Logan Orchard and Market community meeting

Posted by Logan Orchard and Market on June 29, 2015

Logan residents and LOAM allies will meet on July 13 at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, at 7:00 pm to further shape and advance the plans. Our host is the Center for Returning Citizens. Refreshments will be served.

The Logan Triangle is Philadelphia’s notorious 35-acre vacant space, where 997 homes were torn down 20 years ago. Built on loose coal ash 40 feet deep, the homes tilted and cracked.

Today, the Logan Orchard and Market (LOAM) proposes to create a major green city model, while meeting basic needs of Logan neighbors for fresh food, affordable housing, health care, work and fun. To do these, LOAM would fill the land with 100 greenhouses, 300 solar cabins (aka elder cottages or “tiny houses”), orchards, parks, playgrounds, market pavilions, and the Patch Adams free clinic. LOAM would also be a regional nursery for edible perennials and crafts.

Because the unemployment rate among Logan neighborhood males is 50%, LOAM will offer priority job training for horticulture, landscaping, orchardry, floriculture, solar construction, and so forth. Priority housing would become available to Logan veterans, returning citizens, young families, seniors, teachers and artists who’d help manage the land.

LOAM advocates met on June 11 with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, which took the Logan land by eminent domain in 2012. LOAM asked PRA for permission to use one of the 1,000 lots for a pocket park, to bring neighbors together to discuss their preferences. PRA said no, explaining that they are negotiating with a developer.

According to Charlene Samuels, co-president of Logan EPIC Stakeholders, “The Logan neighborhood can’t wait another 20 years for a developer to build ‘mixed housing’ on the land. If it were easy they’d have built it years ago. Time to let that dog die and do something innovative. The LOAM proposal can start right away. It provides us fresh food, low cost senior housing, health care, and a great way to connect our children to nature.”

Ernie Bristow, who lives the Logan neighborhood, says “No more talking– (talk is cheap! we need to move forward with the LOAM project for the betterment of the Community as a whole.”

Katrice Cheaton, a community advocate from the area, declares “LOAM has the potential to empower Logan residents with the tools and resources they need to improve their quality of life as well as help the environment. It’s a win-win model.”

LOAM intends to begin by installing a pocket park, and expand from there. Across Loudon Street from the Triangle lives Ralph Brogdon, who says “There are thousands of young men roaming around here with nothing to do. This will start to repair the neighborhood.” His son Ralph Brogdon Jr. is a government worker and budding permaculture/agriculturalist. “Learning green skills not only in agriculture/aquaculture/high tunnels, but as a technical aspect such as solar and wind generation will add much-needed job skills for the neighborhood and the Philadelphia area.”

According to Paul Glover, who drafted the LOAM proposal, “We’ll start small and grow like a coral reef of beauty and plenty. As we proceed we’ll attract grants, volunteers, in-kind donations, and even print our own credits.” Glover is founder of Ithaca HOURS, a large community currency, founder of the Philadelphia Orchard Project, and a dozen other organizations.

Mary Seton Corboy, founder of Greensgrow Market, on a former brownfield, looks forward to collaborating to revive this land. “We hope this project, like Greensgrow’s work in Kensington, can help revive a blight on our whole City. The scope is large but the problem is large. Logan neighbors are bringing growing ideas where there has only been sinking homes.”

Rachael Griffith, landscape architect with the Land Health Institute, is an advisor to the design team. “Implementing a project such as LOAM could be just what this community and the city has been waiting for. It will reactivate an area which has been blighted for decades in a unique and productive way that will provide greatly-needed jobs and community services and attract agro-tourism, without triggering gentrification.

“The city doesn’t need another discount superstore- it needs to support iconic, innovative land uses that will build social infrastructure, benefit the local economy, and rehabilitate our environment. It would be hard to find a use for this tract of land that would satisfy these criteria better than the LOAM initiative.”

LOAM’s lead partners are Choates General Contracting, a member of the US Green Building Council, and A.T. Russell Construction, a Women- and Minority-Owned Enterprise.

Tom Greene, leader of Philadelphia Tiny House and Co-housing Community Development, “As a local community advocate and planner for sustainable development and homes offering affordable quality living, I see a real possibility of many smaller homes being planted on this site. This plan of LOAM is well thought out and I would be proud to be part of this campaign for community action where all stakeholders are involved. My energy and focus would be matching demand for housing on a scale that meets the environmental impact and economic opportunity of Logan triangle.”

Archye Leacock is founder and executive director of Institute for the Development of African-American Youth (IDAAY) in Philadelphia. He says, “”I’m truly excited that LOAM is taking on such an ambitious project of bringing real jobs to the numerous unemployed young people in the Logan neighborhood. IDAAY and I stand prepared to join this team and contribute how and wherever we can to this success.”

Logan residents and LOAM allies will meet on July 13 at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, at 7:00pm to further shape and advance the plans. Our host is the Center for Returning Citizens. Refreshments will be served.

For more information: metroeco@gmail.com or 215 805-8330

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