Jeff Hornstein has been involved in neighborhood groups since 2005, when he lived in Queen Village. He moved to Northern Liberties in 2019, where he is now president of the neighborhood association
“I’m the kind of person who gets involved,” he said. “Some people do, and some people don’t. So I got involved just because that’s who I am.”
Hornstein said as a “city of neighborhoods,” Philly citizens should get involved with their local neighborhood associations. He said he has seen the impact that groups like the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association can have.
“We are not only a community organization that does the typical stuff that an RCO does, like zoning and keeping neighbors informed and serving as a sort of interface between city government, tenant and the neighborhood,” he said. “But we also own property and maintain it and manage it on behalf of the neighborhood.”
An RCO is a registered community organization, and there are over 200 of them in Philadelphia. The NLNA is one. The RCO designation includes neighborhood associations, business improvement districts and ward committees.
Registered community organizations have been around for a long time and have had a complicated history in Philly.
Terminology can also get confusing. Neighborhood and civic associations can be RCOs, but aren’t always. And some RCOs are political or advocacy groups. So, how can you differentiate? And how can you participate if you, like Hornstein, are a person who likes to get involved?
Well, what’s the difference?
In short, civic or neighborhood associations are community groups that come together to help improve their neighborhoods.
Hornstein said, for his neighborhood association, this can include anything from helping with public safety issues to hosting community events.
“We do things like zoning and organizing festivals and community engagement and using the facilities that we own,” he said. “But we also deal with problems like the bus station or the unhoused and substance abuse disorders folks may be struggling with.”
One of the NLNA’s priorities over the past two years has been finding a solution to the city’s intercity bus station problem. Philly’s original Greyhound station was closed in 2023, leading many bus companies to pick up and drop off passengers outside of the Spring Garden El station in Northern Liberties.
“The city imposed the intercity buses on the neighborhood without really any warning,” Hornstein said. “And for about two years, we worked with the city to improve the situation, and then ultimately persuaded them that Northern Liberties wasn’t the right place for the bus depot for a lot of reasons.”
Hornstein points to this as one example of the positive work neighborhood organizations can do.
Civic associations CAN be RCOs, but they don’t have to be. Hornstein explained the RCO designation gives organizations a seat at the table for zoning and land-use decisions in the neighborhood.
“There’s a process by which community organizations apply for and become certified to be the RCO for a particular geography,” he said. “And what that means is that, for purposes of zoning and land-use decision-making, we are the first stop for developers. So one thing every RCO does is provide an opportunity for community input in the zoning and land-use process.”
From there, RCO input is used in the final decisions for developers, Hornstein explained.
“So if a developer wants to build something in Northern Liberties and they need a zoning variance or some other sort of city approval, they are required to notify the registered community organization,” he said.
“Then, that organization has a process by which it vets that proposal and makes a recommendation to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and to the relevant district council person, who then decides to support or oppose that variance request or other requests for city assistance.”
RCOs can get complicated.
The neighborhood groups, which can give feedback on real estate and land use decisions, were the subject of a 2024 ballot question asking voters to decide if the city should provide legal backing for RCOs for their work on zoning matters.
Developers will sometimes sue the offices of RCOs that oppose projects or ask for concessions, and the legal and insurance fees can sometimes lead the groups to dissolve. The ballot measure passed, allowing the city to back RCOs monetarily so they can continue to operate and fight lawsuits as they come up.
Opponents of RCOs say they can sometimes try to block projects for illegitimate or “bad” reasons – like fears of low-income housing in the area, or of parking.
Despite the controversy, many RCOs continue to thrive in the city.
Influencing city planning
The RCO designation can also help political groups, such as Republican and Democratic wards throughout the city, influence land-use decisions or provide feedback.
One recent example is the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation’s opposition to a proposed 76ers arena at Market Street East.
The RCO played an important role in the dissolution of this development plan, said John Chin, the executive director of the PCDC.
“As an RCO, we got ourselves involved with the 76ers arena development process,” he said. “But in addition to that, because we are an advocate for Chinatown and a neighborhood planner, our other hat that we wore was as a preservationist and protector of Chinatown.”
