Now, let me take you back to the real-world crisis, and
how we intervened. To make the neighborhood cleaner and
safer, we strengthened our Division of Public Safety by
hiring more police officers and investing in
state-of-the-art technology. We also opened a new police
station further west beyond campus, co-locating it with the
Philadelphia police precinct substation and the
special-services district that we took the lead in
launching. We did this to signal Penn's commitment to the
safety of our students and our neighbors.
At the same time, this newly created University City
special-services district, which you all know as the UCD,
employed both safety ambassadors who walked the streets and
supported campus and city police, and trash collectors who
supplemented city units and helped remove graffiti. These
were welfare-to-work participants, thus contributing to
another social action goal.
In addition, we partnered with neighborhood residents, the
electricians' union, and the local electric company to
install fixtures to uniformly light the sidewalks of 1,200
neighborhood properties. Not only did these efforts create a
brighter and cleaner neighborhood, which attracted more and
more foot traffic, but by requiring whole blocks, rather
than individual homeowners, to commit, we encouraged a
revival of community associations, block by block.
This, in turn, led to greening projects--such as the
planting of 450 trees and 10,000 spring bulbs and the
creation of four public and three children's gardens--which
set the stage for the dramatic transformation of Clark Park
from a dangerous drug-infested space into a thriving
recreational venue for children and the locale for a weekly
farmer's market.
Along with making University City cleaner and safer, Penn
had a huge initial impact on housing, which itself had
become a clean and safe issue.
We began by acquiring twenty abandoned properties in
strategic spots throughout the neighborhood, rehabbed them,
and sold them to the public. We weren't seeking a profit on
these homes. Rather, we were seeking to build capacity by
stabilizing blocks and promoting home ownership.
We also stepped up our efforts to encourage more Penn
affiliates to move into the neighborhood. But to make the
neighborhood more attractive to residents, students, and
visitors alike, we needed to provide retail and cultural
amenities and engineer radical improvements in the public
schools.
Here is where we really rolled the dice. We resolved to
plan and build a public school, and we chose to undertake
two large-scale mixed-use retail development projects in
hopes that major anchors would bring other shops,
restaurants, theaters, private investment, and private
development to University City. [...]
All told, scores of new shops that run the gamut are opening
throughout the neighborhood. And a commercial corridor given
up for dead now bustles with art galleries, performance
spaces, and an international restaurant row that reflects
the dynamic cultural diversity of University City. Thousands
of people--from the Penn community, from the neighborhood,
from all over the region--are flocking to shops,
restaurants, and cultural venues that came into being as a
direct result of Penn's decision to redevelop a dying
commercial core into a thriving, productive asset.
