NEIGHBORHOODS
I believe that communities are renewable year after year, generation after generation. But people are hurt because they know too little about what has gone before them, and in many cases they know too little about what has gone after them.Neighborhoods represent our past, present, and future. The very poetic Rennaissance scholar, Yale President, and Commissioner of Baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti described city life as an agreement where people who are not related to each other act as though they are. That describes my experience in every neighborhood in which I have lived, and is a reason to prefer a life where you can get to know your neighbors well to one where you are walled off in some moat-like enclave.There is an awful lot of expressions of doom and gloom here... I do not wish to minimize the serious problems that Philadelphia faces, but I do think there is a lot of untapped energy, resources, and good will in our city, and we have a lot more potential than we used to have to be a lot better off in the future than we are now.
June 10, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=506466#post506466
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Mayoral candidates should be champions of our neighborhoods, and investments therein. The sixpack of current Democratic mayoral prospects (Jonathan Saidel of Northeast Philadelphia should be added to the above list) is a collection of strong leaders, some or all of whom will have a continuing influence on city government for years to come even if they lose.The center city boom sends various messages. Government investment in developing regional attractions in neighborhoods works. It benefits the neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole. It leverages private investment. It gives people a reason not only to stay, but to help attract friends, family members, and coworkers to join them.The deindustrialization of Philadelphia clearly has negative effects in terms of loss of taxes and people. But, by freeing up considerable amounts of land, it offers the chance to have a Philadelphia with far more shopping, parking, parkland, housing, and tourist attractions. The Fairmount Park system was established to limit what was seen as the negative effects of industrialization in the 1800's, and we are clearly seeing a boom capitalizing on the deindustralization of the late 1900's and the 21st Century.Maintaining the industry we have and attracting more--while maintaining the positive effects of deindustrialization in terms of neighborhood livability--is a balancing act that mayoral candidates and other Philadelphia leaders should be addressing.All candidates should be asked to answer questions such "Why Should People Live in Philadelphia When They Could Live Anywhere Else?" That is the key question we have to understand and become conversant in. The old reasons-- needing to having the vast majority of the city free from racial minorities, having a lot of rediculously low-priced housing, of having systems of religious education that were numerically competitive with the public school system, having large families whose lives were all interwoven with each other, not knowing how to drive, etc.--apply to a lower and lower percentage of the population today.What Philadelphia needs are accurate and compelling rationales for making one's life here. This is a matter of developing new realities more than new marketing strategies. This is a matter of being able to see the future clearly, and being able to act competently and vigorously on the basis of what we see.
June 27, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=20378
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New stadiums in center city would have cost city taxpayers a lot more money than the stadiums cost in South Philadelphia. There would have been substantial land acquisition costs, plus the need for a greatly expanded transportation infrastructure to match the transportation infrastructure long in effect near the sports complex.Even though Governor Tom Ridge sold the state aid for the stadiums to the legislature on the premise that one-third would be paid for by the state, one-third by the city, and one-third by the teams, the city of Philadelphia wound up paying for a majority of the costs. The city share could have easily hit 75% to 80% with a center city location, which would have greatly limited the city's ability to make further wage-tax cuts.The Olympic Committee is not alone in liking the vast amount of empty space used as parking space around the stadiums. You will recall that it was the Wachovia Center in the sports complex--not the Convention Center--that was the site of the 2000 Republican National Convention for precisely the same reasons. The Convention Center was relegated to auxiliary roles for the Republican National Convention because its lack of outside empty space made it less valuable for those running the Convention.Furthermore, the magnet that is center city has to keep growing in the public mind if the city of Philadelphia is to reverse its long-term population decline. The concept of center city Philadelphia continues to expand into North Philadelphia, Fishtown, Bridesburg, and South Philadelphia. I am running into more and more professionals who are choosing to move into South Philadelphia: this is a good thing. The sports complex, the rebuilt Navy Yard, riverfront condos, the spread of high quality restaurants, charter schools, and many other factors are increasingly sending the message that the South Philadelphia of the 21st Century will be much more of a magnet for successful people than was the South Philadelphia of the 19th and 20th Centuries.
