U. cancels plans to build two of five fresh air food plazas

Noise and overcrowding fears led officials to change their minds on where to put the two vending sites. Bowing to pressure from faculty and staff members, University officials said yesterday they had abandoned plans to build two of the five proposed fresh air food plazas designed to offer vendors an attractive place to operate away from the campus' crowded streets. Faculty and staff members protested the two locations near 34th and Walnut streets -- one next to Bennett Hall and the other behind Van Pelt Library -- because of potential nuisances such as the noise and smell from the carts, as well as possible problems caused by over- crowding. University officials have selected two other locations, in the vicinity of 34th and Walnut streets, as alternate sites. But Jack Shannon, the University's top economic development official, said he would not identify the sites until plans are finalized. "While vending is an important issue, the message was clearly conveyed to us that such an act [of building the plazas] cannot and should not take place at the expense of the academic and other missions of the University," Shannon said. The fresh air food plazas 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 a month for five years. The University announced last week that construction on the first plaza -- on 40th Street between Locust and Walnut streets -- would begin in March. Construction on the remaining four plazas, including the new sites, will start shortly thereafter, according to Shannon. University officials are moving forward with the plans to construct all the food plazas as a result of Philadelphia Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell's introduction of an ordinance yesterday to regulate vending on and around campus, Shannon said. Construction on the food plazas was originally slated to begin in December. But University officials postponed their plans when the passage of the proposed vending ordinance was delayed because of a dispute between Penn and vendor and consumer groups. Faculty and staff members opposed the plazas -- which remain separate from the ordinance proposals -- for a variety of reasons. Several faculty members felt the potential noise and food odors coming from the Bennett Hall plaza would be too distracting, according to Political Science Professor Jack Nagel. While only a handful of faculty members openly expressed opposition to the site, the general attitude among professors is, "if it's going to be a problem for the educational mission, then let's find another location," Nagel said. Library employees opposed the plaza that was slated to be be built behind Van Pelt Library on the 3400 block of Walnut Street because of the potential problems it would have created for people trying to enter the facility. "It would have created havoc and would have made it much more crowded for [staff] to pass through," said Jim Gray, who works in the Van Pelt Library and is a tri-chairperson of the African American Association of faculty and staff members. Also, the Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution challenging plans to build a plaza next to the Gimbel Gymnasium on the 3700 block of Walnut Street. But University officials said plans for that plaza have not changed.

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