[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dave makes a very good point here about "gentrification" (could also be read as "additional demand" or "rise in prices") all over UC & areas adjacent to it. The entire area is more "popular" with homebuyers now, and prices have risen accordingly. There are probably many reasons, but several would be: 1. Penn stopped talking negatively about the area - negative talk from that direction scared people away for years and held back demand, and therefore artificially limited price appreciation. It wasn't only Penn people who were scared away; anyone who read Penn quotes in the media tended to believe them, and therefore people from many backgrounds thought that the area was terribly dangerous, not merely "broken car window" dangerous. It used to make those of us who lived here, raised our families here, and loved the area feel like either laughing or crying, or both. 2. Once the negative talk stopped, prices were so reasonable compared to other areas that we suddenly had more demand than supply - and even with my very basic background of one economics course, I can easily understand that when demand exceeds supply, prices go up. 3. With more folks gardening and working on the exteriors of their houses, the area looks cleaner and "safer" at the same time that living in cities is gaining in popularity again. Newcomers are attracted because of the trolleys, Philly Car Share, walkability, nearby restaurants, friendly neighbors, the dog park, Clark, Cedar & Malcolm X Parks....most of which are not new, exactly, but have more attention, upkeep, and/or availability than they used to. Ironically, the "fascinating social experiment," which is what I've long called the Penn Alexander School, continues to bring about many changes that weren't originally anticipated. The latest is that the higher prices have left many Penn staff and faculty members unable to afford the catchment area! In today's market, many of the catchment area buyers are folks coming from center city, selling a house there and moving here when they start to think about sending kids to school. This is a population which ALMOST NEVER moved to University City in the past! Folks from UC might have "moved up" to center city, but the reverse was almost unheard of! I think the valuable lesson the school has taught us is the old "if you build it, they will come."
I think this discussion is interesting, in how different people see things from different perspectives, adding their 'piece' to the larger picture.
one thing I'm always keeping in mind is how we as citizens perceive institutions (like elected governments or unelected universities/corporations), and how we as consumers perceive facilities (like hospitals and schools), and how we as social beings consequently perceive health care and education (as public or privatized rights or privileges).
in this matrix we position ourselves on different parts of the grid, as both active participants and as passive subjects.
melani outlines one scenario above where penn played an active role in directing what happened in our neighborhood, real estate-wise, concluding "if you build it, they will come."
melani sees an irony in that lesson; others see a flip side to that lesson: "if you create the demand, they will depend."
back in the nineties, during the judith rodin years, penn was occupied with bailing out its distressed health system (which was beset with all kinds of dire financial difficulties). the solutions for penn the health system ultimately became the business model which was applied to penn the academy. since then we, the perpetual patients in need of a health provider, have been also cast in the role of we the neighbors in permanent need of a community provider. meanwhile penn the heath system and penn the academy continue to expand, ever-mindful of their bottom lines.
if we evaluate any of penn's strategic community initiatives in this light, its forays into the public sphere, we could ask ourselves about the state of our own civic health. are we indeed arriving, stepping up to a plate, or are we merely depending, stepping into line?
thoughts on a cloudy sunday... .................. UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN ---- 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>.
