Is this heaven? No, it’s Point Breeze.

We first told you about Ori Feibush‘s efforts to rehab a lot that didn’t belong to him last week (though it was framed within a different story), but it seems the whole thing just keeps getting more and more interesting. Feibush has had his history of trouble with his neighbors, but when he fixed up a lot (for about $20k of his own money) that was owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, he ruffled some more powerful feathers.

The city is threatening legal action, and claims Feibush only expressed interest in purchasing that land for the first time last week. Well, Naked Philly (which is owned by Feibush, but still) has proof that this isn’t the case. Over on NP, there are emails and correspondences about the lot, sent between Feibush and the city, from May and June of 2011. City Controller Alan Butkovitz threw his hat into the ring and supported Feibush, even though he believes the city’s story that Feibush only showed interest in purchasing the land last week, and even the Brits got in on the action.

There’s something else going on here. It just feels like there’s something else under the surface (and Philadelinquency’s Christopher Sawyer thinks there is), plus Feibush has purchased city-owned properties before, so why would he go about it this way with this one? As Sawyer told us (and the city) in an email, every non-profit (many of which have the city’s backing) who conducts “guerrilla gardening” is keeping an eye on this. So, as with everything with Feibush, this story is far from over, but can’t we all just sit back and enjoy a nice bench? Those benches look very nice.

[Photo via Naked Philly]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 12:36 pm.