The gateway to the Elm Street neighborhood revitalization
project is becoming closer to reality.
At a community meeting Monday evening, Elm Street Manager Lisa
Campogiani and summer interns Jane Dahms and Kim Zhang showed plans
for a lot at the corner of West Washington and Mechanic streets and
asked for input from the residents.
“People perceive a neighborhood as safer if it is clean,”
Campogiani explained, introducing the concept of clean, safe and
green – one of the five points to the Elm Street Project
approach.
Through the Pennsylvania Downtown Center and in partnership with
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a statewide internship program is
offered to communities which are beautifying neighborhoods with art
and greenery projects.
Campogiani explained that community representatives apply to the
program and describe the project they intend to perform.
“They match interns with what you are trying to do,” she said.
“In our case they did a really great job.”
Zhang, a landscape architecture major at SUNY-College of
Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., explained at
the meeting that she became interested in participating in the
internship program from seeing the results of a garden started in a
vacant lot at her school.
“It brought the community together,” she said. “It’s wonderful
and I want to be a part of that … of bringing people together.”
Dahms, a horticulture major at Penn State, said she has been
following the efforts of Philadelphia Green, a public landscaping
group in the city.
“I love plants and I think cities should be full of them,” she
said. Referring to the internship, she said, “I thought it would be
a good opportunity.”
Campogiani explained to the community members that the efforts
this summer will be towards making the lot into a gateway.
“The major focus this year is to get that sign on that lot,” she
said, explaining is should designate that is where the Elm Street
Project begins.
Other work will include the draining and stabilization of a lot
by the Grace Lutheran Church.
Zhang and Dahms presented a scale drawing of the elements under
consideration for the lot, including a walkway, plants and possibly
seating.
“We want some community involvement in what we need to do next,”
Campogiani said.
She also explained she hopes to reapply for the internship
program next year for the Elm Street Project in hopes of getting a
mural for the area.
The Elm Street West neighborhood has a perimeter of Barbour,
Bennett, Mechanic and School streets and part of Pleasant Street.
The Elm Street North neighborhood includes Bishop, Kennedy, Miller,
Amm, Forman, Boylston and Davis streets.
