...the area has seen better days but with LaSalle's expansion (actually i just turned down a job there) it might get a little bit better. LaSalle has been doing the "Penn approach" or the "Temple method" and promoting students reviving the surrounding areas.

I know that I use Fishtown and Kensington interchangeably, but Kensington was always white until the PR's came aruond the 70's and 80's, settling on 5th to Front, with Front as the imaginary line separating Hispanics and whites (it's still like that!!!). Now hispanics make up a considerable amount of the Kensington population.

I still believe that Frankford is a better hood than Kensington, IMO (housing stock, diversity, shopping), although it's has recently fallen on bad times, as well as Olney, and even Summerdale. SW is actually better than West Philly, if you want to get into the crime rates.

Haha, is there going to be a surprise candidate running on the dixiecrat ticket this year? This is at least the second thread with your omenous and anachronistic race baiting. We are now all forewarned of the bleak and desperate precincts of the negro race that threaten the humble bousom of Philadelphia's gentler cultures. Thank you for recounting that old chestnut.


The area around LaSalle is actually much more stable than most of the areas of North Philly to the south, and (IMO) Olney. Its still got issues with crime and Ogontz gets shady at night. LaSalle looks to be in the business of expanding lately, which will probably spillover into that area eventually
http://www.kyw1060.com/content_page....ntentId=533532

They should definitely launch an employee homeownership incentive program as the colleges in UC have done, with Temple to follow suit shortly. If Temple thinks they can move profs and staffers into lower North Phil, than LaSalle could certainly move a few into that area. Fisher Lane west of Broad is another gem that is very well situated in relation to the campus, nice architecture and streets, and a surprising level of seclusion. Not much going on now, but who knows?

I heard that LaSalle is building a shopping center which is going to have a Fresh Grocer. It seems like a Fresh Grocer is this year's gotta-have accessory for an up-and-coming university neighborhood. 40th & Walnut, Broad & Cecil B. Moore, and now one at LaSalle. Now all we need is one at Henry Ave & School House Lane, 54th & City Line, 31st and Market, 45th & Woodland, & 10th and Chestnut, and we'll have a complete set.

the shopping center is to start construction this summer, and it too have a starbucks, blockbuster and bank as well.

Negro neighborhood? You mean the coloreds have moved in? Good Lord what are we to do? There goes the neighborhood!

Starbucks! Great! Just what another working class neighborhood needs, a 5 buck a cup coffee joint!

Oh, and more excitingly, the shopping center will have a large, asphalt parking lot that won't fit in with anything in the surrounding area. Ooh, and the back of the stores will turn a cold, blank shoulder on the neighboring houses and attract vandalism! yes!

They know the neighborhood isn't civically organized, and that people are desperate for a good market, so why bother designing something compatible with a community that often doesn't drive because they DON'T EVEN HAVE A CAR!?

While LaSalle is "saving" the Wister area with their shined up version of a 1950's shopping prototype, they can get busy working up a plan to finally revive Broad and Olney. The amount of lost potential at that intersection churns the stomach. City's second busiest transit station, all income groups, cultural groups, needs passing through it all day, tons of visibility, major hospital, a university and two well-established viable high schools within steps and it looks like a dump down there. It is one of the least-discussed, but glaringly visible signs of a lack of effective, efficient, and formidable city level planning in PHiladelphia. If the private market doesn't think of a way to make a buck on a site in Philadelphia, it's in oblivion indefinitely.

If you give municipal planners the freedom to be creative and get a mayor in City Hall with a brain and vision, places like Broad and Olney could change precipitously in a shorter time than any of us could imagine. If you couple this with the alread established system of involving private developers in pushing plans ahead, then things really could move along.