I understand your position and I think very often UCD does stay out of the fray. But in the particular case of Dock Street I believe it goes back to your point of "whom is UCD beholden to" -- and as Sharrieff pointed out, UCD is beholden to the people who pay it's bills -- at the moment, that is not "all the people of west philly". They're still a private entity until/unless the NID passes, in which case they'd be answerable to our citycouncil person. In the meantime, the people who are funding UCD have made it clear that getting businesses on Baltimore avenue is a priorty and they have created a special pool of money to do just that -- get businesses to open up along Baltimore Avenue. So with a clear mandate from the people who are funding them, and popular support among the people in the neighborhood (I recall someone from the zoning board saying the amount of community support for that particular business getting their variance was unprecidented in sheer size), they went ahead and sided with Dock Street over the Hickman Temple day care (which is my understanding, would have not been a public day care, but rather one for the church only). If two neighbors were arguing over what color their semi-detatched should be painted, I expect that UCD would not get involved or if there were a rich debate about the borders of the Catchman zone, I'd likewise expect them not to pick a side, but in this instance, I think they acted properly in accordance with the wishes of their funders. (Who include, to some small extent, me, since I've sent them money and I'm happy with their position on Dock Street).
kc -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN >in the example I cited, ucd took sides once the zoning question became a >dispute among neighbors; gail fisher, as a ucd staffer, posted on phillyblog >to support one side [apparently online communications ARE useful, SOME of the >time :-)] this was all documented here, onlist, months ago. ---- 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>.
