PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[br323206]

Originally Posted by relnahe

Why the hell would Philly want to annex the suburbs?!? First off the city is growing faster than the suburban counties (with maybe an exception to Bucks), and secondly the city would lose overall population density.

Why would the city care about population density? Total tax revenues divided by total expenditures is more important than being higher in some arbitrary list. Annexation would provide lots more tax dollars without adding the proportional amount of expenditures. It would be a huge boon to the city and the wage tax could be lowered and eventually eliminated. Also, the PSD's troubles would be solved.

And as long as we're talking about meaningless lists: Our crime rate would drop dramatically and our median income and educational attainment numbers would improve dramatically. That's how cities like Phoenix, Houston, etc. appear so much wealthier and safer. They're including their suburbs.

Of course it'll never happen because we're in Pennsylvania.

[McBane]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

Why on Earth would Harrisburg want to compel one municipality to join with another? Harrisburg doesn't even possess the authority to do so. There are 501 school districts in the commonwealth..balkanization is the state pastime.

Correct. And Philadelphia is plenty big and plenty populated. The real issue are the tiny boroughs that have no business being their own municipality. The State would be wise to offer incentives to small municipalities to consolidate. The taxpayers would save a lot of money but there's this crazy sentimental bond with the name of people's townships that I don't get. It's especially bad in Delaware Co. and those people pay some very expensive RE taxes because of it. No municipality should have less than 50k.

[boxbot]

Originally Posted by McBane

No municipality should have less than 50k.

That's silly talk. 23 counties in Pennsylvania don't even have 50k residents.

[br323206]

Originally Posted by McBane

Correct. And Philadelphia is plenty big and plenty populated. The real issue are the tiny boroughs that have no business being their own municipality. The State would be wise to offer incentives to small municipalities to consolidate. The taxpayers would save a lot of money but there's this crazy sentimental bond with the name of people's townships that I don't get. It's especially bad in Delaware Co. and those people pay some very expensive RE taxes because of it. No municipality should have less than 50k.

I agree with your sentiment about municipal consolidation but 50k is a huge threshold. Only two of 62 Montco municipalities meet that standard (Lower Merion and Abington) and only 14 municipalities in the entire Commonwealth meet it. That means that 99.5% of municipalities would have to consolidate.

A more reasonable standard might be more like 1,000.

[cafeguy]

I can't imagine this is even worth entertaining the thought of. Its not 1850. Northeast consolidation isn't going to ever happen. The only thing that could possibly occur is to turn regional rail stops in these counties into mixed use urban areas that feed into and off of Philadelphia's core as DC has done.

[boxbot]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

I can't imagine this is even worth entertaining the thought of. Its not 1850. Northeast consolidation isn't going to ever happen. The only thing that could possibly occur is to turn regional rail stops in these counties into mixed use urban areas that feed into and off of Philadelphia's core as DC has done.

It probably wouldn't work here, but there is precedent. Only a few years ago, Louisville absorbed all surrounding communities and increased their population and area substantially.

In our area, there may be a move towards consolidation for cost saving measures, but everything is gradual and slow moving. It starts with combining emergency services, then regional police departments, then possibly some governance overlap before ever considering merging. If it happened, it wouldn't occur in our lifetimes and it would depend on the counties and the city reaching some sort of agreement, which all seems very far fetched.

[McBane]

I've spent too much time in the Phila-area and disconnected from the realities of the rest of the state! Looking back, yes 50k is too much but you get the point. Consolidation/expansion is an issue for pretty much every municipality in PA EXCEPT Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a handful of smaller cities.

[joemustardo]

What is the building being constructed next to the Multiple Services Building?

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by joemustardo

What is the building being constructed next to the Multiple Services Building?

Behind it on Cherry Street? They tore down two townhouses for a small apartment building, but it seemed very questionable.

[summersm343]

http://www.3737chestnut.com/gallery/

[acenturi]

Originally Posted by summersm343

[xIMG]http://www.3737chestnut.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Radnor_3737Chestnut_MSS_1136_WEB.jpg[/IMG]

[xurl]http://www.3737chestnut.com/gallery/[/xurl]

I much prefer night cityscapes. Imagine how that photo angle will look as the density increases substantially with Comcast2, FMC, SLS, etc... over the next 2-3 years.

[1487]

Originally Posted by joemustardo

What is the building being constructed next to the Multiple Services Building?

The Municipal Services building is the building directly across from City Hall. The other city building is One Parkway, aka 1515 Arch Street. There was supposed to be something built behind that building- not MSB.

