President’s Letter

Looking Back, Moving Forward

By Eleanor Ingersoll, QVNA President

Hello Neighbors and Happy Holidays to you all!

As I wrap up my service to the Association, I look back at eight years on the Board, and five-plus as board president and am truly thankful for being able to serve you all—in exchange for all that I have learned about you, the community, and how we work with the City of Philadelphia.

And there has been no shortage of opportunities for growth! But this extended leadership role needs some background to help understand the strides QVNA has made to become a resource for the neighborhood.

At the beginning of my board leadership, the main goal was volunteer recruitment throughout Queen Village as well as on the board; QVNA needed to work very hard to re-establish itself as a leader for the community. While working toward this, it became clear that the Association operations needed to move from Weccacoe Playground to respect the ongoing plans for the Bethel Burying Ground Memorial project.

We identified a place at the co-working space Joynture (above current business Snipes). There, QVNA worked to re-establish continuity with neighbors, services, programs, and fundraising. Zoning meetings were relocated, electronic communication stepped up, and policies put in place to better outline the board responsibilities of governance and strategic planning.

QVNA began helming more robust community meetings to re-engage the community and inspire volunteers to service for the greater good. I sought historic perspectives from Inez Green, Colleen Puckett, Cathy Conway, Marge and Al Schernecke, David Auspitz, and Joel Spivak. Councilman Mark Squilla was essential in helping me fill in the blanks and work with city agencies. I learned about the Interstate Land Management Corporation (ILMC) and rebooted the community arm of the quasi-governmental organization that maintains the lands abutting I-95. Afterwards, State Rep. Mary Isaacson first appointed me to serve on the ILMC board in 2018, followed by appointments from State Sen. Larry Farnese and then State Sen. Nikil Saval.

I reached out to Joe Forkin of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation about everything from trash and lighting responsibilities to the process for the I-95 cap and the South Street Pedestrian Bridge. I worked in alliance with fellow leaders at Society Hill Civic Association, Bella Vista Neighbors Association, and Pennsport Civic Association to cooperatively address projects that affected all of our neighborhoods. Aligning goals and outcomes with Mike Harris and the South Street Headhouse District was a regular point of work—from the Nightlife Task Force meetings to development projects, business licensing, and neighborhood cleaning projects. Regular conversations with Lt. Mike Long at the South Street Police Mini-Station were key to understanding neighborhood challenges.

It all seemed to be humming along until March 2020. The pandemic presented a crash course in learning how to live life, continue work, and interact online. We had our first Zoom board meeting in April of 2020. That provided the opportunity to conduct business but was also a test run of how a community meeting would be staged. We resumed community meetings that month with an ambitious program: Meet the Candidates night, moderated by The Committee of Seventy. All the while, the office was running COVID information from the city, bolstered by compiling a listing of which restaurants and stores were open and where people could find food giveaways to manage pandemic food insecurity.

But COVID impacted the Association as well. The landlord shut down the Joynture coworking space, and QVNA had to relocate again, this time to 4th and Fitzwater streets. There, in the throes of pandemic fatigue and social unrest, QVNA continued its mission by providing the community with pertinent information, connecting residents to political leaders, and sharing productive opportunities to get outside of the home.

And people were excited to get out of the house! Our board election in Decem-

ber of 2020 was one of the highest recorded times of neighborhood participation, 243 people stopped by the office to safely vote in person and help to shape QVNA.

Throughout 2021, as many were still schooling and working remotely, we kept the electronic information flowing, street cleaning on schedule, the parking lot maintained, and volunteers engaged in cleaning and greening projects. Our Zoom community meetings turned out to be one of the only ways for neighbors to continue to collaborate on a larger scale.

These forums included neighbor input for the Bethel Burying Ground Memorial artist selection and continued from there with information sessions on COVID and vaccines from world-renowned immunologist, Dr. Kathleen Sullivan. There were also community project discussions around the Washington Avenue Connector Project to the waterfront.

Safety and quality-of-life issues are always an underlying theme for QVNA. In June of 2021, tensions boiled over around illegal ATVs and dirt bikes. QVNA launched its first of two citywide Zooms. All totaled, more than 2,000 people registered to hear how councilpeople, police, and City Hall leadership planned to address the problem of pedestrian safety, business disruption, and regular noise violations throughout the entire city. In the fall, QVNA partnered with Society Hill, police, and Councilperson Squilla to follow up on this topic at a micro level.

2022 has been no less active. QVNA relocated its office, this time to South 5th Street, and managed a transition of the parking lot management firm—no small task. The zoning çommittee worked diligently to navigate the desires of businesses and residents against the written zoning code, the grants committee funded impressive neighborhood-based projects, and the office supported neighbors’ requests for pocket parks and neighborhood greens, 311 follow-up, and popular recycling events.

In June, QVNA was finally able to hold its first in-person community meeting since February 2020—on a grand scale: a town hall with Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and District Attorney Larry Krasner at Nebinger Elementary. Just days after gunfire took the lives of three people and wounded 11 others on South Street, more than 400 people showed up in person to hear the discussion and ask questions from the city’s highest levels of law enforcement. QVNA recorded the live meeting to provide it online for everyone.

It is this community outreach that was the most fulfilling aspect of serving the neighborhood. Seeing and hearing the concerns of neighbors allowed the Association to strive for creating the forum needed to ask hard questions and demand genuine answers from the officials we pay to run the city. Serving as your president has been a process of evolving in the leadership role to fine-tune public service and manage expectations through the pandemic and social unrest and through projects that elevate the neighborhood and its spirit.

But none of this would be possible without the support and dedication of board members past and present who questioned processes and created new works of community improvement. QVNA would not be the leader in civic engagement without the volunteers of the zoning committee, the grants committee, the nominations committee, the writers for this magazine, and the dedicated people who help deliver it to your door. It would also not be possible without the daily dedication of Executive Director Lucy Erdelac. I thank you all for your support and all that I have learned from you.

Which brings me to thanking all of you—for attending the meetings before the pandemic, sticking with us through our Zoom outreach, and showing up to be part of the conversations in person and online. You are in great hands with the incoming board. Continue engaging with QVNA to lift up this great neighborhood which we all call home—it’s nothing if not for you.

I’ll still see you around the neighborhood, look for me walking Ember—the dog with one blue eye.