U. releases plans for 40th St. food plaza

If all goes as planned, the new 40th Street fresh air food plaza will create a colorful, park-like atmosphere on the east side of 40th Street behind the building formerly housing the Philadelphia Free Library, according to plans released yesterday by the University. Construction on the plaza, the first of five the University is building, is scheduled to begin in March and finish in May. The plaza will house eight vending stands -- for produce and other merchandise -- and four food carts. The University will also assist five vending trucks in operating on the east side of 40th Street south of the plaza, officials said. The plazas -- which will provide outdoor seating for customers, as well as electrical hook-ups, sewage, water lines and improved lighting for vendors at the cost of $1 per month -- are designed to offer vendors an attractive place to operate away from campus' crowded streets. The University is building the plazas as it awaits City Council's approval of an ordinance regulating vending on and around campus. Among other provisions, the proposed ordinance, which was introduced to Council last week, bans vending on many streets and sidewalks around campus. The plazas are separate from the ordinance. The 12 spaces available will accommodate the 7 to 10 vendors presently in operation on 40th Street, according to Jack Shannon, the University's managing director for economic development and top development official. Some of the vendors themselves, however, are not happy with the University's plans. "If [the University] moves me somewhere else, my business will be cut by at least half," said Sami Dakko, the owner of Rami's Lebanese Luncheonette located on 40th Street between Spruce and Locust streets. The stands in the plaza are being designed so vendors can easily install them in the morning and take them down in the evening. The plaza will also contain benches and landscaping to give it a park-like feel. The University intends to build a total of five plazas. Penn officials announced last week that they had abandoned plans to build the plazas at two of the proposed sites, next to Bennett Hall and behind Van Pelt Library, because of complaints from faculty members and staff. An announcement about two alternate sites will be made later this week, Shannon said. Two other food plazas will be built between Gimbel Gymnasium and the parking garage on the 3700 block of Walnut Street and at 34th and Spruce streets near the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Construction on the food plazas was originally scheduled to begin in December. But University officials delayed their plans when the passage of the proposed vending ordinance was delayed because of a dispute between Penn and vendor and consumer groups. The other four sites should go up shortly after construction on the 40th Street sites starts, Shannon said last week.

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