Philly City Council will consider a curfew on some businesses in Kensington

Some businesses along the Kensington Avenue corridor, home to the city’s largest open-air drug market, may be required to close at 11 p.m. if Council approves legislation introduced Thursday.

City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who has championed a stronger law enforcement response in the neighborhood, authored the bill, which would require commercial establishments and restaurants to adhere to a curfew if they are located in the area bounded by East Lehigh Avenue, Kensington Avenue, D Street, East Tioga Street, and Frankford Avenue.

The establishments would be allowed to reopen at 6 a.m.

The move comes as Lozada, in partnership with recently sworn-in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, has vowed a new approach in Kensington, which has long been the epicenter of the city’s drug overdose crisis. Parker has said ending the open-air drug market is a key priority for her administration, and the Police Department recently tapped a top deputy commissioner to oversee the law enforcement strategy in the neighborhood.

Lozada’s bill adding new regulations on businesses came as part of a package of legislation that would also require the administration to provide City Council with regular updates and data on city operations related to the opioid crisis.

Parker praised the bills, saying in a statement they address social ills “that erode quality of life in neighborhoods across our city, including Kensington.”

“The rampant illegal drug activity and other quality-of-life nuisances taking place in Kensington will not be tolerated by the Parker administration,” she said.

Lozada is seeking two key pieces of information from the administration as part of her push.

First, she is pushing forward a bill that requires the city’s managing director to transmit quarterly reports, beginning this fall, about how frequently and where first responders use the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone. Those reports, according to the legislation, must include the number of treatments provided to “repeat opioid antidote recipients,” which is defined as people who have been administered naloxone at least twice within a one-month period.

In addition, Lozada wants a report every other month from the managing director’s office on the number and locations of illegal encampments, as well as how frequently city officials interacted with people camping on public space.

Pedro Rosario, the new deputy commissioner, said in a recent interview that the Police Department would not seek to “criminalize homelessness.”

“Any plan has to be collaborative,” he said. “The Police Department will have a large portion of that strategy, especially when it goes to attacking the open-air drug market.”