Philadelphia’s Self-Perception Problem, Revisited
Changes on Walnut Street: the storefront in the center has become a psychic’s office; Minar Palace, formerly of 13th Street, opened on Walnut and seems to be doing good business. The florist (far right) seems to be going out of business.
Almost a year ago, I wrote about Philadelphia’s self-perception problem The original blog post came after Mayor Nutter and others discussed plans for the Delaware Riverfront. The following quote, originally posted on a Philly.com blog, has stuck in my head:
Take a good look around center city. The 1300 block of Walnut Street looks like a stage prop for a bad ghetto movie out of the 70’s.Its a depressing 1/10th of a mile mix of vacant buildings ,grungy stores, and filth covered cages + grates. Its horrendously bad.Much of the blocks of Chestnut(east of Broad) resembles the 1300 block of Walnut, Market East is worse than East Chestnut if that possible. The Ben Franklin Parkway has turned into a homeless encampment. Nutter needs to stop wasting time on this Riverfront fantasy and go get some developers and tenants to revive the blocks of Market,Chestnut and Walnut. The forefathers gave this city some great bones, work on rebuilding them so the riverfront will be an easier sell for the next generation.
Thirteenth Street has changed a lot over the past year. I submit the following picture as evidence.
Vacant store on the left, Citi Marketplace, a new convenience store on the right.
Citi Marketplace, a new mostly organic food store opened up in one of the vacant stores. It’s been tremendously popular with the neighborhood. To the right, Passage of India (not pictured), has changed hands is supposedly going to become an IHOP — not the retail I’d prefer but at least it means that the storefront won’t be vacant. The turnover on this block gives me some faith that it’s only a matter of another year before certain other terrible blocks (the 1100 and 1200 blocks of Chestnut, for example), follow its lead.
A year later, I still agree with the complaint that we need to be investing in Center City before bothering with the river. Yes, the river is woefully underdeveloped, and its development would radically change the city. But that development would probably feel fake and forced if there wasn’t some connection between it and a more dense, lively city.
Diana Lind is editor in chief of Next American City magazine.
Philadelphia’s Chinatown Braces For the Impact of Rice Shortages
Electric Boogaloo in Phila on Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 3:20pm
God I remember reading that exact Philly.com comment. Its some crazyperson who posts on Phillyblog also, she used the exact same phrasing on a thread there about East Market/chestnut/etc.
People’s yuppie outrage at how east CC is less gentrified than west CC ranks up there with crypto-racist comments about how the Gallery and South Street are hell on earth because black people shop there as things that make me want to run away from the city forever and live alone in a cabin with a shotgun, a big beard, and a half-wolf half-dog named Chonto. There is a naziesque tinge to these people who will accept nothing less than complete transformation of every neighborhood into a disneyfied, whole foods wonderland.
I see it as the most extreme form of classism if you really think that the problem with block where you eat Indian fusion cuisine and buy gourmet organic food is they share a sidewalk with a dollar store and wig outlet that cater to people that are less rich than you. The concept that public space is a failure unless it is rigidly hierarchical in the sense of class (typically with a preference towards the rich), is the same thinking that brought us megamalls, project towers, and killed small businesses in urban america. Cities are strongest when they are heterogeneous, this quest to purge every block of businesses that cater to lower income persons (which in this case we both fall into), is a ruse that just leads to the best urban spaces becoming overpriced, homogenized, exclusionary, and worst of all, boring. Look at East Village now versus 30 years ago, watch it happening in Williamsburg. It’s not that I think gentrification is bad, quite the opposite, but these kind of people make it bad and are usually speculators trying to tweak already inflated property values to get the most out of their investment. Only natural I suppose, but this kind of shit is what makes ghettos and destabilizes the RE market.
I know I’m drawing some broad based accusations here, but this shit really pisses me off. People need to get over themselves and thinking that you can or should just eradicate the poor by building overpriced stores and housing. You’re just pushing the problem onto someone else’s plate, which is what all the Philly Diaspora in the burbs is about to learn now that property values are cratering.
wildmother on Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 4:29pm
Philly Diaspora of One
I don’t think gentrification is bad, but the political connections with developers and the pay to play climate have made some pretty bad mistakes. Recently I went to a EPA conference on Vapor Intrusion. It was Free and only a few blocks from City Hall and not a single city representative was there to learn anything new. One EPA representative came up to me and asked me if there as anything I could do to get Philadelphia to build differently, they would appreciate it. Every agency in the city knows I’ve been squawking about the fact that they went in with all their Councilmanic Privilege and dug up a contaminated industrial site, sent me to a hospital a few times, sick from the vapors and displaced me from my home for 3 years. Now the project has been sitting half built, like a ghost town and they say, bankrupt. The City used their political influence to sidetrack basic environment laws and justice and civil rights issues . The problems with Philly development are often just the rotten core of corruption which everyone in the nation knows about. I’ve called EPA and DEP all over the country. They say “only in Philadelphia would this happen.” After all the exposure of this problem and admission of contamination, the City still does nothing and our neighborhood is left with a ghost town. Yet recently, the council did make a nice visit to a new multi million dollar project near Rittenhouse Square. They probably got some catered treats.
