...I still want one......
-cm (from WEST Philly)
On Tuesday, April 3, 2007, at 01:44 AM, Anthony West wrote:
No, Frank.
The City does not define the marketing signs as falling in West
Philadelphia or Southwest Philadelphia; the City defines the marketing
signs as falling in University City. So if the City's map is the final
arbiter, then the "marketing scheme" signs are invalid. University
City is absolutely real at the level of public administration. It can
only be challenged on a historical or sociological level. It has not
been challenged very knowledgeably, that's my gist.
The people who bray "University City" is a dirty word, are classical
examples of UC neighborhood culture themselves for the most part. This
"West Philly" pose is just an affectation. The people who printed
those stickers couldn't tell the 4th Ward from the 32nd Ward. "West
Philly" is just a marketing slogan for their brand of scatterbrained
leftwing politics, as "University City" was for an earlier era of
realtors. Over all, though, UC is more descriptive and more truthful
at this time, so it will probably prevail.
-- Tony West
----- Original Message -----
From: Frank
To: Anthony West ; [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 12:54 AM
Subject: Re: [UC] New Marketing Campaign
All this because you disagree with the City's map?
Referring to the beginning of this thread, the "marketing scheme"
signs are indeed in West Philly.
Frank
On Apr 2, 2007, at 11:51 PM, Anthony West wrote:
The final answer is there is no final answer. The City has its own
Neighborhood Map, which is intended to be a practical guide to
planners and community groups. It recognizes University City, because
duh, it exists now. Thus it pushes away from UC terms like "West
Philly" and "Southwest Philly", so they can be used to distinguish
other tracts of land. There's no law that says folks have to pay
attention to this map if it honks them off.
And it completely ignores thenesting phenomenon,which is very real in
social geography. We live in hierarchies of neighborhoods, which
we deploy variously according to the context of discussion. For
instance: I live in West Philadelphia, in University City, in Spruce
Hill. Which placename I use depends on whom I'm talking to and what
I'm talking about. No law says I have to be consistent. No law says
lower-level neighborhoods can't overlap higher-level boundaries.
About West vs. Southwest, my best guess is the latter term emerged
with clarity only after Philadelphia grew beyond Blockley Township,
whose western border was Mill Creek up as far as Baltimore Pk. Beyond
Mill Creek lay Kingsessing Township, which ran all the way to Darby
Creek. "Kingsessing" is still used as a neighborhood name today (it is
recorded in the Swedish period, ca. 1650, and reflects a Lenape
designation for the land at and above Darby Creek along the Schuylkill
or "Manayunk" River).
Originally, "West Philadelphia" was a name for the mid-19th-c.
urbanization of Blockley Twp., out as far as Maylandville on Mill
Creek (roughly 43rd St. today). So Woodlands lay in West Philly. But
Clark-Park-to-be was the boundary of West Philly. As urbanization
proceeded, "West Philly" expanded westward along Market St. and
Lancaster Ave. But the expansion into Kingsessing Twp. along Darby Pk.
(Woodland Ave.) was felt to be a different neighborhood, which came to
be called "Southwest Philly".
University City contains territory that historically belongs to both
West and Southwest Philadelphia.
-- Tony West
Ross wrote:
Actually, I've been worrying about this Southwest/West Philly business
for some time. What are the "actual" boundaries, and according to
whom? You seem to imply that SOBA is Southwest Philly -- if the 34
trolley line really does bifurcate the two. Does that mean that
Woodland Cemetery and Clark Park are actually in SW? Seems
counterintuitive, dude. Got maps?
