Official declaration of areas as blighted played a critical role in allowing Temple University to move ahead with its plans for expansion into residential areas in North Philadelphia. This process continues today, and these documents from 2004 give insight into the procedures. For example, the documents cite law establishing that areas must meet only one of seven criteria to qualify as blight.
The seven criteria are as follows:
- Unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate, or overcrowded conditions
- Inadequate planning
- Excessive land coverage
- Lack of proper light, air, and open space
- Faulty street and lot layout
- Defective design and arrangement of buildings
- Economically or socially undesirable land use
Compared to other areas in the city, North Philadelphia has a high density of vacant residential structures and land parcels, as this map from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission shows.
The history between Temple University and the community has a clear impact on their interactions today. Community collaboration is highlighted in this description of an initiative undertaken by the Center for Public Policy Urban Initiatives at Temple University. Link to document
A few contemporary articles about this neighborhood reflect the ongoing issues with development and expansion in the Temple University area, particularly with regards to the neighborhood resident:
“Developers find opportunity in a neglected area;
The Cecil B. Moore Avenue corridor shows signs of a major revitalization.” from the Philadelphia Inquirer, May 9, 2003
Bill Foster, a merchant on Cecil B. Moore Avenue, remembers the difficult times after the riots of 1964.
Shops along the avenue that had served the north-central Philadelphia community closed by the dozens. And in the years since, little had been done to replace them.
“When I first came here, it was a depressed area – the businesses and the people,” said Foster, whose shop, Foster’s Trophy & Awards Co., has been at 17th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue for 35 years.
That condition is changing swiftly as a wave of commercial development is taking shape along what had been North Philadelphia’s key commercial corridor and in the surrounding community.
With a burst of construction and renovations over the last few years and more development plans in the works, the Cecil B. Moore Avenue corridor is showing signs of a major revitalization.
“Now some attention is being paid [to the area] by the mayor and independent developers,” Foster said. “It means that businesses will have more people walking down the street.”
North-central Philadelphia, where the corridor is situated, is a community made up mostly of African Americans, with an average household income of $13,900 – below the national poverty level of $14,351 for a family of three. It is a neighborhood long underserved by the city’s business community.
At 15th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Temple University has erected the framework for a four-story, 61,000-square-foot Entertainment and Community Education Center.
Temple University president David Adamany said the new center would house studios for WRTI-FM (90.1), the university’s radio station, a community education center, and retail space.
The project “creates space for retail and adds another sign of life on Cecil B. Moore Avenue,” Adamany said. “It puts more foot traffic in the neighborhood, and we hope it will encourage others to open businesses.”
Also at 15th and Cecil B. Moore, work has been completed on a 10,000-square-foot Social Security office.
There are plans for construction of a Beneficial Bank at 16th and Cecil B. Moore.
In the 1500 block of the avenue, there is the Draught Horse, a sit-down restaurant and bar with seating for 200, and a string of new shops and restaurants.
Construction is expected to begin this fall on the linchpin of the revitalization effort, the Broadway Philadelphia project at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore. The complex will house a 12-screen movie theater, retail stores, and student housing. Construction is expected to begin this year.
The $60 million complex, planned by Kravco Co., a King of Prussia retail-development company, calls for 65,000 square feet of retail space with shops along Broad Street, a 250-car garage, and housing for 1,000 Temple students.
Lewis I. Gantman, Kravco’s president and chief operating officer, said the project “supplies the community with a lot of things that are missing and provides housing for Temple.”
“We see a lot of opportunity for development in Philadelphia. When we see the lack of movie screens and retail space, we say, ‘Why not?’ “
“People need to recognize that this is a fabulous retail opportunity. I welcome all the development.”
A key force in the revitalization is Floyd W. Alston, president and chief executive officer of Beech Interplex Inc., a nonprofit community-development corporation, and a former president of the Philadelphia Board of Education.
Alston launched Beech Interplex in 1990 with a grant from the William Penn Foundation to build public and private partnerships to help revitalize north-central Philadelphia.
