The Campaign to Save the Naval Home:
WHAT YOU CAN DO

Upcoming Events:

• Public hearing 3/4/03
• Community meeting week of March 3
  (visit SOSNA website for additional information)

1. Write to your elected officials!
Tell them you want the site secured and any possible steps taken to encourage Toll Brothers to develop the site with sensitivity to its rich history or to sell (or donate) it to someone who will.

• List of elected officials: html | Microsoft Word 97 | pdf
• Sample letter: html | Microsoft Word 97
• Hallwatch faxbank service
  Hallwatch has set up a special campaign page for the Naval Home. Your message will be faxed to City officials, your state reps and senator, Governor Rendell, and U. S. reps and senantors

2. Attend the March 4 hearing).
The City is taking Toll Brothers to court for multiple code violations. This could mean immediate graffiti removal, other prompt repairs, and fines for Toll Brothers. City officials stress that strong neighborhood attendanace at this public hearing will be very helpful. As L&I Deputy Commissioner Bob Solvibile quipped, "come and be annoying."

The third hearing in this case, before Judge Seamus P. McCaffery, will take place Tuesday, March 4, 2003, 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 1103, Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert Street. If you plan to attend, allow extra time to get through the metal detectors and wait for an elevator.

3. Write to Toll Brothers' Top Institutional Investors and Analysts.
At a community meeting, a city official suggested that institutional investors can often encourage socially responsible activity in corporations in which they have substantial holdings. We would be grateful for a volunteer who could research the names or addresses here. We've found a web page listing the analysts who follow Toll on its website and a web page listing the top institutional investors.

• Institutional investors
• Analysts

4. Write to the General Services Administration.
The GSA sold Toll Brothers the building, with certain preservation covenants attached. Write the Administrator (head honcho) and ask him to look into the matter.

Stephen A. Perry, Administrator
U.S. General Services Administration
1800 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20405
(202) 501-0800
stephen.perry@gsa.gov

5. Become a Toll-watcher.
Philadelphia's new secretary of housing suggested a public information campaign targeted to investors and other stakeholders who may be in a position to influence Toll's position on the Naval Home. (See above)

Check the web, the business papers, other news sources to see where Toll wants to build, and where it needs concessions from municipalities. A group of volunteers could make sure those municipalities and the press in those areas are aware that Toll has neglected a national landmark for 15 years and put it at significant risk. (Don't forget to mention the attempt to build at Valley Forge, as well.) Try to enlist their help in encouraging Toll to do the right thing.

Look for web sites maintained by organizations with a common purpose to ours, and write requesting reciprocal links. More sites linking to ours means higher search results in Google (one of the reasons Toll has so many domain names and interlinks them all, we're sure). Having the Naval Home story on the first page of Google results is a good way to get the word out.

Real rebels can find out when the brothers Toll are showing up at functions and coordinate a welcoming committee on the street, complete with pictures of the Naval Home in flames, and notify the media.

Toll-watcher Alerts (sent by a neighbor)

(1) On Thurs. Feb. 20th Robert Toll will appear at a Penn Law School auction to benefit the Equal Justice Foundation there, at 3400 Chestnut Street, entrance on Sansom St., between 34th and 36th Streets. Reception and silent auction at 5 p.m., live auction, where hewill be auctioneer, at 7:30 p.m.

(2) On Friday, Feb. 21st, Robert Toll will be event chairman and host for an American Red Cross of SE PA 11th Annual Monopoly Event, starting at 6:30 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, at Penn’s Landing. ( Q. Who will draw the “Go to Jail” card?? Who will buy Monopoly properties, and just speculate and hold them?? )

If you'd like to make an addition to this page, send info to southphl@southphillyblocks.org

6. Think, think, think.
We're likely to be short on money for a campaign to save the Naval Home, so we must be long on creativity. Your good ideas are always welcome -- as long as you are willing to work on them. Our community service organizations are limited in budget and manpower, and this campaign will stand or fall on the efforts of its volunteers.

Send suggestions to southphl@southphillyblocks.org -- we'll be in touch with you about posting any ideas that aren't illegal, dangerous, or in terminally bad taste, and creating a mechanism for folks to contact you.