Quote:
Originally Posted by McBane
On the other hand, I always felt like development in North and South Philly got to Broad Street last. For example, in South Philly, Bella Vista and Grad Hospital gentrified first while the blocks along and around Broad Street lagged behind. Same pattern further south with Point Breeze to the west and E. Passyunk to the east. Up north in Fairmount, development is finally reaching Broad Street. (I recognize that the Richard Allen homes is blocking development from NoLibs.) Even in these gentrified areas, Broad Street is not the dominant commercial street being flooded by hip restaurants, pubs, etc., it's still fast food restaurants, check cashing joints, and vacant buildings. Indeed when Tashan closed (777 S. Broad building), the location was cited as a major reason even though it sat on the intersection of Bella Vista and Grad Hospital.
It's just interesting how development followed the El but, along the BSL, development has lagged far behind areas immediately surrounding Broad that have long been gentrified.
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I find it fascinating too. I think one of the reasons why S Broad has never gentrified as quickly as the outer neighborhoods is that there was something to work with in a neighborhood like Bella Vista. Established working class neighborhoods of red gravy. There is enough confidence now in South Philly that we are getting these pie in the sky proposal's at the corners of Washington, SLS is primed to be the tallest building on Broad St, and the numerous other projects. So I am bullish on S Broad. I wouldn't worry about 777 S. Broad having trouble filling their space. Restaurants are really hit or miss, there is a ton of competition around there. Something will go there eventually.
N Broad is a completely different beast. While S Broad/South Philly was always working class, when North Philly was first urbanized, it was the wealthy who lived along N Broad. As Inga covered in an article recently, the mansion district in North Philly sits directly south of Temple's campus and consists of 70 something buildings on the national registry:
North Philadelphia Mansion District 1985 Nomination Form . At this moment, there is more investment being put into the street between CC and Temple than there has been in nearly a century. the Gateway to N Broad Projects, the DL, the Blue Horizon, the new Temple facility at the former William Penn High School site, the mural lofts, possible penn state building, and
the redevelopment of random buildings along the street are all fueling a major revival in the near future. It helps that there is already some great eats a long the way with Alla Spina, Osteria, SOUTH, Santucci's, and Jimmy G's. Restaurants thrive on N Broad because of the lack of competition in my opinion. N. Broad above Temple is basically the wild west.
So just to come to more of my point, development has indeed been lacking on the BSL but the times are-a-changin'
The real North Broad Miracle I noticed today was that the trees that were planted way way to late last fall are actually beginning to bud! I seriously thought they planted 500 trees and let them all die.
Nothing will ever look as cool as the original N. Broad:
http://i.imgur.com/5TftiMR.jpg
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