Historic Church Saved!

Great news from PlanPhilly on the Church of the Assumption on Spring Garden. L&I has unanimously voted to stop plans to demolish the historic site. 

In more good news on Spring Garden's landmark, The Clay Studio has emerged as a "very serious buyer".

I find it ironic that the Philadelphia Historical Commission granted Siloam permission to demolish the church to build a parking lot while the Board of Licenses and Inspection - typically harbingers of the wrecking ball - favored the appeal of the Callowhill Neighborhood Association. 

Would the PHC - charged with preserving Philadelphia's historic catalog - have voted in favor of the CNA if the neighborhood group had spoken up sooner, or is the PHC simply not doing its job?

I'll Keep the Crown Vic

Not long ago New York City replaced its iconic fleet of Checker Marathon taxi cabs with standard, American sedans. Sacrificing a back seat built for six, the Crown Victorias were still branded in classic cab yellow.

Mayor Bloomberg recently announced the release of a new icon, and that New York City's fleet of more than 13,000 taxis will be replaced with...a Nissan minivan? Beating out bids by Ford and Karsan, the Japanese auto maker will be making the minivans in Mexico and branding them in New York.

While the roomy vans will accommodate five passengers, the choice says a lot about a top American city's opinion of its own auto industry.

True, if Bloomberg went with Ford they would have been built oversees, but couldn't they find more than three options? I mean certainly if the Turkish made Karsan was a contender, where were Chevrolet and Chrysler? London's Hackney Carriage still wears the British Austin brand, and the UK's auto industry has a worse reputation than ours'?

New York has money. With a dedicated fleet of 13,200 and growing, all requiring maintenance and upgrades, how about starting an independent auto company dedicated to cab development and rebuilding one of the region's struggling post industrial towns?

As gas prices skyrocket and less and less people purchase cars across the country, there's a market for this. The Nissan is a cheap and shortsighted option that sends needed money overseas.

Bring back the Checker. It's a cab, it doesn't need to be aerodynamic. Stream line it, make it fuel efficient and safe, and distribute it across the nation, creating jobs here.

Terraforming a Neighborhood

I've never spent much time in Northern Liberties, and my loathsome anxiety towards hipsters aside, after an evening in this unexpectedly dynamic neighborhood, I have to wonder, why? It doesn't make conventional sense. Sure, it's moderately convenient to transportation, but how did this neighborhood bound by I-95, urban blight, and the Spring Garden canyon come to rival areas that directly border Center City?

It's clear that urban newbies, artists, and starter families seeking a hip city lifestyle and low rent drove the Northern Liberties craze. Sex and the City can be praised for putting cafes on our sidewalks, and abhorred for putting the obnoxious skanks in the chairs, but this trend was carried across the nation. What's unique about Philadelphia, and Northern Liberties, is that a neighborhood at arm's length from our core, was not completely paired with successful infill in between.


Similar unexpected phenomena occurred in Graduate Hospital, Passyunk Square, and Fishtown. While young couples bought starter homes in blighted neighborhoods, opened up boutiques, pubs, and coffee shops, South Broad Street, Spring Garden Avenue, and the Loft District remain desolate, littered with surface lots, and largely abandoned.


Northern Liberties is overflowing with art studios and massive loft apartments, successfully leased as far as Cecil B. Moore Avenue, while Callowhill, within spitting distance of City Hall, sits on a half dozen underutilized or completely vacant warehouses with million dollar views. Prohibition Tap Room on 13th Street gets a great neighborhood crowd. Cafe Lift is packed for brunch. But where is the competition? Why doesn't 13th Street look like 2nd Street in Northern Liberties or Passyunk Avenue?

A number of variables have caused the splotchy development. As much as I want to think we're on par with New York and Chicago, we're not. We enjoyed moderate success from the condo bubble. Unfortunately the Callowhill's close proximity to Center City is also its crutch. Property owners are willing to sit and wait for another wave of prosperity, and with no land usage tax, the Heid Building and Divine Lorraine are allowed to sit vacant. Instead of developing prime locations like Broad and Washington with affordable apartments that attract the kind of business we see in Graduate Hospital, they sit unused.

The pot addled Reading Viaduct vision may be gaining legitimate traction. While realistic funding is still a mystery, 6 ABC has given it mainstream publicity. As it is, the rusted carcass that weaves its way through a series of surface parking lots and Bubonic meadows in Callowhill's Loft District does little more than inspire dreamers. But as a park, could it attract the kind of money Callowhill needs to be the first class neighborhood it should be?

It's hard to rationalize spending money on a park that would require the kind of maintenance needed by an elevated park. Similar parks in other cities are too new to really see how well it works. And Callowhill isn't SoHo. Its warehouses and row homes are surrounded by parking lots and vacant land that could themselves make potential parks that require little upkeep beyond community interaction and a lawnmower. The Reading Viaduct is a structure, and the city has a difficult time maintaining the structures we need and the parks that have nothing below them but dirt and bodies. Can Callowhill generate enough tax revenue to maintain another potential money pit?

Demolishing it would cost more than $30 million. A decision needs to be made. Tear it down or find dedicated funding to convert and maintain the white elephant. I would love to see Philadelphia become home to such a unique innovation. In fact, if the Convention Center attracts additional development south of Vine Street, it could even become a destination attraction.

With mayoral attention on the project, however idealistic, a Reading Viaduct park will at least receive the research needed to validate its potential success, or confirm the ugly prospect that some urban artifacts just can't be reused. One way or another, the Reading Viaduct's campaign is helping attract attention to a neighborhood that should be far more successful than it is. With or without the Reading Viaduct, its presence is bringing people north of Callowhill. Maybe some of them will stick around and signal business owners to the neighborhood's potential.

