I just saw this on craigslist.com and thought it was a great idea.

This guy is trying to get a bunch of young people to buy a block of rowhomes in Baltimore. This could be a great idea for Philadelphia as well.

http://members.aol.com/belmont111/neighbor.html

eddie

Certainly an interesting idea! What areas would you look to start with?

This is beyond an interesting idea, its great! The biggest problem is where they are looking to move, but it shows the beauty of the web at being able to bring people with a common interest together.

I don't know how many people here would want to buy a block in north philly though. Even if your block is good, and in Philly living on a good block can be big, you still have issues with the other, non-desirables coming through.

The local government should be giving these folks a hand up, to help them develop this program, and to feel safe in their neighborhood. Safety is the big thing, no one wants to go into a location where they may have to question their safety.

Are there parts of fishtown that may have numerous old, possibly boarded up houses? Fishtown is kind of on the outskirts of the very popular Northern Liberties.

The idea is great, finding these "pioneers" is the next hurdle. I mean he's talking about buying houses for 5000-10,000 bucks, that's got to be a pretty bad area.

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i'd say west philly on the outskirts of univ city would be a good area. you are sandwiched between univ city and the not-so-bad suburbs where there are a lot of jobs. Plus the whole trolley deal and the housing is nice. North Philly doesn't really have any "up-and-coming areas" as far as i know. I'd be interested in living on ridge across the street from the park if i knew I weren't the only one and got some police presence in the area.

How big of a role does established police presence play in an area that is up an coming?

I know in manayunk, the closer you live to main street the more police you see. I think that when the city is trying to promote "up and coming" areas having an increased police presence is essential. I would say one of the largest objections ot moving into the city (regardless of the area) is safety.

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Would residents be willing to pay for that?

You can't really put a price tag on the feeling of being safe.

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Here's another idea - you want to cleanup the city block by block, then create a neighborhood group with real teeth - incorporate a 'block owner's association'

After you have bought the block, how do you run it?
After you get the block, you want to keep tighter control over it, so direct 'mini government' like a homeowners association-you see in the suburbs, or a condo association you see in the city would be a good idea.
What's nice is that it does give neighbors control over small problems, before they escalate into big problems.

What's also nice is that gives people economies of scale -
you can hire somebody to cut all the lawns in the neighborhood at once, do small maintance, and sweep the curbs. You also have 20 or 30 different homeowners who basically unite, just like a union of carpenters, plumbers, electricians- and buy service contracts in bulk-

I have to applaud the idea of coordinating purchase power of twenty or thirty individuals - it has historically worked as a banking system for newly arrived minoritites - ex korean shop keepers, the italian shop keepers before them, and irish before them. Interesting how everything old is new again. I believe that, initially, most of the rowhomes were built and sold as blocks of housing for workers, initially they would have been owned by a single landlord who collected rent, and hired somebody as a supre to live and work in one home, as a custodian, repairman, rent collector.

To do this now, you have to get everyone on the block to sign on when they buy, and you'd have to record something saying which homes were incorporated in the blockowner's association, but then you could enforce aestetic standards without calling the police and without going to court.
Everyone gives up some independant control, but gets back a pledge from the other neighbors that they'll keep the block up also. When something is broken, or wrong, the blockowners association has small powers, but real powers to fix things. You can enforce the standards withou L&I, so require maintence, force cleanup of the trash strewn lot, act before things become a health hazard.

Hal

my parents are in one and it's benefits are mixed. it works just like a "mini-government' and over the years gets filled with people running it who think themselves smarter than they are. in their development colored christmas lights are banned, so are bushes higher than their fence. fees rise as ideas for services increase. a while ago the president had his area of the townhouse development worked on. he had trees removed that had been there for only five years b/c he didn;t like them though most of the rest of us though the replacement bushes looked worse. if this is something you are interested, i couldn;t stree it enough to keep it small. the bigger it is the smaller your voice and the greater the chance it will become corrupted. the city structure itself (being big) isn't outdated so much as it was never very useful. it's aprt of the reason for the city's decay. there isn't a need, per se, to break it up but certainly a lot of its functions should be given back to the neighborhoods. center city is the most important district. a thriving center city will attrat new residents who may discover that they love philly and eventually settle in a neighborhood. center city is what wil attract young people to the city. center city is the economic engine. aside from that, no one neighborhood will be the engine.

I agree, this is a tremendous benefit.

As for having a thriving center city, while I agree that is important for many people, it isn't always the case. I moved to manayunk b/c I really liked manayunk. The draw had less to do w/ center city and more to do w/ the neighborhood, in my case at least.

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