EDITORIAL: A bright idea

Creating a University CityCreating a University CityDistrict would do wondersCreating a University CityDistrict would do wondersfor retailing and residentialCreating a University CityDistrict would do wondersfor retailing and residentiallife in West Philadelphia.Creating a University CityDistrict would do wondersfor retailing and residentiallife in West Philadelphia.____________________________ The CCD has given Philadelphians -- especially those who have migrated to the suburbs -- new reasons to patronize businesses and restaurants in Center City, as well as a feeling of increased safety when they venture downtown to see a movie or stroll Independence Mall. The CCD's latest project is "heads-up" street signs, mounted on lamp posts and designed to help visitors determine what attractions are nearby, as well as what other landmarks are within a short walk. Now, University officials are looking into the creation of the same kind of business improvement district in University City. The idea sounds fantastic: by using tax revenues, extra personnel could be hired to clean up the streets and sidewalks around campus, remove graffiti from buildings, deal with the perennial panhandlers and bolster efforts to bring new franchises into the vacant storefronts on surrounding streets. Undoubtedly, students and community members would be more inclined to take pride in their homes if the neighborhood in which we live was cleaner, safer and more attractive. Parents of prospective students would be more at ease when they arrive to tour the campus. And business owners would be more likely to move in to satisfy the community's basic needs -- right in our own backyard, instead of 20 blocks away in a Center City mall. Philadelphia has always been a city of innovation through cooperation. This latest effort by University officials to learn from their counterparts in Center City, modeling a possible University City District on the already-successful CCD, has all the markings of another historic joint endeavor.