Archive for the ‘Fountain Street Steps’ Category
“Mayor’s Cleanup” a success
Check that field preparation! Blaise Syrnick and Annie Scott flagged every single plant they needed volunteers to protect while they weeded. No kidding.
Ivy Ridge Green kicked off its spring season today with the Mayor’s 3rd annual cleanup, “Keep Up the Sweep Up.”
Big thanks to the several dozen volunteers who joined us, to City Year, to the great folks in the City Streets & Sanitation Departments who supported the effort. And thanks to all of the project partners, of whom there are too many to name at this point — you know who you are.
We tackled projects spread out over nearly a mile today, working all the way from the Manayunk Bridge — where volunteers hung a sign, discouraging dumping and vandalism to SEPTA’s fencing — to the banks of Germany Hill. But the main action was along the Fountain Street Steps & the Tow Path where volunteers hauled debris and weeded in preparation for Philly “Spring Into Your Park” day in May.
Join us then: Saturday, May 8th. Check back here for details in a couple of weeks.
Filed under Cleanups, Fountain Street Steps : Comments (0) : Apr 10th, 2010
‘Tis the Season
This past weekend the Umbria Street Neighbor Association did their annual Christmas decorations of the Fountain Street Steps. Pedestrians, joggers and passing cars all enjoy the great holiday look. Amy Angelo stated they are looking forward to their first big clean-up in the spring. The plans include a major planting of native shrubs and plants on the lower portion of the Fountain Street Steps.
Filed under Fountain Street Steps : Comments (0) : Dec 20th, 2009
Fountain St. Steps – Lots of Erosion
Such a soggy summer we are having. Recent rains have eroded some of the dirt under the steps and between the Belgium blocks. Please be careful. A clean up at the steps is schedule for August 4th, 6-8pm. with socializing at Union Jacks afterwards. Come join us.
Filed under Cleanups, Fountain Street Steps : Comments (0) : Jul 23rd, 2009
Fountain Street Steps
Back in the early ’90’s, two young mothers living on Umbria Street, Colleen Long and Amy Turella, decided to tackle the steps at the bottom of Fountain Street that lead to the Manayunk Canal. At that time, the steps were overgrown with weeds, the gutters to the sewer inlets were filled with trash, the area had rodents, people were afraid to walk down the steps to get to and from the Canal or to the factories on Venice Island.
After numerous phone calls to various agencies, organizing cleanups with neighbors and getting help from some agencies like Philadelphia Green, PECO, Grainger, Philadelphia More Beautiful and others, the steps became managable. Countless number of cleanups and plantings followed. About the same time, Colleen, Amy and Sue and Blaise Syrnick and a few neighbors formed the Umbria Street Neighbors Association, which holds 2 flea markets a year at the Ivyridge Train Station. The proceeds from these flea markets help to keep the steps maintained. In the spring of 09, with an influx of new interest and attention, the Umbria Street Neighbors were able to buy shrubs and some native plants and have them planted in the landings and sides of the steps.
With this interest and the many years of hard work by the Umbria Street neighbors, the steps have become a beautiful green space and safe access to the Canal.
[Eds. note: this work continues, and if you would like to be involved in cleanups and plantings of the steps, please check the Ivy Ridge Green events calendar.]
Filed under Fountain Street Steps : Comments (0) : Jun 23rd, 2009