thing he has given Frankford is some long needed attention. He clearly sees Frankford as important to the health of the Northeast and has worked hard to get some things done.

From the very visible things like the Deni Playground and derelict building demolition to the less exciting but very important Transit-Oriented Development zoning changes. So far he has introduced or co-sponsored 38 bills in City Council and he has not left office yet. I'm sure we will be hearing from Dan in the future.

Now let's hope Maria Quinones-Sanchez hits the deck running and keep the momentum going.

Frankford Special Services District

Thanks again to the folks at www.hallwatch.org we have notice of a bill to change the number of persons on the board of directors of the Special Services District. Given the difficulty in finding good people to hold these positions, that makes sense.

Also included are the names of the people who will be on the board:

BOARD MEMBERS

Nancy Cherone
James McCarthy
Dr. Harry Kaplan
Ralph Lewis
Elizabeth McCollum Nazario
Anthony Stephens
Paul Mundy                           
James T. Nulty                       
Terry Tobin 

You can read the full text of the bill here.                         

Images of Frankford

The web site www.flickr.com is a great place to browse when you have an hour or so. Earlier this year I found one photographer who had a few pictures of Frankford and they were very good. I checked back today and he has added quite a few to his portfolio so I am encouraging everyone to take a look at chrisinphilly on flickr and watch the slide show of his Frankford collection. He has a great eye.

While you're over there, have a look at the rest of his collection.

Next week in Frankford

• On Saturday the 10th at Mater Dolorosa - 6PM - Monte Carlo night - night at the races
• On Tuesday the 13th - at the Historical Society of Frankford - 7:30 PM - Program - Norman Satchell presents a slide slow of "Colonial Philadelphia" Independence Hall
  

Frankford Real Estate Trend

Our friends at the Cartographic Modeling Lab at the U of Penn have updated the neighborhoodBase with sales data from 2006. We all know that 2006 was not a terrific year but Frankford did not do all that bad.

The median sales price of properties sold in 2006 was up $7,000 over 2005 ($72,000 versus $65,000). At the same time the median price for the city overall dropped from $86,000 to $81,000. This is using data for Frankford defined by the U of Penn which can be found on the neighborhoodBase web site.

If you focus on zip code 19124 the result was even more impressive. The 2005 median price was $72,500 which increased in 2006 to $79,000.

Not everyone will see this as good news. With the change in real estate valuation on the horizon this may not be the best time to have your home value increase. But the increase we are seeing is at best the market catching up to the fact we all know, that this is a good place to live and has tremendous potential for the future.

The instability of oil prices will likely give pause to those thinking of moving far out of the city to be locked into a long commute to work. Where better to situate yourself than at a major transportation hub within the city.

Where better then Frankford.

"Illegal" meeting votes out president of East Frankford Civic Assoc.

This article from the Northeast Times summarizes the proceedings.