By Matt Jackson
As a lifelong resident of Northeast Philly, I have been following the progress of what the state of PA calls the Castor Ave. Safety and Streetscapes Improvements Project. I attended the recent Take Back Your Neighborhood meeting, where I strongly urged staff from Councilmember Quetcy Lozada’s office to take seriously the rising opposition to the Castor Ave. project.
Some would agree, while others might not, the engagement results submitted to the state by the city Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems are weak and do not truly represent what the city’s report claims. The memo, dated May 13, 2025, states, “while many community members are very concerned with the impacts of the road diet, the vast majority support the entire project.” This should only be considered a preliminary conclusion based on the feedback discussed in OTIS’ memo.
The memo cites door-to-door engagement with businesses (including 30+ conversations and flyers distributed, a community meeting with 80 attendees, a sit down with 15 attendees at a business association meeting and an online survey with 571 total responses). Included in the online survey is approximately 370 Northeast High students along with 10% of responses in a language other than English. While these are diverse results, these results in no way should be seen as robust enough to conclude that a vast majority of the community fully supports the project.
When one looks at voter registration in the affected wards, it should become clear that more engagement is necessary. In Ward 56, there are 21,184 registered voters. Ward 54, where the neighborhood group Take Back Your Neighborhood has filed an injunction against the project, has 8,962 registered voters. On the other side from Castor Avenue, the 53rd Ward has 12,888 registered voters. Many residents have complained they were unable to attend the community meetings because of the time they were held, and if they did, their concerns were dismissed.
Based on the number of registered voters and rising community opposition to the project, it is more than reasonable to hold more in-depth engagement sessions with community residents. As a candidate, Joe Picozzi, as reported by the Northeast Times on April 6, 2024, “called for an up-or-down vote on the road diet.” A neighbor and I recently sent letters to now-Sen. Picozzi. We anxiously await his response. At the same meeting, Rep. Jared Solomon said, “more information is needed.” I recently spoke with Rep. Jared Solomon and he said the project is moving forward but with a focus on the look and feel of the changes. At the time, in April 2024, more information was needed, but today, there is enough information to say that more intensive/direct engagement with residents in the affected wards must happen. Residents are concerned about the impacts of the 4-to-3 lane reduction of Castor Ave. No one disputes that updating Castor Ave with traffic-calming measures such as left turn lights are needed, but this project should not continue without hashing out these concerns with residents who are intimately familiar with daily life on Castor Avenue.
More in-depth engagement is not without precedent. When there was opposition to the Washington Avenue road diet in South Philly, the city conducted more intensive engagement with residents and registered community organizations. That increased engagement could happen with the Castor Avenue project, given the fact the project is not scheduled to begin construction until 2027. Any statement by a member of City Council or their staff that it is a state project and they are not involved is passing the buck because the City is already involved, since it already conducted the engagement results noted in the May 2025 memo.
Finally, the May 2025 memo recommends “developing clear answers to the primary concern for the project – traffic impacts and continuing to work with community members to refine the design and complete this project.” Using future engagement to only focus on the look and feel of the changes is not enough. Just like the city did with the Washington Ave. project, Castor Ave. could have the same intensive engagement where the state project manager can listen to residents’ feedback.
With an injunction filed by a neighborhood group against the road diet, it is clear there is a need for significantly – and more meaningful – follow-up engagement. All elected officials in Northeast Philly need to step up on this issue because road updates and changes are coming, but they will be made better by the residents who know the roads best. Our elected officials and their staffs can be important facilitators of this more intensive engagement. ••
Matt Jackson is a lifetime Northeast Philly resident who was born and raised in Castor Gardens and lives in Bustleton.
