[UC] Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
One UC-list poster did write that he had attended a Fo40St meeting earlier. He wrote he thought he was in a nursing home and was terrified of its security guards. Hint: Campus Inn foes, send your A Team to public meetings if you wish to register an impact on policy-making. Thank you, Mr West, of Penn's barking cheese censorship gang. Mr West's fictional strawman is referring to me. Now that SHCA is the laughing stock of the community, and the tactics of civic association presidents, like Mr. West, have been exposed; I believe it's a good time to revisit the tactics being used against all of us. We have these Praxis dog and pony shows coming up to prop up Penn's mayor, and we've seen the dishonest series about the hotel in the DP. All of these powerful movements to destroy democracy and make citizens helpless fearful consumers use a bag of standard tricks. It remains important to study this plutocracy process and not just laugh at Mr. West. SHCA, Barry, West, Belynda and the other pawns for Penn real estate are now broadly exposed around the community. But like UCD dumped Fenton, and now Wendell Lewis, these cats are merely replaced by the power brokers. Melani was recently replaced, as real estate spokesperson, by this jerk who refused to reveal his deep relationship with Penn as he was testifying before a rubber stamp city commission. I believe his name is Blockhead or something like that. My point is that when West and these cats are dumped by their masters, the underlying problem remains the same. To use West's language, Penn replaces their throw aways with the A team and discards them like old horse hooey. West's strawman: I reported the 8 AM dog and pony show when Tom popped in with his hotel lies. I reported how Penn uses a coffee social for elderly residents at 8 AM to generate a list of open public forums. It was hilarious!!! As Steinberg finished talking one woman woke up and said, what are you talking about. As I burst out laughing, that is when I noticed the Penn chief cop studying me. 40th and Market is a residence project with certain requirements for residents. Approximately 75% of residents are elderly. People with disabilities make up the rest. Mr West responded to my original report to distract from it by claiming that I was lying about the specialized facility. Of course, I didn't use the technical term nursing home which is generally thought of as a place for very old people with 24 hour medical care. Mr. West is lying in the strawman he created for me, as he is lying about me reporting terror from the large presence of Penn cops, not security. Yes, security rather than Penn police is a Mr. West lie too. I think of Mel's role as a spreader of misinformation in the community. West is the bulldog used for ad hominem attacks, strawman, and other mechanisms to intimidate those who speak up or question. Cassidy was out of his league in this capacity, and so he created the censorship list with the same intention, also just before his gun nut book came out. Like reading the DP closely to study the propaganda machine, I think it is very important to study the tactics of the individual pawns, and the use of the failed civic association model. On a personal level, I feel deep pity for these pawns now exposed before their neighbors, and then dumped by Penn. Nevertheless, they did choose this role for themselves because they felt important that Penn chose to use them and might send some fool's gold their way. They have known all along that they were betraying their neighbors and community. Thanks for your attention, I feel that it is important to study the techniques and not simply expose every Mr. West and SHCA that Penn throws at us. Glenn, an advocate for the return of representative democracy and citizenship -Original Message- From: Anthony West anthony_w...@earthlink.net Sent: Feb 4, 2009 5:32 PM To: Univcity Univcity@list.purple.com Subject: Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally Thanks, Ray! This website shows no mention of any community planning process run by PennPraxis in which the community sought to limit highrises on 40th St., or hotels on 40th St. There have been regular Friends of 40th St. meetings. The PennPraxis guy who runs them told me to encourage you and anyone else with a view on the Campus Inn to show up at them. Did you? If you didn't, exactly how is that PennPraxis' fault? One UC-list poster did write that he had attended a Fo40St meeting earlier. He wrote he thought he was in a nursing home and was terrified of its security guards. Hint: Campus Inn foes, send your A Team to public meetings if you wish to register an impact on policy-making. So you've supported my point. Numerous people on the waterfront did speak up against casinos in a PennPraxis forum, PennPraxis did register that, and it affected the final report. Numerous people on 40th St. have not spoken up
