You have got to take the long view with North Philly. And you have to realize that it is a vast area of the city we're talking about. I personally think North Philly ends at Route 1 or Hunting Park Avenue- then you get more strongly defined neighborhoods like Logan, Olney. LaSalle is not in North Philly- just ask the residents!
NP certainly is revitalizing where it has strong connections to Center City, and to major institutions (Temple, Girard College, the Prep), lifestyle advantages ( Fairmount Park, the Schuylkill River, proximity to East Falls, Fairmount, Northern Libs), and good transportation connections. But the hundreds of blocks in between Broad and 33rd on the one side, and Broad and Frankford, more or less, will not all be swept up in a wave of revitalization-- it will continue to turn around based on the connections.

2 other huge issues are vacant property acquisiton, where you have block after block of abandoned property, or property with no clear chain of title/ ownership. First,you have got to use some tools like eminent domain to deal with some of these areas, and that is very unpopular, very expensive, and takes a long time. Second, you have a lot of brownfields in industrial areas that present a huge challenge economically.

I think it would be a great step to establish some new corridors that would help make these connections stronger. One idea-- use abandoned freight rail corridors as greenways/ bike ways- yeah, long-term vision, but it would work to connect places like eastern NP to the rDelaware- look at the huge rail infrastructure through this area and the connection from Front and Lehigh right to the Delaware.