As anticipated, property values soared, rising nearly 250 percent during the 1960s. In particular, the western stretch of this arearebranded as Graduate Hospitalsaw a dramatic influx of young, white, well-off residents, drawn by its proximity to tony Rittenhouse Square and easy accessibility to the University of Pennsylvania. Both Alexander and Johnson attest that constant meetings and forcing the owner to extend the HUD contract multiple times has been stressful on the residents. Residential gentrification soon followed the growth in commercial activity. This suggests that some 8% of Philadelphia's gun violence can be attributed to gentrification destabilizing the city's illicit drug markets. The apartments were inexpensive for residents but they only provided basic housing and residents complained that the Housing Authority was not responsive to maintenance issues. In the ensuing decades, Society Hill became a touchstone for supporters and detractors of gentrification. Specifically, in the case of the UC Townhomes, the struggle exposes the purported and well-defended right of members of an elite property-owning class to make exorbitant profits (some have estimated a sale price of $100 million) from the sale of units that have stood as subsidized housing for 40 years. He was awarded a scholarship and continued his study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, later finding work in Flint, Michigan, before returning to Philadelphia and becoming director of the housing association. Its stated aim was to make Penn reasonable, alive, and healthy once again. Business owners opened smaller boutiques, restaurants, and bars that catered to youthful adults who preferred to live within walking distance of dining and other diversions. He . An average row house costing $7,400 in the 1960s sold for over twenty times that amount in 1990. The gentrification of Queen Village and Society Hill were exceptions in a region that continued to suffer the effects of deindustrialization and decline. Yet by the turn of the twenty-first century, things were changing rapidly in DuBois Seventh Ward. 1. About 75 people took part in the event, held four days before a critical vote at a Zoning Board of Adjustments hearing. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - On Sept. 29, just minutes into freshman convocation, Liz Magill's first major speech as University of Pennsylvania president was disrupted by about 100 protesters. One example was Fishtown, an enclave of working-class whites bordering Northern Liberties. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Philadelphiaunder the aegis of City Planning Commission Executive Director Edmund Bacon (1910-2005)attempted to reimagine and revive Center City as an attractive residential zone. Penns status as the largest employer in Philadelphia, its large endowment and the socioeconomic position of its students and staff complicates its existence in West Philadelphia. How do students pop this proverbial bubble? Census data, when adjusted for inflation, indicates a massive jump in Philadelphia property valuesan average increase 213% since 2000. Empty buildings and older housing with little government or private investor support led to declining populations and social institutions throughout industrial neighborhoods. But, Dr. Palmer says, the people went everywhere. While it increases the value of the neighborhoods and, at times, improves the quality of the neighborhoods, gentrification forces current residents, who are typically low-income minorities, to either try to keep up with the rising prices and . The rapid influx of wealthier homebuyers triggered alarming demographic changes. Gentrification is the opposite of white flight when residents voluntarily move away as a neighborhood declines. The Dock Street Market, the citys principal food market since the late eighteenth century, was razed to make way for three I.M. They also converted spacious industrial spaces into arts and music venues. Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel started on a pattern of development that first displaced residents of the Black Bottom. Southwark, located just south of Society Hill, was transformed into a middle-class district by the efforts of individual homesteaders and, later, real estate developers. Longtime residents complained about loud parties and unkempt rental properties. For the city and real estate developers, it served as a hopeful model for neighborhood revitalization. In a few short years, the once-conservative immigrant neighborhood had become a hotbed of hip nightlife. That said, the research request raised ethical red flags for some including Councilmember. 2. In the nineteenth century, West Philadelphia transformed from a countryside of family farms and "gentlemen's" estates to a set of residential communities. (The late stage, at least for San Francisco, with its affordable housing crisis, isn't so desirable . The students have been moved into a new building at 4901 Chestnut. These arrivistes chose to live inand work to renewa historic and diverse part of the city. This resurgence was fueled by a demographic upheaval which found baby boomers, new immigrants, and young college graduates choosing cities over suburbs. The area around Temple University in North Philadelphia also witnessed rapid changes. In 1970, the neighborhood had only 90 housing units; by 1990, it had 1,665. There have been spectacular moments, but also low points: While Johnson says he always believed it could be done, he acknowledged that in the beginning of July, it didnt seem like people were going to pay attention, but thats why there was the encampment.. As in Society Hill and Queen Village, the gentrification of Graduate Hospital triggered striking demographic changes. By mid-century, it had fallen into disrepair and infamyacquiring a sinister nickname, the Bloody Fifth Ward. Nevertheless, Bacon hoped that middle-class buyers would be tempted there by the promise of newly refurbished colonial-era row homes. At the same time, Greater Philadelphia enjoyed an influx of foreign immigration, which helped to repopulate neighborhoods in South and West Philadelphia. The worlds fair idea was scrapped and on the national level, individual celebrations across the country were encouraged. The black population in West Philly has decreased by 29% from 2000 to 2012. The overlay district sits in a West Philadelphia neighborhood that has been subject to gentrification. To many Philadelphians, neighborhood renewal represented the best hope for the citys revitalization. For the March episode of Philly Liberation Radio, co-hosts Adiah Hicks and Jasper Saah are joined by Talia Giles, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and member of West Philly Neighbors for Healthy Community . NewMarket had entrances on Front and Second Streets, leading to a large courtyard, a central fountain, and the entrances to many of the shops. For the first of three mapping layers, the city's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) used . More by Jared Ware. Housing prices soared even more quickly than they had in Queen Village. Factors that had once driven people away from citiestheir density, their older housing stock, the presence of ethnic and racial minoritiesnow drew them back to the urban core. He recalls that, before much of the neighborhood was displaced, there