“We’ve been a catalyst to spark the revitalization, bringing together all the city departments, nonprofits and Temple University,” Alston said.
One of Alston’s first projects was the construction of the Beech Interplex complex in 1995. The 30,000-square-foot office and retail building spans one block of the avenue from 15th Street to Sydenham Street. Alston insisted that the facade be kept of the building that had been on the site.
“After the riots, there was an exodus of businesses and residents,” Alston said. “That’s why this building is so symbolic.”
Among projects developed by Beech Interplex are the Alliance for Progress Charter School, in the 1800 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, a 16,000-square-foot charter school where 200 children attend kindergarten through fifth grade.
Others include the 25,000-square-foot Women’s Christian Alliance headquarters at 1722 Cecil B. Moore Ave., which was completed in 2001. The Women’s Christian Alliance is a nonprofit child-welfare agency that provides services to low-income and at-risk youth.
Alston said all the new development captured the interest of other developers.
“We’re getting a lot of speculation,” Alston said. “That’s a sign of success. I have people coming down here saying, ‘We’re looking for properties on Cecil B. Moore.’ Now I tell them it’s almost too late.”
On Broad Street, a few blocks from the avenue, major renovations are in the works at the Progress Plaza shopping center and the Blue Horizon ballroom.
At Progress Plaza, the shopping center that grew out of an African American entrepreneurship initiative launched by the Rev. Leon Sullivan in the 1970s, a $25 million overhaul andexpansion are planned.
The center at Broad and Oxford Streets will have a new anchor supermarket, to be occupied by the Fresh Grocer chain, replacing the current vacancy, and about a dozen new stores. Kravco, the King of Prussia development company, has signed on to be the builder.
Alvin Tucker, president of Progress Investment Associates, said a groundbreaking was to take place in the fall.
“Six years ago, Rev. Sullivan spoke to the Progress investment board and challenged us to look at how we could improve Progress Plaza,” Tucker said.
Across Broad Street near Thompson Street, the Blue Horizon ballroom, the world-famous boxing venue, is undergoing a $2.5 million renovation that is expected to be completed next month.
Vernoca Michael, the owner, said the renovation would “signal to the public that this end of the Avenue of the Arts is looking to the future and sets the tone for things to come.”
Cecily Moore Banks, daughter of Cecil B. Moore, the civil-rights activist for whom the avenue was renamed in 1987, recalled the area as “thriving and mostly bustling” during the 1950s and 1960s with a wide array of stores, restaurants, nightclubs and other businesses.
“It had almost everything you wanted” to meet your household needs, she said.
Moore Banks, who has lived in the area for most of her life, said she looked forward to all the development in the corridor. “Frankly, I don’t like driving to do my shopping.”
Another longtime resident of the area, noted documentary filmmaker Louis Massiah, recalled the avenue in the 1950s and 1960s.
What Philadelphia had then on Columbia Avenue – now Cecil B. Moore – and on other commercial avenues was street culture, Massiah said. “One of the casualties [of the riots] was a street culture. When street cultures have been allowed to flourish, you have a healthy community, a place to talk and gather.”
Massiah said he welcomed the new development and the sense of empowerment and community it brings.
“There are many, many good things happening here,” he said
The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 21, 1998
NORTH PHILA. SUPERMARKET TO CLOSE / SUPER FRESH SAYS IT IS PULLING OUT OF PROGRESS PLAZA. BUT CENTER MANAGERS HOPE TO FIND A REPLACEMENT.
By: Herbert Lowe, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
After almost 30 years, the Progress Plaza shopping center on North Broad Street is losing its supermarket. Super Fresh, the plaza’s anchor store, will close tomorrow afternoon.
Contending that the store is too small to expand into a superstore, Super Fresh officials on Tuesday put up signs announcing its closing, giving just four days’ notice.
The announcement stunned the store’s 60 employees and its countless customers, many of them senior citizens.
But the neighborhood – for which the next closest supermarket, a Thriftway, is 19 blocks away, at 22d Street and Lehigh Avenue – might win after all.
