Whenever someone asks me where I live, I slip into a comatose state in preparation for the inevitable Q&A session to follow. 45th and Pine. Yes, I go to Penn. No, it’s not dangerous. No, it’s not a long walk. And no, I don’t have classes in DRL (thank god — but not because of the walk).

When I moved into my apartment last July, I spent the rest of the summer exploring the neighborhood: concerts at Clark Park , Thai food on Baltimore, late night jazz at Abyssinia. The feel is totally different than at Penn — it’s like you’re in a neighborhood, a successful experiment in diversity that’s authentic and interesting.

Summer farmers’ market in Clark Park (Caroline New/DP)

So I found yesterday’s article in the DP on posters protesting gentrification (”Penntrification”) particularly interesting. The posters all depict Penn negatively — focusing on the effect of Penn expansion on the pre-existing community. I think Penn should take these objections seriously, especially given its history.

An article last September in Philadelphia Weekly detailed The Black Bottom — the mostly black working class community that existed in the area now occupied by Penn and Drexel. That community was demolished and displaced by Penn. Penn part-time professor Walter Palmer said in PW that “[Penn] started buying up properties and not doing anything with them. They just let those properties sit there deteriorating, creating an eyesore, and then people were pressured to sell. They had the use of eminent domain to hang over the homeowners’ heads, so they could drive the prices down to where they wanted them.” And Penn certainly hasn’t escaped allegations of racism in the Black Bottom situation.

But that was mostly in the 50’s and 60’s — naturally Penn is different now. It’s hard to refute the visible changes in the neighborhood over the past decade. The retail success. The continued construction and improvement. “Penntrification” has increased property values as well as rent.

There’s truth to both sides: Penn has certainly improved the area, but local residents are being forced to relocate due to rent increases. There isn’t an obvious answer. The issue needs to be studied; the University should work with the community in mitigating the adverse effects of development.

Luckily, most of Penn’s future construction will probably take place east — in the recently acquired and unoccupied postal lands.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.