were around 5,000 residents who cared about each other. Many of the Bottoms residents have gathered for a reunion in Fairmount Park every year since the mid1970s. Each of the next five decennial censuses (1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010) would show the steadily increasing, dominant share of West Philadelphia's population represented by blacks. West Philly neighborhood, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), 19139, 19143 detailed profile The month-long encampment in the Townhomes courtyard by residents and supporters was one of the watershed moments in the fight. The disruptions of convocation and the BIA meeting and Bishop Barbers gathering all led to a response from a university representative deflecting and downplaying Penns involvement in the sale. The social boundaries that were most clear to us were evident in the areas past 48th, as prior to this crossroad the district was conspicuously opulent. Residents resisted these displacement efforts as well, although ultimately the universitiesPenn, Drexel, and University of the Sciences, which is now part of Saint Josephs Universitywon out with the federal governments backing, and thousands of Black residents were dispersed to other parts of the city. The gentrification of University City, or "Penntrification," forces Philadelphia's already vulnerable Black population out of their homes and brings white families and students into their former neighborhoods. Many were put off by their new neighbors perceived unfriendliness or condescension. As of 2010, the neighborhood is majority-white for the first time since 1970, a stunning reversal . A 2014 study by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve neighborhood change also cites an approximately 20% drop in affordable housing in Philadelphia from 20002014. A neighborhood group in Philadelphia is asking opponents of a proposed apartment building to mail in poop samples as part of a study on how gentrification impacts cancer rates. By the 20th century, Penn had established itself as the most wellendowed entity in West Philadelphia and maintained an uneasy symbiosis with the community. Universities and hospitals, which could not move their operations out of the city, fueled this growth. Penn, USciences, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital, and Drexel formed the West Philadelphia Corporation (WPC) in 1959 and began to condemn buildings across Black Bottom. By the late 1960s, middle-class newcomers joined their fight. Architect I.M. West Philadelphia's population shifted from majority-white to majority-black between 1950 and 1960. Adams, Carolyn et al. But neither was it entirely unwelcome. It garnered media attention, brought the community into the fight, and helped residents build greater connection with activists, students, and organized labor in the city. Some residents burned trash inside their apartments for heat, or left it inside broken elevator shafts or outside the apartment buildings. This building became a commercial property in the 1980s and later a pharmacy for Society Hill residents. National faith leader Bishop William J. Barber II led an interfaith rally at the Townhomes days later, offering to move into the Townhomes to put more pressure on the owner and the city if necessary. In doing so, it prompted the mass displacement of the neighborhoods poorer residents. . West Philadelphia's total population was 301,830, with blacks numbering 158,176; whites, 142,368. Study: Philly's gentrifying neighborhoods are resegregating. Alexander also describes the struggle, and the encampment specifically, as having generated more unity, even providing space for the children in the Townhomes to have a movie night outside, paint, dance, learn to skateboard, and become more directly involved in defending the Townhomes. ofGreaterPhiladelphia. Homesteaders and developers were encouraged to renovate the neighborhoods row houses themselves. After those initial displacements, the UC Townhomes were built on real estate that at the time was not desirable to middle and upper-class white residents. But for many students residing in the Penn Bubble, community issues take a backseat. Many hundreds of enterprising individuals did just that. And no one can question the rapidity with which its occurring. Their city had just bombed its own people. This image from 1914 shows the Fish Market building, an enclosed warehouse that sold fresh fish from dozens of merchants. The name University City is the result of a University of Pennsylvania-supported marketing campaign. Green Gentrification in South Philly. We had a lot of senior citizens and a lot of people with disabilities who just dont have anybody to advocate for them, said Alexander. What sets gentrification in Philadelphia apart is that the effected neighborhoods aren't always black. For years, the extant Black, Polish, and Jewish communities had mobilized to thwart the plan. Ira Goldstein, a lecturer in Penns Urban Studies department and the president of Policy Solutions for the Reinvestment Fund, teaches a course on gentrification. Queen Villages heyday of diversity and cooperation proved to be short-lived, however. On . In the 2010s, Philadelphia began experimenting with measures designed to stem gentrifications worst effects. The protesters, including students, chanted "Save UC Townhomes" and "stop Penn-trification." TL;DR a "queer-friendly" inclusive coffee shop in West Philly is being destroyed by its ultra woke queer BIPOC employees. Thats typical for a gentrifying city. Its one of the few places where folks who are on public housing vouchers can still access things like public transportation, a public library, medical care, markets, local stores, and other essential amenities with relative ease, said Davids. Black Citymakers: How The Philadelphia Negro Changed Urban America. Ella Comberg, a longtime West Philadelphia resident, describes the university as a kind of silent but huge presence in [her] life.. The area of the Dock Street Market in Society Hill was a place of commerce for more than two centuries before it was demolished in 1959 to allow construction of the residential Society Hill Towers. As Philadelphias population rose for the first time since World War II, an increasing number of neighborhoods outside of Center City began to experience a revival. Sandy Smith You didn't ask this, but because of this, the upside potential right now is greater in North Philadelphia. What good are HBCUs if they mirror the anti-Blackness of the US? In effect, Penn undermined its own efforts to serve its proximate community, by replacing residents with more of their own. From blocked off construction sites to high-rises and medical centers towering over generations-old brownstones, gentrification can be seen everywhere. Students started another encampment at Penn, demanding the university divest from fossil fuels, stop the eviction of Townhomes residents, and make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS) to the school district. At the peak of the housing bubble in 2008, the 19140 ZIP Code, which contains roughly Hunting Park and Nicetown-Tioga . Residents say Magill has ducked meeting requests for months. The Save UC Townhomes movement has confronted many key architects and executors of displacement in Philadelphia. 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