Progress Plaza officials said they were negotiating with the Raspino/Wargo Organization, owners of two Super Foodtown stores in West Philadelphia. A Raspino/Wargo official would not confirm or deny the negotiations.
Plaza officials said an expanded supermarket would augment a planned major renovation of the entire shopping center. The renovation would help the center keep pace withTemple University’s expansion and compete with Jump Street USA, the $50 million retail-and-entertainment center to be built virtually across the street, at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenues.
“We’re really sprucing up the place,” said Mildred Fitzgerald-Johnson, vice chairman of Progress Investment Associates, which manages Progress Plaza.
Fitzgerald-Johnson said the renovation could cost as much as $2 million and take two years to complete. She said it would include refurbishing 4,000 square feet of second-floor office space, improving the parking lot and upgrading outside lighting from 400-watt halogen bulbs to 1,000-watt lamps.
The new supermarket will have a delicatessen, a seafood section and maybe a bakery, Fitzgerald-Johnson said.
“It’s going to be a bright, new, scintillating food center,” she said. “It’s going to be a store that will meet the needs of the various populations that this plaza serves.”
Plaza officials are hopeful, but not certain, that a new market could open in time for the center’s 30th-anniversary celebration, Sept. 26 and 27. They would need to sign a deal with Super Foodtown soon to allow it enough time to renovate the store, hire employees and stock shelves.
The closing of the Super Fresh will mean hardship for customers who have few real shopping options in the neighborhood and nearly a dozen vendors who depend on foot traffic that the supermarket generates.
“The majority of the people who come into this [plaza] come in for food,” said Bill Brown, secretary of the North Philadelphia Vendors Association. “They have to have their staples. It’s definitely going to have an impact. I think the main thing for us is how long. I think we’ll be OK if it’s not too long.”
Lillie McNair, 66, said she and other senior citizens from her complex at Eighth and Oxford Streets depend on the Super Fresh because it is an easy bus ride from their homes.
“It’s going to affect us quite a bit,” McNair said as she put milk into a shopping cart and moved toward the meat section. “It’s going to make us ride the bus and go into different neighborhoods like South Philadelphia. It’s going to be pretty rough on some of us.”
Temple students Taneema Fannings, 21, and Dela Acolatse, 19, were shopping for the faculty lounges in the university’s Ritter Hall and Ritter Annex. They have part-time jobs in the College of Education’s dean’s office, and said Temple students living in dormitories would be hard-pressed to find groceries if there is no market.
“It’s like this every day,” Fannings said of the checkout lines, which each were eight to 10 deep with customers.
As the pair moved from the snacks aisle to look for sugar, Fannings said: “The only thing about this market: They don’t have a deli.”
Acolatse replied: “It don’t matter now.”
It did matter to Super Fresh, which made that clear to Progress Plaza, when lease-renewal talks involving the 17,300-square-foot store began earlier this year.
“Our new prototypes are averaging 60,000 to 65,000 square feet,” said Andrew Carrano, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for A&P, the parent company of Super Fresh. “And we need that type of space to get in all the type of variety and departments that we offer our customers.”
The plaza could not offer more space, and so Super Fresh decided to leave. Super Fresh’s managers and experienced employees all will be reassigned to stores elsewhere, and less-experienced workers will get preferential hiring when openings occur, Carrano said.
“We kind of knew it was coming,” said Pam Saunders, the store’s union steward. “There had been rumors.”
“TEMPLE ABANDONS ITS APOLLO ARENA UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS BLAMED STREET. THE $85 MILLION PROJECT WAS TOUTED AS KEY TO THE SCHOOL AND VICINITY.” by Howard Goodman, Wanda Motley, Mike Bruton and Lily Eng in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 20, 1995
Frustrated in its negotiations with City Hall, Temple University has scrapped plans to build the Apollo of Temple, the $85 million super-arena that administrators consider the key to campus expansion and neighborhood renewal.
