UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:36:48 -0700
Anthony West wrote:
In all fairness to PennPraxis, some party has to actually hire it, or otherwise contract with it to run a forum for it. It doesn't run around looking for controversies and organizing forums on its own whim.The contractor doesn't have to be Penn. In fact, it usually isn't, I believe. I did watch PennPraxis become involved in a neighborhood issue once, at the request of a neighborhood group that had issues with a Penn-related project.So it may be PennPraxis wasn't involved in either of the neighbors' dealings you cite, because those neighbors did not ask it to become involved.
au contraire, tony.the campus inn at 40th and pine was cited by the developers as part of the 40th street development, and for years now the development of 40th street has been THE agenda for 'the friends of 40th street forum' working with penn praxis.
here is what the penn praxis 'friends of 40th street' website says on their homepage:
With its long history, 40th Street is continually evolving. The arrival of the Bridge Cinema and the Freshgrocer are just the most recent sign of this. With so much going on, it was time to have a community conversation about the street. Healthy conversation can lead to mutual understanding and respect for varying goals and visions and to the emergence of new ideas. So, Penn Praxis, working with a community-based steering committee, created a process that gave the community the chance to talk about 40th Street, a way of building bridges and trust among people and communities, a place of common ground where we could feel comfortable about our place at the community table. We created a series of safe and facilitated conversations (see documentation in the right column) that allowed people to talk about something that is often difficult to talk about. In the case of 40th Street, many people and communities feel passionately about the street and all too often difficult histories prevent us from creating a shared future. The community forum process was and remains about a shared future.
but you will find no mention of the proposed hotel in newspapers or even on the friends of 40th street website:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/40th//reference.html that is why I wrote:
consider that penn praxis was conspicuously absent from the media when it came to helping neighbors deal with penn's proposed hotel at 40th and pine
- - - - - -and in the case of the south street bridge, the neighbors DID ask penn to intervene for them, but penn said NO:
http://tinyurl.com/6kbpw2
The design proposed by the city will make the South Street Bridge much more structurally sound than it is today. Still, several neighborhood associations recently joined forces to push for changes, arguing that the current plan is cold, industrial and lacks pedestrian-friendly features. The coalition has been unable to sway the Streets Department to consider changes, so it is turning to another neighbor of sorts, the University of Pennsylvania, for help. But to their surprise, Penn officials say they will not get involved. [...]
University spokesman Tony Sorrentino said Penn will not take a side in the current debate, to the dismay of Campbell and the other groups. "We don't want to use our authority to affect someone else's project," said University architect David Hollenberg. He added, however, that the Streets Department did consult him and his predecessor, Charles Newman - who declined to be interviewed for this article - about the design several times during the planning process. Penn even lobbied successfully for some changes during meetings with the Streets Department, according to Hollenberg. One such change was a redesign of the guard rails on the sides of the bridge.
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