Square Routes

Piazza on Passyunk is more than a good time; it's about building a community.

by A.D. Amorosi

That's weird. Leahy's Piazza on Passyunk — her once-monthly event of live music, art stuffs and wares from the avenue's prominent entrepreneurs — is set to start in two minutes.

PASSION FOR PASSYUNK: Matt Rader and Amanda Leahy on the avenue.

While local farmers from Bob Pierson's Farm to City organization sell vegetables fresh-picked that morning and Craft Mafia and Benna's Cafe folk rev up to hawk their wares, Leahy — a spike-headed blonde whose Philly Love Project Productions develops everything from art exhibitions to gay-friendly Fabric parties — arrives. Carrying an amp.

Leahy is used to small-staffed "girl-illa" production stuff, having been part of the crews that filmed Ambush Makeover and Trading Spaces.

As she steadies herself to sound-check Puerto Rican bomba ensemble Familia Rojo, a guy hollers from a window overlooking the fountain.

"Hey, sign girl," he yells, referring to the fact that she puts up police-sanctioned "no parking" markers.

He's yelled before — at each Piazza event.

Normally "windowpane" asks Leahy where the redheaded guy is (Matt Rader, executive director of East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District) or why they're having a band.

"I usually smile and say, 'OK.' Nothing more," claims Leahy, who sells Piazza table space to vendors, books the attractions and does just about everything else.

This time, she stops him before he can complain.

"That's poster-hanging, trash-detail, soundperson, sign girl to you!" says Leahy in a loud, joking voice.

"He says, 'Hi Amanda,' when he sees me now," says Leahy weeks after the event. She even knows his name: Jimmy.

That's the sweet sound of progress to her ears.

Especially when you consider that East Passyunk Avenue — whether mem-bers of its Business Improv-ement District ("The BID") or homesteaders — is filled with as many old-school hardheads as it is new-to-the-neighborhood hipster entrepreneurs.

Rader joined The BID nonprofit to revitalize the East Passyunk Avenue commercial corridor and brought Leahy in to help him publicize that stretch with events like Piazza. "Piazza fits into The BID's efforts to establish East Passyunk Avenue as South Philly's central marketplace and cultural space," says Rader, promising to make her event a fixture on the neighborhood landscape. In planning lingo, Piazza is a "placemaking" effort. Through Piazza, neighbors are taking ownership of the avenue.

Rader's already convinced The BID's 10-member board of directors. What's a li'l old working-class Italian-American neighborhood now ripe with all ages, ethnicities and job descriptions got to worry about anyway? Especially an area that hosts everything from Capo's Coins and Cantina El Caballito to 2 Good to B Shooz, Billy D's Muscle Cars and La Piu Bella Bridal. From De Christopher Brother funeral memorials and Gus' Upholstery to Gigolo's, Mia, Paradiso, Marra's, the Saint Jude Religious shop and Ray's Happy Birthday Bar.

Unlike Philly neighborhoods that experienced decline and renewal, East Passyunk remained our Italian heart, with new residents — artists, musicians, a growing gay/lesbian population — only recently melding with Italian traditions to create a new diverse identity.

"I'm a preservationist and came to The BID to apply principles of preservation to neighborhood revitalization," says Rader, who wants to use its pedestrian scale, array of independent businesses and funky facades to its best advantage. As a onetime director of the Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust, Rader's dedicated to preserving and advancing Philadelphia landmarks. He's just switched his focus to his own neighborhood with his new pal, Leahy.

"Right now, there's no budget for a support staff," says Leahy, "so Matt and I do [everything]." As a neighborhood lass who was preparing a zine and festival called STOOP to connect people to what was happening on East Passyunk, Leahy, 29, was prepared to work hard for herself and her adopted block. She was setting up parties at Anastasi's Café when she met Rader at a BID event at Indre Studios.

"He told me he was looking to have someone book musicians on a weekly basis along the avenue to pair with the Farmers Market. I met with the board, weaving what I had envisioned for STOOP — a forum for artists, crafters and community business and community outreach. The timing was perfect," says Leahy. It's all about setting up a social architecture; putting up booths from foodies, smoke shops and others; bringing in artisans, dancers and musicians like Spiral Q Puppet Theater, Alo Brasil and Master Jay Moves roller boogie for audiences young and old who'll hopefully return again and again to East Passyunk's diagonal strip. She's even trying to get a bocce court set up for this month's event.

Neither The BID nor Piazza is a reaction to the glut of press given over to other neighborhoods and their festivals (see Northern Liberties), Rader says. He just wants to add East Passyunk Avenue to the list of places in the city to eat, shop and gallery-hunt. And Piazza's not the only bash the avenue's got going. A tony fashion show at Mia's women's salon (1748 East Passyunk Ave., 215-465-2913) is set for Oct. 19. Within the last six weeks, the neighborhood's hosted a Vendemia wine event and Annunciation Church's St. Padre Pio Festival, which alone reportedly had upwards of 800 guests.

"To me this process is all about creating situations," says Leahy, who'll act as a consultant on other events The BID might hold throughout the winter months. Between October's Piazza and its return in spring 2007, Leahy will also spend the downtime working on STOOP and creating an online calendar of South Philly events for STOOP.

"The nature of this work — The BID and Piazza — is all about serving as a steward; to be facilitators to an entire community."

Let Jimmy the windowpane guy yell about that.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)