I think the last sentance says it all
"
Be inclusive and work together is what I am saying."
t I think just tearing up the UCD is not solving the problem.
Communication to
the UCD would be advisable either though the community asscaitions or
as an
individual.
Thanks
Mark
Wilma de Soto wrote:
Re: [UC] "... when things were really bad around here ..."
Dear Sandra,
I am not disputing or disparaging the positive changes in the
neighborhood. I thought I had made myself clear about that.
My point was how things became so bad in the first place, and how the
UCD needs to be more sensitive to people’s feelings with regard to
these changes; particularly the merchants on Baltimore Ave. who do not
factor into those changes.
Also, homeowners of color who started the flight and were abandoned,
that stuck it out trying to maintain their properties when all around
them was deteriorating.
Here’s an example at the other extreme; Koch's Deli. Both parents are
gone, and brother Louis, but Bobby struggled to maintain the business
and its standard in spite of years of the abandoned Acme across the
street and the crime wave during the 90's.
He stuck it out when he could have very well sold (he has health
problems) and maintained the quality and standard that was there when
his parents were running the deli and he was just helping out.
Would that block of Locust St. still be as welcoming to Penn students
if Bobby had sold Koch's? I believe not. It’s an example of what can
happen when people don’t flee.
The neighborhood had deteriorated due to many factors. Now, that
people wish to “reclaim” it, so to speak, what manner of procedure they
use to do so can make a lot of difference.
It’s really a “Story of Two Neighborhoods” whose needs and vision for
the area (according to the survey results) differ markedly. If the
UCD has taken on this role, then my opinion is that they be cognizant
of feelings of many long-time residents and merchants without appearing
to bulldoze their way down the avenue, which apparently many people
feel is what is happening.
Be inclusive and work together is what I am saying.
Wilma
On 10/13/03 12:33 PM, "Knight, Sandra (US - Philadelphia)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Wilma,
You
make some cogent points. However, I was one of those people who moved
back here in '91. Gunshots could be heard almost nightly where I lived
at 47th & Springfield near the so-called border along 49th. The
head of the Poilice Sub-Station at 47th & Chester told me
everything south and west and north of us was the wild, wild west. We
constantly found crack vials in my perennial garden along with condoms
and malt liquor bottles. I was so frightened that I would not walk
anywhere w/out my 70 lb dog whose partial (half) ancestry of chow-chow
scared a lot of people away, certainly not to Clarks Park w/out my
grey, canine behemoth where I was sure I would be caught in a
drug-induced, cross-fire at 43rd and Baltimore. It took quite a while
before I could walk around without fear in that neighborhood.
I
can also remember couples using our side-yard to spend time together.
(No, we didn't have a gate.) Their small talk and laughing would wake
me out of a sound sleep under my bedroom window. Plants were regularly
stolen from my garden. Sometime during the 90s things changed although
I don't really remember when, '94? '95? '96? Who knows. It just
became more amiable. I remember the night I realized I hadn't heard
any gunshots in a long while, when their absence was more frequent than
their presence. My calls to 911 (remember to get the operator's
number...) became much less frequent. Although we did have some
terrible rapes on 48th Street and muggings into the late 90s. We also
stopped hearing so much about break-ins during the day.
Yes,
my memories are anecdotal but serve to highlight some very real changes.
-----Original
Message-----
From: Wilma de Soto [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 1:57 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; UnivCity listserv
Subject: Re: [UC] "... when things were really bad around
here ..."
Nothing is ever as simple or
cut and dried as it seems.
I have been following this discussion for a bit. People have been
saying how bad things used to be around here before the UCD and Penn
came into the picture. No doubt there is some truth to that.
The greater question at least for me is “How did things ever get so bad
in the first place?”
The quick answer is that the residents who moved in during the height
of white flight caused the damage.
Residents of color who first moved in and precipitated the white flight
weren’t responsible. They were responsible homebuyers who moved into
what they thought was a nice community in which to raise their
families. What happened then? How did it all go so wrong?
It comes down to the ability to accumulate wealth which generally
eludes people of color for many reasons in society.
I would suggest this quick reading; “The Downward Spiral” and “A Tale
of Two Families” from this website:
http://www.pbs.org/race/006_WhereRaceLives/006_00-home.htm
It would give some insight on how people who have been part of the
disinvesting and marginalizing of inner-city neighborhoods, might not
be as receptive to some of the changes coming and feel perhaps they
will be disenfranchised once again.
It’s a sensitive issue that merits a bit more understanding about
people’s feelings. It is in my opinion, larger than Penn and the UCD
and deserves consideration.
Wilma de Soto
On 10/12/03 10:40 AM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In a message dated
10/11/03 2:51:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
One thing I'd like to add to this discussion is the fact that when
things were really bad around here back in the early 90's several local
residents put their money and their effort where their mouth was and
tried to start a permanent voluntary special services district
In the early '90s, things weren't "really bad around here." In the
mid-to-late '70s and into the early '80s, though, when lots of what's
sometimes called "white flight" to the suburbs was taking place, and
Penn students thought that if they ventured west of 40th Street they'd
fall off the edge of the earth, some of us were investing in
properties. Investing both with dollars and sweat. Buying them and
fixing them up, sometimes for sale but often as comfortable mid-market
rentals. That was really putting our money and effort where our mouths
were. And the thanks we get now is scorn and derision by many of the
folks who moved here after our risk began to reap rewards and the area
became socially acceptable.
Yes, Penn's policy of encouraging its faculty and staff to buy here
helped. So has the Alexander school (for those in the controversial
"catchment" area, anyway). And UCD has made some positive
contributions. But none of this would have happened were it not for the
people often spoken disparagingly of as "slumlords," "absentee
landlords," and "renters." The area would be as much of a wasteland as
parts of North Philly were it not for the strong rental base -- both of
people who are at least as permanent here as many homeowners, and what
might be considered the steady-state transient of students, immigrants,
and young families who come and go but whose "character" stays on with
the next generation.
Further, those of us who did these things differ from Penn and UCD, not
only because we were putting our own futures on the line, but because
we weren't tossing money we never earned at projects that seem (at
least) to be aimed at getting rid of people we'd rather not have as
neighbors.
Al Krigman
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