June 26–July 3, 1997

city beat

Can't Please Everyone

By John McCalla

Right after the University of Pennsylvania unveiled its development plans for Sansom Common — a retail, hotel and Barnes & Noble superstore development at 36th and Sansom Streets — some University City residents last week began fuming.

Seems Penn can't win even when the residents support the projects it's pushing.

For months preceding the $120 million Sansom Common announcement, as well as plans for a University City special services district (with a $4.3 million annual budget, carried by local institutions), Penn spokespeople touted impending announcements as "for the community."

And, at the Sansom Common groundbreaking last week, according to community leaders, Penn pretended to put its top-down management style of the old days behind and boasted that it had first consulted the community about the plans.

Now that the plans are out and kudos are being lavished upon the Ivy League institution, residents are wondering when they were consulted and just how much the current development project will mean to the neighborhoods, far outside the campus core at 36th and Sansom Streets.

"Penn needs a much better presentation," said lifelong West Philadelphia resident and local realtor Liz Campion. "They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. The tone is so patronizing that you're offended before you even know what you're arguing against."

The "tone" Campion refers to usually involves Penn's claims that its projects are "for the community," when in fact, the community sees them as self-serving.

"It is in the presentation," said Melani Lamond, a member of the University City Community Council, which represents 16 different West Philadelphia neighborhood and arts groups. "I'm not opposed to it at all, but the Community Council certainly wasn't consulted about it."

Lamond likened the process to the recent attempts by the university to regulate the food truck vendors. "There was a mention of it, then all of a sudden it was a fete accompli."

Such issues will be addressed in a forthcoming letter to the university signed by various University City groups.

"We are very concerned about the process that was followed," said Marja Hoek-Smit, a member of the Spruce Hill Renewal Committee who helped draft the letter. "The community had no input into the project whatsoever and it lacks any connection to any of the residential neighborhoods."

That connection, many say, is vital to the project's success. A backfiring they see is the students pulling further back into the campus, away from the neighborhoods. Also, the mall mentality of such a complex could hurt University City's smaller retail shops and bookstores.

"We are very interested in talking to them about that connection," Hoek-Smit said.

Campion adds that the nature of the coverage Penn has received for these projects "also makes Penn become a bigger bully."

"Penn has more power than it needs," she said. "It's hard for anyone to fight improvement, but we have to decide what is improvement."

One improvement the community is waiting to hear about is the development of 40th Street. So far, the only development in the area that has taken place since the creation of Penn's 40th Street Business Action Team last year is the planned flight of Urban Outfitters, which is vacating the site of its first store on the 4000 block of Locust Street.

"I don't think it's very community-friendly," said Patrick Starr of Sansom Common. Starr was president of the Spruce Hill Community Association and has been involved with urban design issues for the past 15 years.

"I think it's good to have new development in West Philadelphia," Starr said. "What worries me is the missed opportunity for development at 40th Street, which is where the neighborhood and the campus meet."

"While we've had assurances from Penn that it's not going to neglect 40th Street, we've not seen any firm commitment," Starr said. "We need a major new anchor to replace Urban Outfitters. There's no question the retail environment is being geared toward Penn's students and employees and not at the community."

"There was virtually no consultation with the community about Sansom Common," he said.

N.R. Popkin, managing director of the Market Street Development Corporation, which is attempting to improve the Market Street area from 40th to 52nd Streets, agrees all of West Philadelphia needs to be included.

"The initiatives the university has rolled out are very important and critical," Popkin said. "But there also needs to be a focus on the people of all of West Philadelphia; there has to be a bold vision for that area that equals the vision for the campus."

Though no one could comment on Penn's presentation of projects to the community, spokesperson Phyllis Holtzman did say that the university is committed to West Philadelphia and that "more and new projects should be rolled out in the fall."

In its favor, Penn seems to have convinced at least one couple to stay in University City by announcing its new plans.

Realtor Campion said the couple, who already lived in the area, "as an immediate reaction to Penn's announcements," decided to ditch their $90,000 house to buy a $150,000 house in the neighborhood. They had been looking in Lower Merion.

"That's a big commitment," Campion said.