Urban Warrior | 'I CAN'T TAKE IT MUCH LONGER'

IT WAS DRIZZLING outside of Big Jim Tucker's Lounge on West Market Street last week. Just two men sought shelter there, tipping back afternoon beers.

Chain-link fencing has closed down the streets leading to the corner bar, which is smack-dab in the middle of SEPTA's reconstruction of the Market-Frankford El.

Elected officials - city, state and federal - have come up with more than $2.5 million to help West Philadelphia merchants impacted by the massive project.

But for every dollar of relief touted in press releases and photo opportunities with big blow-up checks, only a quarter has been spent so far, as the project enters its ninth and, hopefully, final year.

Robert and Robena Rogers say their bar has taken a financial beating. Business is off at least 50 percent since construction paralyzed the neighborhood's main commercial corridor.

"I had to let all my help go," Robert said. "There are a lot of people already out of business from this. I can't take it much longer."

He and his wife had heard about the government money available to help small businesses through the disruption.

But knowing about the money is one thing; getting it is another.

Some of the problem is pure bureaucracy. A state agency has been sitting on $600,000 in promised help for more than a year. And $1.2 million in federal help won't be available until 2008 and 2009.

More than half a million dollars in federal money is available right now, and not being spent by the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp., the nonprofit in charge of dispersing all of the money to help merchants.

"Right now, I'm just hoping they will give us something so that we can hold on," Robena said. "We get no customers because they can't get in."

That was always the idea - sustain mom-and-pop businesses with cash grants and loans to help them through the mess of El reconstruction. But it has been more than 15 months since the merchants have seen any of that financial relief.

Here's a breakdown of where the money comes from and where it has gone:

_ City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell pushed legislation in 2004 setting aside $750,000 in city money. Of that, $619,107 was distributed from June 2004 to August 2006, while $130,893 apparently went unspent.

_ State Sen. Vincent Hughes received approval for two grants for a combined $600,000 from the state Department of Community and Economic Development last year. But DCED still hasn't issued the money. That agency said a check for $100,000 is being written today, but details are still being worked on for how to spend the remaining $500,000.

_ U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah added $1,170,400 in federal money to 2005 transit legislation to be spent from 2006 to 2009. While $550,088 is available, none has been spent. In the next two years, $620,312 will be available.

Hughes said he has been pushing DCED hard for months to release the state money, 16 months after the spending was approved.

"I can't tell you how frustrated I've been with this thing," Hughes said. "It's just crazy."

Fattah emphasized that thousands in city money has already been distributed. Now it's up to PCDC to use the federal money to help the merchants, he said.

"What happens is, it becomes incumbent upon the local government to apply and draw down the money," Fattah said.

"We appropriated the money. But the entities that are responsible have to act on it."

Aqil Sabur, PCDC's interim president, said the nonprofit has already spent about $70,000 of its money, in anticipation of the $100,000 that DCED is expected to provide today. He hopes to act on a backlog of about 70 requests from merchants for funding.

"We want to at least provide some relief to the merchants in the holiday period," Sabur said.

As for the federal money, Sabur said PCDC is now drawing up plans for it. He said PennDOT is holding the money for now. But PennDOT, after consulting with the city's Streets Department, said it has nothing to do with the cash. PennDOT said it thinks the money is set aside as part of a larger city project to add streetscaping and traffic signals to West Market Street after SEPTA's construction ends.

Sabur said the money will be used for marketing campaigns to draw more customers to Market Street and to help merchants get their finances in order. The focus, he said, will be on existing merchants and not new businesses.

That's not enough for Curtis Jones, the former PCDC president who left in February to run for City Council. Jones, who takes office in January, said almost 50 small businesses already have gone under along the Market Street corridor.

"It has been devastating to merchants, devastating to residents in that area," Jones said. "That relief dollar was intended to help small businesses, family-owned businesses that pay taxes and employ people."

Jones said he has already asked for a seat on Council's transportation committee, where studying how the relief funding is spent will be his first order of business. He hopes to "break through the logjam" and get past any finger-pointing and blame-placing.

"Businesses fail in the meantime," Jones added. "This is a life preserver for businesses to make it through." *

E-mail urbanwarrior@phillynews.com or call the Urban Warrior tip line at 215-854-4810. For past columns:

http://go.philly.com/columnists.