June 27, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272654#post272654
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We are seeing more than the upward mobility which has always caused some people to move out of whatever neighborhoods they have grown up in or started a family in.What we are also seeing is widespread economic underachievement due to a lack of adequate economic opportunity, and a growing downward mobility from people who cannot meet the lifestyle of their parents or cannot sustain the early momentum of a good record in school or a good start in the workforce.One can always find similarities with the past in any set of current problems. But some of what the Brookings Institute reports is genuinely new and deeply disturbing.
June 25, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=271454#post271454
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Neighbors have problems with LaSalle students too. A former landlord at what was then named Ogontz Manor--now it is called The Manor--once told me that he preferred to rent to community folk instead of college students because the community folk did a better job maintaining the apartments and were less noisy.President Bush kept reporters at bay in the 2000 Presidential campaign with his now-famous statement that "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." Bush's young and irresponsible phase lasted well into his thirties, and undergraduates are generally in the 17 to 23 year old range.College administrators everywhere could improve community relations by giving college kids help in maintaining apartments and homes, from advice on cleaning, to recommendations on who to call for services, to strong admonitions against late-night noisy parties, especially on weekdays. Helping college kids grow up would win community support and reduce the adversarial relationships that too often exist.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264061#post264061
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I have had enough contact with Tacony elected officials and community leaders to believe that Tacony has a very good leadership team of people with vision and competence and dedicated to the welfare and future of the community.I would hope that the owner of the Tacony gym would get the place fixed up so that the community can continue its rise to becoming one of the most attractive neighborhoods in the city.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264057#post264057
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The idea of suburban paradise certainly is a mainstay of American culture, a--of equal importance--major stimulus to the real estate industry. Many people are sold on the idea of buying a starter home and then gradually making further home purchases until one arrives in the most exclusive neighborhood possible.This has not always been the way home purchases have been been seen. My father deserves a footnote in the history of American real estate development because as a young lawyer he write a highly regarded law review article (with Albert B. Gerber) urging federal courts to get rid of the "after-acquired property" doctrine under which people could only borrow based on currently assets and not on the basis of projected future earnings. The New Deal federal courts ultimately followed this advice from him and many others, and in doing so greatly expanded the opportunities for home ownership across America, including suburban development and the dramatic expansion of Northeast Philadelphia.Before the after acquired property doctrine--originally a conservative response to the perceived radicalism of Andrew Jackson--was repealed in the 1940's, less than a third of all Americans owned their own homes. Today over two thirds of all Americans own their own homes. This fact alone indicates a massive change in the social fabric.Yet, David Cohen paradoxically was a believer that neighborhoods were communities, and that neighborhood residents were community members. Contrary to the view of one of his contemporaries--who told me he was moving because "the community is moving and I want to go with them"--he believed that a housing purchase should indicate at least a long-term commitment to a neighborhood if not a life-time commitment, and that community membership was forever renewable with each new member moving in.So deep was his belief that housing indicated neighborhood commitment that he was barely aware of other perspectives. I once made the unremarkable observation that many people see housing primarily as a consumer purchase, and he discussed this with me and others for weeks afterwards.Philadelphia is certainly competing with suburbs every day. New housing in Philadelphia is helpful for us, but we have to both improve our neighborhoods and document their strengths must more than we have. And we have to undermine the belief that a high-quality neighborhood is established by the lack of members of racial minorities. We need more objective criteria than that to have any chance at all of being truly competitive.
June 4, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=259942#post259942
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A few years ago, my brother served as head of the Overbrook Farms Club, a civic organization dedicated to betterment of that community. As a result of his activism, I got to meet many leaders of the Overbrook Farms community at various events that he hosted.I am very impressed by the time so many put into various community improvement projects, from improving the local park to studying the architecture and history of local houses. This is clearly a bunch of can-do people, who already have a significant record of community achievement.Of course, many problems remain. But I cannot help but be optimistic that the people of the community include in their ranks many who are more than equal to the problems. I feel that Overbrook Farms is certainly a community that deserves consideration in residential home-buying decisions.
May 28, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256829#post256829
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When the Northeast Branch of the YMCA closed, many people in Northeast Philadelphia were horrified. They worked to set up a new organization for the same facility, and obtained a large amount of state funds to keep things going. Stan Cohen (no relation to me) is the Executive Director, and by all accounts he has done a good job.By tapping state government as a major funding source, the Northeast Community Center laid the basis to appeal to various foundations and corporations as well. Dues and fees thus make up a lower percentage of the costs than at many other facilities due to the extensive fundraising, and the costs there should be lower.There has been no talk of the NE Community Center closing, so clearly it is doing OK from a financial point of view. Nor has the NE Times or News Gleaner, to the best of my knowledge, published any attacks on the services offered by the facility. Nor has any constituent offered any complaints to me about it. I have had a couple of occasions to visit the facility, and everything looked fine.
