Urbanize

Entro-

2006-05-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Definition: An Introduction that begins at the end of a work.

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The following blog is a compilation of essays and three field reports investigating the industrial and commercial aspects of my community as well as its healthscape. The blog was an outgrowth of Dr. Masucci’s Urban Environment class at Temple University. The purpose of this semester long assignment was to investigate different themes in geography through the lens of various communities within the Philadelphia area. I chose a section of Roosevelt Boulevard, as my site of investigation, as it was the place I was most acquainted with.

In one of our earliest entries Dr. Masucci asked us to draw a map of our “community”. In my map I drew a community more conceptual then neighborly, one more tied to landscapes than to people. As you read through my field reports, you will notice that my conception of community hasn’t altered; my documentation of change within the community is related to the landscape and businesses. Thus change within the community are defined by lost or gain of businesses, improvement or declines of certain landscapes.

The blog is best viewed using Internet Explorer, I have worked with fixing the format on Mozilla, but it tends to horribly skew the font and place the pictures in odd places. For fluidity, I recommend viewing this blog in a monthly order, beginning with January listed on the right bar under “Archives”. The first half of the blog is separated into essays with accompanying hyperlinked descriptions of key words labeled “Concept List”. I recommended clicking on the words within the blog rather than just scrolling the pages, because the concept lists will appear between entries and possibly disorient the reader.

All clear, crooked, and fuzzy pictures, material, and concocted words not otherwise cited are copyright of F.A.

Summary

2006-05-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

The three previous field reports illustrate the boundary character of the neighborhood that was alluded to in the (community description post.) Days Inn, the hotel mentioned in the second field report is particularly emblematic of the merging of geographical boundaries. Here, in this building we see the first hotel on the Boulevard, a symbol that qualifies the area as “investment worthy” i.e deserving of its “Northeast” classification. Yet while the building with its manicured lawn signifies the beginning of commercialization of and investment in the Boulevard, the structure retains characteristics usually associated with North Philly: workers behind bullet proof windows. The remainder of the neighborhood is a mixture of such odd juxtapositions. Motherhood Maternity in the Northeast Towers, Jomar’s across the street.

The original topic of the second field report was supposed to be gentrification, but after doing the field exercise and researching housing values, I came to the conclusion that there aren’t any apparent signs of gentrification. While it is true that the neighborhood is undergoing commercial investment, this investment has not overtly displaced lower scale businesses. The intensification of commercialization appears to be occurring most heavily on the Boulevard and on Rising Sun Avenue, however the increase in investment into Rising Sun, has embraced discount stores native to the area, seeming to cater to the low income community surrounding the northwestern side of the neighborhood

The influx of new consumers into the area, has not appeared to displace those native to the neighborhood, indeed in many areas such as with the influx of Asian supermarkets, they fill a fresh food gap( that is not fully utilized) formerly left by larger supermarkets such as Acme and Path-market, which have left the area. The mixture of low income residents with middle income and community-serving commercial development around low income housing such as the projects appears to act as a buffer against a significant increase in property values in the community, a characteristic of gentrification that often accompanies outside commercial investment.

Social development appears to be accompanying commercial development, as can be seen in the new investment of health clinics run by La Salle University and the increase in health businesses such as optometrists. Additionally the increased commercialization particularly of the areas covering Tabor and Rising Sun seem to accompany and perhaps in someway act as an impetus for the infusion of minorities into traditionally Caucasian neighborhoods like Lawndale. Likewise these two areas are also seeing a new influx of minorities i.e. Asians from Olney and the Northeast into the community.

Healthscape

2006-05-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this trip was to identify the healthscape of my defined community. During the trip I documented businesses and institutions which I thought were important to personal health as well as to the general public. Most of these features obviously overlap, as what is important to the general public is also important to personal health. I began my trip at east Wyoming Avenue. Though east Wyoming avenue is not included in my community lines, I have included the area because of the presence of the former Parkview hospital.

In 2003 Tenet owned Parkview Hospital was sold to CTCA, the Cancer Treatment Center’s of America. Following renovation, the 273,848-square-foot-facility was opened in 2005. The medical offices attached to the hospital were retained as can be seen in the dialysis unit sign below, and the main hospital was reorganized into a cancer treatment center.

Turning into Ramona Avenue, and then into Adams Avenue, one comes to another large health center: Friends Hospital. Friend’s Hospital is a beautiful 100 acre gated campus on the Boulevard. Medical offices are set in contemporary buildings and old mansions alongside gardens. The hospital and outpatient services largely serves those with behavioral health problems such as depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, etc, but a few medical offices within the campus also service other medical needs such as diabetes.

Crossing the Boulevard one reaches the intersection of Whitaker and Adams Avenue. Aside from the risk of being run over by revved Saturday morning and rush hour drivers, there isn’t anything particularly significant about this intersection. The first business serving the health of the community is the Wal-mart located in Northeast Towers. Within the Wal-mart there is an eye center, which sells glasses but doesn’t conduct exams. Near the Wal-mart, beside Motherhood Maternity is a GNC, a store which sells vitamins as seen in the picture to the left.

Across from Northeast towers near the intersection of Harrison and Whitaker is an Asian Supermarket which sells a variety of fresh fruit and fish. Backtracking on Whitaker and coming to the intersection of Adams and the Boulevard in Adams Plaza one notices another eye center right next to a bingo business. This eye center is actually a doctor’s office which sells glasses and conducts eye exams. The store is relatively new, have just opened within the last two years. . Next to the eye center is a new family practice medical office that has just opened within the past year.

Across the street from the plaza, set within in a rowhouse, is Dr. Shan’s Psychiatry, which has replaced a psychic catering to the phrenic health of the community. Continuing along Adams one sees a food mart catering to the nutritional needs of the community ,called “ A Bob’s" that sells fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices. Within the plaza is a perceptually packed McDonalds, which some would argue is of greater importance than the sparsely populated food mart.

Continuing along Adams, one comes to Rising Sun Plaza, within the plaza there is another optometrist’s office and a Rite Aid pharmacy that recently relocated across the street next to Forman Mills. Across from Rising Sun plaza are medical offices, providing family care and other services. Situated adjacent to the projects the medical offices are meant to serve this and as well as other communities without insurance. 1

Turning right onto rising sun avenue and going over a small bridge one comes to Lawncrest medical center, which houses doctor’s offices such as dentistry and one family practice.

