There may be some progress in the ongoing efforts to re-open Squirrel Hill Falls Park, the enigmatic gated pocket park at 48th and Chester that has been locked for years. The Friends of Squirrel Hill Park community group have launched a new campaign that they hope will help give the park new life. The newest effort to reopen the park, which was designed and built in 1996 by West Philly artist Danielle Rousseau Hunter, comes after Friends Rehabilitation Program Inc., the organization that owns the lot, indicated that they are interested in an agreement about the park’s reopening. All earlier efforts seem to have fallen through (read our previous story about the park here).
Community support is essential in this process, and the Friends of Squirrel Hill Park are asking all interested residents to participate in a short survey and sign a petition titled “Let’s make progress at Squirrel Hill Park!”
“As a neighbor of the long blighted former park at 48th and Chester, I would like to see something positive at this corner. The park is waiting to once again become a great amenity to our neighborhood, and we are ready to join together to make it happen. We ask Friends Rehabilitation Program to work with the Friends of Squirrel Hill Park to help us bring new life to this unused community space,” the petition reads.
The survey includes such questions as what type of programming you would like to see at the park and how much help you can offer to the Friends of the park.
For more information and to access the survey please go to the Friends of Squirrel Hill Park website. You can also find more information about the neighbors working to reopen the park on the group’s Facebook page.
April 7th, 2015 at 2:02 pm
FRP does want to clean up the park. We want to clean it up without exposing anyone to harm and there are really very serious safety issues and corresponding liability concerns. We’ve been working on a plan for the park with local community members, but until we have adequate financial resources identified it’s impossible to safely permit public access. FRP is in a turnaround mode, and our first priority has been responding to the urgent needs of the vulnerable populations we serve. Seeing the growing neighborhood momentum we’ve reached out to Friends of Squirrel Hill Park to facilitate the April 11th cleanup. (I work at FRP)
April 7th, 2015 at 2:08 pm
Once about 5 years ago, the gate was open and I entered with my baby in his stroller. We were promptly swarmed by dozens of mosquitoes and I booked out of there. If it reopens, mosquito control should be considered.
April 7th, 2015 at 3:51 pm
Anyone representing FRP is really better served to just not make any comments at all about what’s happening. Just freaking do something about the problem, and if you are unwilling to do so, transition the property (and the problem) to someone who would do so.
April 8th, 2015 at 9:24 am
I believe that FRP was derelict in maintaining the property and misused their right to the park. FRP has
Doug Pyle Chief Investment Officer a Managing Director Radnor Capital Management
and Ross Reese a Partner w/Dilworth Paxon LLC on their board of directors.
They can foot the bill to maintain the property BUT it should be taken from them and placed into the hands of people who are willing to care for and keep open to the public.
It seems like eliteism passing the bill onto the people.
FRP should be ashamed of themselves for the exclusion of the people and further ashamed of pilfering the public.
April 8th, 2015 at 9:34 am
Kate says “FRP is in a turnaround mode, and our first priority has been responding to the urgent needs of the vulnerable populations we serve.”
It should have been that way ALL the time.
After years of failing the public FRP promised to serve the people?
What have they been doing for the last few years?
Where did all their funding go?
It is time to stop putting monies into bad companies
It is time to invest in to the communities and foundations who have a fiduciary agenda.
April 8th, 2015 at 9:39 am
and then lest we forget the FIASCO https://www.westphillylocal.com/2011/06/24/beautiful-pocket-park-gone-bad-could-get-new-life/
“The park opened with a black tie ceremony in September 1996. Since then many residents say Hunter has treated it like her fiefdom, locking it and only allowing visitors to enter under her supervision.” (West Philly Local 2011)
This is what we would pay for elite use of a privately owned park!!!!
I SAY NO
April 8th, 2015 at 9:59 am
I have been walking by the park for years wishing it could be used for community theater or lecture series venue.
April 8th, 2015 at 8:59 pm
I have passed that little park and thought , why isn’t it being used ? It looks so cute! I had no idea of the bad management and theft. If they received public money can’t an investigation be done ? What of the freedom of information act ? Can’t we demand the records of where the $$$ went ? And if a real answer isn’t given or proof of what happened isn’t forth coming , can’t some one be held responsible ? JAIL TIME ? In the private sector , lawsuits would be filed , people would be sued , records would be exposed. The current state of the Park should be enough proof to keep Hunter and her cronies from having any further access to money or control of this sad little space.
LOCK EM UP !
April 9th, 2015 at 11:28 am
I’m with Astral! here. There should be a public investigation of these clowns.
April 9th, 2015 at 1:13 pm
FRP stand for Friends Rehabilitation Program. You can’t “take away the park” from them because its their private land. After a fire burned down the apartment building on that lot, FRP, a Quaker community housing non-profit, rehabbed the apartment building they own next door and made the empty lot available to a local community group dominated by the lady across the street. She made the park into her personal mission, raising money for it but also designing something impractical and unable to be maintained and open to the public. Then she botched handling the money and got booted from the neighborhood group who FRP had given authority to use their private land to, basically as a service to the community. FRP didn’t make Rousseau-Hunter design an impractical park or spend money on it irresponsibly / questionably. The new Friends of the park group has a chance to reenvision the park as a space actually open to the public more often, thanks to FRP’s generosity. For people who want to scream at FRP, they could alternately just sell it, or build it out as apartments (which it is zoned for). It is their private land, not city land.