May 25, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=255931#post255931
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Last year, in the last few days of the legislative session, the General Assembly considered HB 1954 amending the First Class City Home Rule Act. The original intent of the Legislation was to give the city the power to update fines and fees in the city that were limited by state statute. There was no opposition to the bill.
However at the last minute, the state Senate inserted an amendment that looked innocuous a first glance, giving the City Council the power to appeal zoning board decisions in court. The bill passed in the closing hours of the session.
We now know that the amendment was inserted at the behest of the billboard industry. And we now know that the amendment’s intent was to seriously restrict the rights of citizens and neighborhood groups to challenge the rulings of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. We now know that it was intended to cripple ongoing citizen efforts to have the city’s zoning ordinances enforced fairly and uniformly in every neighborhood in the city. We now know that the amendment was intended to reverse the success neighborhood groups are having when they challenge overreaching variances granted by the ZBA.
The amendment created a –quote-- “aggrieved person” who is permitted to appeal decisions of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The language further stated that a “aggrieved person” specifically—and I quote-- “does not include taxpayers of the city that are not detrimentally harmed by the decision of the zoning board…” –close quote. This is restrictive language that its authors hope will deny legal standing to most of the city’s community groups on zoning issues.
We do not yet know for sure, whether the new law will have its intended effect. But the issues involved are too important to ignore or to leave to chance. As soon as the bill passed and its true intent became apparent, I led a campaign by Philadelphia legislators to write and call Governor Rendell asking that he veto the legislation. We did not succeed in that effort.
HB 1954 became Act 193 of 2004. It became a cynical attempt to take away the right of citizens to have a meaningful say neighborhood zoning decisions-- a cynical attempt to silence the citizen. And it became, I am sorry to say, one of the worst pieces of legislation of 2004. (My office staff had fun spoofing Act 193 with the Silence of the Lambs movie poster, but the sentiments are real)
Regularly, the ZBA grants variances (exceptions) to zoning ordinances requested by businesses, developers and home owners. Most of those variances are no doubt legitimate but in all too many cases the ZBA has overreached its authority and the courts have said so. If this law stands the rights of the citizens in anti blight organizations, historical societies, preservation groups, crime watch organizations, and other legitimate community organizations will have less say as some development interests continuously seek unwarranted and legally overreaching variances and exceptions from zoning ordinances.
So I stand here today to announce that I, and 22 of my legislative colleagues, have introduced House Bill 1698 to repeal that portion of act 193 that attempts to limit the rights of citizens to challenge the decisions of the ZBA, restoring the law to its pre-2004 condition.I do not believe that citizens should have less say in the issues that affect their neighborhoods and community—they should have more. The public has every right to seek to argue that zoning ordinances passed to protect the community be enforced as written, or that variances are too broad or inappropriate. Community groups have every right to intervene to protect a historic area or buildings, the quality of a residential neighborhood, or oppose nuisance bars, clubs and “businesses,” or to have its views and vistas unobstructed by billboards-- just to give a few examples. They have a right to see that their zoning ordinances are enforced.
June 13, 2005
http://www.goppelt.net/pdf/hb1698remarks.doc
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Zoning law can be a valuable tool for community preservation. It allows community residents a say in what businesses and what level of traffic and what level of outside influences shall be in their community.
June 13, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265250#post265250
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I went to Penn as undergraduate, beginning 40 years ago this September. I have represented area near LaSalle University in the legislature for more than 32 years now, and represented LaSalle itself from 1974 to 1981.Neighbors have problems with LaSalle students too. A former landlord at what was then named Ogontz Manor--now it is called The Manor--once told me that he preferred to rent to community folk instead of college students because the community folk did a better job maintaining the apartments and were less noisy.President Bush kept reporters at bay in the 2000 Presidential campaign with his now-famous statement that "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." Bush's young and irresponsible phase lasted well into his thirties, and undergraduates are generally in the 17 to 23 year old range.College administrators everywhere could improve community relations by giving college kids help in maintaining apartments and homes, from advice on cleaning, to recommendations on who to call for services, to strong admonitions against late-night noisy parties, especially on weekdays. Helping college kids grow up would win community support and reduce the adversarial relationships that too often exist.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264061#post264061
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It's good to see Northwood taking these proactive steps. Improving communities under stress can be difficult, but it is possible to reverse deterioration and set higher standards.The Northwood residents who are leading and working in this effort deserve the thanks not only of their neighbors, but of all Philadelphians.
