I am glad you brought up graffiti which is the usual vandalism medium used by "Turks" and "Punks" popular during the 60's. This is all a puzzle, designed to puzzle you! But..is it really so hard to figure out? The universities, and lets be truthful here, mostly Penn, have taken this area for their own with incredible amounts of money..year after year after year. To those of us who are connected and informed it is overwhelming, can you imagine what it must be like for those who don't have any connection or real options? What we are witnessing is the usual power struggle between "the establishment" and the "anti-establishment". Right now in West Philly there are multiple sub-cultures who communicate through stickers, flyers, posters, and pole-signs. The sub-culture groups are organizing and having events supporting issues that are anti-establishment, recycling, veganism, reducing global warming and dependency on oil..etc. Do you think they are happy to see UCD removing all of their communication materials? The people who are behind the stickers (I suspect) do not support what they view as gentrification or as Melani remarked..loosing a cheap place to live and work which they have been enjoying here in West Philly for years. They relate to the area as "West Philly" it would be against their code to submit to the "marketing" and call it University City or to try and understand the values of UCD. Vandalism is a social shock treatment, graffiti, riots, looting, and yes the dreaded word "terrorism" all designed to break the laws and get your attention focused on their issues. What we are seeing now is just the by-product of all the years of aggressive development and marketing of gentrification, It threatens people, and people strike back. S -----Original Message----- From: Doc Baldy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 8:04 PM To: S. Sharrieff Ali Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Kyle Cassidy; Anthony West Subject: Re: [UC] New Marketing Campaign > WHY the whoever is doing it and WHAT they are really trying to say. I completely agree with you but when people hide behind stickers placed on street signs and private property, how do we figure out what they are trying to say? Are we really obligated or should we even listen to people how are hiding behind graffiti (ie vandalizing the Clark Park signs)? If we do take them seriously then are we saying it's ok to vandalize and that's a valid mechanism for expressing one's opinion? If someone doesn't like a new business that opens up, is it ok for them to vandalize the business? If they do vandalize the business, should we stop to consider what they are really trying to say? I'm trying to understand this. I've asked lots of people about the issue (UC vs West Philly) and I've yet to find anyone (white or black) who thinks it's anything but a stupid or silly effort "this is Univ City and it's within West Philly...who cares". Obviously someone cares but who and why? It seems like we're assuming it's a movement which to me implies it's lots of people. What if it's just 1 person?
My best guess is that it's some sort of anti-UCD thing. What if UCD were called West Philly District. Would be expect the sticks to say "This is Philadelphia, West Philly is just a marketing sheme"? Take care, Stephen On 4/8/07, S. Sharrieff Ali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Melani, I think your right, it is clearly not the senior population complaining, their too busy playing bingo and gossiping to care about what UCD is doing! I do not agree with defacing private property to make political statements, there are other ways to broadcast. Someone put a Bob Brady lawn sign in my yard without my permission last week and I didn't like that either. I wouldn't focus on the stickers being on private property or how much they cost to produce as much as WHY the whoever is doing it and WHAT they are really trying to say. This stuff is not going away any time soon, we need to figure out a way to understand it and incorporate the sentiments into our planning. I don't think it is healthy to dismiss what we don't fully agree with as a bunch of crazy people who have no claim to the rights of residency. S -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 11:45 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [UC] New Marketing Campaign In a message dated 4/8/07 4:57:47 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The debate started with stickers and banners, the question is why were they placed? I could relate to the sentiment if the stickers were being placed by the now-elderly folks who made this place "home" for all or most of their lives, since back before the term "University City" was popularized in the late-50s - early 60s. Some of my neighbors are in that group. If those folks were rising up and crying "ENOUGH," then I'd want to hear what they had to say. I think that they have more claim to the neighborhood than those of us who grew up here later and/or arrived later. But, I haven't heard these anti-UC feelings expressed by my elderly neighbors - ever. And I doubt that the elderly folks would suddenly taken up this sort of vandalism, even if they felt this way. I suspect that the stickers were placed by young punks, Trustafarians, young recent arrivals, who want to see the neighborhood be cheap and down for their own selfish reasons, so that they can continue to live here even though they live on allowances and/or don't hold full-time jobs. THE STICKERS are a marketing campaign. There's nothing wrong with living on allowances and/or not holding full-time jobs, but there is something wrong with illegally defacing other peoples' property with stickers, and with feeling that upstarts can march through the place that such a diverse population calls "home," and tell all of us how we must refer to it. Melani Lamond University City resident since 1971 Melani Lamond, Associate Broker Urban & Bye, Realtor 3529 Lancaster Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19104 cell phone 215-356-7266 office phone 215-222-4800, ext. 113 office fax 215-222-1101 ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. -- ---------------------------------- University City Yoga http://www.ucyoga.com
