Longtime resident Barry Grossbach remembers the condition his neighborhood was in five years ago, before the creation of the University City District.
These are not pleasant memories, he admits, describing the "absolute filthiness of the neighborhood."
"I don't think anybody in their right minds would want to go back to the way things were," said Grossbach, a member of the UCD Board of Directors. "The district has changed the way people feel about the neighborhood. To me, everything else is gravy."
Few would disagree that the UCD, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary last week, has become an important link in binding the community together. And as a new executive director, Eric Goldstein, prepares to take the reins next month, many are examining the largely successful role the organization has played since its inception -- and how it can continue.
Over time, streetscape enhancements, farmers' markets, advertising campaigns and a new signage program have all been added to the UCD's original mission of providing clean and safe streets at a level the city does not have the resources to provide.
Their core efforts appear to be working, as surveys conducted by the UCD revealed that 73 percent of respondents believe that University City is cleaner than it was three years ago, while 71 percent of those surveyed felt safer. But perhaps more important is the change in attitude among area residents.
"I think that now people have a sense that there is some investment in this community that will pay off for the University and the people who live here," said Cynthia Roberts, president of the Friends of Clark Park. "When somebody invests in you, you feel validated in a way."
The path to improvement began in 1996, when Penn sought partners in order to bring west the success that the Center City District was having in revitalizing downtown.
"I went out and said `Look, the neighborhood that we live in is beleaguered, our institutions look foolish, we are under attack [from crime] and we got to get control,'" said Penn Executive Vice President John Fry, chairman of the UCD's board.
This situation made the initial job of rounding up support easy, Fry said. And over time, the money collected has gone toward rebuilding University City.
Grace O'Donnell, owner of O'Donnell Real Estate on Baltimore Avenue, said she believes that the UCD's programs have helped the neighborhood -- and her sales.
"It's much easier to walk through the neighborhood and show houses when there's not garbage blowing around your feet... and some homeless person asking me and my prospect for money," O'Donnell said, describing conditions five years ago.
In addition to its own specific programs, the UCD also has been lending its time and expertise to help other groups. It supplied shovels and workers to the Baltimore Avenue in Bloom program, and most recently, when the businesses on 40th Street were affected by road construction, the UCD sponsored an ad in local newspapers telling customers that the stores were still open.
"It does free up, to some extent, time to allow people to attend to their businesses, while [the UCD is] attending to the marketing of the area and the improvement of the area in general," said Debbie Sanford, president of the 40th Street Area Business Association and owner of the House of Our Own Bookstore.
However, even with such benefits, not all those within the UCD's boundaries -- which run roughly from the Schuylkill River to 50th Street, and from Spring Garden Street to Woodland Avenue -- are willing to ante up for such services. Unlike other business improvement districts that are typically funded through mandatory property tax assessments, the UCD relies upon donations, with Penn serving as the primary financial contributor.
This is required since nonprofit institutions -- which cannot be taxed -- own the majority of the land in University City.
"I kind of feel that I'm paying enough in taxes," said Bill Pawliczek, owner of Cavanaugh's Restaurant on 39th Street. "I don't like to pay twice for something I think I should be getting the first time."
Reluctance to contribute is one of the problems confronting Goldstein as he gets ready to take charge of the district on Oct. 15. With the original funding commitments from major donors expiring next year, Goldstein has said that finding additional funding sources is of great concern in the short-term.
One of his primary goals will be reminding potential donors that "we're effective, we're efficient, and we believe we're a good investment because we then go out and leverage those dollars for other dollars."
Obtaining funding from state, federal and private sources will also assume much more importance in coming years, he said.
Besides recruiting dollars, Goldstein also said that he wants to recruit people from a variety of community groups, including fraternities and sororities, to assist the UCD with its efforts in future years.
"One of our big challenges right now is doing sort of broad-based education and outreach, and putting the UCD where we're not just the lone responder to trash or safety situations," Goldstein said.
However, the success of remaking University City in the past five years cannot be claimed solely by the UCD. Several other initiatives, many of them Penn-led, have cropped up over that time as well, including a subsidized housing finance program for faculty and staff and the recently opened Penn-assisted pre-K-8 school at 42nd and Locust streets.
Fry said that on the basis of a revised strategic plan, the UCD will continue to push ahead, entering the arena of economic development and focusing much more attention on physical improvement, such as along Baltimore Avenue and around 30th Street.
But immersing itself further in the community increases the chances that the UCD will become mired in local politics.
"There are people out there with all sorts of agendas to try to do their own things," area resident Scott Maits said. "It's damned if you do and damned if you don't with some people."
And the UCD does have its share of critics.
"In the abstract it was a nice idea, but one of the problems with it is that the UCD was acting in the role of real estate developer and wasn't serving the community as much as it was serving corporate interests and real estate development interests," said Richard Rogers, an area resident and member of activist group Neighbors Against McPenntrification.
But Fry said that the goal of the UCD has been to become a neutral body among its neighbors, something he says will not change. The voting rights among the members of its board are distributed equally: Penn, which provides 55 percent of the UCD's funding, receives the same single vote as anyone else.
"The district is somebody that I can talk to -- even though I know everybody doesn't feel that way -- and I'm just a little guy," Maits said.