June 7, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=261839#post261839
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Local history is important, and the history of Northeast Philadelphia is important for many reasons. Northeast Philadelphia today is in a state of change; a study of history shows it has always been in a state of change. This should both reassure some people that change is manageable, and provide some guidance as we deal with the changes of today and tommorrow.We have seen in center city that promoting history can lead to enormous economic benefits. We can reap some of these benefits in the Northeast by promoting our industrial heritage, and the many contributions of Northeast Philadelphians to the welfare of our city, state, and country.In his memoirs, Chase Whitaker describes himself a "rural" boy because he grew up surrounded by Philadelphia farmland. The idea of living in "rural" Philadelphia jars modern sensitivities. He was talking about the early 20th century in which some of our still-living senior citizens were alive.In Northeast Philadelphia's post-World War II period of vast growth, the attractions were the rural or suburban atmosphere, the newness of many of the homes, and the exclusiveness of various neighborhoods in a an era in which housing discrimination was not only legal, but an accepted and widespread fact of life.Today's Northeast will never again be the post-World War II Northeast. But it can continue to be a desirable collection of neighborhoods as long as we recognize that new reasons for people to live here must develop over time to repalce the old ones that no long apply.
May 29, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257010#post257010
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16th and Stenton Area Should Not Be Ruled Out
As the state legislator who represents the area around 16th and Stenton, I know it as a heavily middle class African-American neighborhood with a growing Asian population centered in the Philip Murray House, a non-profit senior citizens residence.Whether one should move there depends on many things besides one's budget. How convenient is it to your jobs and the other places that are important to you? Is it helpful to you to be close to Broad Street and Cheltenham Avenue, which are both major transportation arteries? Is it helpful to you to be within a short drive of Northeast Philadelphia, Northwest Philadelphia, Center City, and Eastern Montgomery County? I think the answers to these questions are generally yes.Property values have gone up here less than in many other parts of the city.This may be a good opportunity to buy at a low price. Or it may be an indication that it is not as good an investment as property elsewhere. Predicting future market values is a difficult task.There is not a lot of night life in this neighborhood. Years ago, residents killed a proposed hotel here. It is a purely middle class residential neighborhood, and the neighbors very much want it to stay that way. If you would like to discuss it with me further, call my legislative office at 215-924-0895 or 215-924-3690.
Post Date 5.11.06
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248567#post248567
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My opponent in the upcoming election contest has charged that my work on developing the Delaware riverfront shows that I do not know the boundaries of my district. This line of reasoning assumes that everyone in my district lives their lives solely within the district’s boundaries.In fact, the vast majority of the people living within the 202nd Legislative District work outside the district and engage in recreational activities outside the district. What determines the value of their homes depends, in significant part, on the occupational and recreational activities that are available near their homes.The Delaware River waterfront is only a short drive away from my constituents in Northeast Philadelphia. To whatever degree we are able to replace unused and underutilized factories with modern factories, office buildings, homes, parks, and trails, we will be tremendously increasing the value of living in Northeast Philadelphia for my constituents and all other residents of the Northeast.The encouraging growth of population in Center City is due in large measure to a massive investment of public money in the Convention Center, hotels, theaters, and other entertainment venues.I am determined that there be a similar increase in public investments in Northeast Philadelphia so that our neighborhoods, no less than Center City’s neighborhoods, will be seen as desirable destinations for middle-class families.
October 28, 2004
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:YX2GBm-KJWYJ:www.northeasttimes.com/2004/1028/letters.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=192
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For many years, there seemed to be a cold war going on between Temple University and various civic groups over the future of North Philadelphia. Temple wanted to keep expanding, and North Philadelphia residents were concerned that Temple expansion threatened the development of new housing forf North Philadelphia residents.The last confrontation there that I remember was over the construction of the Liacouras Center. But since then, there has been continued construction of new buildings for Temple, a massive increase in the amount of new housing for North Philadelphia residents, and a general spirit of optimism as to North Philadelphia's future. We even had the Shriner's Hospital move from Northeast Philadelphia to next door to Temple's Children's Hospital, building North Philadelphia's attractiveness and increasing their service capacity simultaneously.Since the battles over the Liacouras Center, I have heard nothing about Temple/North Philadelphia tensions. Is the cold war over? If not, what are the issues we are going to be hearing about in the future?