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Anthony West wrote: Name one meeting or plan delivered by PennPraxis at which the Campus Inn even came up. Cite one overarching principle enunciated by PennPraxis with regard to 40th St. that, in your opinion, means there should be no highrise hotel at Pine St. exactly: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/40th/ and now that you're just hitting reply in order to prove my point, not yours -- I'll say adios. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Thanks, Ray! This website shows no mention of any community planning process run by PennPraxis in which the community sought to limit highrises on 40th St., or hotels on 40th St. There have been regular Friends of 40th St. meetings. The PennPraxis guy who runs them told me to encourage you and anyone else with a view on the Campus Inn to show up at them. Did you? If you didn't, exactly how is that PennPraxis' fault? One UC-list poster did write that he had attended a Fo40St meeting earlier. He wrote he thought he was in a nursing home and was terrified of its security guards. Hint: Campus Inn foes, send your A Team to public meetings if you wish to register an impact on policy-making. So you've supported my point. Numerous people on the waterfront did speak up against casinos in a PennPraxis forum, PennPraxis did register that, and it affected the final report. Numerous people on 40th St. have not spoken up against hotels in a PennPraxis forum, PennPraxis had nothing to register, thus nothing to report. -- Tony West Name one meeting or plan delivered by PennPraxis at which the Campus Inn even came up. Cite one overarching principle enunciated by PennPraxis with regard to 40th St. that, in your opinion, means there should be no highrise hotel at Pine St. exactly: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/40th/ and now that you're just hitting reply in order to prove my point, not yours -- I'll say adios. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
However, it is the Mayor that got to pick and choose PennPraxis in the first place, for any of its 'engagements' with the public. No Mayor, no PennPraxis. Since PennPraxis is the Mayor's client, it is safe to say there was backtalk between client and service provider as to the 'framing' of issues. Since the old Penns Landing Corp. was not a favorite of either Mayor Street or Mayor Nutter, and since it had been criticized for a long time, it would hardly be surprising if that particular item had been placed on PennPraxis' menu of choices by its customer. As we have seen, no elected official pays attention to anything a planner recommends, unless it already agrees with that elected official's existing range of choices. -- Tony West Creation of the board is the first of a series of changes advocated by PennPraxis as we have seen, penn praxis determines the agenda and frames the issues for any of its 'engagments' with the public. within a given penn praxis framework, mayors and public may get to pick and choose, but they do not decide the range (the menu) of choices. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Good question. Surely it's better to see the end of any bubble, no matter how painfully, so that economic numbers can more closely report real value instead of fake value. Lower real-estate prices and lower stock prices are not a crisis. The collapse of the credit market and global trade, coupled with the loss of jobs and investments, spendable and bankable income for ordinary folks, as well as the collapse of funding for basic governmental services at the local level -- all these together form a true crisis. When you lose your employment or your trash collection, you don't enter a less pressured environment, but a more pressured one. -- Tony West let's begin by asking whether the collapse of the real estate market is a crisis or a 'less pressured environment'. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Anthony West wrote: However, it is the Mayor that got to pick and choose PennPraxis in the first place, for any of its 'engagements' with the public. No Mayor, no PennPraxis. you're leaving out how it was penn praxis that first framed and crafted the 'civic vision', which was then used by penn praxis and the mayor to disapprove the existing plans for the waterfront. no penn praxis, no choices for mayor. the casino developers knew this and called it a 'rigged game'. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Your notion that all Mayors have been empty-headed automata who showed up for work without a single thought or opinion or plan, waiting passively for Macchiavellian functionaries at PennPraxis to whisper policy into their ear, is rather flattering to those functionaries .. but an utterly unrealistic depiction of Ed Rendell, John Street and Michael Nutter. It's safe to assume, when these gentlemen hired an outside contractor to help develop a plan for them, this plan was driven in directions these gentlemen already wanted it to go. Rendell had a productive peace with Fumo; he had, then, no beef with Penns Landing Corp. Street and Fumo were less cozy, though, and it was Street who hired PennPraxis to gin up some 'civic vision' for the waterfront. I just hired a roofer to fix my roof. Only a fool would say the roofer was 'framing and crafting' my 'vision' to get my roof fixed. If roofer A wouldn't do the job, then I would just hire roofer B, wouldn't I? In the end, the Mayors got what they wanted: a new corporation that gave them more power, and more power over more things. One day, George Perrier over at Le Bec Fin got a box of kabocha squash, cheap. Plus he had a bag of scallops that would go bad soon. So he chucked the squash into his Cuisinart and puréed them; experimented with seasonings and garnishes a little; and served up his new Kabocha Scallop Bisque. Everybody wanted to try it. So when Ray got paid, he took Al and Tony to Le Bec Fin, his treat, and they all ordered the soup. Tony takes a sip and says, Yum! How does Perrier think up these things? Al sips, grimaces and says, Yuck! What did Perrier think he was doing? Ray sniffs the soup, glances suspiciously around and says, Hm. What was that Cuisinart really up to? -- Tony West Anthony West wrote: However, it is the Mayor that got to pick and choose PennPraxis in the first place, for any of its 'engagements' with the public. No Mayor, no PennPraxis. you're leaving out how it was penn praxis that first framed and crafted the 'civic vision', which was then used by penn praxis and the mayor to disapprove the existing plans for the waterfront. no penn praxis, no choices for mayor. the casino developers knew this and called it a 'rigged game'. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Anthony West wrote: Your notion that [snipped] your fantasy ramblings miss the simple fact that penn praxis opposes developers at the waterfront while not opposing developers at 40th and pine, even though neighbors in both cases are opposed to the developers. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Ray, It is you who are fantasizing. PennPraxis does not oppose developers at the waterfront, and it does not not oppose developers on 40th St. Its products tend to be airier -- overarching principles, rather like the ones you are so fond of writing. Blessing or opposing particular projects is not its business at all. Name one meeting or plan delivered by PennPraxis at which the Campus Inn even came up. Cite one overarching principle enunciated by PennPraxis with regard to 40th St. that, in your opinion, means there should be no highrise hotel at Pine St. Casinos did come up at meetings run by PennPraxis and the plan it churned out did oppose two such very specific developments -- not developers in general. Neighbors in both waterfront neighborhoods -- Pennsport and Fishtown -- have been hospitable to other largescale projects in their vicinity. Blessing or opposing particular projects can only be the deed of governmental bodies. You are squirming like a worm on a hook, trying to deny the existence of the obvious. -- Tony West your fantasy ramblings miss the simple fact that penn praxis opposes developers at the waterfront while not opposing developers at 40th and pine, even though neighbors in both cases are opposed to the developers. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Anthony West wrote: So let's look past your crisis spin as well as everybody else's crisis spin. let's begin by asking whether the collapse of the real estate market is a crisis or a 'less pressured environment'. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
For those who are curious about the facts of the new Delaware River Waterfront Corp., Penn's Design School Dean Marilyn Taylor Jordan is one of 16 members on that Board. She is coequal with any other Board Member, such as, for instance, Ellen Yin, owner of the Fork Restaurant and Bar at 3rd Market. (Diners beware, lest you carelessly fall into Yin's power: she also Sits On A Board.) DRWC will be chaired by Andrew Altman, who is Deputy Mayor for Planning Economic Development. He will reign. He is one of three ex-officio Directors, the other two being Alan Greenberger of Philadelphia City Planning Commission and Bill Wilson, owner of an architecture-and-planning firm Synterra, Ltd. The rest are Mayoral appointees. This implies Synterra has an institutional relationship with the City to handle some proprietary aspects of waterfront planning. Altman has no institutional connection with Penn. Greenberger, who makes his chief living as an architect, is a visiting prof at Penn. Wilson has a Master's in landscape design from Penn, as does another Board Member, Michael Hauptman, partner in Brawer Hauptman Architects. Penn's current score on this board: 2 graduates, 1 full-time employee, 1 part-time employee. So the Penn brand didn't do poorly on this Board. A causal relation is harder to