Backtracking on Rising Sun, and making a right onto Adams Avenue and going through and underpass one reaches the nicer side of Tacony Creek Park. Though the park is well kept by the Fairmount park commission and is used by children as a

playground, I’m hesitant to qualify the park as entirely healthy to the community,

because during past summers there has been frequent drownings in the creek which children swim in.

As I was playing basketball in the strip of Tacony that runs along Tabor road, I noticed an interesting phenomena on the playground. Ever since I was child the equipment on the playground has been extremely rusty, my first tetnaus shot was a result of a gash I recieved on one of the rusty slides. Walking past the area though, I noticed that the slides and other equipment had been uprooted and in place weeds and grass had grown. This long overdue removal is part of the Fairmount Park Commission's plan to clean up Tacony Park. I have noticed a slow increase in investment in the park starting by the transplanting of trees to an installation about 5 years ago of BASKETBALL nets! That was quite an event for the kids(myself included).

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1. La Salle

Friends Hospital Pictures Courtesy of

Friends Hospital

Commercial Landscapes

2006-05-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

I began this trip on the intersection of Roosevelt boulevard with F street, going east bound. On the western side of the boulevard there is a Sunoco gas station and a mom and pop shop with a wonderfully illustrative name: “Cold Beer and Sandwiches”. On the right of the Boulevard is a closed check cashing place. Crossing Smylie road one comes to a car washing/ mechanic business. Continuing past the car washing business and rowhouses, at the intersection between Marley and the Boulevard is a one story Days Inn.

This Days Inn is the first chain hotel on Roosevelt Boulevard, as the picture illustrates ( the picture is a few years old) the hotel looks relatively nice on the outside, but inside the clerks sit behind a bullet proof window; an interesting representation of the undefined North/Northeast boundaries that the neighborhood is straddling.

Continuing along the sidewalk and crossing Landis St one comes to a very odd, some may say a hideous abomination. Behind an IHOP restaurant is a relatively new 6 story storage business entitled simply “Self storage” that obscures the neighborhood behind it.

As you can see to left the building blocks the backsides of the houses behind it. The picture doesn’t do justice to its peculiar juxtaposition.

Walking past the storage place one reaches another interesting site at the intersection of Adams Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. On Adams is a plaza called appropriately “Adams Plaza” that houses a number of low key businesses, and a post office. Across from the plaza is an automotive store (Strauss Discount Auto Parts) and a furniture store. Careening off to the right on the Boulevard is the Northeast Tower Plaza, housing more upscale stores. One may not normally view a discount store such as Ross or GNC as “upscale” stores, but in a low key commercial area, chain stores often signify development. Thus if Ross, or even a Wal-Mart were to move into an area of Hunting Park, the status of the area within Philadelphia would be increased. Chain businesses convey stability, and most importantly sustainability.

At the intersection it is interesting to note the similarity between businesses and the different customers they draw on. As was mentioned there is a small business/furniture store across from Adams Plaza and within a short vicinity there is a Raymour and Flanigan in the Northeast Tower Plaza. The small furniture store is common to the area, serving the relatively low income base in the community, the Raymour and Flanigan however is something of an anomaly. The existence of Raymour and Flanigan appears to draw in more non-residential consumers to the area. The prosperity of Northeast Towers appears to be having a slight ripple/suction effect on the inner community. Though the majority of businesses in Adams Plaza are small like the hair salon( MiMi’s) and bingo(Adams Bingo) there is a new addition to the Plaza: Barefeet Shoes. Barefeet Shoes may signal the influx of chain stores other than KFC, albeit lower status ones than those in Northeast Towers. Originally, on looking at the display within the store I was unaware the Barefeet was a chain store, and if it was I thought it would be on or at the price range of Rainbow and other stores found within the area. However upon cruising Roosevelt Boulevard farther Northeast near Welsh road, and seeing a large building sporting a Barefeet Shoes sign in Blue Grass Plaza, I was forced to revise my assumptions about the store. It is interesting to note how quality of or rather scale of a store (low, middle or high/up) within this area is measured not on its appearance but rather by comparison to businesses in the farther Northeast.

Continuing on Adams Avenue one comes to a Korean nightclub, a new addition on an old Korean restaurant, and another Plaza across the street. I didn’t think there was anything special about the restaurant because its been there since I was a child( except that the awning is cool), but while I was driving in the car I noticed the remnants of a former sign on top of the building, on squinting closer I could make out the words ‘Philadelphia Electric Company”. I took a picture through the car window, you can see the words on the top of the building. I searched for information on its closure on the net, but I couldn’t bring up any.

The plaza(Adams and Tabor Plaza) across from the Korean restaurant is interesting to note because of the addition of many international restaurants within the recent years. Three stores, one Indian, and two Vietnamese attest to the emigration of more diverse ethnicities into the area, as the main customers of each restaurant are usually of the same nationality. The pictures to the left shows an Indian and a Portuguese restaurant. Along the right side there is another Portuguese restaurant that has been in the area for a long time. I’ve been told by residents that their used to be a greater Portuguese presence in the neighborhood.

Continuing on Adams Avenue down and up a hill and across from Hill Creek II project housing are two plazas. The first plaza at the bottom of the hill didn’t have a particular name, it is unofficially known as the blockbuster/ bowling plaza. As can be seen on the sign, Blockbuster retains a spot near the front so that’s where the plaza received its name; in a way the situation of the stores on the sign with the exception of the Laundromat reflect a hierarchy of stability of each of the businesses.

The most interesting part of the plaza for me was a building called the “Furniture club”. The store itself wasn’t my focal point of interest rather the structure and the stores before it. About three to four years ago, the door seen in the picture opened up into a gallery which housed a supermarket to the right, arcade, Asian movie store and travel agency to the left. Since this is a field report and not a lament, I will spare you my digressions about how awesome that whole arcade and gallery was with its hip Vietnamese pop music, but it was definitely a loss to the school kid social scene. I suspect the market went out of business because of competition with Hong Kong supermarket as well as with another market which is now the Barefeet shoe store that I mentioned above. It’s fascinating that at one time back in 2001 I think even as close as 2002, four Asian markets were operating within a 1 mile radius of each other, one on each of the plazas.

