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Soul of the Black Bottom - new mural by eL Seed on 40th & Preston

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Mantua artist's resistance pushes Philly to build a better grocery store

The developers also deserve kudos for pricing 20 percent of their units for low-income residents. Despite Mantua’s Oz-like view of the Center City skyline, it’s one of the most devastated neighborhoods in the city. The population has plunged from 20,000 in 1940 to roughly 6,000 today, and just a third of the residents own their homes.

Yet, because of its proximity to Drexel University and its development juggernaut, student housing developments are lapping at Mantua’s front door. If Amazon chooses to put its new headquarters in Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Yards, Mantua will be at the head of the line for gentrification. Developments like the one proposed by Lomax can cushion the onslaught. What a lucky break that James Dupree was there to keep this valuable parcel from being wasted by a supermarket parking lot.

Via philly.com 

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Today on Locust Walk & 40th: Welcome to Black Bottom

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"It is high time that the best conscience of Philadelphia awakened to her duty." - W.E.B. DuBois The "Black Bottom" is the history of African-Americans who came to West Philly from the South during the Great Migration. The mission of the BBTA is telling stories. Via Lancaster Avenue - West Philadelphia, PA.

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City’s highest rents are in University City, according to reports

“Rents in the city continue to grow, and University City is one of Philadelphia’s most expensive areas to rent, according to recent reports. In its last month’s report based on the data from real estate company Zumper, Philly.com writes that the average one-bedroom rental is $1,800 per month in the area, making it the second most expensive neighborhood in the city (Logan Circle is first). This is a 14 percent increase from February 2016.However, it’s important to clarify that the report defines University City as the area between 40th Street west to the Schuylkill River east, which includes the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University campuses where some of the city’s most expensive high-rise apartment buildings were built over the last few years.”

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Advocates seek Mantua zoning plan

With their neighborhood on a wave of change, Mantua community leaders and activists are working to make sure long-time residents stay afloat.

“Their fight is centered around a plan to rezone the entire neighborhood from a multi-family residential designation to single-family area. A change in zoning would make it more difficult for developers to build student housing, with Drexel University nearby. “I’m not anti-development,” said De’Wayne Drummond, president of the Mantua Civic Association. “We just want to be at the table.” Mantua, much like the rest of West Philadelphia, has not seen a change in zoning since the 1950s. Developers do not need a variance from the Zoning Board to build multi-unit apartments in the area under the current zoning designation. With the expansion of Drexel University and the adjacent University of Pennsylvania, an increasing student population has caught the interest of outside developers.

“In the Bottom, the only place we have to go is up.”

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Community meeting this Wednesday for large development project at 49th and Spruce

A 9-story, 130-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail is proposed to be built on the parking lot at 4900 Spruce Street (see rendering above), and this will be the focus of a Garden Court Community Association (GCCA) meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

“Information has been spotty at best so this is intended as a cross RCO community meeting,” writes GCCA Vice President and Zoning Chair Lauren Hansen-Flaschen. GCCA has been designated as an official RCO (Registered Community Organization) for the project, and developers are expected to be present at the meeting.

The building’s proposed height of nine stories and other features will require zoning variances. The developers of the nearby 8-story Croydon Hall Apartments, a once notorious squatters’ haven, are proposing the project. They own the parking lot at 49th and Spruce and lease spots there to Croydon residents. But the lot has remained mostly empty.

The meeting will take place at The Enterprise Center, 4548 Market Street, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

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Powelton Village: A Neighborhood In Transition

The area surrounding him is changing rapidly.

Zach Howell notices it everyday when he walks from his home in Powelton Village to class at nearby Drexel University.

“I feel like Drexel is kind of expanding, so my area is becoming a little more … I guess gentrified would be the word,” said the 23-year-old computer science student.

An area rich with history and enormous, Victorian-era homes, Powelton Village has largely succumbed to the effects of having a top-tier university just blocks away.

According to the “Powelton Village Neighborhood & Demographic Study” conducted by KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. and Real Estate Strategies, Inc. in January 2015, Powelton Village’s homeownership rate has been steadily declining over the last several decades.

From 1990 to 2000, the homeownership rate fell from 17.8 percent to 16.4 percent. As of 2010, the area’s homeownership rate plummeted to 13.1 percent.

The community once known for its diversity of race and radical ideals is now largely comprised by the Drexel student population.