June 28, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272803#post272803
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June 10, 2007
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=506466#post506466
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Mayoral candidates should be champions of our neighborhoods, and investments therein. The sixpack of current Democratic mayoral prospects (Jonathan Saidel of Northeast Philadelphia should be added to the above list) is a collection of strong leaders, some or all of whom will have a continuing influence on city government for years to come even if they lose.The center city boom sends various messages. Government investment in developing regional attractions in neighborhoods works. It benefits the neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole. It leverages private investment. It gives people a reason not only to stay, but to help attract friends, family members, and coworkers to join them.The deindustrialization of Philadelphia clearly has negative effects in terms of loss of taxes and people. But, by freeing up considerable amounts of land, it offers the chance to have a Philadelphia with far more shopping, parking, parkland, housing, and tourist attractions. The Fairmount Park system was established to limit what was seen as the negative effects of industrialization in the 1800's, and we are clearly seeing a boom capitalizing on the deindustralization of the late 1900's and the 21st Century.Maintaining the industry we have and attracting more--while maintaining the positive effects of deindustrialization in terms of neighborhood livability--is a balancing act that mayoral candidates and other Philadelphia leaders should be addressing.All candidates should be asked to answer questions such "Why Should People Live in Philadelphia When They Could Live Anywhere Else?" That is the key question we have to understand and become conversant in. The old reasons-- needing to having the vast majority of the city free from racial minorities, having a lot of rediculously low-priced housing, of having systems of religious education that were numerically competitive with the public school system, having large families whose lives were all interwoven with each other, not knowing how to drive, etc.--apply to a lower and lower percentage of the population today.What Philadelphia needs are accurate and compelling rationales for making one's life here. This is a matter of developing new realities more than new marketing strategies. This is a matter of being able to see the future clearly, and being able to act competently and vigorously on the basis of what we see.
June 27, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=20378
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New stadiums in center city would have cost city taxpayers a lot more money than the stadiums cost in South Philadelphia. There would have been substantial land acquisition costs, plus the need for a greatly expanded transportation infrastructure to match the transportation infrastructure long in effect near the sports complex.Even though Governor Tom Ridge sold the state aid for the stadiums to the legislature on the premise that one-third would be paid for by the state, one-third by the city, and one-third by the teams, the city of Philadelphia wound up paying for a majority of the costs. The city share could have easily hit 75% to 80% with a center city location, which would have greatly limited the city's ability to make further wage-tax cuts.The Olympic Committee is not alone in liking the vast amount of empty space used as parking space around the stadiums. You will recall that it was the Wachovia Center in the sports complex--not the Convention Center--that was the site of the 2000 Republican National Convention for precisely the same reasons. The Convention Center was relegated to auxiliary roles for the Republican National Convention because its lack of outside empty space made it less valuable for those running the Convention.Furthermore, the magnet that is center city has to keep growing in the public mind if the city of Philadelphia is to reverse its long-term population decline. The concept of center city Philadelphia continues to expand into North Philadelphia, Fishtown, Bridesburg, and South Philadelphia. I am running into more and more professionals who are choosing to move into South Philadelphia: this is a good thing. The sports complex, the rebuilt Navy Yard, riverfront condos, the spread of high quality restaurants, charter schools, and many other factors are increasingly sending the message that the South Philadelphia of the 21st Century will be much more of a magnet for successful people than was the South Philadelphia of the 19th and 20th Centuries.
June 27, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272654#post272654
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We are seeing more than the upward mobility which has always caused some people to move out of whatever neighborhoods they have grown up in or started a family in.What we are also seeing is widespread economic underachievement due to a lack of adequate economic opportunity, and a growing downward mobility from people who cannot meet the lifestyle of their parents or cannot sustain the early momentum of a good record in school or a good start in the workforce.One can always find similarities with the past in any set of current problems. But some of what the Brookings Institute reports is genuinely new and deeply disturbing.