PCDC’s opposition, along with citywide protest and advocacy across neighborhoods, ended up delaying arena plans for over two years, until developers decided to build a new facility in South Philly instead.
Chin explained that RCOs give an important platform for everyone’s voices to be heard.
“So, what I always say is: Planning for the people, by the people,” he said. “The most important voices for any neighborhood, and in Chinatown, are the voices of the people who live and work in Chinatown. And the RCOs are supposed to be that organization that allows the voices to rise up and speak to zoning and development issues.”
Throughout the arena process, the PCDC completed several tasks that helped engage members of the community and influence land decisions, Chin said.
This included forming a committee of PCDC members that met with developers and contextualized what development would mean for the community.
He said the other part was garnering community feedback.
“It was our job to create a forum where first-generation immigrants who didn’t speak English fluently had the opportunity to speak up about the arena,” he said.
This included multiple bilingual sessions.
Beyond resisting “big” neighborhood projects like the arena development, Chin said RCOs go into everything that could compromise a neighborhood.
“RCO members are made up of just regular working people,” he said “An important thing for our series, I think, is the neighborhood nuisances that are a very common topic of RCO meetings. This includes trash, cars, parking spaces, and all those things.”
Why get involved?
Civic associations, also known as neighborhood associations, can be a great way to have a voice in the neighborhood or community where people live.
These groups can provide information about community events and strengthen the collective voices of those living in a certain neighborhood.
“Every neighborhood in the city used to be its own sort of autonomous economic engine,” Hornstein said. “My message to anybody in the city is: Don’t complain. Rather, organize.”
Hornstein said there are many problems that can be fixed when groups of neighbors come together.
“Neighborhoods, the ones that are growing, the ones that are safe, they have a small group of committed citizens who get together, put their shoulders on the wheel and get stuff done,” he said.
He said NLNA has carried the spirit of the Northern Liberties neighborhood and has allowed its residents to get things done.
“We are a neighborhood that is completely DIY,” he said. “Liberty Lands Playground exists not because we paid someone to figure it out for us, but because a bunch of neighbors came together in the ‘90s and said, ‘Hey, there’s a vacant brownfield in the middle of our neighborhood. We’re going to make it into a park, and if you don’t like it, too bad.’ So this is a neighborhood with a culture of doing things themselves.”
Some developers say RCOs can provide important information for their projects.
“RCOs typically do make our projects better,” Muhammed “Mo” Rushdy, managing partner of The Riverwards Group, said. “A lot of times, developers and architects would design in a vacuum or put a project in a way where they know it’s going to sell or they know what’s in demand out there, and they might sometimes overlook the surroundings, the neighborhood, the character and the concerns of the people.”
He says receiving community feedback through RCOs helps create “harmony” among developers, the city and the people.
Rushdy says one issue he sees with RCOs is the inconsistencies in how they operate.
“I think there is just an ambiguity in the process right now, where [the RCOs] are not standardized, and where it’s just a hit or miss,” he said.
He said RCOs could be even more beneficial for developers and communities if they had a standard process – where all RCOs advertise their meetings, conduct votes, and go through training similarly.
He said he recognizes not all RCOs have the resources to take on the same tasks or have the same structure, but the process could be more efficient.
“[One time], I was dealing with a project and there were 5 RCOs within that same area,” he said. “And I was like, ‘how are there 5 RCOs?’ That’s draining a lot of resources and time and money, and if the five can come together as one RCO, they’ll have better resources and they’re going to represent more people.”
Despite this, some developers and officials see RCOs negatively – arguing they frequently block development, sometimes for frivolous reasons.
How can you get involved?
There are many RCOs in the Philly area, and their processes for joining vary. Involvement may include attending community meetings, joining committees or volunteering to help with events.
The city has several resources to determine which RCO covers your neighborhood – including an OpenMaps tool and a comprehensive list. These resources include points of contact information, websites and email addresses to get more involved.
Hornstein said he encourages all Philadelphians to take the first step – because it can lead to further involvement.
“This is an easy city to get involved in,” he said. “We have district council people who are generally pretty responsive to organized neighbors. There are very few problems that I haven’t seen that are solvable if neighbors get together and take responsibility.”
