U. to announce two or three food plaza sites today

One of the replacement food plazas may be close to Meyerson Hall. University officials will release theircomprehensive plans for all fresh air food plazas today, including the locations of two or three new plazas to replace two recently canceled sites, Executive Vice President John Fry said yesterday. One of these new locations will likely be behind Meyerson Hall near 34th and Walnut streets, Fry said. Both Fry and Jack Shannon, the University's managing director for economic development, declined to comment on the locations of the remaining plazas until plans are finalized. Administrators had originally announced plans to build five plazas: next to Bennett Hall at 34th and Chancellor streets; behind Van Pelt Library on the 3400 block of Walnut Street; between Gimbel Gymnasium and the parking garage on the 3700 block of Walnut Streets; at 34th and Spruce streets next to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; and on 40th Street between Locust and Walnut streets. But February 12, University officials said they were abandoning plans for the food plazas next to Bennett Hall and behind Van Pelt Library in the face of faculty and staff protests. Some faculty members opposed the Bennett Hall site because of potential food odors and noise, while staff members opposed the Van Pelt Library location because of possible over-crowding. In determining the new locations, officials face the problem of balancing the needs of the vendors with the wishes of the people who work in the buildings near potential plazas, according to Fry. "Everyone's for the vendors until they're going to be located near them," Fry said. The University will build the plazas while 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 City Council February 12, bans vending on many streets and sidewalks.Plans for the plazas are separate from the ordinance. Fry also insisted yesterday that University administrators did not renege on any promises they made at a February 9 meeting convened by Blackwell to finalize a vending ordinance proposal. Many people who were at that meeting have accused University administrators, including Fry and Shannon, of making promises on certain issues -- particularly that they would include locations of street vending in the ordinance -- and then reneging on them in drafting the final proposal. The two locations the administrators allegedly agreed to, according to many of the meeting's attendees, were on 34th Street between Walnut Street and Locust Walk and directly in front of the Penn Tower Hotel. Fry admitted to agreeing to the site in front of Penn Tower Hotel, but said he "never agreed to open, unrestricted vending on 34th Street. The most we agreed to was a food plaza in the area." Fry said his position might have been misrepresented to the people at the meeting. But he stressed that he "made his positions clear in separate phone conversations with Jack [Shannon] and Blackwell." University officials released plans for the first plaza, to be located on 40th Street, last week. Construction on this plaza is scheduled to begin next month and finish in May. The other plazas should start going up soon after work on the first has begun, Shannon said last week. Fry refused to comment yesterday on the construction timetable. The fresh air food plazas -- which will provide outdoor seating as well as electrical hook-ups, sewage and water lines and improved lighting for vendors for $1 per month for five years -- are designed to offer vendors an attractive place to operate away from the crowded streets of campus.

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