RE: [UC] Are You Aware of UPenn's 'First Thursday' public meetings?

[J. Matthew Wolfe]

I am familiar with the First Thursday meetings.  They are promoted at the
very least to community groups in West Philly.  I can not speak to the
breadth of the promotion, but they are not hiding them.  In attendance are
representatives of most of the West Philly/U City community groups, but
there are others and anyone can attend.

I do not recall any discussion of demolishing Convention Hall.  I would have
remembered that and certainly would have expressed an opinion against it.  I
cannot say, however, that I am at every meeting or at the meetings from
start to finish.  I do remember raising the issue when someone from Penn was
speaking regarding all of Penn's projects.  My point was that they botched
the PGH site and I did not want to see the same on the Civic Center site.
The response was that Penn understood the problems with PGH, but CHOP had a
different view and liked the "walled city" approach to design.  While I do
not believe that minutes are taken, there are agendas.  Again, I do not
remember seeing anything about Convention Hall on the agenda.  That does not
mean it was not there, but I do not remember.

I hope that this is helpful.

Matt Wolfe

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Jayfar
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 7:11 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [UC] Are You Aware of UPenn's 'First Thursday' public meetings?


Hello,

I'm curious about Penn's 'First Thursday' community meetings, alluded to
by Penn Community Relations Director Glenn Bryan in a University City
Review article in the November 24 edition. Are you familiar with these
meetings? Are they well-promoted?  How many people are typically in
attendance? What is the nature of the meetings?

I'm wondering because of Mr. Bryan's claim that there was "no real
opposition or major feedback" to Penn's plans to demolish Convention Hall
and the Commercial Museum, as he is quoted in the Review.

I would also be very interested in hearing, by private email if it's
inappropriate to clutter this list, from anyone who attended a First
Thursday meeting where UPenn's plans for the Civic Center properties were
discussed.

I ran a poll in the University City section of PhillyBlog and was
surprised that out of 12 poll responses, not one respondent was aware of
the meetings. That surprised me, as the folks posting in that forum are
generally fairly much involved in the community. On the other hand I do
personally know one person who is aware and has attended some of these
meetings.

Cheers,
Jay "Jayfar" Farrell
Chairman
Committee to Save Convention Hall
http://PhilaDeco.com
--


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Re: [UC] Are You Aware of UPenn's 'First Thursday' public meetings?

[Anthony West]

Matt's description is on target. If you have a regular West Philadelphia 
civic group of any sort, and you make Glenn Bryant (Penn's community 
relations officer) aware of its interest in First Thursdays, your officer 
will be mailed a large package of information before every meeting. Nobody 
attends every meeting, which are 8 a.m. breakfast events, but they are well 
attended. If anybody wants to attend, just go. They are far from secret.

I don't recall hearing the demolition discussed either, but like Matt I'm 
not there every month. The format is not one that would require Penn to tell 
you everything it's up to during the next month, however. There's only so 
much time  Penn typically presents an affiliated program that it is 
hoping for community involvement in. Then whatever other groups are there 
can present what *they're* up to, again with a stress onlooking for 
connections between the various community groups as well as with Penn 
itself. Attendees can and sometimes do raise questions about Penn projects 
they are opposed to or troubled by.

-- Tony West
- Original Message - 
From: "J. Matthew Wolfe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I am familiar with the First Thursday meetings.  They are promoted at the
very least to community groups in West Philly.  I can not speak to the
breadth of the promotion, but they are not hiding them.  In attendance are
representatives of most of the West Philly/U City community groups, but
there are others and anyone can attend.


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