Continuing up a hill one comes o a Vietnamese restaurant, that is relatively new and bit upscale in comparison to the other Vietnamese restaurants in the area which are essentially soup joints. Across from the Vietnamese restaurant are the Hill Creek II projects.

I took a picture of the projects because I thought they are interesting in that they look like apartments and are fairly kept up on the outside and are also situated across from Rising Sun Plaza.

The main features in Rising Sun plaza are Forman Mills, Hong Kong Supermarket, and National Wholesale Liquidators.
Forman Mills and National Wholesale Liquidators are two discount chains native to Philadelphia one selling clothes( Forman Mills) as well as house wares and furniture( Liquidators). The Forman Mills is interesting because it was on the left side of Rising Sun, but recently relocated into the old Hecht’s building across the street in the continuation of the plaza.

National Wholesale Liquidators is interesting because it has filled a community need for a variety of cheap goods like clothing and packaged food. With the construction of the new Wal-Mart in Northeast Towers, it has been predicted that the store would go out of business but it has remained, I think in large part due to its strategic placement across from the projects.

Lastly Hong Kong supermarket is interesting because of the former Acme supermarket that stood in its place around 1998. Though the supermarket offers a variety of reasonably priced “American” foods( like Mac and cheese), I’ve noticed that the surrounding community tends not to use the market heavily.

When a new small food mart appeared on (Adams Plaza) in 2001, I noticed that a lot of residents mentioned how good it was to finally have a food market in the area, which I thought was ironic because there were four supermarkets within the area.

Without making too many assumptions , but based on talks with neighbors, I think, the reluctance to shop at the Asian markets may be due to the feeling of intimidation. The workers at the markets are not themselves intimidating, but the feeling of “foreign” homogeneity, even if it is non-existant( the markets serve different ethnicities, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc) may contribute to the feeling of alienation between the community and the influx of Asian businesses.

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Days Inn Picture Courtesy of Travel Sources

Industrial Landscape

2006-05-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this field exercise was to examine some of the industrial aspects of my community. The industrial area is situated near residential houses on a few streets, sandwiched between various commercial entities. The commercial entities will be addressed in a second field report. The area I decided to analyze is between the intersections of Adams Avenue and Whitaker Avenue as well as Whitaker Avenue and East Godfrey. Additionally the intersections of Harrison Street and Foulkrod with Whitaker and Tabor were also included in the investigation. As I drew the map of the area, I noticed that there is a trend of industrial concentration toward the more eastern side of the area, closer toward the more identifiable Northeast side of the area than its Northwestern counterpart.

I began my field exercise at the beginning of the intersection of Adams and Whitaker where both streets run into Roosevelt Boulevard. On the left and right sides of Whitaker are two areas of commercial concentration: Northeast Towers and a plaza. Continuing along Whitaker a second intersection appears at Foulkrod street. A discount store called Jomar can be found at this intersection.

The building was interesting to me, because having lived in this area for the majority of my life, the building has always appeared vacant, and been known as the former Canada Dry factory. The one story building set on a 5.78-acre lot is relatively small compared to other factories nearby. The building has a squarish appearance with some rounded columns in the front. The yard, for shipping which a now a parking lot, is also relatively small. The picture of the parking lot above, does not belong to Jomar, it was taken from the parking lot of Northeast Towers to get a better angle.

There are two sections of the building open to consumers, the “opening” which as the name implies is the first area you walk into, and the “warehouse” which is where furniture, and additional fabric is sold. The set up of the store is interesting, and a bit disorienting because of the lack of separation barriers between items. Not much work has been done to alter the factory appearance of the inner building.

I did a little research on the building and it appears that the former Canada Dry factory was vacant between 1994 and 1996. In 1996 under the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Land Recycling Program which “is based on the principle that it is more environmentally responsible to redevelop a brownfield site than to build on virgin land." the land was sold by Foulkrod Associates to Philadelphia Soft Pretzels Inc. under an agreement to cleanup the contaminated soil and groundwater. 1. In 1999 the building was sold to Jomar’s Inc for $1,500,000, which remains its current owners. 2

Continuing on Whitaker is a small factory building called “Showcase” at the intersection of Harrison street. I was told that this is the former site of Mrs. Paul’s bakery, but I haven’t been able to clarify that. The building is one story and fenced in. I googled the name but haven’t been able to find out what exactly the bakery bakes.

Continuing on Whitaker past (Northeast Towers) and across from another plaza, is a large enclosed lot and building with a sign on the fence labeled Cardone. The picture to the left was taken at the security entrance to Cardone.

The expansive lot and building gives the impression that this factory is perhaps the headquarters or the main manufacturing center of the business. I did some research and as it turns out 5501 Whitaker Avenue is the world headquarters of Cardone, the largest automotive remanufacturing company in America. Employing 4,200 workers within Philadelphia, Cardone operates 2.3 million square feet of manufacturing, office, and distribution space, and is listed as Philadelphia’s largest manufacturing employer. Two streets down to the left of the headquarters, Cardone has another plant at 5660 Rising Sun Avenue. Due to intense competition with China, Cardone relocated one of its Philadelphia based lines to Matamoros, Mexico. The company is unable to rule out relocating more factories. The lost of jobs would be devastating to the surrounding area, as well as leave an empty gaping manufacturing field similar to those in Flint Michigan following the withdrawal of General Motors.3

On the left side of Cardone near the intersection of Godfrey Avenue and Whitaker is another factory building with a sign entitled “Thalheimer Bros”. When I saw this building I came from its backside on Tabor Avenue, and thought it was a closed down factory. The building looked dingy, and there were small glass factories panes which were busted all over, as can be seen in the picture to the left.

Walking alongside the side of the building on East Godfrey Avenue, the tall brick building begins to look cleaner, and gave me the impression that it was most likely still operational.

Along Whitaker Avenue, bordering the building’s entrance, the property appears cleaned up, though the plain utilitarian building gives off a soiled appearance in comparison to Cardone across the street. Note: this second picture is a shot of the side of the building from a supermarket parking lot. Thalheimer Brothers is a recycler of non-ferrous and nickel alloys. The plant is relatively expansive covering 400,000 sq ft on 20 acres. 4 The front side of the plant is a mixture of the broad plant and smaller offices that look like they serve some managerial purpose.

