Philadelphia 2035 (Warren, Republic, Clark: attorneys, house, live)

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Yeah Toll Bros. sucks for the Jewelers row thing. I read before that they have different divisions of builders and their 'city living' division is building the apartment tower on North Broad. Oppose to the Luxury-Living division that is suppose to be build the condo tower.

One of the tallest buildings in the city under construction got a crane yesterday on 12th street. It's just funny how Philly could have a dozen 300ft+ buildings under construction and people will be like 'Philly's dead'. And somewhere like Nashville has the same amount and people will be like "Nashville is NYC of the 21st century" lol

Or another Philadelphia classic... "who is moving into all these new luxury apartments?! "Do we really need this many new apartments?" Would people ask those stupid questions about Chicago, Boston, San Fran, Atlanta, etc...? No.

I actually corrected someone on FB yesterday who asked that, and even posted the vacancy rates from June 2022 in Greater Center City (still under 5%), and they still attempted to debate it. After a while I just said give it a rest... Some people in this town are oddly bitter toward new construction.

But good to see 2 cranes along Eastern Sansom/Walnut, and a 3rd soon at the old Wendy's site, and another at 15th & Sansom.

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Or another Philadelphia classic... "who is moving into all these new luxury apartments?! "Do we really need this many new apartments?" Would people ask that same stupid question about Chicago, Boston, San Fran, Atlanta, etc...? No.

To be fair, I explicitly remember being on a boat tour in Chicago and the guide was like "I have no idea where all the people will come from to move here" lol, but yes, many people are just dumb. The worst is the left-wing NIMBY that I know have ranted about before. Nothing gets me going like a very privileged white person who believes the current segregation should continue for "equity" reasons


I'm pretty certain that since I have lived here, Philly has never had as many construction cranes up at the same time as it does right now.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

To be fair, I explicitly remember being on a boat tour in Chicago and the guide was like "I have no idea where all the people will come from to move here" lol, but yes, many people are just dumb. The worst is the left-wing NIMBY that I know have ranted about before. Nothing gets me going like a very privileged white person who believes the current segregation should continue for "equity" reasons

I'm pretty certain that since I have lived here, Philly has never had as many construction cranes up at the same time as it does right now.

Well I feel better that someone in Chicago said that, lol. Maybe New York, LA, Miami are the only cities immune to that dumb question.

And o yes, you know I reference my favorite FB group (Philadelphia Urban Planning, Policy, Design). The most outspoken weirdly leftist people are all white and either older and wealthier (and I guess feeling guilty) or young gentrifiers themselves. See the young white Penn educated people protesting to save the U City townhomes on Market Street. It's annoying, and you can't reasonably debate those people.

But yes, there is so much construction in Philadelphia (large and small projects). I think there are 4 cranes just in immediate CC (5th on the way), and 5+ very large projects that will likely begin next year.

[cpomp]

Speaking of cranes, it looks like this building is officially underway. Beautiful project if built like the renders.

The Building

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Speaking of cranes, it looks like this building is officially underway. Beautiful project if built like the renders.

The Building

I'm telling you, when you really add up all the different projects, few cities have more change afoot. Add in other things like new bike trails, new museum spaces, redone parks, a highway cap, and of course always new places to eat and events to attend, most places pale in comparison for urban development. If Philly can have more 300ft+ buildings under construction than Boston right now, imagine what it could do if it was fully functioning.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

I'm telling you, when you really add up all the different projects, few cities have more change afoot. Add in other things like new bike trails, new museum spaces, redone parks, a highway cap, and of course always new places to eat and events to attend, most places pale in comparison for urban development. If Philly can have more 300ft+ buildings under construction than Boston right now, imagine what it could do if it was fully functioning.

So true--the city's successes are absolutely in spite of local and state leadership. And what makes it so much more impactful is that the vast majority of the large developments continue to occur in a few square mile area of the core Center City area, which in turn produces more momentum.

If there were people in power that actually lobbied for the city's interests nationally and internationally, it would be supercharged.

There's also signs that remote work is really landing Philly's favor for having a vibrant urban core at a fraction of the price of so many other cities, even places like Austin or Denver that have nothing approaching a Center City, even for all of their recent growth.

The just-released Dice.com report on tech salaries is very promising, for example: https://insights.dice.com/2022/09/20...gist-salaries/

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Duderino

So true--the city's successes are absolutely in spite of local and state leadership. And what makes it so much more impactful is that the vast majority of the large developments continue to occur in a few square mile area of the core Center City area, which in turn produces more momentum.

