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MDAllstar: While there are no city programs aimed specifically at Black businesses in Philadelphia, I think that the goals of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations' Commercial Corridsor Policy Agenda, drafted in 2017, also have the effect of strengthening Black-owned, neightoorhood-based businesses.
The PACDC is an advocacy and support group whose membership includes most of the city's neighborhood-based community development corporations (but not all: one notable CDC that's not a PACDC member is the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation in West Oak Lane. This CDC has longstanding ties to U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who was one of its founders; for eight years in the early 2000s, it sponsored a summer music and arts festival (archived page) that drew tens of thousands to the neighborhood — including me, who learned about West Oak Lane through attending WOLJAF. The festival shut down in 2012 amid some criticism of OARC's use of state grants to put it on. The Bynums opened Relish in the restaurant space in the 7100 block of Ogontz, where the festival stage was located, several years after the festival's demise).
I do know several of the principals of the Germantown United CDC, which is a PACDC member. Another crossroads near me, but from what I can tell, it didn't do all that much to strengthen it, and it disappeared not long before I became a Germantowner in 2013.
MDAllstar: While there are no city programs aimed specifically at Black businesses in Philadelphia, I think that the goals of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations' Commercial Corridsor Policy Agenda, drafted in 2017, also have the effect of strengthening Black-owned, neightoorhood-based businesses.
The PACDC is an advocacy and support group whose membership includes most of the city's neighborhood-based community development corporations (but not all: one notable CDC that's not a PACDC member is the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation in West Oak Lane. This CDC has longstanding ties to U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who was one of its founders; for eight years in the early 2000s, it sponsored a summer music and arts festival (archived page) that drew tens of thousands to the neighborhood — including me, who learned about West Oak Lane through attending WOLJAF. The festival shut down in 2012 amid some criticism of OARC's use of state grants to put it on. The Bynums opened Relish in the restaurant space in the 7100 block of Ogontz, where the festival stage was located, several years after the festival's demise).
I do know several of the principals of the Germantown United CDC, which is a PACDC member. Another crossroads near me, but from what I can tell, it didn't do all that much to strengthen it, and it disappeared not long before I became a Germantowner in 2013.
Very interesting! According to this there are 37 neighborhood corridors represented in the PACDC. How many of those are in Black neighborhoods? And of those, is there anything significant happening along them?
If the CDC’s in Black neighborhoods haven’t been successful to date in bringing retail to their corridors, do you see any other strategies being used by Philadelphia to incentivize businesses?
Very interesting! According to this there are 37 neighborhood corridors represented in the PACDC. How many of those are in Black neighborhoods? And of those, is there anything significant happening along them?
If the CDC’s in Black neighborhoods haven’t been successful to date in bringing retail to their corridors, do you see any other strategies being used by Philadelphia to incentivize businesses?
Of the 37 CDCs on the map in that report, the following serve mostly Black neighborhoods:
*Mt. Airy is the famously integrated neighborhood in upper Northwest Philadelphia; however, almost two-thirds of its residents are Black.
Several of the commercial corridors/districts on that map are actually in quite good shape, especially the ones managed by the Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Manayunk, Roxborough, Old City, Passyunk Avenue and South Street/Head House Square CDCs. Chinatown doesn't lack for business activity, either, but it happens to be the poorest neighborhood in Center City.
Others, like the one in Germantown, are in okay shape but could stand some improvement. OARC has done a good job of keeping that 7100 block of Ogontz attractive and filled with businesses. And many of the businesses along Baltimore Avenue, where the University City District is the corridor manager, are Black-owned, in a number of cases by African immigrants. (The neighborhoods bordering Baltimore Avenue — Spruce Hill, Squirrel Hill, Cedar Park — have fluctuated in their racial makeup; Cedar Park, for instance, went from 70 percent Black to plurality white within the last 20 years.)
The two corridors that IMO have changed most dramatically in the last decade or so are those in Nicetown and Francisville. The head of the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation, Penelope Giles, has been quoted in the media as saying her goal was to "put Francisville on the map," and FNDC has a reputation as being perhaps the most development-friendly of all 37 CDCs. The Nicetown CDC ("Working Together to Put the Nice Back in the Town" — love their slogan) sponsored a two-block-long mixed-use apartment/retail development along Germantown Avenue just south of Wayne Junction and managed to find several Black-owned small businesses to fill them.
I also realize I didn't put the name of the other, now-defunct, Germantown CDC in my prior post. It was called the Germantown Restoration CDC, and the commercial district it focused on was the one near where I live, at the intersection of Chew and Chelten avenues. There's still a sign for it over its old office on Germantown Avenue (within the purview of GUCDC's commercial corridor), but it had either faded away already or was fading away when I took up residence in Germantown in 2013.
Edited to add: On that map, only the CDCs whose names appear in boldface are PACDC members.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 04-29-2022 at 06:33 AM..
Some people think West Indians' favorite movie is Cool Runnings and will run up to you and throw a mango at your head if they find out your grandparents are from South Carolina. Weird.
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 05-02-2022 at 09:32 AM..
Some people think West Indians' favorite movie is Cool Runnings and will run up to you and throw a mango at your head if they find out your grandparents are from South Carolina. Weird.
I Laughed out loud reading this lmao.
Also, do you know if there are any concentrations of young black professionals in Baltimore? Are they most scattered along with other professionals Downtown/South Baltimore or in the County? I've been spending more time in Baltimore recently from my observation you'll find black professionals near the colleges.
Also, do you know if there are any concentrations of young black professionals in Baltimore? Are they most scattered along with other professionals Downtown/South Baltimore or in the County? I've been spending more time in Baltimore recently from my observation you'll find black professionals near the colleges.
They’re in Downtown in those apartment building, and Howard County. That’s most of it. Some are in Patterson Park/Canton/Highlandtown like me- southeast Baltimore.
I’ll probably wrap my time up in Downtown Baltimore before I jet. Plan to move there by winter. Only chilling here because my son is here im ready to leave atp.
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*sarcasm*. LOL That seems dope tho.