At the corner section of Godfrey and Whitaker across from Thalheimer Bros, and adjacent to Cardone is the US Naval Depot. The Depot is an expansive base covering over 200 acres of land running from East Godfrey Avenue to Robbins Street. The base is so large that there are streets signs within the enclosed area. Most of the structures are one story squared to rectangular shaped buildings, while a few are two story. I didn’t take any pictures of the actual base, because it seemed a bit un-kosher, but I did get a sign in a shaded area on east Godfrey that doesn’t portray the base very well, because its not as green as it looks on the sign. Within the base there is a child care center and playground for the children of workers. Overall the base employs 4,200 people, many of which live in the surrounding area. 5

1. DEP

2. Roddy Realter

3. Cardone Survival

4. Thalheimer

5. Navy Depot

Concept list 4

2006-03-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Ethical Framework

Community- Population of individuals inhabiting a specified region, with shared social connections to one another.

Event-specific- Final decisions are determined by specific “events” rather than in accordance with a set of rigid guidelines. Allows for a greater flexibility in molding and formulating appropriate responses in varied situations.

Sustainability- Ability of an ecosystem or piece of land to continue the services it provides to its dependents over a long duration. This does not disallow for change, only that change not permanently damage the core functions of the systems.

Principally- Decisions that are made according to a set of rigid principles rather than a general framework, thus disallowing event-specific adjustments. Ex: International Monetary Fund and World Bank have a strict set of principles regarding the introduction of trade liberalization, that they do not generally diverge from, even in the face of acknowledged negative impacts of these principles.

Environmental- Relating to anything concerning ones surrounding. Used in the following entry when referring to ecosystems and human involvement with them. The definition however is not merely related to ecosystems and living things, the atmosphere is also included in one's surroundings. Environmental is often referenced anthropogenically because we only become aware of our surrounding when it is in relation to ourselves.

Framework- A set of loose guidelines that stipulate the general values that are held toward certain themes such as environment and development. The framework sets the goals in mind, and allows for different means to accomplish these goals, in this way it is termed as “loose” although it is not something that can be easily abrogated. It is an outline for a mode of reaction rather than a charter.

Concept List 2

2006-03-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Urban Juxtaposition

Urbanization- The use of this word refers to the urbanization of land within an urban setting. This can be defined as the process by which an area within a city experiences a growth in population and financial investment, thus producing an encroachment on land formerly occupied by diverse organisms.

Degrade/degradation- Process by which a piece of land formerly productive in its provision of nutrients to sustain different organisms is unable to produce at the same level. In order for this land use change to be categorized as a degradation it must have a negative impact upon all organisms except for the predator, because if the impact is not entirely or largely negative than the degradation occurring is subjective.

Natural- Culturally constructed, biologically infused notion of the “correct” performance that should be manifested by the environment and organisms. Spatially it refers to the perception that a piece of land is unaltered by human use.

Landscape- Topographical formation of a piece of land, that covers a large area. Also the mental view of what the appearance of a selection of land “should” look like.

Area- Spatially generalized selection of land, that signifies the enclosure of a point of interest, thus the area of the park is referencing only a select set of boundaries in the park that represent the point of interest, not the entire physical boundaries of the park.

Juxtaposition- A comparison of two points of interest by placing them aside one another. “Aside” doesn’t refer to a physical positioning, but a mental comparison of the contrasting features of each object. In this entry, the deer sign beside a park is represented as a juxtaposition. However, the context of the sign rather than the sign itself, is the point of interest; the context of the sign contrasts with its setting, i.e. a deer sign within an urban park contrasts with the industrial characteristics of the surrounding neighborhood.

Concept List 5

2006-03-13T05:33:00.000-08:00

Community Description

Area- Spatially opaque area that houses points of interest. In this entry it's partially confined within the street limits set forth, but the influence of the points within these limits has an effect on other geographical points beyond it, so it partially encompasses through influence geographical points which do not spatially fall under it i.e area isn’t so clearly delineated between streets.

Locale- Topographical point of interest within the generalized area defined above. Thus area would be the street limits set forth in this entry, and locale would be the Northeast Tower Plaza, a specific point of interest within the specified area.

Neighborhood- Assumes two definitions in this entry, one which is referred to as “my neighborhood” or “the neighborhood” and one which refers to “other neighborhoods”. The first definition is a generalized space in which I have set the street boundary lines according to familiarity with the area. The neighborhood is not part of an official boundary, rather it is an amalgamation of official boundaries. The second definition refers to official, though not necessarily rigid boundaries set by the City of Philadelphia. Thus when reference is made to the neighborhood of Olney, this is referring to the general geographical boundaries of Olney, not necessarily the influence of Olney.

Community- Though the topographical confines of community are set within the street limits given for the sake of clarity in the project, the actual spatial definition of community being employed is ambiguous. It is partially measured by the feeling of connection to points of interest, thus when I say “my community”, I am referring to points of interest which I feel complement each other i.e they financially or socially support the neighborhood. But the term becomes vaguer when I reference the “Asian” community, because they do not necessarily all share a “connection” with each other. Anthropologically it borders on absurd to lump all Asians into one vast “community”, Vietnamese and Koreans do not necessarily share a “connection” or interest with each other. Vietnamese may define Vietnamese restaurants in Olney and Adams Avenue as part of their community but not the fellow Asian, but Korean owned business next store.
So why am I employing this ambiguous term? Because the term seems to explain some of the phenomena I as an outsider am witnessing by the assemblage of various Asian stores right next to each other within two plazas, on Adams Avenue and Whitaker. The phenomena could just be a coincidence or could indicate there is some resemblance of “community” as defined by a shared feeling of connection between the two groups occupying the same plaza.

Commerce- Business transactions involving the large scale sell of goods and services. Used to refer to business that is occurring colloquially above the “mom and pop” level. Can involve the establishment of hospitals, medical offices, or chain stores, which involve the exchange of goods and services in larger financial degrees than those of small businesses. Used as a general indicator of the intensification of investment within in an area.