If there were people in power that actually lobbied for the city's interests nationally and internationally, it would be supercharged.

There's also signs that remote work is really landing Philly's favor for having a vibrant urban core at a fraction of the price of so many other cities, even places like Austin or Denver that have nothing approaching a Center City, even for all of their recent growth.

The just-released Dice.com report on tech salaries is very promising, for example: https://insights.dice.com/2022/09/20...gist-salaries/

That is good news indeed. I dunno, though, about all our electeds; I'd say the U.S. Representative for the district I live in has been a good advocate for the city much as he was a good advocate for West Oak Lane as the state representative from it (though there were some financial shenanigans at the CDC closely tied to him, the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation).

Bob Brady also has done some work behind the scenes on behalf of those interested in redeveloping this city. I know he was instrumental in getting one of our most creative local developers, Mosaic Development Partners, the historic preservation tax credits that made the project that put the firm on the map, Eastern Lofts, possible.

But I guess that's constituent service rather than lobbying. I'm curious: what sort of lobbying do you have in mind? Former Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was one of this city's biggest and best cheerleaders (in much of the rest of the state, the epithet leveled at him was that he was "the Governor of Philadelphia").

One thing, though, that does concern me about the stats in that Dice report: namely, that we will follow Denver, Austin and DC down the path of increasingly unaffordable housing because of all the outsiders with more money coming in and bidding up the prices. Of course, the way to avoid that, or at least mitigate the effect, is to continue building more housing, not just in Center City but in the outlying neighborhoods (taken a look around Germantown lately?). Here, the problem stems from "gentrification" opponents and City Council members both wanting to throttle the pipeline.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

But I guess that's constituent service rather than lobbying. I'm curious: what sort of lobbying do you have in mind? Former Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was one of this city's biggest and best cheerleaders (in much of the rest of the state, the epithet leveled at him was that he was "the Governor of Philadelphia").

Yes, you've hit the nail on the head. "Cheerleading" is exactly what Philadelphia needs much more of from its elected officials and what I was really getting at.

Even Governor Wolf could be doing much more of that for the state's two largest cities, just so favorites aren't played. Rendell and Nutter are the individuals I had in mind who both seemed to work tirelessly to put the city back in the national and international spotlight.

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

One thing, though, that does concern me about the stats in that Dice report: namely, that we will follow Denver, Austin and DC down the path of increasingly unaffordable housing because of all the outsiders with more money coming in and bidding up the prices. Of course, the way to avoid that, or at least mitigate the effect, is to continue building more housing, not just in Center City but in the outlying neighborhoods (taken a look around Germantown lately?). Here, the problem stems from "gentrification" opponents and City Council members both wanting to throttle the pipeline.

That's certainly true; the growth in incomes is not without other effects. My hope is that future housing will most often take the form of adaptive re-use or repurposing formerly industrial land, as opposed to shoehorning as much housing as possible in already-developed neighborhoods, via demolition and or over-densifying (in some cases) low-rise neighborhoods.

Philadelphia has so many opportunities to put properties that have been derelict or under-utilized for decades to much better use. If done right, it should be a win-win-win for developers who want to meet housing demand, for blight elimination, and for those who want to protect the character (and affordability) of existing neighborhoods.

[cpomp]

Great article about the U City Townhomes lunacy.

THE WEST PHILLY HOUSING CRISIS THAT WAS UTTERLY AVOIDABLE

https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/u...4wEG1F5KN8otvM

Opener sums it up well...
The UC Townhomes fiasco features a wealthy, easy-to-blame institution; fact-challenged protestors; an elected official who may be in over her head, and a compromise solution everybody seems hell bent on ignoring

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Great article about the U City Townhomes lunacy.

THE WEST PHILLY HOUSING CRISIS THAT WAS UTTERLY AVOIDABLE

https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/u...4wEG1F5KN8otvM

Opener sums it up well...
The UC Townhomes fiasco features a wealthy, easy-to-blame institution; fact-challenged protestors; an elected official who may be in over her head, and a compromise solution everybody seems hell bent on ignoring

But there’s another, less obvious story told by the heckling of the Penn president. Call it the rise of know-nothing activism. We’re seeing a trend: Well-meaning ideologues making a lot of noise but not fully grasping the actual issues at play.

The left is almost as culturally rotten as the right.