FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2002

CONTACT:
Debra Ward
Callowhill Neighborhood Association (CNA)
(215) 430-4482 - Day Phone
(215) 928-9369 - Evening Phone
(215) 928-9369 - FAX
debra_d_ward@hotmail.com

Not an Ordinary Clean-up Day For the "Loft District", 'We're Taking Back the Neighborhood'

PHILADELPHIA, PA, APRIL 20, 2002 ----- The Callowhill Neighborhood Association ("CNA") announces their annual clean-up day scheduled on Saturday, May 4, 2002, from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. The clean-up is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize this neighborhood which is becoming Philadelphia's reply back to New York's SoHo. This patchwork of businesses, residents, and stables is between Vine Street and Spring Garden to the North, and Eighth and Broad Street to the West.

From what had been the Mayor of Philadelphia's favored site for the city's new football and baseball stadium; this neighborhood has fought back with the support of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation to retain its vitality, and it is proving its worth by instituting a "Take Back the Neighborhood Campaign."

Ms. Amy Hooper, Acting President for the newly formed CNA, says "that we may have faced challenges with the city administration over the stadium issue, but we are looking forward not backwards, as we work towards developing our neighborhood's future." "Frankly, we are very much inspired by Mayor Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative ("NTI"), we are looking to capture the spirit of that initiative and unleash it right smack into Philadelphia's new Loft District."

"Thanks to the Philadelphia More Beautiful Committee and the generosity of local businesses and establishments, we expect this year's clean-up to be a great success", says Ms. Debra Ward, the clean-up day coordinator. "We anticipate having over 100 neighbors at this year's event, and to make a real transformation in the L-District."

However, this is only one step the Loft District has taken to reclaim this neighborhood. Thanks to Operation Town Watch of Philadelphia, many of the neighbors have received level-one training. "We are establishing a first-rate program here, to take back our neighborhood, and drug dealers beware: no longer will 13th street be an 'easy street' for drug deals, as it has been in the past," says Mr. Jeffrey Koopman, the neighborhood's townwatch committee chair. "We will be working closely with the sixth district and will be actively involved in reporting and tracking, as we want them out of our neighborhood, and we will succeed."

"That's what I love about Philadelphia," states Alex Generalis, a CNA resident, developer and co-founder of Miles and Generalis, Inc., developers of several open loft condos in the city. "Neighborhoods come in different shapes and sizes; that's what makes this city wonderful, we are just part of that mix, and we mean business in our neighborhood."

For more information about CNA, their "Take Back the Neighborhood Initiative," or the Neighborhood Clean-up Day, please contact Debra Ward at (215) 430-4482 during normal business hours or at (215) 928-9369 in the evening.

The Callowhill Neighborhood Association (CNA) is a group of people just like you who either work or live between Vine Street and Spring Garden to the North, and Eighth and Broad Street to the West. The mission of CNA is to improve, develop and advocate for this section of the city, to represent the ethnic and occupational diversity of the people in the area and to continue to build community.

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