University officials yesterday blamed City Council President John F. Street for holding the project hostage in a dispute over control of $5 million to be used to construct or rehab nearly 500 houses in the blighted Cecil B. Moore Avenue area just west of the campus.
According to Temple, Street wants the money in the hands of an undefined “community-controlled” corporation. School administrators have refused, raising the specter of fiscal hijinks and citing a state law requiring the board of trustees to oversee all university funds.
So miffed were Temple officials yesterday that, in addition to ditching the Apollo, they hinted they might just take their university and head to the suburbs.
David L. Cohen, Mayor Rendell’s chief of staff, refused to regard the Apollo decision as final. He said Rendell was optimistic that the project – which would mean 425 construction jobs and a $21 million payroll – would survive.
“The mayor has believed since these discussions started that there is a deal to be made here,” Cohen said. “He continues to believe there is a deal to be made here.”
Cohen added: “I think there is a frustration on Temple’s part that the city has not acceded to its demands. We don’t just lie down and accede to people’s demands.”
With Temple and Street at an impasse, City Council has refused to call a vote on necessary zoning changes; the request remains locked in the Rules Committee, which Street chairs. The Apollo groundbreaking was set for March, with the grand opening of the complex in January 1997. Now university officials say their timetable – and their fund-raising efforts – have been ruined.
Yesterday, with the blueprints relegated to the shelf, school officials took aim at Street, whose district takes in the Temple campus.
“It’s incredible that one individual can block a project which will do so much good for the people of this district,” said James S. White, Temple’s executive vice president.
John Chaney, whose basketball Owls were to roost in the 10,200-seat arena, was more blunt, calling Street’s actions “absolutely blackmail.”
“That man does not want anybody to do anything in that area unless he has his hands in it,” Chaney said heatedly. “He wanted to control the money. The only thing we’re asking is for him to give us rezoning. We’re not asking for money.
“We’re asking him to take his foot off the heads of the poor people in North Philadelphia.”
Proclaiming loyalty to the people of his district, Street said yesterday that he was unconcerned about being painted as the bad guy.
“The only thing I’ve sought to do is protect the interest of people in the community who are very concerned about Temple’s expansion,” Street said, “who are concerned about the fact that Temple can plan an $80 million gymnasium and doesn’t want to make an adequate contribution” to the neighborhood.
Yesterday’s announcement brought to the surface long-simmering tensions between the university and a community uneasy about Temple’s territorial ambitions.
In 2 1/2 years of discussions with community organizations and city officials, Temple pledged to spend $12 million to revitalize the Cecil B. Moore Avenue area, in addition to building the Apollo arena.
President Peter J. Liacouras, in a letter to Mayor Rendell on Jan. 12, called the Temple effort “the most unprecedented offer of unilateral support for its community in American higher education history.”
But Liacouras also has acknowledged that these plans – including new housing, new businesses and a center for community groups – are vital to Temple’s self-interest. The school has suffered an enrollment slide in recent years, owing in large part to North Philadelphia’s reputation as run-down and crime-ridden, Liacouras has said. With a nicer campus, officials reason, Temple would be able to expand as a residential college.
The Apollo, should it ever be built, would be a showcase for the basketball team and a site for graduation ceremonies. Taking up most of the block bounded by Broad Street, Montgomery Avenue, 15th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, it also would be a venue for theater and concert events.
In addition, it would contain space for retail stores along Cecil B. Moore, meeting rooms for community groups and a fitness center for Temple students. The $67 million building would be funded with $37 million in state funds and $30 million in private donations.
An $18 million parking garage, to be built next door, would house retail shops at street level. Temple officials had said that discussions were underway with the city Commerce Department and a company run by Sony and basketball great Magic Johnson to build a 12-screen movie theater in the garage’s undergound levels. These would be the only commercial movie screens in North Philadelphia.
Temple officials said yesterday, however, that they pulled out of the Sony discussions on Jan. 12 and that plans for the parking garage were kaput.
The Apollo announcement was accompanied by the disclosure of two letters
from Liacouras to Rendell, previously labeled private correspondence.
