Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 14

Page 14- PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Wednesday. Aug. 16. 1989 pot Annus i By Kathy Sheehan complex. I PANA also welcomed families who will be moving into several scattered homes mat are oeing renaomtated by the city's Office of Housing and Community Development.

Joyce Williams identified herself! as a mother of six who will be mov-; ing into a home on Heiskell Street after a couple of older residents voiced concerns about the screening process for families moving into the scattered homes. "You don't even get a person knocking on your door when you move in anymore, so this is really nice," Young said. "It's really unbelievable," added Elva Thomas, who moved into the complex with her two daughters in July. "They are really friendly." People from her old neighborhood in North Philadelphia "stayed to themselves," Thomas said. "It was like they didn't want to get involved.

I want to get involved." Thomas said she was particularly interested in joining the Town Watch effort because she has already seen that longtime neighbors keep an eye out for strangers who might threaten anyone's security. "This is a wonderful event when we can be invited to an open house like we have here," said Sylvester Johnson, manager of the $2.4 million thrilled that low-income families were to move into the struggling community. Years of negotiations and arm-twisting followed until, in the words of the president of the Penn Area Neighborhood Association, "a really beautiful garden apartment complex" opened inJune. "We wanted it to look nice," said PANA president Karen Norris. "We wanted it to be a place that people would be proud to live in.

"We didn't get everything we wanted, but we feel we played an important role." While some neighborhood groups never let up in their opposition to change in their community, Germantown rolled out the red carpet last night, providing cake and punch to their new neighbors and the developers, and offering their many resources. "It's really gratifying to see you reaching out," Rosenthal told some 20 PANA members who turned out for the event. The welcoming party in the basement of the Church of the Redeemer, on Chew Avenue, included a short program giving information about Town Watch, drug eradication efforts and the dates of regular PANA meetings. But the tone was purposefully informal and friendly as older neighbors greeted the new ones and handed out balloons to the many children. "It's nice.

It's unusual," said Debo-rahYoung, who moved into Church Lane Court from an apartment in South Philadelphia last Saturday with Deborah, 15, her daughter, and granddaughter, Bianca, a toddler. "I don't blame them," Williams i Daily News Staff Writer John Rosenthal, a partner in the development of the newly renovated Church Lane Court in Germantown, was searching for a word to describe the neighborhood reaction seven years ago when subsidized rental housing was proposed for the rundown 40-unit complex on Church Lane near Musgrave Street. Rosenthal pondered the question last night as many of the same neighbors hosted a festive welcoming party for two dozen families who recently moved into the complex. "Problematic" was the word a diplomatic Rosenthal finally settled for "There were never any demonstrations out in the street," added his partner. Rich Barnhart.

But the neighbors were not exactly IHiappy Returns Alice Wilson, a 39-year-old secretary in Washington, D.C., inspects the contents of her purse that was returned after being stolen 19 years ago. The purse was found by construction workers who discovered it in a now-abandoned building where she had worked in October 1970 when the purse was stolen. Wilson said the contents were intact except for $60 in cash. ASSOCIATED PRESS said. "When you see all the drug dealing, I don't blame them for wanting to know their new neighbors.

I'd be concerned, too, "I think this is beautiful. Most neighborhoods, when you come into it, nobody bothers at all, so I think this is beautiful." viewed what they consider a golden opportunity to add to its 10-8 majority in Florida's congressional delegation. Ros-Lehtinen will face Gerald Richman, who won the Democratic nomination in a heated runoff last night, in the Aug. 29 election. Bush was to travel to Kennebunk-port, Maine, later today to spend the next 20 days at his family compound by the sea.

Bush's staff said the Maine trip would be mostly recreational, with Bush's family and friends on hand. First lady Barbara Bush has spent most of the month there. Kennedy carried Hispanic and black precincts yesterday, but was defeated 4-to-l in predominantly "Anglo," or non-Latin white, precincts. Richman, Jewish and Brooklyn-born, stunned Kennedy, the Democratic front-runner, with a late-charging, 146-vote victory in the Aug. 1 primary, in which five other Democrats were eliminated.

HAS OSKD SSSDTTDS President Joins Florida Fray Lawyer Wins Shot at Pepper's 'American Seat' PflVflSiN speech, called on Richman "to stop this divisive campaign" and warned that an ethnic campaign "can have Claude Pepper's seat in jeopardy." She said she would meet with Rich-man today to discuss the general election campaign. Richman said, though, that he can defeat Ros-Lehtinen on issues such as abortion she's anti-abortion, he's for abortion rights and that he can unify the community. "She is in the right-wing, extreme element of the Republican Party. We're going to campaign by going to the people. This is a grass-roots campaign," said Richman, who overcame Kennedy's support by party leaders, the AFL-CIO and The Miami Herald.

Richman said his theme was meant to unify Miami and to rebut Republican national Chairman Lee Atwater's statement that it's time to elect the first Cuban-American to Congress. a thinks that Lee Atwater is his Associated Press WASHINGTON President Bush is launching his three-week Maine vacation today by taking a roundabout route to boost a GOP congressional candidate in Florida. Bush was to speak at a fundraiser for state Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican candidate for the seat left vacant by the death of Democrat Claude Pepper. Bush's son, Jeb, is Ros-Lehtinen's campaign manager.

The president was campaigning with the 37-year-old Cuban-born educator as the Republicans opponent," Ros-Lehtinen said. "1 condemned those words the moment they were uttered." Ros-Lehtinen, 37, said she will campaign on issues of crime and drugs and holding down taxes. "I think voters are going to choose on issues and experience," she said. "I'm certainly proud of my heritage, but 1 don't campaign on that basis." stand how being an American can possibly be divisive." He said he will represent "all the people," not any one ethnic group. With all of 146 precincts reporting unofficial returns, Richman had 14,411 votes to 9,226 votes for Kennedy.

Ros-Lehtinen, a seven-year state legislator, flew to Washington late yesterday and planned to fly back to Miami today aboard Air Force One with President Bush. "I think the victory sends an ominous message that there are some voters who respond to an ethnically divisive campaign," Ros-Lehtinen said. Republicans believe they have a strong shot at adding to their 10-8 majority in Florida's congressional delegation by winning the seat Pepper held for Democrats since its inception 27 years ago. Kennedy, 44, in her concession Associated Press MIAMI In an ethnically tense battle to succeed the late Rep. Claude Pepper, a lawyer won the Democratic nomination using a theme that he's running for "an American seat." His Cuban-born Republican opponent called his victory ominous.

The winner was Gerald Richman, a 47-year-old former Florida Bar Association president making his first run for office. Richman gathered much of his strength from a heavy majority of the diverse district's white non-Hispanic voters in a 61-39 percent victory over Rosario Kennedy. Richman moves on to an Aug. 29 special election against state Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Cuban-born as is Kennedy, for the seat left vacant by Pepper's death May 30 at age 88.

"It is this community's victory," Richman said. "Now is the time for Democratic unity I cannot under.