Filed under: Appropriation, Are You Kidding?, Displacement, Future Plans, Gentrification, University City Creep, University City District | Tags: creep, Gentrification, university city, war, west philly
Alert! Vandals have repeatedly struck the 4500-5000 blocks of Baltimore Ave in West Philly! Every lamp post on both sides of the street has been tagged UNIVERSITY CITY DISTRICT. Why oh why would merciless thieves and liars called University City District do such a thing??
“The intent is to increase illumination, reduce the perception and reality of crime and encourage private investment.”
Oh, that. But wait, there’s more!
“Lewis Wendell, University City District’s Executive Director noted, “This project demonstrates the results of a new level of collaboration between the major institutions in University City, Penn Dot, the City of Philadelphia Streets Department and PECO.”
We here at the UCD blog love collaboration, especially between private corporations and the government. But seriously folks, the vandalizing soul-sucking demons of the “left of center” University City District should really be reprimanded for their behavior. Replacing perfectly good, working streetlights with boutique, fake vintage gaslight-looking streetlamps for a million bucks so they can hang their crummy gentrification advertising banners… well what can we say, this shit is wack.
Peep the original press release via http://www.ucityphila.org/news/release/402
Filed under: Appropriation, Are You Kidding?, University City District | Tags: upenn, west philly, youcies
West Philly kids love going to the Bubble House for queer dance parties. The mere fact that Bubble House is located at 34th and Sansom should have tipped everyone off to their lameness and associated evils already, but in case you missed it, the “youcies” love Bubble House. Youcies? Really? That’s the best you could come up with? via (LOL) Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace. Sorry we all missed this great event.
Young Friends of University City Happy Hour!
The Bubble House
3404 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, March 20, 5:30pm
Connect, Interact and Explore with youcie –The Young Friends of University City. Mingle with old friends and make new ones while enjoying drink specials and complementary hors d’oeuvres courtesy of The Bubble House at our first monthly happy hour.
This event will take place from 5:30 to 7:00pm, is free and open to anyone ages 21 and up, so feel free to pass this invite along but, please RSVP by March 16 so we can plan for enough food.
Youcie members are diverse individuals who are committed to University City’s uniqueness, growth and vitality. Youcie events will allow members to connect, interact with and explore University City’s diverse cultural, social, and community service offerings.
Youcie membership is free and open to those 21 years and older who wish to engage in exciting programming with other like-minded professionals.
To RSVP, please send an email to youngfriends@ucityphila.org.
Filed under: Appropriation, Displacement, Gentrification, Race, Real Estate, The Master Plan, UPenn Mortgage | Tags: eviction, expansion, Gentrification, home prices, ucd, university city, upenn, war, west philly
Using the power of the internet, anyone can find this snazzy article about how UPenn is a Zombie Flesh Eating Monster. According to the Philadelphia Business Weekly, the UPenn-subsidized mortgage program was already a smashing success way back in 1998.
“It’s just been overwhelming,” said D-L Wormley, Penn’s managing director of community housing. “It literally is people from every part of the university – professors, the housekeeping department, a vice president, the physical plant. And that’s the thing I’m most thrilled about.”
And what’s good for Penn is good for West Philadelphia’s residents, the banking community there, local construction contractors and neighborhood real estate values.
Part of the new program includes cash for faculty and staff already living in the area bounded by Market Street, 49th Street, Woodland Avenue, University Avenue and the Schuylkill River: Penn is offering up to $7,500 in matching funds toward exterior home improvements.”
Of course by 2004 this program was considered a battle plan against local residents (read: black people.)
“The change in the program is two-fold. First, the geographic boundaries originally set by the program are being extended. The new borders reach out westward to 52nd Street, northward to Haverford Avenue, and eastward and southward to the Schuylkill River. The old boundaries extended only to 49th Street, Market Street and Woodland Avenue in the west, north and south, respectively.
The second alteration of the program consists of a reduction in the maximum size of the loans available to those participating in the program from $15,000 to $7,500.
The forgivable cash loan “can be used for a down payment, to buy down points, or for interior or exterior home improvements,” according to the program’s policy. The loans are forgiven after seven years on the condition that the purchaser remains in residence during that time.”"
Wait, you mean if I own a house for 7 measley years and work for UPenn during that time, I get fifteen thousand dollars for free? That’s right. Doesn’t that mean that there’s some unfair advantage available to UPenn staff?
And of course, there is:
“Penn officials note, however, that it is not their intention to force people from the neighborhood. But, the program gives the Penn-affiliated buyer a clear advantage in the real estate market.
“If two buyers are competing for the same house … the Penn buyer is already $7,500 ahead,” O’Donnell said. “If there is a bidding war, the Penn buyer is going to win.”"
Aye aye, sir! Fire away! Move the negroes out of here! Move in the zombies with cash bonuses that they don’t have to repay!
end the upenn zombie monster parade
Let’s start with the basics, shall we?
