Mt. Airy in motion

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

With 18 new businesses opening in the last 18 months, Mt. Airy seems to be living up to its "in motion" slogan.

And Mt. Airy USA, the neighborhood's community development corporation (CDC), and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are looking to maintain the momentum that started nearly two and a half years ago.

Guided by Iola Carter, Mt. Airy USA's business district manager, SBA representatives toured Mt. Airy's emerging commercial corridor in late November, offering direct financial and technical assistance to existing business owners.

"It's not only our job to recruit new businesses," Carter said. "We also want to bring them meaningful resources so they stay."

Helping to eliminate some of the risk involved in starting a business, the SBA gives beginners an "entrepreneurial leg up," said Joe McDevitt, SBA marketing division director. With its loan guarantee and minority enterprise development programs, the SBA supplies new entrepreneurs with the information they need to survive the often intimidating and complex process of starting a business, McDevitt said.

A graduate of SBA-funded programs, Jocie Dye, who owns and operates the Infusion Coffee and Tea Gallery with her husband Jason Huber, will celebrate her business' one-year anniversary on December 16.

Despite initial scares of dipping sales, Dye, who was recently elected president of the Mt. Airy Business Association, said she's still learning and adjusting the store's schedule to incorporate live music, poetry and art to reflect the neighborhood's celebrated diversity. "We're concentrating on improving the things that we're already doing," Dye said.

Spurred by North by Northwest's opening in 2001, the 7100 block of Germantown Avenue has become the focal point of Mt. Airy's renaissance and an example of the corridor's potential. Along with Infusion, the Fit Life fitness center, Jean Jacques gallery and the Vitality Pilates studio have helped to cement the area's commercial viability and diversity.

Catalina Bautista, an East Mt. Airy resident, recently joined the developing Mt. Airy commercial strip by opening Mr. Peepers Optical, after looking for a base of operations for 10 years. Encouraged by the economic development, Bautista said she has found her market and is already engaged in a referral program with a local eye institute.

The business boom seems to be traveling down the Avenue, as entrepreneurs like Charles Todd inhabit vacant buildings before they have a chance to invite blight.

Todd, a furniture maker, purchased Mt. Airy's old post office building in the 7000 block of Germantown Avenue in September. He moved to the area from Nashville, Tennessee, after his wife received an offer to teach history at the University of Pennsylvania. Still in its initial renovation phases, Todd hopes to open this summer and is looking to employ local artisans in Mt. Airy, an area he referred to as "a Mecca for furniture builders."

Even in the 6300 block of the Avenue, where Mt. Airy meets neighboring Germantown, businesses have shown resolute efforts, despite socio-economic shifts.

George Butler, who has run Butler Prestige Photography since 1988, has managed to maintain his business in the face of drug dealing and trash-strewn streets. "You can give people a lot of things," Butler said, "but you can't give them pride." But solid businesses coupled with Mt. Airy USA's Avenue Ambassadors program, which employs a full-time staff to clean and landscape Germantown Avenue, helps to improve the perception of the neighborhood, Butler said.

More visits like that from the SBA are needed in the community to give people information, he said. "Information is just as crucial as capital," Butler said, "but the people that need it the most don't know about it."

In addition to its own programs, the SBA supplies funding for the Temple University Small Business Development Center, which offers free legal counseling on an individual basis, and can provide assistance with drafting a business plan.

As a "memory preservationist," Butler said he has continued to attract business to the area because of investing time upfront with personal consultations.

Personalized service has also benefited Gilbert Fuller who runs a shoeshine shop across the street from Butler in the 6300 block of the Avenue. A local resident for the last 40 years, Fuller has seen the area change. Anchored by 35-year veteran the Rib Crib, the area is slowly feeling the momentum of Mt. Airy's thriving blocks. After spending 34 years as a women's hair stylist, Fuller decided to open his own business three years ago and has watched it grow, mostly by word of mouth.

Seeking to bring enthusiasm to underdeveloped areas on the Avenue, Elizabeth Shaak opened Mt. Airy Violins and Bows in October and has already held a concert at the neighboring St. Michael's Lutheran Church. Although many initially viewed her business and her prices as at odds with the neighborhood demographics, Shaak has sold discount violin bow and case sets for $300. "At that price, it's like two pairs of sneakers," Shaak said. With a vision of strengthening the community through music, she wants to explore the option of a concert series at St. Michaels. Formerly located in the South Street area, Shaak lauds Mt. Airy USA's revitalization efforts and hopes her custom violin bows can attract an audience from surrounding states.

The community's CDC has already begun to think regionally. Engaged in a two-year process, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is working with Mt. Airy USA and other community groups to draft a comprehensive improvement plan for Mt. Airy.

According to Richard Gilberte, Mt. Airy USA associate director, Mt. Airy was one of three neighborhoods selected by the William Penn Foundation to receive funding for the development of a community plan. Addressing both commercial and residential needs, the plan seeks to transform Mt. Airy into a regional attraction.

The plan, Gilberte said, not only offers great ideas, but also incorporates resources to fund them. Among the improvements: installing pedestrian lighting along Germantown Avenue, creating more public parking, revisiting trolley service, maintaining regional rail lines, acquiring and rehabbing abandoned or underused properties and converting the rusted and abandoned railroad trestle at Germantown Avenue and Cresheim Valley Drive into a Fairmount Park gateway.

Labeling the effort as a "community-driven process," Gilberte said he expects a public discussion of the plan in January and forecasted a late spring completion date.

"The plan will identify where we can focus as an organization and as a neighborhood," he said.