Queen Village Streetscape Issues

Neighbors Association Does Great Work

I now live in the lovely historic Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia, about 1/2 mile from the Delaware River, south of Penn’s Landing. I’m lucky to get to walk the dog a few times a day to historic Old Swedes Church and to the Delaware Riverfront trail and old piers along the river.

The people are friendly and the local Queen Village Neighbors Association (QVNA) does a nice job engaging volunteers to do all sorts of good stuff, including a group of volunteers who plant trees.

I seem to have discovered a maintenance free zone along the Water Street boundary of Old Swedes, so I sent QVNA a proposal to improve maintenance and plant some more trees. Let’s hope we can get this done (see proposal and photos below):

Good morning QVNA - I thought I might ask you folks at QVNA for assistance and make a proposal. I live at 235 Montrose Street.

The streetscape on Water street along the wall of Old Swedes is in very bad shape (see attached photos).

There are 2 dead trees that need to be replaced (hazardous trees), 2 empty tree boxes that need new trees, and all 6 boxes are litter and weed infested and need plantings and mulch. These conditions are attracting additional litter and illegal disposal (I don’t buy the “broken windows” theory, but some do, so there may be public safety issues raised as well).

It seems to be somewhat of a maintenance free zone, not cared for by the National Park Service, Old Swedes, the City, or QVNA.

In contrast, just across the street, the lovely green stretch is well maintained and looks great.

I spoke with the landscape contractor there recently to request that they expand their work across Water Street for these 6 tree boxes. The man didn’t know who held his contract.

So, could QVNA find out who holds this landscape - maintenance contract and request that it is expanded accordingly?

Additionally, I understand that QVNA has volunteers that do tree plantings (I signed up to volunteer, but lost the contact email). I’d ask that you forward this note to them. Maybe these boxes can be put on the inventory list and included in this fall’s planting.

In terms of additional necessary tree plantings:

1) there is a dead tree and an open box on Carpenter along Shot Tower Park that need new trees.

2) There are 2 open boxes on Carpenter between Moyamensing and 2nd.

3) There is a hazardous dead tree at the corner of Moyamensing and Hall Street. (photo attached).

4) there is an empty box at the corner of Moyamensing and Montrose.

5) the new development at 242 Montrose - the corner of Montrose and 3rd - is not landscaped. I saw artist renditions of that development that included 2 tree plantings along Montrose and 2 on 3rd. Could QVNA reach out to the City to find out if landscaping was a condition of their building permits and planning/zoning approvals? (photo attached).

Thanks for your help!

Let me know what I can do to further this work, e.g. if I need to contact the City or NPS.