If only Broad and Washington had an industrial relic to attract a debate to tackle its surface lots and suburban fast food joints. Oh wait, it does. And it would make a great farmer's market.

Something to Vote For

Garages and surface lots throughout the city have been running a campaign that blames the high cost of parking on a 20% tax, asking voters to vote to lower it to 15%. These cretins have even created a Facebook page dedicated to their "plight". 

Don't be fooled. If anyone believes the price of parking will go down if taxes do, you're wrong. Surface lots in particular, have nearly no overhead. This means that after taxes your parking fee is nearly 100% profit.

Several garages throughout Center City charge as little as $5 a day. Lots that charge as much as $25 a day don't do so because they have to, they do so because you're willing to pay. 20% is a tax break compared to most major cities.

Lowering corporate taxes only means more profit. It means nothing to the consumer and never has. The only way to lower the cost of parking is to utilize our public transportation, convenient taxis, or to be a savvy consumer and seek out the competition.

Giving these slumlords a tax break will only encourage them to pave over more of Philadelphia until there's no reason left to park here. Ever been to downtown Houston? Do you really want to encourage more of this?

Ridic Listing of the Month - May

Real estate agents toss around a lot of terms, make up terms, and try to re-brand neighborhoods to make them sound less sinister. Ever heard of the Devil's Pocket? Maybe. But you've definitely heard of Graduate Hospital, even though the boundaries of the neighborhood have far exceeded the reach of the hospital itself.

Sometimes a twin and a duplex are the same thing, sometimes a triplex is a three story house even if it's a single unit. One of my favorite misnomers is when a row home is listed as a "detached house" simply because it's the only house left standing on a block of vacant lots.

This month's overrated listing comes from Old City. Although the neighborhood's inflated ego is finally succumbing to the pressures of the new economy, condo owners desperate to cover their mortgage are still seeking clueless New York transplants, hoping to catch them before they realize what's available in Callowhill or Northern Liberties for a fraction of the cost.

Old City's Wireworks Building might be home to the world's first microloft. The Philly Apartment Company is trying to unload this 460 square foot studio at 3rd and Race for almost $1100 a month. That's about the size of your first dorm room. 

In what world is that a loft, and in what universe should the word loft be paired with micro?

It's partially furnished, which means the last tenant didn't want to keep their crappy furniture, and the owner didn't want to move it. 

But it gives the studio, I mean microloft, the one element that allows the agent to list it as a loft, however micro. To make it feel even more like that first dorm room, a "loft", which is simply a bunk bed without a lower bunk, was left behind as well. 

$1095 MicroLoft space w/ HW flrs, seperate kit @ WireWorks (Old City)

Star Renames Historic PA Town, at What Price?

Morgan Spurlock, the sarcastic documentarian behind Supersize Me, has arranged to have Altoona, PA renamed "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" for 60 days, named for his latest tongue in cheek documentary.

While making the point that everything in America has a price, targeting a struggling town of 31,000 with big money and Hollywood fame might say more about the film maker than it does about America's willingness to sell out.

New York and Los Angeles are the country's greatest harbingers of capitalism. Washington, DC is globally synonymous with anxiety. Had a member of America's trifecta of internaional PR leased their brand to Spurlock for two months, his message might be more justified.

But Altoona?

The Smithsonian has never been branded. Many of Philadelphia's museums have corporate sponsors responsible for their survival, and in return ask for little more than a brass plaque. City planners have been struggling to transform our Market East corridor, and advertising has emerged as a dynamic solution.

In a nation on the verge of bankruptcy, should we really turn our noses to coroprations offering to save zoos, libraries, and schools? It's not a new concept. Wrigley Field?

While the movie hasn't made its way to PA yet, Spurlock's message remains unclear. What is clear is that his choice to bribe Altoona is opportunistic, even predatory. It's a cheap shot. While Altoona and its residents have every right to oppose the town's decision, Spurolck is using the system he's complaining about to do what the system is designed for: to make money.

Turn on Those Lights

The nice weather is bringing out the tourists and just as I passed 12th and Market, what were they taking pictures of? Not Market East's "quaint Colonialism", but the Hard Rock guitar and the news feed outside Loews. 

History is our brand? Not everywhere, SCRUB. Tourists like shiny things. As soon as we stop struggling to convince Nebraskans that they have to appreciate our cobblestone streets and Steven Starr restaurants, the sooner we can just give them what they want: "authentic" Italian from Sbarro and $20 plastic busts of Benjamin Franklin.

We burden ourselves with the labor of insisting - even dictating - the tourist experience. The sad reality is most tourists don't care. And they're not going to care. You can't educate a revolving population of individuals that spend three days here once in their life. Try to do that and you'll make yourself crazy. Try to do that and you'll find yourself fighting to preserve the "historic brand" of Market East.

Most tourists want to see what they see in pictures and have dinner at a familiar restaurant. You're average tourist doesn't want an adventure, they want convenience. It's true we have a great restaurant scene, and the Foodies that come here know that. But they know exactly where to go and they have fun finding it.

Instead of shoving gourmet food down the throats of families from Phoenix who wouldn't know the difference between Olive Garden and Vitri, reserve it for those who appreciate it along the quaint cobblestone streets of Society Hill.

There is no shortage of opportunity for authenticity in Center City. Look around. Chestnut Street, Washington Square, and even Old City are home to plenty of vacant storefronts and undeveloped properties bound to become the next hot restaurant run by an Iron Chef.

Let Market East be what it is dying to be. Practical for us, bright and shiny for tourists, and a gold mine for the city. Given the excitement generated by that neon guitar, and then the dread as tourists turn to the east, I don't think SCRUB is going to win this one. It's just a matter of one of the Market East stakeholders making the first move and turning on the lights.