In a message dated 10/11/2009 12:22:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
What activities does the website advertise that is not directly marketed
to the so-called upscale? What is there for the people who do not fit the
target demographic, and especially kids, to do on weekend nights? Penn
creates an "upscale" movie theater, a nice restaurant with an outdoor patio, a
bowling alley, and other places to eat and somehow thinks that only the
"funky vibe" folks are going to show up. If the same number of "funky vibers"
jammed 40th Street on weekend nights, it would be heralded as proof of the
marketing genius of Penn/UCD.
Except...
* For a variety of reasons, the plans for the "upscale " movie
theater went kablooie, so what they show are the same car-chase, shoot-em-up,
lowest-common-denominator pictures that the producers aim at people who are
chronological if not intellectual teen-agers.
* Maybe some naive planners had a target demographic in mind. But,
guess what. The things they think appeal to college students and young
professionals also happen to appeal to young people in general. Maybe the
price
of some of the spots keeps the less affluent out (it also keeps some of
the more affluent out... having money doesn't mean wasting it) but there are
still plenty of things to do in the area that don't cost much -- or, like
exercising their constitutional rights to gather peaceably -- don't cost
anything.
* OK, some people put the blame on MacDonald's -- but, surely this
can't be it if Penn encourages fast-food outlets not fundamentally different
in the food courts it operates along Walnut Street. And on 40th between
Locust and Walnut, there are several places that serve the kinds of fast food
that attracts a clientele the anointed consider "unintended consequences."
* And, who knows... maybe all those people from parts of West
Philadelphia west of -- for want of a better boundary -- the Alexander School
catchment -- figure they're just doing their part in a) making the
University's
self-acclaimed "partnership with the community" a success by participating
in those funky vibes created around 40th Street & b) fulfilling the goal
of making the 40th Street Commercial Strip a "destination."
Alan Krigman
KRF Management
215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502
_www.krf.icodat.com_ (http://www.iconworldwide.com/krf)