April 9th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Danielle Rousseau-Hunter is the lady who designed an unsustainable park on land that wasn’t really hers, then misappropriated / poorly tracked the money so the “park” never really opened.
http://citypaper.net/articles/061396/article033.shtml
April 9th, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Remember, it IS private land. If neighbors can’t get it together to coordinate using it as a park, the more logical use for a private lot that used to be an apartment building is to make it into an apartment building again, which is what FRP builds all across the city, all day, every day as a leading builder of affordable housing in this city.
April 9th, 2015 at 1:35 pm
“Friends Rehabilitation Program provides affordable rental housing to low income households, those with special needs, and seniors. Our properties are located in neighborhoods across Philadelphia: in Belmont, East and West Poplar, University City and Cobbs Creek. In addition to providing a stable place to live, FRP provides on-site support programs help individuals gain greater self-sufficiency and independence.”
http://friends-frp.com/?page_id=244
April 9th, 2015 at 6:47 pm
FRP does not need public funds to maintain a defunct property they should have been maintaining all along. It is PRIVATE why would we pay for that? Who’s next PHA asking us to pay for their cleanup or Parks asking us to shell out more than out tax dollars to do a job they are assigned to do? Lets stop giving aid to the elitists and turn the great idea and effort into a park that is for the use of ALL people. There are many lost that can be used and improved for “The People”
April 9th, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Youse has it right. I’d love to see some arrangement where the public can enjoy the park, and FRP can be frustratingly slow and opaque in their response, but DRH embroiled this well-meaning non-profit in hugely costly litigation, so I can understand that FRP is not about to rush into a relationship with an unproven neighborhood group, no matter how good their intentions.
April 9th, 2015 at 7:00 pm
This is their financials I ASK YOU? do they really need to ask the public for money??
https://www.citizenaudit.org/236398764/
TWO of their employees according to their 2012 tax filing make more than $100,000.00
One hundred thousand dollars
One Million in employee salary???
They have 19 million in assets!!!!
This is a not for profit?
April 9th, 2015 at 7:01 pm
EIN 236398764 Name FRIENDS REHABILITATION PROGRAM INC
Contact Address 704 W GIRARD AVE # 706
City PHILADELPHIA State PA
Zip 19123-1313 Ruling date 196505
Tax period 201205 Assets 19,792,085
Income 7,401,816 Revenue 6,601,740
Deductability Contributions are deductible Foundation descrip Organization that normally receives no more than one-third of its support from gross investment income and unrelated business income and at the same time more than one-third of its support from contributions, fees, and gross receipts related to exempt purposes. 509(a)(2)
Subsection Charitable Organization Activity descrip Housing for the aged (see also 153)
Exempt descrip
Select 2013 structured data
Schedule J required? Y Loan to officer or DQP? Y
Officer, etc. of entity with business relationship? Y Related entity? Y
Related organization a controlled entity? Y Schedule O completed? Y
Number forms transmitted with 1096 75 Number of employees 99
Employment tax returns filed? Y Reportable compensation from organization 425,829
Number individuals greater than $100K 2 Total contributions 3,262,212
Program service revenue 354,214 Investment income 239,152
Other revenue code 11a 531,110 Other revenue amount 11a 2,398,598
Total revenue 6,601,740 Other salaries and wages 1,578,918
Other employee benefits 179,694 Payroll taxes 140,463
Legal fees 49,381 Accounting fees 46,965
Funders and grantees
April 10th, 2015 at 7:26 am
This is their financials I ASK YOU? do they really need to ask the public for money??
https://www.citizenaudit.org/236398764/
TWO of their employees according to their 2012 tax filing make more than $100,000.00
One hundred thousand dollars
One Million in employee salary???
They have 19 million in assets!!!!
This is a not for profit?
April 10th, 2015 at 9:59 am
@sammonphiladelphia
>>>FRP does not need public funds to maintain a defunct property they should have been maintaining all along. It is PRIVATE why would we pay for that?
Where do get that from? As far I know that is entirely false. Just completely made-up bull poop. They are a private non-profit that builds affordable and senior housing throughout the city. 19 million worth throughout the city, as you point out, which is not peanuts in terms of the total availability of affordable housing in the city.
FRP, instead of building out their privately owned land for more housing, graciously offered a now-defunct neighborhood group a chance to set it up as a “park”. The neighborhood group, under one person’s leadership in particular, made an impractical “park”, kept questionable books and generally blew the opportunity. Reluctantly, FRP is allowing a new group of neighbors to try again. They don’t have to. They could just sell the lot to a private developer, or build it out by-right as affordable apartments.
The newly reformed neighborhood group is asking for vollunteers to help clean-up the park this Saturday. Eventually they may need to ask for donations to fix things that are broken in Danielle Rousseau Hunter’s design that make it impractical for maintaining cheaply and to maximize community use. Nobody is asking for tax dollars to fix the park.
