phillymag.comPosted Jun 23, 2017, 1:42 PM UTC
Wait, which part are we supposed to be protesting? Garages? Roofdecks? Elevators? Townhomes?
I, for one, am fine with the 4-story townhomes, roofdecks, and garages, but fuck right off with those elevators New York scum! What happened to Philly?
Move to Frankford. Too bad Philly isn't more like NYC or we would have gotten a sweet high rise.
After reading the title to this post I thought, "who the fuck could have such a backwards world view?" Then I saw the username and it all made sense.
That lot is an overgrown mess that harbors bums and junkies. This development is a fantastic proposition for anyone who cares about their neighborhood. It will only improve the adjacent park.
Doesn't sound like a problem to me. It will increase the tax base and provide more housing
Why are you so angry all the time?
This is by right construction. I would have preferred something taller/denser but this is fine. There is no way for you to stop it.
I'm against these town homes, but because I think this site should be much denser development.
This has to be redwoodsers alt?
You've got a real rage boner for NYC, did one of the boroughs do something terrible to you that you never forgave it for?
He probably lived through the late 90s, early 2000s gentrification blitz like I did.
I see a lot of $50,000/yr YUPPIEs in Philly and on this board that don't understand that they're not going to survive a NYC style gentrification blitz because they don't have the money. They seem to think that it's only going to be poor white people in South Philly and Poor Black people in North Philly that get slammed around, when that's almost certainly not the case. Gentrification in NYC murdered anything resembling the middle class, even prior to the financial crash.
These developers are going to lean on the counsel(s) to lean on the police to reduce crime. Then they're going to lean on them again to get the schools fixed. Then it's all over and you're going to see a lot of sad faces around here as rent doubles in a decade.
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Again let me know how you feel when your rent doubles.
Yeah except Philly has more than double the home ownership rate of NYC. Not everybody rents.
This is awesome. Couple high rises would have been even better.
Think you missed the memo that philly is the 6th borough .
NO. Philly is NOT New York, and you're in for a rude awakening if you think it is.
WE SHOULD FILL THE WHOLE CITY WITH NOTHING BUT POOR PEOPLE. THAT WILL MAKE THINGS BETTER!
Meh.
"4-story townhomes with garages, roofdecks, and elevators."
So the minus the elevators, like all the other residential construction in the area? Are you just mad about elevators?
What are the exact dimensions of a chuck?
Yes yes yes, gentrification bad blah blah.
But it is not bad is it? It is how it is done is bad, by that I mean people that get priced out by taxes for their homes and have to move that is not great. Residents(Homeowners) of neighborhoods that live in gentrifying areas should not be taxed more if they have been for x+ years. New residents should, that is fair.
Developers wanting to build in this city is good. It means there is value here that means companies and work are here. People that work in the city that can afford it live here. if you cant afford you cant live here, thats how SF, NYC and other major metropolitan cities work. That is life. We shouldn't be sacrificing the city development to save low income neighborhoods.
I care for the poor, but instead of saving these low income neighborhoods how about we invest money in their education, retraining for work so they can earn more and live here, have better jobs, and more money.
People moving into cities and raising the costs is how it works everywhere, how a developing city works. Bitching and moaning about it just shows you want to do nothing instead of invest in the low income folks, and be happy the city is becoming better.
I was going to write many hours ago about how I've loved Penn Treaty Park for over 30 years, and how I think that the planned apartment building next to it is really beautiful, although somewhat sadly placed, because living in a 3 story home with that amount of window and a private deck near the top would probably be amazing, but then I read some of your comments about capitalism and the Empire and racism in the Western hemisphere and how the United States was a nation of delusional fucking hypocrites, and I was sooo impressed and freaked out that I decided that arguing with you was not something that I wanted to do. Thank you. Stay well. The end.
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ITT: OP states popular anti new york opinion but is downvoted anyway for losing his cool
this is awesome, let's clean up that hellhole once and for good
Do you even live in the city? WTF are you even talking about-- a hellhole? This area is perfectly fine. The only problem is a lack of affordable housing. But I guarantee you this development will be far out of reach in price for all but the rich. Where the FUCK is the new housing that people making $40k or less can live in?! There's NOTHING. Nobody here wants these stupid fucking roofdeck garage townhomes. Fuck off back to brooklyn with that shit.
I'm looking at zillow and see plenty of affordable housing in other neighborhoods - I can't buy in the Ritz or Liberty Two but I'm not going on psychotic rants about it
There is affordable housing all over the city. It's gentrification still. Afford it or move somewhere else. It sucks but commerce rules in America.
It rules in America because you all allowed it to. You're all pussies for taking it.
So I'm gonna vote and advocate for the bottom items until you all come to your senses.
I now support the following things because "commerce rules in America":
Landlord no longer need to abide by wasteful restrictions like mandatory fire alams, door locks, or bathrooms in their properties.
When tenants sign a lease, they become part of the property of a landlord. The leases are indefinite and tenant may only leave property with landlord permission.
Landlords may raise rent as much as they want with a 30 minute notice to the tenant. If tenant cannot pay new rent, the tenant will subsidize his/her rental fee with labor to the landlord.
Full police free access to housing properties at any and all times. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.
Mandatory 80 hour work weeks, Sunday to Sunday. Weekends as "off" days are abolished.
Companies do not need to pay overtime.
No more company provided healthcare, vacation days, or 401ks. These things reduce value to the company.
Removal of minimum wage. Companies are allowed to pay what they want.
Companies are allowed to require their employees to live within the company building, and levy a rent on them by withholding part of their wages.
This is the new America. Survival of the fittest. Freest country in the world. If you can't make that's because you're lazy and have no work ethic. Only the hard-working and smart will succeed.
What the fuck are you babbling about?
You're goofy.
Looks good to me. Move to Cuba Comrade. Better dead than red.
Just imagine how the blue-collar population that lived in Fishtown and Kensington for a hundred years felt when vibrant and creative transplants started moving in in the 90s and drawing housing prices up.
I agree we need to do better with gentrification in this town. If you look at Plan Philly right now, they are working on more aggressive legislation for it. Fishtown is a long lost battle though. Your best bet is to look for another area in Philly where creative types can afford a rent or mortgage, which will definitely be a less commercially viable and safer neighborhood than Fishtown currently is, and start putting down anti-gentrification community roots BEFORE the neighborhood gets hot.
There would be plenty of affordable homes being built if Philly did not have such high construction costs. The main reason is a requirement for union labor, entitlement costs, etc.
The city makes it extremely hard for developers to build lower priced homes, it's just not financially feasible. As they say in Philly: "we have NYC costs, but are getting Baltimore rents (or in this case, prices)."
What's the requirement for union labor on a project at this scale? I thought the developer was free to use non-union (they just might draw negative attention)
What's that?
They aren't legally required. But if they don't the following things happen: car is vandalized, family is terrorized, construction site is frequently trespassed and equipment stolen/destroyed.
Costs for anything that involves going through philadelphia's overly-complex entitlement process: designers, consultants, lawyers, fees.
Philadelphia has some of, if not the most deep rooted unions in the country. There's no requirement to use union labor on any project but like you said it draws negative attention. Because unions pay higher wages it effectively drives up the minimum wage for those jobs, whether you're in a union or not.
Er..... That's far from our only problem.
You can buy a house for $35,000 below Lehigh. It's not new but it's impossible to do new construction for people making less than $40k unless the govt. kicks in some money.
Old Fishtowners could have held on to their properties and kept rent cheap but they didn't. If someone offered $300k they could have insisted on making it $80k but they took the money. Alas.