i feel you on the concern of turnover on main st. i have noticed it too. i just moved into the area from boston and felt as though manayunk "was all the rage". i love it here and want to see it continue to be a cool part of philly... i am also considering investing in a home here in the near future but get concerned when there is that kind of turnover.

nice to see other folks showing "a watchful eye". good sense of community!

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Mark J. De Rose
Ernest Goodlife Band
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www.ernestgoodlife.com
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It really isn't bad turnover ... the shops that do turnover are ones that couldn't adapt to a changing economy and consumer demands.

There is some really neat shops / bars / restaurants coming though. I'm looking forward to the Shaphire Lounge

No way!! When?

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www.taxgirl.com

Manayunk was the "in" place back in the mid-90's. Then the NIMBYs in the area (I've been criticized for using that word in other threads but I think the shoe fits in this instance) started complaining about the place being overly developed, overly crowded, etc. and put up a moratorium on new restaurants. That pretty much killed the area as all new stores opening up were furniture places, housewares stores, etc. That's all fine and good except for the fact that alot of these stores (Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Smith and Hawken) were also located in the malls where parking and access were much easier. Back when Manayunk had some of the hippest restaurants in the city, it was a special draw. The moratorium sort of killed alot of that uniqueness. In 2002 the moratorium was lifted (it was only to last 5 years and people generally considered a HUGE mistake) but Manayunk never really recovered. The hip scene had gone elsewhere and Manayunk was passed over. Now its very frat-boysy and suburban. Kansas City Prime (a once stylish restaurant) has given up the ghost and been replaced with Kildare's (a chain Irish pub). I think Manayunk's moratorium goes down with Chestnut Street's closure in the 1970's as a prime example of good intentions gone way bad. In many ways, I think the Center City height restrictions will prove themselves yet another example of this. A city should be allowed to grow organically and be the best that it can be. In many ways, the better areas of Philadelphia are overly managed to death (Manayunk and Chestnut Street in the 70's-90's are a prime example of this) even as the bad areas see little management at all. Call it a misappropriation of priorities. I know alot of these rules and laws were put up locally within the neighborhoods (and the ridiculous Manayunk moratorium was a local and not a city thing), but in general I'd say that instead of the city wasting its money closing down Chestnut Street (building the stupid transitway) and wasting its time enforcing height restrictions in Center City, it should pay more attention to areas where its attention is needed. Instead it sticks its nose into overly managing things that could do better on its own. I just remembered yet another example of this - Penn's Landing!

I couldn't agree more that the moratorium was a bad idea - it completely killed the momentum and positive "mojo" that Manayunk had going at the time. It also stopped a huge flow of cash into the area - just so some NIMBYs would be able to find a parking space quicker,

"Let's see, our streets are more crowded because of all the people driving into our town on Saturday night from Doylestown to spend money and support our businesses making it harder for ME to park when I want to go to the same restaurant. I have an idea let's make some new rules that will essentially keep the Doylestown crowd out of Manayunk so only I and my local friends can eat at KanPrime and park along Main Street easier."

Now, instead of restaurants like KanPrime, we have great stores like that one with all the fans in the window, (I think it is called Hi Fidelity), that sells real practical stuff like $650 framed prints and a couple of T-shirts with "hip" sayings on them. You know the sort of store you walk into ONCE out of curiosity then never go back.

[

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"Life's tough, and it's a lot tougher if you're stupid." My Dad

Well, that actually helped- diversify, so that the area didn't crash when restauranteurs followed Starr & Stein back into Old City...

Not quite - Manayunk rents rose so high that they began to chase out the restaurants, only restaurants which made a high % of their money from alcohol or really high end food had any chance...

Not quite- the unique shefs were lured over to Center City,
the rents went through the roof,
and now only the national chains can afford to be there.

Not quite- its was more bar-frat earlier - the big change is that the high
density rentals that fueled the cheap servers, waiters etc have since been converted to condos as the condo boom rolled through Manayunk,
and as people


Hal

THE MORATORIUM WAS INITIATED BY THE DEVELOPMENT CORP and included Dan Neducsin, owner of KC Prime!

Why do you guys just make up this stuff? How long have you been around? Geez, Why don't you actually try learning a thing or two before you mouth off? :cussing:

And excuse me for not wanting you to sh!t in my front yard! The nerve of these kids! :no_hitti:

Yeah, yunkster, you old NIMBY. Oh, or was that me.

These folks just don't realize that the moratorium was initiated by MDC, Neducsin and Derek Davis, etal.

I think some of these folks just want us all to move out after 5-10-15-25 years and give the city to the developers who will build tax free skyscrapers across the landscape.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

We do realize the history behind this. There had been grumblings about lack of parking and then the restaurant owners on Main Street joined the bandwagon (partly, I suspect, to squelch further competition) and it was then that the moratorium got passed. As far as the residents go, some of them are probably glad. However, with the restaurnt owners, the moratorium completely backfired in their faces. In fact, one of them came out saying that the moratorium was a big mistake and ended up killing business. Whether you guys agree if it was a mistake or not is another matter.

NIMBYism isn't just restricted to residents. Business owners can be NIMBYs too. As I said, the shoe fits. Neducsin and the others at MDC were NIMBYs and they got their just desserts when their businesses floundered. I had always suspected that their real ulterior motive was to squelch competition. They certainly did that but what they didn't realize is that by squelching competition you also squelch critical mass. Its too bad places like KC Prime had to close. However, now we have an example of what can happen when business owners get too greedy about excluding competition.

That's a slippery slope argument. Only a relative handful of major developments have been proposed in the city - hardly enough to make even a pinprick in this city of 1.5 million and 130-some square miles. And yet, in the debate in this forum, people take on each development as if that one project alone will start a long domino effect which would result in turning Philadelphia into some form of Phoenix. I think each project should be taken on its own terms and not analyzed in the context of a very hypotehtical unrealistic slippery slope. After all, Vietnam turning communist did not lead to a domino effect of all of the eastern hemisphere turning communist.