In one of them, dated Dec. 7, Liacouras told the mayor that Temple trustees frequently question why Temple should not move most of its operations to its small campus in suburban Ambler, given the city’s “opposition” to the university’s attempts to create a stronger and more appealing campus in North Philadelphia.
If the Apollo project dies, Liacouras said, the board “would promptly have to consider the sale of Temple University Hospital in conjunction with the downsizing of Temple in Philadelphia and the movement of programs to the suburbs. . . .
“It could happen on your watch, Ed,” Liacouras warned.
According to both Liacouras and White, months of Apollo discussions broke down over the $5 million Housing Rehabilitation fund, which is part of the $12 million redevelopment effort. They said Street insisted the money be given to a “community-controlled” organization – which they contend state law forbids them to do. They also said they were worried that many “so-called community based development groups” had been mismanaged or accused of illegal dealings.
Instead, Temple suggested setting up a nonprofit corporation with itself as the sole member and a board of trustees dominated by community representatives.
Temple officials said Street also demanded that the university guarantee the $5 million with a promissory note and hand over $2 million cash by the March groundbreaking. Impossible, they said: Much of the money is not in hand but will be raised over the next three years, and current debt commitments forbid any new debt guarantees.
Liacouras, in a letter to Rendell, said his personal commitment to raise $2.5 million of the needed sum should be a sufficient guarantee. Liacouras was in the New York City area yesterday and unavailable for comment.
Street declined to comment on details of the dispute.
Cohen, however, took issue with Temple’s version of negotiations, saying the city had been “extremely flexible” and had made “significant compromises.” He called the remaining points “minor” and “resolvable.”
Cohen said the city was correct to expect a guarantee for the housing money, and to expect it to be backed by the institution, not its officer, Liacouras. He scoffed at the notion that Temple had to retain control over the money.
“We’re not talking about them giving $5 million to John Street’s campaign fund or Ed Rendell’s campaign fund,” Cohen said. “We’re talking about the money going to a certified nonprofit under Pennsylvania state law that is charged with administering a particular program, probably in conjunction with the city’s housing agencies.”
Refusing to declare the project finished, Cohen noted that Spectrum 2 was declared dead on more than one occasion – yet is being erected.
Chaney called on Rendell to take action.
“Why wouldn’t the mayor stop and mediate this thing?” he said. “It’s . . . two leaders, one white, one black, who rule three-fourths of the city and completely neglect one-fourth of the city.”
Along Cecil B. Moore Avenue, numerous merchants said they hoped for a reconciliation between Temple and the city. Floyd Alston – head of the Beech Corp., an agency that focuses on housing, economic development, job training, education and human services – offered to mediate.
At 16th and Cecil B. Moore last week, Beech broke ground for new stores and offices that would have been part of the Apollo redevelopment effort. After the announcement yesterday, Alston, who is also president of the Philadelphia Board of Education, called a halt to four years of work.
“This is a life-and-death issue for this area,” Alston said. “I refuse to give up. We’ve gone too far and we can’t give up.”
“Temple leader presents vision for expansion;
David Adamany’s plan includes adding students, upgrading
labs, and working with the neighborhood on improvements.” by James O’Neill in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 29, 2001
Temple University President David Adamany unveiled a sweeping blueprint for the school’s future yesterday, calling for continued enrollment growth, significant campus expansion,and a more active role as a catalyst to improve its North Philadelphia neighborhood.
Adamany said the university’s needs, including off-campus housing for graduate students and faculty, as well as its expertise in grant-writing and urban studies, mesh with Mayor Street’s program to fight blight.
Though Temple has far fewer financial resources than its Ivy League neighbor across town, Adamany said he wants Temple to make community improvements similar to those that the University of Pennsylvania has made in West Philadelphia.
“We should have been doing for years what Penn has been doing,” Adamany said in an interview.
Adamany presented his blueprint to trustees. Howard Gittis, trustee chair, labeled it “a brilliant statement about what Temple can be and will be.”