Community Description

2006-03-13T02:02:00.001-08:00

Called “the Boulevard” by residents and those acquainted with it, Roosevelt Blvd, is a 14 mile vein of highway extending from Bucks County to Broad Street. Northbound, the Roosevelt expressway connects the Boulevard to the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76). Along this 12 – lane highway are residential houses, hospitals, and businesses. The Northbound stretch of the highway is dominated by row homes and relatively low scale business investments while the north eastern corridor is categorized by the intensification and concentration of commerce as can be seen in its numerous plazas and malls. I have never really thought much about the area I live in, but as I was thinking about my community map and how to define the concept of “neighborhood”, I began to view the area in a different light. Traveling Septa’s R bus to Hunting Park and back everyday, has enabled me to see where an abrupt commercial and to some extent a racial transition line begins in one locale on the boulevard i.e my neighborhood. Beginning at C and the Boulevard and ending at 4641 east Roosevelt Blvd Philadelphia, PA, the road is marked by the first concentration of commerce on the boulevard, the “Northeast Tower Plaza” . The Plaza houses a few chain stores typically not found in the lower income areas of the northern corridor of the boulevard, such as Raymour and Flanigan, Motherhood Maternity, etc. The development of the Northeast Tower Plaza has been relatively recent, growing mostly in the past six years.

Outside of the plaza on the sidewalk bordering the Boulevard there is an odd juxtaposition: a subway stop. Odd because no subway runs on Roosevelt Boulevard. The nearest transportation centers in this area are buses connecting to the subway at Hunting Park or the Frankford transportation center. The entrance to the steps of the defunct subway stop has been gated, but it is littered with trash and graffiti. Additionally the gate to the actual entrance to the subway stop has been removed and one is able to enter into this dark hole in the underground, that some residents suspect to be a drug lair.

While researching the history of Roosevelt boulevard I found the reason behind this strange pockmark in the ground. During the 1960s due to congestion of the Boulevard the Philadelphia City Planning Commission set forth a plan to build an expressway between Hunting Park avenue and I-276 in Bensalem. The plan called for the construction of an interchange with the un-built Pulaski Expressway, which would connect the Near Northeast with the Betsy Ross bridge. Additionally a separate plan, called for the extension of the broad street subway into Roosevelt boulevard, in expectation of the increase in business the now demolished Sears built a subway station. During the 1970s the plan failed to materialize, hence the defunct subway station, that is so oddly juxtaposed on the highway. Recently the plan has been resurrected and sketches have been re-drawn. If these plans are initiated the landscape of this specific area of the boulevard will be radically altered. Tacony Creek Park , which runs under the boulevard and the spacious Friends hospital a 100 acre gardened hospital, for the treatment of mental illnesses may face environmental difficulties from intense development. These possible challenges to the landscape makes this community in transition an interesting area to study.

Though the focus of my project will be on the area of Roosevelt Boulevard that I specified above, I will extend the scale of the project into the immediate neighborhoods that the western lane of the Boulevard straddles. Over the past decade I have noticed some significant changes in the demographics of this area. Firstly, within the past 8 years there has been an influx of Asian owned businesses along Adams Avenue, and Whitaker; two streets that run into the Boulevard.

These businesses, some of which are Asian markets, have replaced supermarkets such as Acme and Pathmark that have past left the area. During the 1980s Olney experienced an influx of Asian businesses, mostly Korean owned. Recently the neighborhoods that run along Cottman and Bustleton are experiencing a growth in the Asian community. The area that I am studying buffers these neighborhoods, and I am interested in whether these new businesses on Adams and Whitaker have had an effect on expanding Asian businesses further northeast. Aside from these businesses some other areas of interest in the neighborhood, is the Tacony Creek park that runs under the boulevard, in the past few years the Fairmount Park commission has begun to clean up the park especially the streams which were frequently littered with trash.

Though the area is in the Lawncrest/ Summerdale district the neighborhood is frequently called Crescentville, the community however is actually a mix of Olney, Lawncrest, and Feltonville. I say a mix, because the houses on the Boulevard are frequently classified as Feltonville, while those on the western side of the intersection of Tabor and F street are classified as Olney, while the houses in the neighborhood of the elementary school, at Tabor and Foulkrod street are classified in the Lawncrest neighborhood. I’ve gauged the areas to be in these neighborhoods from an inability to access sports teams at local recreation centers with a certain address. Due to the confusion of ambiguous “neighborhood” classifications I will set the boundaries of the community as follows : F and the Boulevard to 4641 Roosevelt Blvd( Friend’s Hospital) , intersections of Tabor road and Whitaker Avenue, intersections of Adams avenue with Tabor Road as well intersection of Adams Avenue with Whitaker before Whitaker moves onto the boulevard.

Map courtesy of the US Census Bureau
and Philadelphia Neighborhood Network.

Ethical Framework

2006-03-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

The Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 is a federal law regulating the quality of “navigable” waterways by setting pollution standards for river emissions. The Clean Water Act also requires developers and landowners to receive a government permit prior to “releasing pollutants” such as filling in a wetland which is legally defined as a tributary of a river. The extensions of the Clean Water Act to wetlands are currently being challenged in the Supreme Court by developers who were sued for having illegally filled in wetlands.

The crux of their argument centers on the federal definition of navigable waters that are regulated by Congress and what constitutes its tributaries, i.e., whether or not wetlands, streams, canals, etc. have a significant tributarial role in the sustainment of the navigable “waters of the United States” or whether they, in Justice Scalia’s words, act as a “mere” drainage ditch.At risk of removal of federal protection are 50% of the wetlands and streams that abut “navigable” rivers.

While the government is currently revamping the legal framework for the preservation of wetlands and waterways, the initial decision to conserve vs. develop often lies with some entity( town council, etc) appointed by the community. At the nexus of this debate, the community council must establish a framework(loose or rigid) for judging or mitigating the often opposing interests of environment vs. development.

To illustrate an example of this process, and how I as a community board member might establish a framework, lets propose a hypothetical situation. Chadwick community council receives a request from a developer to purchase a .5 mile wetland consisting of a mixture of swamp and marsh to build a mall which will house 75 stores. Chadwick is an economically depressed former factory town in the Midwest at the cross roads of two more prosperous towns. Geographically, Chadwick is set inland from a river, east by 80 miles; the wetland in question drains into this river. Environmental groups from richer towns protest against the sale of wetland for development, citing the environmental loss of ecosytem services which the wetland provides, by filtering pollutants and sediments from the river east, as well as acting as a nexus between ground and surface water during rainfall, thus serving as a mechanism against erosion.