June 25, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=271454#post271454
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Neighbors have problems with LaSalle students too. A former landlord at what was then named Ogontz Manor--now it is called The Manor--once told me that he preferred to rent to community folk instead of college students because the community folk did a better job maintaining the apartments and were less noisy.President Bush kept reporters at bay in the 2000 Presidential campaign with his now-famous statement that "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." Bush's young and irresponsible phase lasted well into his thirties, and undergraduates are generally in the 17 to 23 year old range.College administrators everywhere could improve community relations by giving college kids help in maintaining apartments and homes, from advice on cleaning, to recommendations on who to call for services, to strong admonitions against late-night noisy parties, especially on weekdays. Helping college kids grow up would win community support and reduce the adversarial relationships that too often exist.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264061#post264061
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I have had enough contact with Tacony elected officials and community leaders to believe that Tacony has a very good leadership team of people with vision and competence and dedicated to the welfare and future of the community.I would hope that the owner of the Tacony gym would get the place fixed up so that the community can continue its rise to becoming one of the most attractive neighborhoods in the city.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264057#post264057
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The idea of suburban paradise certainly is a mainstay of American culture, a--of equal importance--major stimulus to the real estate industry. Many people are sold on the idea of buying a starter home and then gradually making further home purchases until one arrives in the most exclusive neighborhood possible.This has not always been the way home purchases have been been seen. My father deserves a footnote in the history of American real estate development because as a young lawyer he write a highly regarded law review article (with Albert B. Gerber) urging federal courts to get rid of the "after-acquired property" doctrine under which people could only borrow based on currently assets and not on the basis of projected future earnings. The New Deal federal courts ultimately followed this advice from him and many others, and in doing so greatly expanded the opportunities for home ownership across America, including suburban development and the dramatic expansion of Northeast Philadelphia.Before the after acquired property doctrine--originally a conservative response to the perceived radicalism of Andrew Jackson--was repealed in the 1940's, less than a third of all Americans owned their own homes. Today over two thirds of all Americans own their own homes. This fact alone indicates a massive change in the social fabric.Yet, David Cohen paradoxically was a believer that neighborhoods were communities, and that neighborhood residents were community members. Contrary to the view of one of his contemporaries--who told me he was moving because "the community is moving and I want to go with them"--he believed that a housing purchase should indicate at least a long-term commitment to a neighborhood if not a life-time commitment, and that community membership was forever renewable with each new member moving in.So deep was his belief that housing indicated neighborhood commitment that he was barely aware of other perspectives. I once made the unremarkable observation that many people see housing primarily as a consumer purchase, and he discussed this with me and others for weeks afterwards.Philadelphia is certainly competing with suburbs every day. New housing in Philadelphia is helpful for us, but we have to both improve our neighborhoods and document their strengths must more than we have. And we have to undermine the belief that a high-quality neighborhood is established by the lack of members of racial minorities. We need more objective criteria than that to have any chance at all of being truly competitive.
June 4, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=259942#post259942
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A few years ago, my brother served as head of the Overbrook Farms Club, a civic organization dedicated to betterment of that community. As a result of his activism, I got to meet many leaders of the Overbrook Farms community at various events that he hosted.I am very impressed by the time so many put into various community improvement projects, from improving the local park to studying the architecture and history of local houses. This is clearly a bunch of can-do people, who already have a significant record of community achievement.Of course, many problems remain. But I cannot help but be optimistic that the people of the community include in their ranks many who are more than equal to the problems. I feel that Overbrook Farms is certainly a community that deserves consideration in residential home-buying decisions.
May 28, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256829#post256829
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When the Northeast Branch of the YMCA closed, many people in Northeast Philadelphia were horrified. They worked to set up a new organization for the same facility, and obtained a large amount of state funds to keep things going. Stan Cohen (no relation to me) is the Executive Director, and by all accounts he has done a good job.By tapping state government as a major funding source, the Northeast Community Center laid the basis to appeal to various foundations and corporations as well. Dues and fees thus make up a lower percentage of the costs than at many other facilities due to the extensive fundraising, and the costs there should be lower.There has been no talk of the NE Community Center closing, so clearly it is doing OK from a financial point of view. Nor has the NE Times or News Gleaner, to the best of my knowledge, published any attacks on the services offered by the facility. Nor has any constituent offered any complaints to me about it. I have had a couple of occasions to visit the facility, and everything looked fine.
May 25, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=255931#post255931
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Last year, in the last few days of the legislative session, the General Assembly considered HB 1954 amending the First Class City Home Rule Act. The original intent of the Legislation was to give the city the power to update fines and fees in the city that were limited by state statute. There was no opposition to the bill.
