How Can Drexel Hill Be Revived??? (Philadelphia, Chester: section 8, crime, homes)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Terminology nit: Drexel Hill is a neighborhood within Upper Darby Township. It's not a "town" unto itself.



I wonder which store you're referring to. The ShopRite is in the Drexeline shopping center, next to the Drexelbrook apartment community. There was another Drexeline supermarket (the stores' original name) in the Beverly Hills shopping center; that one became a Fresh Grocer, but Ron Burns closed that store before taking the chain into the ShopRite cooperative. Are you talking about that store, or the one in the Drexeline shopping center? That last one's still open.



How deep is "deep"?

One of the two original buildings of West Philadelphia High School now contains upscale apartments, and the other is being converted as we speak.

And I spotted these in the 5400 block of Chancellor Street a few weeks before Christmas:



I don't think we should have "dramatic" change; gradual works better. And this looks like just that.

More specific to W. Philly do you know what the huge building going up in the 5900 block of Market St is going to be?

[frbrown]

Originally Posted by kyb01

More specific to W. Philly do you know what the huge building going up in the 5900 block of Market St is going to be?

Here is the CDR for 5901 Market

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by frbrown

Here is the CDR for 5901 Market

Thanks!

[Flyers Girl]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

I wonder which store you're referring to. The ShopRite is in the Drexeline shopping center, next to the Drexelbrook apartment community. There was another Drexeline supermarket (the stores' original name) in the Beverly Hills shopping center; that one became a Fresh Grocer, but Ron Burns closed that store before taking the chain into the ShopRite cooperative. Are you talking about that store, or the one in the Drexeline shopping center? That last one's still open.

I don't know anything about the one in the Beverly Hills shopping center, but can tell you that the ShopRite in Drexeline Shopping Center used to be a Fresh Grocer years ago.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Flyers Girl

I don't know anything about the one in the Beverly Hills shopping center, but can tell you that the ShopRite in Drexeline Shopping Center used to be a Fresh Grocer years ago.

Yes, I know. Its owner (Ron Burns) converted it to that format after opening the first Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut at Penn's behest. (I was working in Penn's communications office at the time. The supermarket was one of the linchpins of a multi-pronged strategy to shore up the neighborhood immediately west of campus. The other three key components were a low-interest forgivable home improvement loan program, super-cheap mortgages for university faculty and staff, and a university-assisted public school in the neighborhood's middle.)

The supermarket proved a hit, and after that, Burns quickly expanded the chain by both building some new stores (56th and Chestnut; 4th and Adams streets in Wilmington; and locations in Villanova and New Brunswick, NJ, both since closed or sold) and converting existing ones, sometimes bought from other operators (his Drexeline and Beverly Hills stores; two that he bought in the city, at 53d and Chester in SW Philly and Chelten and Pulaski avenues in Germantown).

When Burns joined the ShopRite cooperative, he converted the Drexeline store to a ShopRite. All the other converted stores he had closed by the time he became a Wakefern owner. He's had a good deal of success locating stores near college campuses (Progress Plaza, just below Temple) and partnering with colleges who wanted to run plays from Penn's playbook (La Salle, which invited him to open a new store in a strip mall it was building on the site of its old football stadium. That led him to close the Germantown store, as this one's on the other side of the neighborhood - and three blocks from where I live).

One other ShopRite owner, Jeff Brown, has opened three Fresh Grocers in former Pathmarks: Cedarbrook Plaza, Wynnefield Heights and Upper Darby. Burns opened one in the former Pathmark in Grays Ferry.

[Pilot1]

Move it to Chester County?

[FKD19124]

whats wrong with it now????

Originally Posted by nailz215

Drexel Hill has so many things going for it. Beautiful homes, diversity, walkable streets, and close proximity to CC.
Why is it so hard to revive this beautiful town??? I saw they were working on fixing up the ShopRite. But the plan seems really bad. Why add a storage locker?

Anyway. I was wondering if anyone has been thinking about this? What can be done to revive DH?? A town, that has so much to give..

[Patmcpsu]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

Move it to Chester County?

It's easy to blame the county as a whole, but if you look at the numbers, only a small portion of the property taxes go to the county:
Delaware County 2018 Tax Rate Table

In Upper Darby's case (in which Drexel Hill is located), the breakdown is:

• County - 5.6
• Township - 14.5
• School district - 37.1

Most of the pain is self-inflicted instead of being county-inflicted. In fact, you'll see that the areas out on the county's fringes (i.e. Chadds Ford, Edgemont, Newtown Square, Radnor) have the lowest taxes because they have to compete with (and, in some cases, share a school district with) Chester and Montgomery counties. Media is the outlier, as it is deep within Delco, but has low taxes. At the same time, similarly affluent Wallingford/Swarthmore has high taxes right next door.

Low taxes are possible in Delco. The problem is the vicious cycle of high taxes hurting property values, which forces tax-rates to to up more and hurt property values. This just happens to occur more-often in Delco.

Reference:
Delaware County has a CLR Factor of 1.72 and the equations for calculating property taxes are:
Assessed Value = Property Value / CLR Factor
Property Tax Amount = Millage Rate * Assessed Value

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by Patmcpsu

It's easy to blame the county as a whole, but if you look at the numbers, only a small portion of the property taxes go to the county:
Delaware County 2018 Tax Rate Table

In Upper Darby's case (in which Drexel Hill is located), the breakdown is:

• County - 5.6
• Township - 14.5
• School district - 37.1

Most of the pain is self-inflicted instead of being county-inflicted. In fact, you'll see that the areas out on the county's fringes (i.e. Chadds Ford, Edgemont, Newtown Square, Radnor) have the lowest taxes because they have to compete with (and, in some cases, share a school district with) Chester and Montgomery counties. Media is the outlier, as it is deep within Delco, but has low taxes. At the same time, similarly affluent Wallingford/Swarthmore has high taxes right next door.

Low taxes are possible in Delco. The problem is the vicious cycle of high taxes hurting property values, which forces tax-rates to to up more and hurt property values. This just happens to occur more-often in Delco.

Reference:
Delaware County has a CLR Factor of 1.72 and the equations for calculating property taxes are:
Assessed Value = Property Value / CLR Factor
Property Tax Amount = Millage Rate * Assessed Value

I wasn't talking for tax reasons, more for crime, and environment. My taxes in Chester County have become outrageous, and yes they mostly go to the School District, not County. Over the twenty one years I have owned my property taxes have gone up more than double CPI (the rate of inflation) over that period, and there really is no recourse other than MOVING.

I grew up in Springfield, and had relatives in Drexel Hill where I spent a lot of time, so I know the area, or "knew" the area. I don't get down there these days, but from what I can see, while still a good area, I don't know if the direction it has gone over the years has been positive. The real estate, and property taxes look to be a deterrent, but I will say this, there are some beautiful, older homes there, and it offers convenience to Penn, Drexel, and Center City. There's worse places one could live.

[NYtoNJtoPA]

Upper Darby blows. Drexel Hill is the "rich" section of an otherwise undesirable area.