Developers argue that the wetland provides a minor service to the community, and that the community may be better served by economical development which will enhance the preservation of neighboring wetlands. Both opinions raise valid points concerning the welfare of the community, but the council is charged with assessing which benefit is most imperative to the town. The community sets up a cascading set of three general principles. 1. The long-term sustainability of the community is the most imperative determinant in any council decision. 2. Sustainability is determined by the welfare of the economy and the land which the council presides over. 3. The council views these two entities as interrelated, but when conflict arises between them, the short-term benefits of placing one entity imperatively over the other must be considered, in order to achieve long-term sustainability. In lieu of these general principles which could be called the council's framework, an assessment of the short-term vs long term benefits of the two proposals are conducted. The assessment reveals that the neighboring wetlands may be better served by increased amount of investment in pollution and sedimentation control, and that the wetland in question though it provides important services, will not provide a devastating loss to the ecosystems within the community because the neighboring wetlands will act as buffers against its loss.

The above framework may appear to exceedingly general, perhaps encouraging more strife in an environmental situation ( through litigation) rather than clarity. Admittingly the principles are generalized, but the values espoused in these three principles are meant to serve only as a broad framework not as a rigid outline in mitigating environmental vs. economical disagreements. It is difficult to set a rigid framework within a community as a microcosm for a general nationwide or worldwide framework on negotiating these disagreements. A rigid framework that consistently places the economy or the “free market” as in neo-classical economics above environmental concerns on a short-term level, may prove devastating to a community. Louisiana has suffered heavy wetland losses during the last 50 years, that proved detrimental during Hurricane Katrina due to economic development over the past century, which sought to pull districts within the state out of economical margins, but ultimately plunged them into economic oblivion. A broad framework provides a measurement by which event-specific decisions rather than “principally” predetermined decisions can be analyzed with. A Louisiana district or the entire state employing the general framework established by the fictional Chadwick city council, might have taken into account the importance of their environmental and overall economic dependence on wetlands and measured it against the short term benefits of permanently destroying hazard buffers in an environmentally vulnerable state.

Concept List 3

2006-03-12T03:13:00.000-08:00

Community Map

Community- At the most elemental, it is represented by a feeling of connection toward an inanimate or animate place or person. The definition transcends spatial limits of neighborhoods; though it can exist within an organization nested in a neighborhood.

Neighborhood- Spatially: The immediate house(writer’s house) and adjacent houses, constitute the “initial neighborhood”. "Secondary neighborhood" is constituted by the block of row houses adjacent to the initial block and overall businesses. Familiar surroundings constitute the visual scenery of the neighborhood, and extend consciousness of it past the initial block, although connection to “neighbors” is not always extended. In its most base form, the neighborhood constitutes the general area in which the “immediate house" is situated and represents the limits of extraction of resources from that area. Extraction of resources can be defined as businesses, or uses of land in terms of park area, and also community centers. Thus businesses can prove to be the delineation of neighborhoods, as can parks, and or community centers which delineate neighborhoods by zipcodes.

Region- Generalized geographical area in which one is acquainted with physically or mentally. Ex: Manchester is a city is England, it is described as a generalized area, not referring to a specific location within the city. Within this entry, location and region are being used interchangeably; location does not represent a specific physical area within a region, it is also a generalized physical area categorized by the city as a whole because the connection, therefore the “community” is felt to be the city as a whole, not a specialized area within it.

Landscape- Geographical construction of the land and entities marking it. This is constituted by the topographical formation of the land in its hilliness, construction of parks, architectural design of rowhouses and businesses that dot the land. It is partially a mental view of what an area “should” look like, i.e what is has looked like. If something that should be there, such as a market, is demolished, the landscape would change, because the entities marking it has changed.

Neighborhood community- This is a hybridization of two themes, “neighborhood” and “community”. Neighborhood denoting spatial construction and community measuring temporal connection. The sense of community the neighborhood is imbued with, is the result of temporal connection to the landscape. As community has been defined as a feeling of “connection” to an animate or inanimate object, the sense of community that is felt with the neighborhood is a result of familiar landscapes, thus the connection is spatially defined, rather than socially.

Concept Lists

2006-03-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

Death of a Horseman

1. Natural: Environment (not necessarily a certain geographical area, but a generalized locale) in which that animal has been found in the wild, and which it is biologically adapted to.

2. Humane: A morally infused treatment of animals, respecting their supposed right to life and a healthy environment.

3. Urban Environment: Large scale enclosure of a geographical area that is marked by signs of being urban, which is a term used to define the general characteristics of a city. This includes certain features of a city such as intensification of commerce, industry, large population, traffic, pollution, etc.

4. Landscape: Mental map of the characteristics of an ambiguously defined topographical area.

5. Urban area: A geographical region representing the center of urbanism within a city. In New York an urban area would be midtown streets, Time Sqaure, etc, all geographical intensifications of areas representing the key components described in the definition of urban environment that constitute a city.

Commune- ity

2006-02-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

What defines a community? Is it, as the word often implies a place where you commune? A neighborhood? Or your mental map of the world. That special niche where you fit? Can it exist only in a person or within an inanimate entity? Or can you be enveloped in a community, you don't know exists?
These were some of the questions I asked myself as I was drawing my "community map". What follows in this elementary map, is my initial reaction to the word "community" as employed by Dr.Massucci.

“Home” is the object I’ve drawn in the middle of the map, the focal point of my visual community. I used “home” instead of house, even though the house itself is structurally part of my sense of “community”. The structural house is my entry point into “the neighborhood", but I term the focal point of the map home, because it is the place where I grew up and currently live. I’ve lived in different cities, towns and countries for varying amounts of years, and I never thought of any of my residences as “homes” only as houses, so the concept of home is a critical component of my view of community, it’s what will retain my sense of community to a landscape even after I’ve left it and never visit it, even after its fallen off my physical radar.

A second critical aspect of my community is “family”. As can be seen on the map I’ve drawn a line extending from the home with different branches naming a variety of places, all of the places having one thing in common: family resides there. Just the mere fact of having a family member in a region irregardless of whether I’ve ever been to that location (all those on the map, save Manchester, I have been too) is enough to render that location part of my community. I than mentally splice these communities into layers by degrees of importance, so locations such as Lahore where I lived for a while and have a large family is more important than London, but areas such as Greenville, North Carolina where my sibling lives, are placed on the same level as Lahore, even though I’ve never lived there.

