West Philadelphia

Figure 1: Northeastern University: a bea- lected part of Huntington Avenue. This con on the avenue connectivity, this re-creation of a vital and vigorous urban fabric, this celebration of a permeable and transparent and thus acces- sible face of a major University, all suggest The West a framework for the economic development of the area over the coming decade. Philadelphia Story That this was developed as a non-profit institution’s vigorous investment in its neighborhood in only seven years is remarkable, as is the sense that these buildings are leading to a turn-around of the economic fortunes of this important part of Boston. A university gets FOR MOST OF its history, the rooms partially protected by translucent University of Pennsylvania has been glass). Since the students study well into into the business of deeply engaged with urban issues. But the night, the building becomes a beacon only in the past decade has Penn applied neighborhood development. on the Avenue of the Arts. Specially its intellectual and financial resources to selected glass gives the building a shim- transform its own backyard. In revitaliz- mering quality during the day. For auto- ing West Philadelphia, the university mobile traffic heading inbound or out- has found its calling as an urban bound on the Avenue of the Arts, the sig- research university. It has assumed roles nature element of the building is a 15- and risks that no other university has feet-wide, 220-feet-high “sliver of glass” taken, demolishing walls that have kept facing east and west, another beacon that the university and its neighbors from emits light day and night. forging nourishing connections with The new, two-block-long face of one another. In the process, Penn has Northeastern not only connects the dis- created a model for urban universities parate neighborhoods, but also gives a desiring to be catalysts for neighbor- sense of excitement to a previously neg- JUDITH RODIN hood transformation. 30 ZELL/LURIE REAL ESTATE CENTER REVIEW 31 TOWN AND GOWN 1993. One in five residents lived below ings with seemingly little regard either could make discoveries that saved lives and the poverty level. Shops and businesses for what kinds of businesses were leasing drove the global economy, then surely we Jane Jacobs’ classic work on urban plan- were closing, and pedestrian traffic was its properties, or what impact they had had both the capacity and moral obliga- ning, The Death and Life of Great disappearing. Middle-class families were on the neighborhood’s quality of life. tion to use our intellectual might to American Cities (published in 1961), leaving, and empty houses were falling Some establishments were seedy and improve things at our doorstep. described the wreckage wrought by urban prey to abandonment and decay. The menacing. It seemed unlikely that a uni- In hindsight, it seems obvious that renewal, the demolished city neighbor- streets were littered with trash, and aban- versity so alienated from a deeply dis- Penn should have been involved in the hoods, sterile industrial parks and sky- doned homes and buildings were can- tressed neighborhood at its doorstep development of its neighborhood. At the scrapers, and surface parking lots. Jacobs vasses for graffiti artists and business would continue to grow and prosper. time, however, neither my job description argued that healthy cities drew their eco- addresses for drug dealers. The public This was the fundamental problem nor my charge from the trustees included nomic and social vitality from what she schools were in especially bad shape, that the university faced in 1994, when I investing large amounts of my time and called a “city ecosystem”—the very mix of overcrowded and antiquated, with three became President. Although some coun- the university’s funds in community initia- land uses, buildings, shared public spaces, local elementary schools ranked at the seled that the problems were intractable, tives. It was one thing to support and rec- dense populations, and spontaneous bottom of the list in state-administered others encouraged Penn to take a leader- ognize the efforts of faculty to take incre- human interactions that urban renewal math and reading tests. Walnut Street, ship role in revitalizing the adjacent mental measures to solve West efforts annihilated. Bringing cities back to the main commercial thoroughfare neighborhood as a matter of enlightened Philadelphia’s problems, if it fit within life required restoring the damaged ecosys- through the campus, was dominated by self-interest. Early in my presidency, I was their research purview. But to offer to take tems of city neighborhoods, she wrote, surface parking lots, while the depressed persuaded by the latter view. Investing in the lead as an institution in redeveloping a paying attention to the smallest details. and desolate commercial corridor of West Philadelphia would pay academic distressed neighborhood—that disliked Jacobs concluded her book with