40 Good Neighbors

Stuart Bogom

The Allen Lane Train Station Renewal project simply would not have happened without Stuart Bogom's years of dogged effort.  Stuart has no special architectural expertise.  But, as he explains, “I take the train.  And I got sick of the station being a mess.  It is a beautiful station and was literally falling apart through neglect.  I used to live in the neighborhood a long time ago, so I remembered the station when it was much better.”

Stuart’s first efforts were devoted to sprucing up the station.  “I started by organizing neighborhood clean-ups.  We would come out once or twice to clean up the trash and do some plantings.  We got some money from State Senator Allyson Schwartz to buy light bulbs and trash bags.  Then we started talking to SEPTA and developed a relationship with the people responsible for the station.” 

Soon the idea of making bigger improvements was born. “It turned out that there was some Federal money available for this purpose. We had some people in the community with experience writing grants and we put together a grant proposal for SEPTA. We got endorsement letters from some local political people. So we got the money.”

Once in hand, "it took forever to actually make that money turn into something.”  Many problems still needed solving.  Stuart says that the project's completion was “a matter of just time, determination, patience and a willingness to work through the system and figure out what the appropriate levers were at the appropriate time.  A tremendous number of people took on roles in the project: the local town watch, politicians, SEPTA itself.”

In addition to his work on the Allen Lane Train Station, Stuart has contributed to the community in other ways.  He is on the 9th Ward Democratic Committee and is actively involved in Mishkan Shalom.  In the past Stuart has been a member of the West Mt. Airy Neighbors' board and Weaver’s Way credit union board.