Two useful facts:
1) The boundaries of the Penn Alexander School were drawn by the School
District of Philadelphia. They are deeply integrated into a longstanding
bureaucratic structure that no childless dogwalker can comprehend.
Glenn's competence to comment on Philadelphia public education is
roughly that of his dog. I love dogs myself, but for Pete's sake: woof!
Pay off your trash tickets first, Glenn, and pick up your dogs' poop;
only thereafter should you advise the rest of us how to educate our
children.
2) Ray's interesting map overlays something that does not exist and
probably never will -- the putative Spruce Hill Historic District --
with something that has long existed -- the catchment area of the Penn
Alexander neighborhood school.
Ray's map demonstrates that any one neighborhood map tends to overlap
any other map of the same neighborhood. Paranoids love this sort of
geometrical toy, because they can use it to prove the conspiracy
theories that get their blood pumping.
However, there is NO EVIDENCE that housing values have run up inside the
PAS catchment area 1% more than they have in Cedar Park, Powelton
Village, Fairmount, Francisville, Ludlow, South Kensington, Fishtown,
Port Richmond, Queen Village, Bella Vista, Grays Ferry and West Shore.
I'm open to reading any such evidence. But one thing is sure: a
commentator who will not stray from his Locust Walk cubicle will never
learn the facts of Philadelphia real estate.
Until we read cross-neighborhood comparisons between University City and
comparable neighborhoods, UC-list seems doomed to be smothered in the
polemical ruminations of obsolete New-Left jackasses who apparently
can't locate the rest of the city even with the aid of MapQuest.
Personally, I'd rather read about the real neighborhood we all live in
today. Let's move past this bogus "gentrification" hooey, and talk about
a city that is suffering because too many of its residents are poor
people while too few are middle-class or prosperous people. How can we
Philadelphians make Philadelphia's class demographics look more like
those of America as a whole? Obviously, all Philadelphians need this to
happen.
But poor Philadelphians need it most. Middle-class and wealthy folks
don't "need" the inner city; they've shown they can live outside it and
without it. It is chiefly the poor who need to live within a taxing body
that includes the non-poor.
-- Tony West
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN wrote:
Glenn wrote:
Philadelphia Weekly has a short interesting article (a
snapshot) about the confluence of education, real estate and
gentrification issues here in our upscale village.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/17058/news
In this short piece, it corroborates a point that was
widely discussed here. The description captures how the Penn
catchment area was drawn around the potential real estate
value of housing stock. The lines aren't drawn logically
around neighborhoods or existing residents, but instead are
obviously based on real estate value projections.
haha here's another 'snapshot':
http://tinyurl.com/3bgtk
..................
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>.
----
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>.