Basically either you need to decide if you want to be part of the effort of trying to reenvision the park as more functional space for public use or if you would like to encourage FRP to build affordable housing units on that corner. By hating on FRP, you are defacto urging them to build affordable apartments on that site. Is that your preference, sammonphiladelphia?
April 10th, 2015 at 10:03 am
Build affordable housing. With all the new development in UC west philly the poor are being pushed out. WE NEED affordable housing not another park that excludes most of the public.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:05 am
I don’t “hate” FRP I just do not get how a NFP carries a profit margin. Not for profit was to help in needful situations. NOT pay your people outrageous salaries.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:13 am
By the way, PHA is a tax-payer funded government agency. So I’m not sure where that was going, but yeah every single bit of construction, maintenance, housing vouchers that PHA touches is 100% your tax dollars at work, mostly federal, but with some state and local tax dollars included.
In general, neighbors of FRP affordable and senior housing projects tend to be much more positive on their private, charitable affordable housing projects than many neighbors of PHA tax-payer funded projects tend to be.
Any group or non-profit run by committee can be frustrating to work with at times, but I don’t understand the venting at FRP unless you are saying you want them to build out that lot as affordable housing. Its their private land. Its zoned residential by-right and its certainly cheaper for them to build on land they already own than to acquire new land somewhere else in the city. Food for thought.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:22 am
Its a fair argument that maybe a return to a level of higher density on that corner might be a net positive in the end.
I’d like to see a good faith effort to make the park idea work under simpler vision first myself, but its true that the other option is not terrible. As I recall from past efforts to move the West Philadelphia Coop School onto the next block of 48th however, many nearby neighbors are not particularly fond of proposals for increased density.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:40 am
That was a bit of an understatement, BTW. It was remarkable the level of hostility aimed at a zoning variance for a local institution like West Philly Coop School relocating there based mostly on opposition to greater density, foot traffic from parents. Which seemed surprising at the time.
http://www.westphillycoopschool.com/
April 10th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
You put it to the point PRIVATE land seeking public FREE community aid by way of cleaning and fund raising. You have to sign a waiver to be in there. Why won’t FRP in the least pay for the property to be insured?
I see another elitist park at hand. You must sign a waiver to say you won’t seek out compensation if you are hurt on “their” property. But hey come clean it You can’t use it but we’ll take your time and cash…
April 10th, 2015 at 11:17 pm
FRP didn’t organize the cleanup–the neighbors did, without consulting FRP first.
April 11th, 2015 at 9:15 am
Nobody can use it when its full of trash. Cleaning it is the first step to building a neighborhood organization that can actually make it available to the public in the future. Baby steps.
Wah! I want to complain about the injustice of there being something potentially very nice not being presented to me on a golden platter, but I don’t want to make any effort to make it happen.
April 12th, 2015 at 12:33 pm
When a defunct private park, in an area ripe for development, after years of mismanagement and misuse suddenly decides to form a “FRIENDS OF” group who lobbies the public for support with out including the public. I question the motives of the party at hand.
By becoming more aware of the actions of Not For Profit’s perhaps the neighborhoods wouldn’t loose out on the funds and grants that should be %100 for the community.
I am reminded of the 2.4 million dollars that was awarded to A property developer for the improvement of Mantua through a federal grant years ago.
This past year Mantua had a huge eminent domaine sweep. Blocks were taken for a grocery store that was not brought before the public, was not yet approved by the city. $2.4 million. What was it used for? One can only assume to buy out the families that have been there for years forcing them out w/ eminent domaine. Given a pittance for the price of their home.
The city is being pieced out to special groups and renamed UCity, Powelton Village, West View dismantling history, neighborhoods, families. West Philadelphia should be preserved and cherished not sighted for quick cash and shady business deals.
It is our civic duty to be aware, be active and speak up. If we do not then we have only ourselves to blame when our homes are stolen and demolished.
So when a private park owned by a successful not for profit chooses NOT to insure it but put it into the hands of an unelected “Friends Of” special interest group who seeks public work for free and will soon solicit funds to maintain the place. It doesn’t seem right I question the intent.
As far as a silver platter etc… Wrong tree friend.
I work for free. Three organizations. Child advocacy, Human rights and Community Preservation.
I was taught, it is our civic duty to serve one another without renumeration.
We must govern our own lest those who prey upon the weak feast upon ignorant bones.
April 14th, 2015 at 12:45 am
As someone who lives right around the corner from that lot, I would love to see more development on that corner. Between that abandoned park and the dog park catty-corner to it, that intersection gets a little desolate & spooky at night. Things improved when the really tall bright light was installed outside the dog park, but it still seems to be a common practice for a lot of pedestrians to walk down the middle of 48th street south of Chester after dark as both sidewalks are in shadow. I would love to see Squirrel Hill Park developed.
My fantasy for the dog park is that after dark it turns into housing, and then in the morning turns magically back into a dog park again, but alas, that lot’s not zoned for magic.