A third component of my sense of community is friends and organizations. Friends and organizations are an expected part of most people’s communities, because one is in close contact with these entities and they usually share similar interests. As I was drawing my stick people, I reflected over that reasoning, and came to the conclusion that it was only partially true for myself. I include organizations that I volunteer for, because I share similar ideas with the entities, but for a lot of my friends I share few things in common, and interestingly I noted, they don’t necessarily interact with each other. I don’t have this mental boat labeled friends, I have islands of friends who are essentially isolated from each other by dissimilar interests. That’s where my opening question “Can it exist only in a person?” came from.

A fourth concept is summarized in one word “ummah” أمة. Ummah connotates “community” in Arabic. I use the word connotates rather than “ means, or translates” because in Arabic words tend to have layers of meanings, not necessarily interpretations( though that is possible) but literally “meanings”. Specifically “Ummah connotates an “Islamic” community i.e all Muslims are part of one community. Other religions also emphasize the idea of community, but in Islam the word takes on a new meaning. Muslims are instructed to view each other as literally a body, so when one part feels discomfort the whole does. This is a broad concept and for accurate understanding, the word would need to be expounded on in a longer paper. The best example I could give of the word is the following------------- When a Muslim sees another Muslim they respond with the greeting Assalamu Alaykum ( السلام عليكم ), “Peace be upon you”. This greeting signifies an acknowledgement of fellowship, denoting some degree of community. It’s not a greeting just for friends its meant for all, two strangers would give it across opposite sides of a subway platform, not particularly shouting it( although I have witnessed that) but in a wave or a nod.

My last component of community is the neighborhood. That may seem odd, when one typically thinks of a community, a neighborhood usually has a prominent place. I don’t reserve the neighborhood for last because I’m a college student and moved away from home; I haven't. I reserved it for last because I wasn’t even sure that it is a neighborhood in the true sense of the word. And what is the true sense of the word? For me, neighborhood conjures up a place where neighbors interact with each other, where there is some sense of “community” to a place and that is shared among inhabitants. My “neighborhood” consists of typical Philadelphia row houses, but there isn’t a sense of community, not because the neighbors are sinister although most are aloof, but simply because the neighbors just “aren’t”. They come and go unnoticed for three month leases or a few years, not to commune but to inhabit, so a neighborhood of inhabiters and not communers doesn’t personally constitute a community. The landscape i.e the geographical shape of the land, and the formation of the row houses( not businesses) constitutes the neighborhood. If new businesses appear and people move in or out, the neighborhood community won’t change because it doesn’t reside in the people it resides in the land.The nieghborhood community would change if a landmark was removed. Example: The neighborhood lies on Roosevelt boulevard and includes a large swatch of land(100 acres) entiteled Friends Hospital, that is juxtoposed against the highway. 1 If the Hospital were to leave and the gardens razed to the ground by developers, the community(as defined by the landscape) would change. Additionally the neighborhood would change for me if this vacant subway stop that is juxtaposed on the Boulevard were to be filled with land or removed because it represents an ugly blot on the land.

1. Friends Hospital

Urban Juxtaposition

2006-01-30T21:20:00.000-08:00

I was driving home from Shoprite the other day, going past Tacony Creek Park, and I glanced past the stop sign to this yellow warning sign behind it. I've seen it many times but I've never noticed what was on it: a deer? A Deer crossing sign?

Needles, dog feces, and trash are all expected sights, (although kudos to the Fairmount Park Commission, they have begun cleaning the needles up). A deer crossing sign seemed a strange sign juxtaposed right next to a road that runs into Roosevelt Bouelvard ,a congested highway, and while the park does contain a bit of forest much coveted by muggers and other shady characters, the only mammalian wildlife I've ever sighted in the area was a little white rabbit. My hypothesis was that the sign was quite old, left over from the 70s or 80s when the park was more diverse, before the urbanization of the Northeast. It turned out to be wrong.

I did some research on the loss of deer in the Fairmount Park system. The only mention on the internet of deer in the 302 acre (Tacony) Park, was in a blogger’s reference to a deer sighting at "Friend's hospital". Friend’s hospital, however is not an entity of the Fairmount Park Commision, the governing body which regulates Philadelphia’s 62 public parks. Friend’s hospital is a 100 acre hospital on the right of the Roosevelt Boulevard across from Tacony Creek Park. Though no further mention of deer could be found within my area of Tacony Creek Park at Tabor road and Olney avenue. I was able to find quite a few articles on deer killings carried out by the Fairmount Park Commission in PennyPack Park, which is located about 20 minutes Northeast of Tacony Creek Park.

There are 1.6 million white tailed deer in the state of Pennsylvania. The numbers of these deer has steadily grown over the past century due to regulations placed on hunting, leading to a crisis in forest management for the state of Pennyslvania. The Pennyslvania department of Conservation and Natural Resources identifies the white tailed deer as the most significant participant in the decline of forest sustainability. An excess of deer decreases the diversity of plants within an ecosystem and can degrade the health of trees due to intense feeding on its undergrowth. An excess of deer is also dangerous to the public, within Philadelphia more than 200 deer are killed by collision with a motor vehicle each year. Though Philadelphia overall suffers less of a deer crisis than its woodier neighbors, a few parks have seen a large increase in deer that has proven damaging.

In the late 1990s PennyPack housed a herd of 300 deer in a park only meant to sustain 30. To address this problem, the Fairmount Park Commission, since 1999 has instituted seasonal deer killings by selected snipers during midnight curfews. As might have been expected, the deer killings were protested by animal rights activists as well as receiving disapproval by area residents. Protests ranged from those opposed to deer killing because it involved destructive human intervention in the forest, to those opposed to the method of control: sharpshooting. Opponents believed that sharp shooting was morally wrong and an inefficient way to reduce the amount of deer within the forest because it involved periodic culls which they believed would not adequately decrease the chance of another annual rise in deers, i.e the deer population could rebound within a season. Largely led by Friends of the Fairmount Park Animals, opponents of sharpshooting called for a method of deer contraception, using a dart induced chemical entitled Porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP).

