Your friend's description of the Oakland area is right on. I was thinking about Squirrel Hill myself...he mentioned he thought it was the closest analog to West Philly, and I have to disagree. Squirrel Hill is a great place, a very settled, attractive, interesting, homey, clean neighborhood with a good mix of people, insitutions and commerce. It's considered a Jewish neighborhood, but has a lot of diversity. In that way it's like West Philly, but it's not nearly as freeform or "bohemian", to use your friend's word. I think UC would fall somewhere between Oakland and Squirrel Hill.
A big difference between UC and Oakland as university neighborhoods is that Penn has a LOT more money and their clientelle, erm, I mean students, have parents who are way pickier and more paranoid. So although Pitt has swept through the neighborhood pretty expeditiously when it's wanted to, the resources just don't exist for them to have the same kind of impact. Also, when I left in 1996, they were not in a period of any big expansion. Another difference is that non-students who choose to stay in UC generally do so because they love the neighborhood. I get the feeling that not too many people truly love Oakland. It's a place where people are either transitory, or have been left behind as the neighborhood decayed. I think there is a lot less committment by the residents of Oakland than here in UC. Thus decay is inevitable. To me it seems like Oakland is on a downward slide, but UC is moving up. In any case, the point of bringing up Shadyside was to find out how appropriate it is to compare their decision NOT to designate, with UC's dilemma. The salient point for me is that Shadyside has plenty of cash and lots of conscientious (as well as downright snobby) inhabitants, who I would think would jump on HD like a trampoline. The fact that they did not, and their population is considerably less diverse, tolerant, and economically varied as UC, looks like an argument against designation for West Philly. That is, if they didn't want to do it there, they sure won't want to do it here. On the other hand, maybe residents of Shadyside feel that they are already conscientious enough as it is, and don't need special protections. ---- 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>.