However at the last minute, the state Senate inserted an amendment that looked innocuous a first glance, giving the City Council the power to appeal zoning board decisions in court. The bill passed in the closing hours of the session.
We now know that the amendment was inserted at the behest of the billboard industry. And we now know that the amendment’s intent was to seriously restrict the rights of citizens and neighborhood groups to challenge the rulings of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. We now know that it was intended to cripple ongoing citizen efforts to have the city’s zoning ordinances enforced fairly and uniformly in every neighborhood in the city. We now know that the amendment was intended to reverse the success neighborhood groups are having when they challenge overreaching variances granted by the ZBA.
The amendment created a –quote-- “aggrieved person” who is permitted to appeal decisions of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. The language further stated that a “aggrieved person” specifically—and I quote-- “does not include taxpayers of the city that are not detrimentally harmed by the decision of the zoning board…” –close quote. This is restrictive language that its authors hope will deny legal standing to most of the city’s community groups on zoning issues.
We do not yet know for sure, whether the new law will have its intended effect. But the issues involved are too important to ignore or to leave to chance. As soon as the bill passed and its true intent became apparent, I led a campaign by Philadelphia legislators to write and call Governor Rendell asking that he veto the legislation. We did not succeed in that effort.
HB 1954 became Act 193 of 2004. It became a cynical attempt to take away the right of citizens to have a meaningful say neighborhood zoning decisions-- a cynical attempt to silence the citizen. And it became, I am sorry to say, one of the worst pieces of legislation of 2004. (My office staff had fun spoofing Act 193 with the Silence of the Lambs movie poster, but the sentiments are real)
Regularly, the ZBA grants variances (exceptions) to zoning ordinances requested by businesses, developers and home owners. Most of those variances are no doubt legitimate but in all too many cases the ZBA has overreached its authority and the courts have said so. If this law stands the rights of the citizens in anti blight organizations, historical societies, preservation groups, crime watch organizations, and other legitimate community organizations will have less say as some development interests continuously seek unwarranted and legally overreaching variances and exceptions from zoning ordinances.
So I stand here today to announce that I, and 22 of my legislative colleagues, have introduced House Bill 1698 to repeal that portion of act 193 that attempts to limit the rights of citizens to challenge the decisions of the ZBA, restoring the law to its pre-2004 condition.I do not believe that citizens should have less say in the issues that affect their neighborhoods and community—they should have more. The public has every right to seek to argue that zoning ordinances passed to protect the community be enforced as written, or that variances are too broad or inappropriate. Community groups have every right to intervene to protect a historic area or buildings, the quality of a residential neighborhood, or oppose nuisance bars, clubs and “businesses,” or to have its views and vistas unobstructed by billboards-- just to give a few examples. They have a right to see that their zoning ordinances are enforced.
June 13, 2005
http://www.goppelt.net/pdf/hb1698remarks.doc
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Zoning law can be a valuable tool for community preservation. It allows community residents a say in what businesses and what level of traffic and what level of outside influences shall be in their community.
June 13, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265250#post265250
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I went to Penn as undergraduate, beginning 40 years ago this September. I have represented area near LaSalle University in the legislature for more than 32 years now, and represented LaSalle itself from 1974 to 1981.Neighbors have problems with LaSalle students too. A former landlord at what was then named Ogontz Manor--now it is called The Manor--once told me that he preferred to rent to community folk instead of college students because the community folk did a better job maintaining the apartments and were less noisy.President Bush kept reporters at bay in the 2000 Presidential campaign with his now-famous statement that "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." Bush's young and irresponsible phase lasted well into his thirties, and undergraduates are generally in the 17 to 23 year old range.College administrators everywhere could improve community relations by giving college kids help in maintaining apartments and homes, from advice on cleaning, to recommendations on who to call for services, to strong admonitions against late-night noisy parties, especially on weekdays. Helping college kids grow up would win community support and reduce the adversarial relationships that too often exist.
June 11, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=264061#post264061
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It's good to see Northwood taking these proactive steps. Improving communities under stress can be difficult, but it is possible to reverse deterioration and set higher standards.The Northwood residents who are leading and working in this effort deserve the thanks not only of their neighbors, but of all Philadelphians.
