Build Like You Live Here

02/08/2024

This is beyond overdue!

"Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration will break up the oft-criticized Department of Licenses and Inspections into two separate agencies. It's a major reorganization of city government that critics have advocated for years."

The move comes nearly a decade after a commission that reviewed the Market Street collapse recommended the city split the department in two.

01/29/2024

Thank you to Samantha Melamed at Philadelphia Inquirer, for her continued investigative work into the impact of "Construction Destruction" on Philadelphia's residents in her "Crumbling City" series. It's well worth the read. If you haven't seen any of her previous pieces, take a look at today's piece, highlighting the biggest takeaways from researching and writing this series to date:

The most illuminating and infuriating takeaways from our “Crumbling City” series, showing how a building surge, culture of impunity, and poor oversight enabled "construction destruction" to fester.

12/28/2023

The companies were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and sued repeatedly over shoddy construction and work that destroyed neighbors' homes. Then, many of them simply disappeared.

12/27/2023

Act 135 is yet another example of a law, that may have been designed to have a positive impact on communities, being exploited by development interest for profit at the expense of our communities and homes.

See also:
(1) the now axed and often exploited Fresh Food Bonus, intended to address food desserts in disinvested in communities, that granted additional height above zoning limits for including a large fresh fruit grocery store retail space. Ever walked by a completed new construction in a gentrifying area with a first floor that has been vacant for years? Developers often used this bonus in areas that were technically qualified by the number of thousands of feet from the nearest grocery store, but might have had ample grocery options in that radius. No market studies required, no guarantee of a future grocery store tenant required. And you can't take away an extra floor of height from a completed building.

(2) another additional height bonus granted for building affordable housing units in a large project - often side stepped by the option to pay into the affordable housing fund instead. Many pay into the fund rather than build the units, displacing people from their childhood neighborhoods as they gentrify. Add the fact that any landlords refuse (illegally) to accept section 8 housing vouchers in gentrifying areas, further displacing families into disinvested in communities and creating poverty "ghettos" until the next wave of profit seeking development displaces them again.

To Linsey Franklin, a community development nonprofit's efforts feel like class warfare — and a misapplication of state law.

12/05/2023

Investigations being proposed by the Controller, the Philadelphia watchdog office:

"Brady said her office will also prioritize reviewing the Department of Licenses and Inspections’ record of enforcing unlicensed properties and workers, citing the recent 10-year anniversary of the deadly collapse on Market Street.

“While many demolition and construction regulations have been put in place since then, construction-related collapses and fatalities have continued,” she said."

Because she won a special election, Brady was sworn in four weeks before Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker is scheduled to be inaugurated.

06/16/2023

Thank you to Samantha Melamed at The Philadelphia Inquirer for consolidating these tips for what to do if you are expecting demolition/excavation/construction next door:

For rowhouse residents, construction next door can bring risk. Here are steps you can take to protect yourself.

06/08/2023

June 5th marked the 10 year anniversary of the Market Street Salvation Army collapse. The Inquirer just published a comprehensive retrospective on the issue of unsafe construction across the city by Samantha Melamed:

More than 60% of Philly’s 331,000 rowhouses and twins are now more than a century old. And many have suffered years of deferred maintenance.

02/10/2023

Resource alert!

Check out this resident's guide to the new notification requirements of adjacent construction permit applicants to learn how you could be impacted by adjacent construction and how to protect yourself and your home.

Source: Community Legal Services of Philadelphia

A new city law provides new rights and information to residents about adjacent for permit applications after January 1, 2023.

09/22/2022

We deserve protections and rights in the face of unsafe construction that forces neighbors into financial and emotional ruin, or even homelessness. Developers with a pattern of harm and damages must be held accountable for their behavior.

09/20/2022

Protest details and RSVP at buildlikeyoulivehere.org/protest.

Philadelphia is overrun with unsafe development, dangerous excavations, and damaging construction work. It is destroying our homes and our lives.

Our city considers damages by adjacent development to be a civil issue and provides us with no protections or support systems when our homes are destroyed or irreparably damaged by construction work. Damage that causes your home to be in violation of the building safety code becomes YOUR financial responsibility and burden.

Our most disadvantaged and disinvested communities have been suffering from this harm for decades as out-of-state investment and rampant gentrification and displacement drive families out of their lifelong neighborhoods. Homeowners and renters alike across Philadelphia are being forced to flee their homes and become refugees in their own neighborhoods.

In 2013 the Market Street Salvation Army Collapse shook the city.

It’s 2022 and nothing has changed.

THE CITY MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION NOW.