Public Hearings Redevelopment 51st/Balt - Page 5 - PhillyBlog

brooke · #41 (**permalink**) 06-21-2005, 10:51 AM

Speaking as a realtor, you need not wait a few years to make these shells valuable or the land they sit on. There is absolutely no reason why this land should be given away to a church. It's ridiculous. Rowhouses in this neighborhood are going in the 300's...but of course they cannot be purchased from the city because the city hasn't offered them for sale. Furthermore, to take operating businesses through eminent domain is absurd. Why waste precious commercial space on Baltimore Avenue and not locate the school on an area off the beaten path, with less incidence kids will be leaving the school and walk into heavy traffic?

It's fuzzy logic as to why a CDC would be formed to redevelop ONE CITY BLOCK. The agenda here isn't very veiled.

seand · #42 (**permalink**) 08-12-2005, 11:57 PM

Based on the shinola i was fed after the City Counsel meeting by Dr. Benjamin Smallwood and Rev. Joseph Patterson of BARC, some one asked me if I was a meber of BARC so I guess I should clarify.

Every subsequent communication with Smallwood has been a long series of totally transparent "Can I call you back later" dodges. Last time he "accidentally" hung up on me when I got too much info out of him. I don't believe that BARC actually has a "board" - I think it simply consists of Rev. Patterson and the employees of MET, INC. - the "contractors" who this redvelopment project at least appears (who knows? - can anyone out there get a straight answer from Smallwood?) essentially to be a gift to.

I did come accross an old City Paper story about Rev. Patterson and what was one his principal projects during his tenure as the President of Philadelphia Black Clergy, during the Rendell Administration.

Quote:

An aggressive BCP grabbed headlines this summer. Led by Patterson, the clergy joined City Council President John Street and attacked Rendell for offering benefits to partners of gay and lesbian mayoral employees. (Patterson claimed Rendell's action could transform Philadelphia into "a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.") Whether the effort resonated with the publicis still a matter of debate. But the group expended a sizable amount of political capital. All over an issue which angered more congregants and gay church members than the handful of city employees it affected.

http://citypaper.net/articles/121296/article018.shtml

etymon · #43 (**permalink**) 08-15-2005, 12:01 AM

I ran across this wisdom from Jane Jacobs:

Quote:

There are only two ultimate public powers in shaping and running American cities: votes and control of the money. To sound nicer, we may call these "public opinion" and "disbursement of funds," but they are still votes and money. An effective district--and through its mediation, the street neighborhoods--possesses one of these powers: the power of votes. Through this, and this alone, can it effectively influence the power brought to bear on it, for good or for ill, by public money.

...The art of negating the power of votes with the power of money can be practiced just as effectively by honest public administrators as by dishonest representatives of purely private interests. Either way, seduction or subversion of the elected is easiest when the electorate is fragmented into ineffectual units of power.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Vintage, 1992) 131.