The Fairmount Park Commission declined to use the contraception which has been employed in other areas of Pennsylvania because the deer of PennyPack and Wisshickon park, the areas in which the cull occurred, did not contain deer that have actively been tagged by the commission, thus contraception using dart injections in an untagged population appeared unfeasible. Another objection of protesters such as the of the Friends of the Fairmount Park Animals, to the sharpshooter hunt was due concern of the proximity of shooting to residential houses. The Pennslyvania Game Commission, the regulator of hunting laws in the state, forbids licensed hunting within 150 yards of a road, vehicle, or residential property. The Friends of the Fairmount Park Animals alledged through video footage that members of the hunt were violating this regulation by extending the hunt near the outskirts rather than just the interior of the park, the Fairmount Park Commission dismissed their concerns.

In response to those who opposed the hunt on grounds that it interfered with the natural system of the of the park, an argument can be made that the park isn’t a natural feature of the landscape. The park is in reality a construct of the Fairmount Park Commission, which oversees, which animals, plants, etc, should interact within the wooded areas of the park. Furthermore the grasses that occupy the park are not themselves endemic to the park, rather they are the result of park implementation, for aesthetic as well as ecological purposes. Thus deer are not an inherently natural part of the park environment, and their removal no more constitutes human intervention than the entire park itself. Regarding the disagreement over deer control, the use of sharpshooting to immediately cull deer appears to be a sensible decision as it is the most direct measure to drastically reduce the number of deer that are foraging the undergrowth of the forested areas of the park. However, the Commission should consider a program of tagging the deer in the future to experiment with some measure of deer contraception, which will appease some of the anger of animal rights activists as well as reduce the chance of accidental shooting in residential areas. Dismissing the safety concerns of animal rights activists is an arrogant measure by the Fairmount Park Commission that may, following an accident, reduce the effectiveness of their culling.

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Deer

Maps city search

Death of a Horseman

2006-01-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

Okay well not exactly the "horseman" but the horse, in New York, Manhattan to be exact. Jan 2, 2006 a carriage horse became spooked and ran into traffic, injuring himself and the driver. The driver was in serious condition and the horse underwent euthanization. Previous horse carriage deaths due to accidents and heat exhaustion during the 1980s led to a gradual increase in regulations concerning living and working conditions. Drivers were forbidden from running carriages above ninety degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, and below 18 degrees in the winter. In 1989 licensing of carriage drivers was introduced and has undergone various revisions over the past decade. Additionally in 1988 a law was passed by the city council limiting horses to Central Park during the day, forbidding carriages to operate during rush hour, and allowing horses on midtown streets only after 7pm. The January 2 crash occurred between 5^th street and 9^th avenue, a busy midtown street around 9:30 pm.

The accident would have remained on the margin of the New York newspapers, were it not for the joint intervention of Peta and Martha Stewart's daughter, Alexis Stewart. Peta and Alexis Stewart seized the accident as platform for a call for a final ban of all carriage horses from New York. Stewart in conjunction with Peta mailed a letter to Mayor Bloomberg citing the inhumanness of forcing a horse to work in unnatural conditions on New York streets and the danger it poses to citizens as a reason for banning its operations within the city. In support of their proposition they mentioned the ban of carriage horses from other major cities such as London, Paris, Toronto, etc. Carriage drivers and supporters have responded to the call for a ban by accusing Peta and Alexis Stewart of blowing an accident out of proportion, and exaggerating the living conditions of the horse, which is regulated by the New York Department of Health. They have found an important supporter in Mayor Bloomberg who believes horse drawn carriages to be an important part of the New York landscape.

Is Peta blowing the danger of the horse towards the public out of proportion? Perhaps, if we are measuring the danger of the horse to the public vs the danger of other vehicles such as automobiles. But viewed independently, horses and traffic can still be a dangerous mix, over 16 horse carriage accidents have occurred in New York city over the past decade. Are Peta, Alexis Stewart and supporters exaggerating the living conditions of horses? Possibly. The argument of carriage drivers that it is in their best financial interest not to leave the horse rotting in its own urine is compelling. Currently, due to the lack of research and investigations, arguments over the living conditions of the horse can be construed as “speculative”, the working conditions however, are more transparent.

Horse Health
- According to veterinarians, carriage horses frequently suffer from hoof deterioration and lameness due to the hard asphalt of city streets.

- Exposed to toxic fumes from the exhaust pipes of cars; the head of a carriage horse is typically three to four feet above the ground.

-Harsh working conditions result in a net life of 4 years for carriage horses, compared to 15 years for police horses. (net life implies working years, not actual life expectancy).

- Horses have a tendency to be easily spooked, placing a horse in an urban area with loud noises and horns will definitely do the job. 85% of all accidents involving a horse carriage are caused by a horse being spooked.

Opponents of horse drawn carriages such as Peta and Alexis Stewart believe that the placement of draft horses in the city and forcing of these animals to carry heavy loads is unnatural work, an inhumane juxtaposition of animals in an urban area. They believe that a humane treatment of horses can only be realized in the reinstitution of these animals back to their natural environments, where they are bought from. Personally, I feel the point of contention lays not with subjective terms such as " natural” and “unnatural” but with examining the health of the horse. As the points above illustrate a carriage horse within the city is subjected to harsh working conditions, irregardless of his living conditions. An improvement in living conditions and regulations for cab drivers, though laudable, will not negate, the overall harmfulness of the horse working in such close proximity to cars and other aspects of an urban environment. However, there is, for the sake of cab drivers, a possible compromise to this situation. A form of zoning already exists banning horses from streets before 7pm. A further extension of this ban could be applied to all midtown streets, restricting carriage operations solely to Central Park. As Peta’s compilation of accident records indicates, the majority of accidents occur when a horse is within or near traffic, an area in which it is easily spooked. Additionally a removal of horses from city streets will prevent direct absorption of dangerous fumes into the lungs of horses when they are in street traffic. Like the traveling salesman and other nostalgic enterprises, carriage horses walking the streets alongside traffic are relics of a by-gone era, let’s keep them sentimentally where they belong: small cites, towns, and parks.

Pictures Copyright of:

1. WABC-TV and WABC-DT ABC Local, New York and Tristate News.

2. Reigate Sixth Form College.