Adamany’s ideas also drew praise from Darrell Clarke, the City Council member who represents the neighborhood. Adamany, he said, “is a different kind of guy than we’re used to. He’s a breath of fresh air. I’m excited about what he’s proposing. He has clearly communicated to me that he wants not only to coexist but to be a partner in some of the visions we, as a community and city, have.”
Adamany, who replaced Peter Liacouras as university president a year ago, wants enrollment to grow from the current 30,000 to as much as 35,000 over the next five years. That will require at least one more dorm and more services for the 4,400 students who will be living on campus this fall.
He wants to encourage private developers to build rental housing for graduate students and hopes the city and community development groups will help Temple rehab old buildings to house a wave of faculty the university expects to hire. Currently, 43 percent of Temple’s faculty members are 56 or older.
Adamany said Street and Clarke have given him favorable feedback about Temple’s stated desire “to be an engine of change” in North Philadelphia.
Gittis said Temple would proceed with sensitivity to neighborhood concerns, noting that the university has tabled its desire to ban traffic on 13th Street, which runs through the middle of the campus.
William Cutler, head of Temple’s faculty union, said he favored the idea of developing faculty housing but questioned whether it could be achieved.
“It’s not uncommon for an urban university to have a Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship with its neighbors,” Cutler said. “It’s important for Temple to keep the needs of both the university and the neighborhood in mind.”
Adamany’s blueprint calls for projects that would cost at least $100 million over the next few years, including plans to move the Tyler School of Art from Elkins Park to the main campus.
He stressed a need to overhaul aging laboratory space and said a priority would be to restore Temple’s sagging reputation as a research institution. That will mean aggressively seeking federal and foundation grants.
According to the National Science Foundation, Temple ranked 117th in research expenditures in 1998, down from 94th in 1980.
Bashar Hanna, associate dean of the College of Science and Technology, said that without modern labs, it’s hard to land grants. “Our labs are old, and the equipment is often the kind no longer used for modern-day research,” he said.
Adamany said he wanted to tie Temple’s research and teaching to the region’s economic needs. For instance, Temple could play a significant role in research on urban and suburban growth.
An emphasis on urban renewal and campus facilities marked Adamany’s tenure as president of Wayne State University in Detroit. He spent $300 million on construction and applied the school’s assets to its urban neighborhood by founding a college that studies urban issues.
When urban universities expand, neighbors often perceive them as unfeeling bureaucracies. But Adamany’s tone in the blueprint is strikingly different.
For starters, he listed as a priority construction of a community education center on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. “This center was promised to our neighbors at the time the Liacouras Center was constructed, and our continuing failure to fulfill our commitment is troubling,” he said.
He also promised to work with community leaders on expansion plans.
“As Temple seeks to expand,” he wrote to trustees, “it must do so in collaboration with its neighbors. Land acquisition should not disrupt existing residential patterns.”
Adamany also showed sensitivity to Temple’s historic structures. Temple drew criticism in 1998 when the Liacouras administration sought to tear down the Baptist Temple building, the old church run by Temple founder Russell Conwell.
Adamany said the church is “historically important and aesthetically fine” and should be studied for “university uses and historic preservation.”
To pay for his expansion plans, Adamany said, extra revenue would have to come from boosts in enrollment, more research grants, and increased alumni giving. He ruled out large tuition increases because fees are already “very high” compared with most other public universities.
ALL ARTICLES FROM LEXISNEXIS ACADEMIC
Archival Information For North Philadelphia/Temple University
Temple University and Community Policy Considerations
Download File
Office of the President 5/23/60
Download File
News Release 11/25/69
Download File
Community Housing and Physical Development Agenda 12/1/69
Download File
Memorandum 12/12/69
Download File
Temple News Release, Dec. 17, 1969
Download File
Community Press Release 12/18/69
Download File
Partial transcript of final session of Charrette Dec 17, 1969
Download File
The Expansion Introduction
Download File
THE CHARRETTE 1969-1970
Download File
Office of the President 12/18/69
Download file
In honor of Black History Month: Secrets of Black Philadelphia – North Philadelphia
