courtesy of http://www.phillypictures.com/
NORTH PHILLY NEWS:
Walking around the city Saturday took me to North Philadelphia where I observed the neighborhoods west of Temple. I walked down Diamond Street where many of the old Victorian homes are being renovated. Then I walked south and passed by the homes that are being renovated by Bon Jovi (which I can't help but call the "Bon Jovi homes") and the Honickman Learning Center. That area is a significant area of revitalization in one of the poorest areas of the city. Then I walked over to Brewerytown (the development that includes "Brewerytown Square") and saw that they have a big, huge sign that details the next phases of the development. It will definitely be huge! The big lot at Girard Ave. will have a mid-rise apartment building with big windows and retail at Girard extending back to Master St. North of Brewerytown Square (the stacked townhouses already built) will be more townhouses. There's already a chain-link fence there, which might mean that that is the next phase and they're ready to start soon. We'll see. Then, there are plans for townhouses across 31st Street with stone facades and a small brick apartment building at 31st & Master Streets. Also, several old breweries and factories at the north end of the site will be converted to lofts. It will be an impressive development when it's all done. The map can be found at http://www.westrum.com/ and there are signs at each site as well with pictures of each phase. And as I made my way to Trader Joe's, I passed by new townhouses under construction at 24th & Brown Streets. They're traditional looking townhouses in one of the only sites in Fairmount where there is room to build.
WEST PHILLY NEWS:
Here in West Philadelphia, I came home the other evening to see Mantua Hall on 36th Street in the distance lit up like it was on stage. I've known for a while that they are planning to implode it soon and start over with new affordable townhomes at the site and on surrounding blocks, but that surprised me so I walked over to it to investigate. It turns out that they lit it up with flood lights and put a chain-link fence around it as they begin to prepare it for demolition. They were even removing doors that were sitting on the balconies behind the metal grates. Yesterday, I read that the implosion will take place on Sunday, March 30th, which can be found on the city website http://www.phila.gov/pha. It will be quite a sight to see a building that tall coming down! After the rebuilding, Mantua will probably become a much more upscale neighborhood overnight, not just lower middle class but upper middle class as well (like Graduate Hospital). It has a perfect location, Powelton Village and the ever growing universities and Cira Center to the south, Fairmount Park and its new attractions to the north, the rebuilt neighborhoods of Belmont and Mill Creek to the west, and the Parkway and Schuylkill River Park to the east. As if that isn't enough, they're building a new park at 32nd & Powelton which has one of the greatest skyline views in the city, if not the country! Mantua always had potential to become one of the up and coming neighborhoods of the city, but the ill-conceived housing project of Mantua Hall held it back for some time. Now with the development of new, decent quality affordable housing in the neighborhood and development in every direction around it, Mantua will now be on the list of "hot" neighborhoods while still providing decent affordable housing in the catchment area of the School of the Future.
SOUTH PHILLY NEWS:
Speaking of attractive parks in up and coming neighborhoods, I was walking through Queen Village a couple of weekends ago and passed by Jefferson Square Park at 4th & Washington. While it looks nice from a distance, walking through it reveals that it needed some serious renovation, which apparently is now happening. The sidewalks running through it were being torn up in preparation for replacement. I don't know what materials they will be using to replace it (stone, brick, slate, or just concrete), but the replacement of the walkways will be a big improvement. That's another area where there's been serious redevelopment over the years including the Courtyard at Riverview, which replaced the old Southwark project (and I watched it being imploded in 2000), and the Jefferson Square homes built below Washington Ave. Those developments already remade that area, now with an improved Jefferson Square Park that neighborhood could be taken to a new level! It'll be exciting to see the changes.
DOWNTOWN NEWS:
Updating downtown development news, there are several new skyscrapers under construction including, of course, the Comcast Center, the Murano, and the Symphony House, which we've all seen. The Residences at the Ritz are up to the 30th floor & have some glass on them, Ten Rittenhouse is a couple of floors high, and 1706 Rittenhouse on 17th St. is building the underground garage. I had the opportunity to stop at the Brandywine Development office at Cira Center the other day and saw the model for Cira Center South. What a sight! It has two buildings, one about 25 stories on Chestnut St. and one almost 50 stories on Walnut St. The buildings are very sleek and beautiful. The model also shows the streetscape improvements that PennDot is planning to make to the area around 30th St., which includes trees, new lighting, and of course new sidewalks. I hope that they will also cover over the railroad tracks in front of Cira South. You can find a picture of Cira South at http://www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/. And Brandywine is also considering a Cira Two next to the existing building, but no announcements yet. These buildings will give West Philadelphia a new skyline and an improved economy.
CHESTER NEWS:
Even though this is "Philadelphiathrives.com", Chester is still part of our metro area (which is the real breadth of a city) and deserves mentioning here. As you may know, the state is contributing about $47M to help build a soccer stadium on the waterfront in a project that will include offices, apartments, a supermarket and other retail, and even a convention center. Many wonder if this will have much impact on the city, given that the developments on Camden's waterfront have done little to change that city so far. What many people don't realize, however, is that Chester is a much smaller city than Camden, just 40,000 residents or so and about two square miles. So in fact, most of that city lives within a mile of the waterfront. It seems likely that in the next ten years Chester will be a very different city, with more concern about affordable housing than day to day crime. And while some worry about "gentrification", I think this project will be great for those already living in Chester because it creates the opportunity to get out of poverty. You can't fight poverty if all you have is poverty. The stadium itself will be quite a landmark right next to the Commodore Barry Bridge and near I-95. Also, it won't be far from where they're about to build one of those movie studios, so I bet it will be seen in some movies and TV shows at some point.
That's all I have to say right now. I hope you enjoyed my first post for this blog. Feel free to comment or give me any info you have. Thanks!
Gabriel
The pictures at the top are courtesy of http://www.phillypictures.com/. Feel free to log on to them for great pictures of Philadelphia, available framed and as prints.
