Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
I feel like they were one of John Street's pet projects.
They were built at a time when the city was (still) shrinking and there was a belief that the population loss would never stop. There was also a belief among some that the only way the city could compete was by being MORE suburban, not less, because folks were leaving for the suburbs.
I think it made sense at the time. Obviously it no longer does.
The good news is that many of these homes are privately owned. As these are unusually large lots, it's a matter of time before homeowners start selling to developers (hopefully at huge profits for themselves) and they start to come down for more dense multi-family homes or bigger SFH that take up more of the lot.
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How about the people who like living there continue to live there? Is that an option? All the discussion seems focused on how quickly these people and their homes could be replaced which I find interesting and somewhat offensive. If I lived in such a prime location I sure as hell wouldn't sell anytime soon and even if the people do its ridiculous to act like something "better" is going there. 25 year old bland suburban style housing can be replaced by modern cheap looking paneled duplexes with gas meters plastered on the front? That is really going to restore the "classic" north philadelphia look in this area. Not impressed by the PHA stuff and sure as hell wont be impressed by whatever NC replaces the existing stock. People don't need to move just because certain people decided to be concerned about a neighborhood that was of no concern to them 5-10 years ago. Now that some people realize this is close to CC and the area is hot suddenly there is a lot of consternation about the low density of this very small area and people are trying to figure out how you can erase it and make this look like so many other parts of Philly near center city.
There is so much room to build in north philly that the focus needs to be on filling the gaps- not worrying about how quickly we can get 20 year old homes torn down to be replaced with pre fab triplexes.