Yet to be filed.

http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vn.../426f118e8456f

Discrimination suit to target U. City District
Charges likely include failure to clean streets and offer security north of Spring Garden St.
By alanna kaufman
April 27, 2005


The Mantua Community Improvement Committee is planning to file a $10 million lawsuit against Penn, Drexel and the University City District by May 1, charging the three institutions with racial discrimination.
MCIC -- a local group seeking to revitalize the community located slightly north of campus -- says that the UCD fails to provide street-cleaning and security services north of Spring Garden Street and that this lack of care is a response to the racial composition of the area.

Penn and Drexel will be sued as well because they are the UCD's principal financial supporters, MCIC Executive Director Rick Young said.

Penn's General Counsel Wendy White said the University has not received official notification of a lawsuit, so she cannot say how officials will respond to such allegations.

"I have not seen a copy of the complaint," White said.

She added, however, that Penn is currently "not aware of any basis for a lawsuit."

Drexel's Vice President for Government and Community Relations Brian Keech also refused to comment on the pending lawsuit.

Young said that though the UCD has assumed responsibility for the blocks from 31st and Spring Garden streets to Lancaster and Spring Garden, it neglects to put funds there.

He said the heavy concentration of black residents north of Spring Garden Street indicates that race is the motivation behind the neglect.

"It just makes it seem very, very racist that Spring Garden Street is becoming a modern-day Jim Crow boundary," Young said.

"Under the 14th Amendment, any organization that acts like a government organization -- like by cleaning the streets -- is not allowed to discriminate," he added.

Young said that with the large number of Drexel students moving into the Mantua community, he would expect that the institutions would show more interest in maintaining the cleanliness of the area.

However, he said that a drive to support the neighborhood simply does not exist.

"After a close-minded meeting between the UCD, Drexel and Penn, it doesn't seem likely that they want to resolve the situation," Young said.

Young said he hopes the lawsuit will provide MCIC with money to clean the streets in the community and hire safety ambassadors, since the UCD is unwilling to do so.

He said that there is a "100 percent chance" that MCIC will sue.

I find this:

very interesting.

More and more in Philadelphia, private or non-governmental entities are picking up where the City is no longer willing to help. There are lots of places in the city that are kept clean or nice not because the City does anything, but because various organizations have volunteered to do so. I think of Philly Green and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in general - the Azalea Garden, the plantings in front of Eastern State Penitentiary, the median of Spring Garden St., and countless other places.

Does this mean that these organizations are "acting like government," and if so, does it mean they are held to the same standards as governmental agencies? Mind you, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, though I do think there's something a little peculiar about demanding that a private not-for-profit organization provide you with services because your municipal government can't or won't anymore.

Well I still wonder about the wisdom of this lawsuit. A lot more of Penn and Drexel students live in Manayunk and Center City than do live in Mantua despite the physical proximity. Are these areas going to sue the UCD for street cleaning services also? I suspect that at the meeting with UCD, the UCD said "you want to expand the borders of the services we provide, well kick down some money to pay for them". The UCD is after all a volluntary business services district supported by volluntary donations (albeit Penn and Drexel aare the biggest "vollunteers"). I can't see this lawsuit getting any traction whatsoever. it is pretty clearly an example of the MCIC going after the nearest big pockets, regardless of valid legal basis.

The MCIC is going to have a hard time explaining the UCD's supposed racial bias based on their involvement in West Powelton, Cedar Park, Garden Courts, and Walnut Hill plus its a private, non-government organization. I think this is an insincere strong arm bargaining tactic by MCIC and I suspect they will end up with egg on their faces.

Plus at the rate that the courts go (and at the right that NTI is going in Mantua) Mantua just north of Spring Garden might be full of new condos full of white folks before this suit actualy has its day in court.

What a completely asinine thing to do...Charles Houston must be spinning in his grave.

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That is an interesting argument...but I would be surprised if this even went to court.

It doesn't take acting like a government to be a state actor for 14th Amendment purposes. It takes being like a government. For instance, a company town that is wholly owned by some corporation but has houses and commercial areas is deemed a state actor because it is sufficiently like a municipality.

Even if by some stretch of the imagination UCD, Penn, or Drexel were state actors for 14th Amendment purposes, I don't see how their choice of boundaries can be considered discriminatory. UCD's got to stop somewhere, doesn't it? If it included Mantua, would it have to include Belmont? And continue northward?

This reeks of B.S.

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The Good Reverend

That's garbage. That guy Young is either interpreting the law for himself or has hired a Cracker Jack box JD to do it for him. It is simply not the case that any entity acting like the government is held to the standards as the government. If so, then I guess street watch programs are to be held to the same standards as the government. That said, it is quite obvious MCIC did not have professional help in creating this ludicruous suti since no lawyer would have allowed Young to talk like that sounding like some deranged guy with a chip on his shoulder and speaking with bad grammer. The lawyer would have said it him/herself.

Although obviously frivolous, I'm sure, this being Philly, some judge will allow this case to be heard and not thrown out.

I can't find much of anything onlone about this MCIC, except that they were starting their own special services district back in 2003.

Unfortunately google can't find the UC Review article itself online. So what happened to this previous effort by MCIC?

My guess would be there's no real suit in the works and this is just a lot of huffing and puffing.

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Jayfar
--
“I am indeed well aware of the history of Conventional (sic) Hall, both globally and locally, and can assure you that we are carefully exploring avenues for its future.” -- Penn President Amy Gutmann 5 days before demolition began.

I lost total respect for MCIC. So they don't have the wherewithall to raise money to do what they want to do so they in turn attack a neighboring district to extort money from them? True Philly!

So what's next? Will the Fairmount CDC sue the Center City District because the CCD has "redlined" their neighborhood.

What's worse is that gasbag of a spokesman MCIC has can't even get his b.s. legal arguments right and can't even speak without muddling his words.

A report of the lawsuit appeared in Drexel's student newspaper, "The Triangle". MCIC is essentially claiming racism.

Full text found at http://www.thetriangle.org/news/2005...e-944280.shtml

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