I've been in University City for over thirty years. Even as recently as 20 years ago, blocks like the 3900 block of Delancey and the 4000 block of Sansom had longtime residents, singles and families, older people and young. There were homeowners on 41st and 42nd St. 10 years ago, that beautiful block of 42nd across from the Spruce Hill Christian School had owner-occupants. The buildings along 41st St. weren't almost all owned by Campus Apts. and painted beige with deck-like front porches.
Today, student-buyers dominate 39th & Delancey, and Campus Apts. dominates 40th & Sansom. 42nd near Baltimore is filled with student housing. Regent Square, next door to USP, struggles constantly to maintain sufficient owner-occupancy to be a great little block for homeowners. 42nd and Osage has the same struggle. Yes, Spruce Hill IS struggling. Blocks with many tenants seem to present two kinds of problems, active and passive: sometimes the students are really poor neighbors, overwhelming the rest of their blocks with trash, noise and parking problems. The students so often view Spruce Hill (and all of University City) as a "throw-away neighborhood" for which they have little respect. They don't see anything wrong with damaging the houses in which they live. They don't seem to mind if the landlords don't maintain the places well; they rent anyway, so the landlords aren't encouraged to be meticulous. Students put trash out any time they feel like it. As far as passive problems go, sometimes they're simply not "good" neighbors: except for "community service" days, they don't come out for block clean-ups, and they don't join Town Watch or get active in local community associations. They are short-term residents who don't do the things that have to be done to keep the community alive and thriving. For a lack of permanent residents, Spruce Hill IS struggling. We have a big problem in all of University City with transiency, and every time another building leaves the hands of an owner-occupant and goes into the hands of a landlord, absentee or not, we have more transiency. This isn't a condemnation of students or landlords (I am a landlord, and my son is a Drexel student!); but it sure seems to be a fact. Incoming potential homeowners want to live where they'll have adult neighbors, someone else to help them clean up the block, someone else to help them deal with whatever parts of city living they need help with. They don't want to live where everyone around them is a student and will be gone next year. They want to have friends and acquaintances! That's always been one of the joys of living in University City, the great diversity of interesting, welcoming neighbors! So, as more and more tenant-occupied housing takes over a block, when additional houses are up for sale, it's more likely that the new buyers will also be providers of tenant housing, whether the new buyers are a wealthy student who will live with lots of roommates, or a landlord. For all of these reasons, yes, Spruce Hill is certainly struggling, and the rest of the area isn't far behind. Having been on the Spruce Hill board and learned more about life amidst the students (I live on 46th St. myself, relatively student-free to date), I think Steph is right in saying: <<The key here is stability, effort and pride. I'm not sure, but I think I agree that more homeownership is the way to make that happen.>> You can tell where the student houses and blocks are. It's not only the couches on the porch, but also the generic look of Campus Apts' beige and decked buildings, the places where parking's been added out front, the places where yards and fences and porches aren't maintained. For years, we Realtors have known that the "student ghetto" band of housing separating Penn from the rest of the neighborhood deterred Penn people from passing through it, exploring further west, and wanting to live in the area, even our owner-occupied blocks! The student housing and the way it is maintained hurts not only Spruce Hill's efforts to attract owner-occupants, but also the efforts of Cedar Park, Garden Court, Walnut Hill, and our own local Squirrel Hill! A major problem is that we haven't found enough of a way to combat the look of student housing so that it doesn't discourage potential owner-occupants. Another is that we haven't found a way to help homeowners, rather than wealthy students and deep-pocket landlords, be able to pay the most for buildings. (Though the Penn mortgage and incentive program for Penn buyers is a big help for them.) The HD would add a tool for maintaining rental housing better, and perhaps it would keep landlords (me included) from taking on more buildings than we CAN manage well. Don't let the arguments of a few - very few - landlords who don't want to commit to caring for their buildings well, stop you from thinking further about the proposed historic district. As for the senior citizens, it's been my experience that in most cases, they take better care of their properties than anyone else in the neighborhood! They are more likely to repair slate roofing rather than rip it off, keep their houses well-painted, continue to work with the same original windows they've always had rather than throwing in new plastic ones, and generally stay on top of things as maintenance is needed. That's why everyone always wants to buy a "little old lady" house! I haven't seen a lot of seniors coming out to meetings to oppose the HD. They can speak for themselves if they oppose it! Let's all try to speak for ourselves, not for some other group: tell us what YOU like or dislike about the district, not what you think someone ELSE would/should! Melani Lamond ---- 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>.