[jpdivola]

Originally Posted by boxbot

It probably wouldn't work here, but there is precedent. Only a few years ago, Louisville absorbed all surrounding communities and increased their population and area substantially.

In our area, there may be a move towards consolidation for cost saving measures, but everything is gradual and slow moving. It starts with combining emergency services, then regional police departments, then possibly some governance overlap before ever considering merging. If it happened, it wouldn't occur in our lifetimes and it would depend on the counties and the city reaching some sort of agreement, which all seems very far fetched.

Yeah, I don't think you will see out and out mergers of small towns. Perhaps a better model is to consolidate "universal" services at the county level: police, schools, libraries, health and social services. The have special sub-districts for "optional services" trash pickup, sewer systems, streetlights, etc.

But, leave the small town councils as advisory "community boards" like in NYC. That gives citizens a voice and a forum to gripe about local issues: trash pickup, parking, liquor licenses, etc. Perhaps the towns can even run some minor BID type services to deal with minor hyper local issues.

[josef]

An 8-story, $25M bet that Market East becomes a tech corridor
By Juliana Reyes / STAFF



Can the shabby stretch of Market Street from City Hall to Independence Mall become the city’s next tech corridor? A group of real estate developers thinks so.

They envision floor after floor of offices for the creative class — you know the drill: high ceilings, glass, open floor plans — flanked by residential apartments and retail on the ground floor. Digital billboards, too. (It calls to mind what the University City Science Center is trying to do in University City, minus the billboards.)

One of those office buildings is what used to be the Family Court building (34 S. 11th St.), an eight-story former warehouse that developers are overhauling to the tune of roughly $25 million. They want to attract coworking spaces, startups and other creative businesses. The building’s owners are tearing down the facade of the building and putting in floor-to-ceiling glass and new elevators. The ground floor will be home to a MOM’s Organic Market and a restaurant, and the other seven floors, amounting to 160,000 square feet, will be office space. They’ll have parking underground. They say there’s nothing else in the city like this.

Full story at http://technical.ly/philly/2015/04/14/east-market-tech-office-ssh-real-estate/

[AbortedWalrus]

Originally Posted by josef

They envision floor after floor of offices for the creative class — you know the drill: high ceilings, glass, open floor plans — flanked by residential apartments and retail on the ground floor. Digital billboards, too. (It calls to mind what the University City Science Center is trying to do in University City, minus the billboards.)

Someone should tell them that these conditions actually truly 🞵🞵🞵🞵 for software developers. Quiet design with minimal distractions is a necessity. I mean hell, it's a bullet point in the Joel Test.

[josef]

Originally Posted by AbortedWalrus

Someone should tell them that these conditions actually truly 🞵🞵🞵🞵 for software developers. Quiet design with minimal distractions is a necessity. I mean hell, it's a bullet point in the Joel Test.

I've been a software engineer for 7 years and I actually really like open floor plans. And places that are too quiet make me sad. And glass lets in light?

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by josef

I've been a software engineer for 7 years and I actually really like open floor plans. And places that are too quiet make me sad. And glass lets in light?

Bingo...most work spaces are now open with minimal privacy. If someone needs a conference room to hold a call or meeting or meet a client for a private consultation, such rooms normally exists even in newer office settings.

[AbortedWalrus]

Originally Posted by josef

I've been a software engineer for 7 years and I actually really like open floor plans. And places that are too quiet make me sad. And glass lets in light?

Obviously there is going to be some individual variation, but it's been pretty well and thoroughly studied that for software engineers open floor plans reduce productivity by a significant margin. The goal of open floor plans is to make rapid communication easier, but the trade off with that is it leaves you to get distracted very easily, which is quite damaging to a developers productivity.

This comic sums it up for me:

http://i.imgur.com/Ssz6pjF.png

This is how I and all of the software devs I've ever worked with largely felt. We actually pushed back when they wanted to change our floor plan from cubes to an open plan. They converted half the floor, and now the noise from conversations and phone calls in the open area spills into my cube and I find it very distracting.

Glass is cool though, I mean I am not down on that part.

[Philly-Drew]

Originally Posted by josef

I've been a software engineer for 7 years and I actually really like open floor plans. And places that are too quiet make me sad. And glass lets in light?

Agreed. I also am in IT and work with software engineers. Open floor plans and bright, airy feeling workplaces are great.

[Phil_North]

I've worked as a software engineer for the past decade in many different environments. Now I do have my preferences but I wouldn't mind coding in a place like this. For me, location is a huge plus. Being in Center City will be a huge draw. Whether the windows are large or small, or whether the floorplans are open or divided would not make a huge difference to me. I think this is a great idea and I hope it works.