determine. Penn's whole shtick is to choose people who already stand out, before they become either students or staffers. This same population might be expected to float to the top in public affairs, if you believe the cream theory of public affairs. Maybe you'd find a lot of Columbia connections among New York leaders, Harvard connections among Boston leaders. It's hard to imagine why the Penn institution, though, would have any special interest in waterfront planning. A more-striking tale told by the transformation of Penns Landing Corp. into DRWC is (1) a shift of power from the political culture to the administrative and professional cultures, and (2) an expansion of power over potentially-valuable real estate. The old PLC was largely the property of former State Sen. Vincent Fumo and his posse. Other elected officials at State and Federal levels were cut into the deal. It threw a few concerts, greased a few palms, but never developed much. It ruled over the waterfront land in Center City. The new DRWC is fundamentally controlled by the Mayor. Its Board is stacked with City and State administrative officials, joined to a striking infusion of planning/architectural firms. It will -- control is too strong a word, but definitely influence -- waterfront development from Oregon Ave. to Allegheny Ave. That is a big deal. At least, it is intended to be a big deal. Nutter's campaign budget plans in 2007 were intended to be a big deal, but events intervened. We'll see what events intervene in the first years of DRWC. One could, I suppose, view this change as a shift in power from South Philadelphia to West Philadelphia. But don't bet your mortgage on it just yet. -- Tony West Neighbors and hotel opponents, Penn Praxis delivered. Penn now controls the entire Delaware riverfront. Altman and Greenberger of PCPC and PHC fame, along with Penn School of Design, will rule. Here are links to two articles. Our neighbors, who have read the minutes from these cats, can tell you how misunderstood and mistreated they are by the damn loud mouth citizens. Poor Wharton mayor, M. Nutter, tries to bring transparency by making “minutes,” etc. available to the public. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Glenn moyer wrote: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/38686427.html the closing back-to-back paragraphs from this article dovetail nicely: problem-solving, part I (developing waterfront by mayors to address longstanding waterfront crisis inevitably creates a crisis): For years, Philadelphia mayors resisted the idea of a formal master plan for the waterfront, preferring to negotiate directly with developers. That view softened after the state decided to locate two casinos on the riverfront and developers flocked to the area with proposals for nearly two dozen skyscrapers. problem-solving, part II (developing waterfront by non-elected, penn-advocated corporation in the midst of immediate crisis will not create crisis): Because of the collapse of the real estate market, the new waterfront corporation will be able to start planning in a less pressured environment. interesting how, in response to crises, all kinds of entities step in with 'solutions,' while 'crisis' gets defined and re-defined. it becomes all the more crucial for us to distinguish problem-solving from opportunism, to look past the crisis spin. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Anthony West wrote: (Diners beware, lest you carelessly fall into Yin's power: she also Sits On A Board.) you may want to read the menu more closely. yin did not create the very board she sits on. who writes the menu and who's on the menu are two different, but definitely interrelated, things. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Equally interesting why other entities step in with 'non-solutions'. You, for instance, Ray. So let's look past your crisis spin as well as everybody else's crisis spin. Let's try instead to offer useful ideas to people who must make hugely-important decisions for the City. Even if they don't have a cubicle on Locust Walk. -- Tony West interesting how, in response to crises, all kinds of entities step in with 'solutions,' while 'crisis' gets defined and re-defined. it becomes all the more crucial for us to distinguish problem-solving from opportunism, to look past the crisis spin. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
Re: [UC] Penn’s landing, literally
Then neither did Penn employee Taylor Jordan create the very Board she sits on, correct? Who wrote this menu was Michael Nutter, duh. Focus on the chef rather than on his toque, I'd recommend. -- Tony West (Diners beware, lest you carelessly fall into Yin's power: she also Sits On A Board.) you may want to read the menu more closely. yin did not create the very board she sits on. who writes the menu and who's on the menu are two different, but definitely interrelated, things. .. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