The University City District is defined as a 2.2 square mile zone west of the Schuylkill. The “boundaries are, on the east, 29th Street and the Schuylkill River; on the west, 50th Street; on the north, Spring Garden Street (to 40th Street), Powelton Avenue (to 44th Street), and Market Street; and on the south, Civic Center Boulevard, University Avenue and Woodland Avenue.” [ref] The UCD also happens to be a “non-profit” corporation which shares a building with the Philadelphia Police, one block east of the UPenn Police station (FYI: UPenn cops are authorized by the State to make arrests up to 43rd St.) How ironic that the occupiers of historically poor/working-class, non-white lands would run marketing campaigns that redefine West Philly as the “left bank” and “left of center.” White liberalism knows no bounds, but can take pointers from Zionism in its mobilization and appropriation of the suddenly oppressed “victim” of crime. See, for those of you that don’t know, Gentrification goes a little something like this… young white artists and post-30-year-olds start to move into super-”cheap” neighborhoods that are predominantly POC (read: people of color) and/or industrial/post-industrial fallout zones. The script runs like this:
Whitey #1: “Wow did you know you can get a crazy huge warehouse at 34th and Spring Garden for like only 100 grand right now?”
Whitey #2: “Holy crap that’s really cheap! If I keep my center city job I can pay down that mortgage in 10 years. That’s a steal!”
Whitey #3: “Yeah let’s totally make it into a community space community garden show house artist residence!”
Whitey #1: “That would rock!!”
6 months pass…
Whitey #1: “So my Dad says we have to rent at least half of the space at market rate in order for him to continue paying the mortgage for us. But like we would totally be cool landlords and do affirmative action and stuff…”
All of a sudden, you’ve driven up property values 200%, raised median rent 100% in 6 months, and become bona-fide landlords. Oh yeah, but you totally still listen to indie bands and are down with the cause. Right. (Take note Fishtown and Kensington.) But as we like to say, “that’s America,” or “that’s life, right?” No, hell no! Ya’ll should get acquainted with Seth Tobocman’s amazing book You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive. Because you don’t.
But let’s get back to the basics about University City… today from the horse’s mouth we get:
“With its funky vibe and unique spirit, University City is one of Philadelphia’s most vibrant and diverse neighborhoods. Located on the west side of downtown Philadelphia, the area is a hotbed of education, science, medicine and research. This dynamic, close-knit community is home to college students, artists, and families who coexist amid world-class universities, dining, nightlife and cultural offerings.”
Wow I didn’t know it was that exciting! We all co-exist! We all get along! Obama, Obama, Obama! I guess America isn’t racist after all!
Let’s lay off the crack, shall we? What bigwigs actually contribute to the UCD, and make West Philly what it is today?
$1,000,000 and up
University of Pennsylvania (ed note: and by “up” you must mean…”)
$500,000-999,999
Drexel University
University of Pennsylvania Health Systems
The William Penn Foundation
$100,000-250,000
City of Philadelphia/Department of Commerce
INTECH Construction (ed note: strangely, the very same company that just built The Radian highrise directly adjacent to the UCD office building)
Pro-Med
The Science Center
University City Associates
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
$50,000-$99,000
Campus Apartments
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
And that’s just the “major” donors… [ref] Well, gee, I guess I just didn’t realize how much money the UCD had to play around with. But then I did see those signs on I-95 for “University City” going north and south, and all those bridges painted with “welcome to University City” must have cost something…
Then again, our primer continues with the Housing Act of 1949, which instead of building better homes for people, ended up subsidizing a net loss in dwellings, and paid UPenn to raze houses in West Philly.
And this is the part where we lay the smackdown…
“Many residents of University City were still prepared to fight the destruction of their homes, however, and for the first time, student groups at Penn really seemed to take an interest in the situation just north of the University campus. Lawrence Beck and Stephen Kerstetter, two graduate students at the University, spent parts of their fall semester in 1966 visiting the “slums” of Unit 3 and interviewing residents. They published their findings in a five-part series entitled “The Quiet War in West Philadelphia” that ran in the Daily Pennsylvanian, the University’s student newspaper, from 23 January to 27 January 1967. “The Quiet War,” which was sympathetic to the displaced residents, stood out not only because the Daily Pennsylvanian rarely featured a series but also because its five articles were among the first in that paper to discuss the redevelopment proceedings in Unit 3. Felton Newman, one of the area residents whom Beck and Kerstetter interviewed, claimed that “the West Philadelphia Corporation is a front for the University of Pennsylvania” and that Penn was “fostering segregation by moving all Negroes out of the area.” The graduate students also found that other residents seconded the idea that “urban renewal means Negro removal.”" [ref]
This is why going to Penn must be a mindfuck–you have to write your papers to reference “University City” as a real tangible place, as you explore the vast racist destruction machine therein. And on the same page we find, “Conforming to the regulations established by the Housing Act of 1949 and its successors, this $12 million grant covered two-thirds of the RDA’s estimated $18 million net cost of preparing Unit 3 for redevelopment.” Oh gee, I’m glad that the Feds covered 2/3 of the multi-million dollar cost to destroy homes and replace them with UPenn science buildings.
the fight goes on and the saga will be continued
