In a message dated 4/13/07 10:24:11 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> The real debate is about neighborhood names breaking free of being > labeled > as "University" owned. > > I hope you all enjoy the article. > > S > Sharieff, thanks for reminding me about the 1997 Penn Gazette article, now almost 9 years old. I remember reading it when it first came out. I also remember the writer calling me when he was researching for it, and asking me if I'd be willing to talk with him - about the sorry state of the neighborhood, and Penn's efforts to make things better. I replied that I would be willing ONLY IF they were also willing to include information about how Penn had "badmouthed" the neighborhood for something like 10 years, before changing their tune when Judith Rodin became the new Penn president. I told the writer that I'd lived in the neighborhood for many years, and I'd watched Penn's PR go from positive, to negative, and back to positive again. I said that the years of Penn's negativity had caused many of the problems. Then, I remember a long pause on the phone line. Next, the writer thanked me for "sharing" my opinion, and we ended our conversation - and ended my participation in the article! I was not surprised that I was not quoted. It was, after all, a marketing piece FOR PENN, not the area, and it was in a Penn publication. It wasn't an independent analysis. It's hardly the final authority on anything. You know all of this; we both worked together back then on initiatives like "University City Saturday: A Community Open House," invented by Patrick Starr (he's mentioned in the article) to promote our community as a fine place to live. INDEPENDENT of Penn's negativity, we held "University City Saturday" every year. To COUNTER Penn's negativity. During those years, we couldn't interest Penn in participating. Our main sponsor each year was the old Thriftway at 43rd & Walnut - every year, they gave us $500 for PR and a spread of snacks for the "information fair" on the day of the event. But, just like the Gazette article, none of us is the final authority on anything. It's like the story of the blind folks feeling the elephant, and then describing it in totally different ways, depending on whether they touched the tusk, the tail, the leg or the ear. Things affect each of us differently. Concerning the current listserv accusations about Penn and marketing, however, if one believes anything in that article, I think one might believe a direct quote from Lois Bye, describing how the name was invented at Urban Developers, the real estate firm which predates Urban & Bye, where I work: "Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods," [Lois Bye] points out. "West Philadelphia was such a huge place, and we were trying to develop a market in these big Victorian houses around the University, to encourage faculty to move back into a diversified neighborhood. So we decided to designate the area University City." So, yes to marketing - but no to PENN marketing. Though Lois and her husband George Funderburg, founders of Urban Developers, were Penn graduates, they were not Penn employees. They were small business people who managed to have a very large impact on the real estate market in this small area, whatever you want to call it. George, who was from Atlanta, had been a salesman of other things in the past, but not houses. Lois was from Ocean City, NJ. They had met in Powelton Village (a name also invented around that time) in a grand experiment where people of different races and backgrounds chose to live together. Lois and George found that they really liked the area, and they wanted to bring others to live here who would also appreciate both its building styles and its progressive thinking. The plot - that is, BUSINESS PLAN - was Urban Developers' plan to sell Victorian houses, and the natural target market was the people who worked for the employer next door: Penn. But it was not a Penn plot. George and Lois were incredibly influential and successful in the area, and I was very flattered when they invited me to come to work with them in 1988. They were my role models. They were original, progressive, independent thinkers - absolutely not a Penn plot. How that's getting twisted today just shows that people who make accusations don't bother to go back and do their research first. Maybe they're the ones who should be reading the article, for starters. Melani Lamond 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 2006 recipient of the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors awards: - Diamond award for over $8 million in sales, and ALL SIX of the West Philadelphia awards: - Top Lister - Top Seller - Top Overall Combined Volume - Top Listing Units by Area - Top Selling Units by Area - Top Overall Combined Units by Area ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