a declara- 40th Street at the western edge of Penn’s dividends for Penn; this wasn’t a zero-sum us—and to assume an unprecedented level tion that anticipated the challenges and campus had become an invisible campus game, in which the university would have of financial and social risk, was a very dif- opportunities that Penn faced in West boundary beyond which Penn students to ransom its academic future to improve ferent story. Philadelphia. “Dull, inert cities,” she and faculty rarely ventured. the fortunes of the neighborhood. I Nevertheless, the decision to become wrote, “... contain the seeds of their own Despite many individual efforts of believed that for Penn to flourish aca- involved in neighborhood development destruction and little else. But lively, faculty and administrators to reach out demically, our neighborhood also had to was made by Penn’s trustees and senior diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of to the West Philadelphia community, the flourish. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able leadership. At the time, the prevailing their own regeneration, with energy residents by and large felt that the uni- to attract the finest faculty and the theory of community development was enough to carry over for problems and versity had turned its back on the neigh- brightest students. to work from the grass roots up. needs outside themselves.” borhood. Penn was so near, and so large, I also felt strongly that we had to set an According to this view, government enti- When Penn decided to devote sub- and yet so remote. The city’s largest pri- example of integrity for our students. The ties and private institutions, such as Penn, stantial resources toward redeveloping vate employer spent hundreds of millions state of the neighborhood was our busi- should write the checks and distribute University City, many members of our of dollars a year on goods, services, and ness. How could we educate and exhort resources to nonprofit community devel- academic community were skeptical. construction, yet little of that money our students to contribute to society if we opment corporations, which would take Crime in West Philadelphia had trickled down to local businesses. Penn did not offer them an institutional exam- the lead in building social and economic increased dramatically from 1983 to managed its commercial real estate hold- ple of positive civic engagement? If Penn capacity into the neighborhood. In other 32 ZELL/LURIE REAL ESTATE CENTER REVIEW 33 words, you were supposed to sprinkle the local businesses; expanding local retail by hood initiatives, equal in status to com- individual homeowners—to commit, we grass roots with seed money, and watch attracting new shops, restaurants, and cul- mittees on university finance, develop- encouraged a revival of community associ- the neighborhood blossom. tural venues that were neighborhood- ment, and others. ations, block by block. There were two flaws to this approach friendly; and, improving the public Another neighborhood initiative in our case. First, no community develop- schools. While many urban colleges and involved planting 450 trees and 10,000 ment organization in West Philadelphia universities have taken action on one or PUBLIC SAFETY spring bulbs and the creation of four pub- had the capacity, or the track record, to another of these fronts, none had attempt- lic and three children’s gardens, which set turn a distressed neighborhood around. ed to intervene on all fronts at once. To make the neighborhood cleaner and the stage for the dramatic transformation Second, there was no time to slowly cul- At the same time, the agenda incorpo- safer, Penn strengthened its Division of of Clark Park from a dangerous drug- tivate this capacity. Nor could one rely on rated cautionary restrictions on the univer- Public Safety by hiring more police officers infested space into a thriving recreational outside actors: real estate developers had sity’s behavior. First, Penn would not and investing in state-of-the-art technolo- venue for children and the site of a weekly not shown any interest in West expand its campus to the west or to the gy. A new police station was situated far- farmer’s market. Philadelphia; and the municipal govern- north into residential neighborhoods, only ther west beyond the campus, combined In addition to making University City ment didn’t have the financial resources to the east, which was made up entirely of with a Philadelphia police precinct substa- cleaner and safer, the university had a to take a leadership role. Only one entity abandoned buildings and commercial real tion. This signaled Penn’s commitment to major impact on housing, which itself had had the capacity, the resources, and the estate. Second, the university wouldn’t act the safety of its neighbors as well as its stu- become a public safety issue. The first stage political clout to intervene to stabilize the unilaterally.

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