http://web.me.com/wildmother/Site_5/Healer_Needs_Healing.html
http://www.greenuptoxicphiladelphia.com
Dusted out of my own Home
Margaret Motheral
Diana Lind on Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 9:37am
Electric Boogaloo, you voice some interesting points. Your second paragraph in particular I agree with. And I want heterogeneity as well. I also just want to see Philadelphia become denser. This city was built for 2 million and only has 1.5 million. I think it’s that other half million that is keeping us from having a better public transportation system, a better garbage pickup, a better education system. Larger cities are also more efficient. Sao Paolo, for example, is one of the world’s largest and produces the least emissions per capita.
By the same token, I live near 13th St and walk up and down it to and from work and to and from home. There’s at least three homeless people who sleep in or near the Phila. Redevelopment Authority building. Look at the crime logs, almost every weekend there are a half dozen arrests for prostitution and crack. If we had more businesses in Center City — and I’m not advocating for Whole Foods, nor for other chains — but if we had more small businesses, I think there would be more opportunity for employment and more eyes on the street that would keep it safe. I live in the neighborhood because I love the variety of people here, but I also think the city could be safer.
Non-CC resident on Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 9:46pm
As a Philadelphian, I’m offended by this piece and your follow-up comment, and as the editor and chief of an urban affairs magazine, you should be ashamed of running it. Calling the 1300 block of Chestnut St. and its vicinity “terrible” and the prime example of Philly’s self-perception problem makes a mockery of this city’s plight - so badly that I have to question how much time you’ve actually spent here, and where you’ve spent it. I ride by 1100 and 1200 Chestnut weekly. Yes, there are some store vacancies. But your real issue seems to be that the “right” kinds of stores aren’t there. Philadelphia is a tremendously poor city. Businesses need to cater to those residents, many of whom work and frequent the Center City Area.
You are right: Philly was built for 2 million and now holds 1.5 million. I can tell you with the utmost certainty that these human vacuums lie far outside Center City’s boundaries.
You also seem to be be shaken up by passing three homeless people on your walk from your lovely Center City home to your lovely Center City office. I suggest staying in your Center City area comfort zone to avoid seeing what the rest of this place actually looks like.
Diana Lind on Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 1:22am
Non CC-resident, when I say “terrible” I meant the 1100 and 1200 block of Chestnut Street present numerous vacant properties — I don’t know what you are assuming by “right” kinds of stores, but I’m not referring to a need for more high-end retail. As I mentioned on the 1300 Walnut block, the variety of new businesses — a psychic, an Indian restaurant, a organic deli, and an IHOP (non of which I think anyone would categorize as “right”) — is what I’m welcoming. There’s tremendous variety in those four businesses. I just don’t want to see core center city businesses laying vacant. I don’t have an agenda for the neighborhood.
As for getting outside of my Center City neighborhood, thanks, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to do that. Are you referring to visiting the impoverished neighborhoods in northern, southern and western Philadelphia? I’ve been there, numerous times. I’ve moderated panel discussions about creating transit-oriented development in north and west Philadelphia with the hope that sustainable development might help densify the “human vacuums” you refer to.
TOD might help; what we don’t need is complacency. You seem to lament the fact that I’m unnerved by seeing my fellow man homeless — as if sensitivity to this condition is some kind of weakness or snobbery. I don’t find the number of homeless in Philadelphia to be acceptable. In my opinion, it’s a problem that should elicit more outrage — in the hope that public action will catalyze more opportunities to house and employ this part of the city’s citizenry.
benhoe in philly on Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 5:21am
Philo-sofia: the love of wisdow.
one should not fear there reality for we have been given the innate human nature to adapt and evolve. fear is only a challenge to analyze our surrounding and triumpt over it, especially when that fear been implemented on so many and that is when we florish over coming any obstucle. beutiful mind
Former Philadelphian on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 4:34am
I’m amazed, as well, that the editor-in-chief of this magazine specifically agrees with a deranged commenter who accuses people who shop at Whole Foods of being Nazis: “Electric Boogaloo, you voice some interesting points. Your second paragraph in particular I agree with.” (!) Diana, tell me you actually read that paragraph before saying you agree with it?