June 7, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=261839#post261839
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Local history is important, and the history of Northeast Philadelphia is important for many reasons. Northeast Philadelphia today is in a state of change; a study of history shows it has always been in a state of change. This should both reassure some people that change is manageable, and provide some guidance as we deal with the changes of today and tommorrow.We have seen in center city that promoting history can lead to enormous economic benefits. We can reap some of these benefits in the Northeast by promoting our industrial heritage, and the many contributions of Northeast Philadelphians to the welfare of our city, state, and country.In his memoirs, Chase Whitaker describes himself a "rural" boy because he grew up surrounded by Philadelphia farmland. The idea of living in "rural" Philadelphia jars modern sensitivities. He was talking about the early 20th century in which some of our still-living senior citizens were alive.In Northeast Philadelphia's post-World War II period of vast growth, the attractions were the rural or suburban atmosphere, the newness of many of the homes, and the exclusiveness of various neighborhoods in a an era in which housing discrimination was not only legal, but an accepted and widespread fact of life.Today's Northeast will never again be the post-World War II Northeast. But it can continue to be a desirable collection of neighborhoods as long as we recognize that new reasons for people to live here must develop over time to repalce the old ones that no long apply.
May 29, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=257010#post257010
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16th and Stenton Area Should Not Be Ruled Out
As the state legislator who represents the area around 16th and Stenton, I know it as a heavily middle class African-American neighborhood with a growing Asian population centered in the Philip Murray House, a non-profit senior citizens residence.Whether one should move there depends on many things besides one's budget. How convenient is it to your jobs and the other places that are important to you? Is it helpful to you to be close to Broad Street and Cheltenham Avenue, which are both major transportation arteries? Is it helpful to you to be within a short drive of Northeast Philadelphia, Northwest Philadelphia, Center City, and Eastern Montgomery County? I think the answers to these questions are generally yes.Property values have gone up here less than in many other parts of the city.This may be a good opportunity to buy at a low price. Or it may be an indication that it is not as good an investment as property elsewhere. Predicting future market values is a difficult task.There is not a lot of night life in this neighborhood. Years ago, residents killed a proposed hotel here. It is a purely middle class residential neighborhood, and the neighbors very much want it to stay that way. If you would like to discuss it with me further, call my legislative office at 215-924-0895 or 215-924-3690.
Post Date 5.11.06
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248567#post248567
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My opponent in the upcoming election contest has charged that my work on developing the Delaware riverfront shows that I do not know the boundaries of my district. This line of reasoning assumes that everyone in my district lives their lives solely within the district’s boundaries.In fact, the vast majority of the people living within the 202nd Legislative District work outside the district and engage in recreational activities outside the district. What determines the value of their homes depends, in significant part, on the occupational and recreational activities that are available near their homes.The Delaware River waterfront is only a short drive away from my constituents in Northeast Philadelphia. To whatever degree we are able to replace unused and underutilized factories with modern factories, office buildings, homes, parks, and trails, we will be tremendously increasing the value of living in Northeast Philadelphia for my constituents and all other residents of the Northeast.The encouraging growth of population in Center City is due in large measure to a massive investment of public money in the Convention Center, hotels, theaters, and other entertainment venues.I am determined that there be a similar increase in public investments in Northeast Philadelphia so that our neighborhoods, no less than Center City’s neighborhoods, will be seen as desirable destinations for middle-class families.
October 28, 2004
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:YX2GBm-KJWYJ:www.northeasttimes.com/2004/1028/letters.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=192
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For many years, there seemed to be a cold war going on between Temple University and various civic groups over the future of North Philadelphia. Temple wanted to keep expanding, and North Philadelphia residents were concerned that Temple expansion threatened the development of new housing forf North Philadelphia residents.The last confrontation there that I remember was over the construction of the Liacouras Center. But since then, there has been continued construction of new buildings for Temple, a massive increase in the amount of new housing for North Philadelphia residents, and a general spirit of optimism as to North Philadelphia's future. We even had the Shriner's Hospital move from Northeast Philadelphia to next door to Temple's Children's Hospital, building North Philadelphia's attractiveness and increasing their service capacity simultaneously.Since the battles over the Liacouras Center, I have heard nothing about Temple/North Philadelphia tensions. Is the cold war over? If not, what are the issues we are going to be hearing about in the future?
June 28, 2006
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272803#post272803
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posted by Comment on Pennsylvania Legislation at 11:37 AM
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