Electric Boogaloo, who sounds more like an over-caffeinated 17-year old so convinced of his or her righteousness that not shopping at Genuardi’s makes you “a Nazi,” should seriously rethink his or her social prejudices and concentrate far less on hate. Ranting about the world without performing any kind of research whatsoever, but simply because it feels good emotionally to get excited by one’s own complaints, doesn’t make you an activist, it makes you the equally stupid left-wing equivalent of Fox News.
But if calling people interested in good food Nazis is the kind of rhetoric that TNAC wants to engage in, go for it - just remind me not to take this publication seriously anymore.
wildmother on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 8:01am
I don’t know who this Electric Boogaloo person is, but my comment as wildmother discussing the complete failure of the Philadelphia City Planning to properly deal with the townhouse development they approved on contaminated land and land that is also a headwater stream area for the Tacony Watershed has been ignored.
As things stand now, this project is half finished and bankrupt and a ghost town after over three years of building in reckless and illegal ways.
It’s been confirmed that the Water Department ordered truckload after truckload of contaminated dirt removed when they had no jurisdiction to do so. They should have called the EPA or PADEP. The removal was done without the knowledge of the neighbors and without any protection of the neighbors.
There was a long history of chemical dumping and gasoline station at the site and chemical dumping into the headwaters.
The Sierra Club of Southeastern PA and Clean Water Action Present PROTECTING STREAMS
This Monday, June 8, 6:45 PM The Free Library of Philadelphia, 19th/Vine Sts, 4th Flr
Louis Kaplan, PhD, Senior Research Scientist at Stroud Water Research Center in Chester County, will explain why it’s important to save small headwaters streams. They’re particularly vulnerable to land use changes, and their health is linked to the overall health of stream networks and river ecosystems.
Brady Russell, Eastern PA Director of Clean Water Action, will talk about the Buffers 100 campaign, a statewide effort to ban new construction within 100’ of a stream.
This politically sponsored and “protected” project broke nearly every rule in the book, sent the adjacent neighbors to the hospital 3x and displaced her from her home for 3 years plus illegal demolition by NTI teams cracked and bent her home. Storm Water flow has been affected so the pr-existing homes in the neighborhood are now more vulnerable to bad storm management. Toxic plumes and vapor intrusion are likely. This means cancer and many other ills.
Yet the City of Philadelphia and Planning Commission and zoning,etc have done absolutely nothing to correct these problems even though they have been informed of them even before they brought in the first pre fab models.
If the topic is Philadelphia’s self perception, I really think the complete disaster, corrupt and illegal political dabbling into real estate deals and the health hazards and risk they put innocent neighbors in and then try every effort to cover up is at the core of Philadelphia’s self perception. If our own City officials and agencies are willing to hurt their own citizens by such extreme dysfunction and harm, then poor self perception has a real basis.
I am very surprised that a magazine directly concerned with Urban Life has not concerned themselves with this very serious problem of harm done toward citizens by poor and illegal planning decisions and that talk of food “nazi’ ” is more important. There will always be “food Nazi’s” but the disaster in East MT Airy does not have to happen agin if people pay attention and investigate.
Diana Lind on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 8:51am
To respond to the last two comments.
Former Philadelphian: I shop at Whole Foods, I’m not a Nazi.What I agreed with was that the outcry over “cleaning up” the Gallery and CC East seems tinged with racism.
Wildmother, we’re running a piece about water infrastructure in cities in our next issue (Fall 2009). I am good friends with Brady Russell and CWA works in our building, in fact. I will try to make this meeting!
wildmother on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 9:02am
That will be nice to meet you. I shop at Whole Foods as well and try to take my vitamins. It just seemed the comments were getting to be personal attacks rather than real issues. We have a real urban dvelopment problem up here that has been very mishandled and caused a lot of harm both to public health and the environment. Thank you
wildmother on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 at 3:05pm
It is very interesting that you will run an issue on Water infrastructure. Part of that includes the natural water systems that run through a city. Most major cities are built near rivers it seems. Philadelphia has a massive network of natural watersheds and a long history of City Planning which covered them up. Today, the natural water ways still cause problems and challenges. Considering the growing awareness of the vital importance of protecting natural fresh water springs as we move into the future, perhaps City Planning needs to study this issue and reverse some of the planning they did in the past and revive and restore some of the natural springs when possible. The site where I live is in a very unique position. It is a headwaters spring area and though they half built a project over it during the past three years, the project is in bankruptcy and there are so many violations that its future is questionable.
This may give the headwaters springs a chance to reach sunlight and add a magnificent eco- happy
reversal of fortune to the neighborhood. The site is also next to a transit station which makes it even more valuable as a public asset as open green space with a revived historic spring.
There are many other issues involved, such as storm water management. All in all, I see it as an opportunity to reverse some failed city planning and move into the future of recognizing the value of headwater spring areas.