Committee completes stage 2 of 40th St. development

With the last of the seven community forums concerning the future of the 40th Street corridor taking place Monday night at the Rotunda, the second phase of the development project has come to a close.

The seven meetings over the last month brought together more than 300 local residents, business owners and other stakeholders in the development of 40th Street between Filbert Street and Baltimore Avenue. The goal of the forums was to establish principles upon which further development of the commercial corridor will be based.

The six final principles that were generated and accepted during the meetings include fostering a variety of business and culture on the corridor, "blur[ring] the sharp distinctions" that currently mark the corridor, as well as maintaining a community spirit and an ongoing dialogue about the project.

The forums were coordinated jointly by the University and community members.

"The idea at this point is [for] the University to be one voice among many," said Harris Sokoloff, a professor in the Graduate School of Education, "and [for] the community Steering Committee to take more control over the process."

The Steering Committee is currently comprised of 16 members, six of whom are affiliated with the University. But an expansion of the committee is planned to further integrate community voices into the project.

"We tried to make the forum much more inclusive and co-productive than past deliberations with the community," said Glenn Bryan, Penn's director of city and communications relations. "We felt that it was a success in reaching a wide array of people and businesses."

Although by most standards, the forums were a success, they were not without their share of critique. There were two prominent criticisms that resurfaced during the meetings, according to Sharrieff Ali, a member of both the Spruce Hill Neighborhood Alliance and the Steering Committee.

The first criticism centered on the inclusiveness and publicity of the events. The second concerned the viability of goals that several attendees considered vague and ambiguous.

Ali did not consider either of the criticisms particularly applicable to the situation. Bryan and others called the Steering Committee flexible, saying that this characteristic allows it to address the concerns all stakeholders, some of whom -- including senior citizens and local business owners -- originally expressed concern over being marginalized. Additional meetings were organized to accommodate these groups.

"Penn took the lead by helping to engage the community," Harris Steinberg, School of Design professor and Penn Praxis executive director said, reiterating that "there is no hidden agenda."

Penn Praxis is a consulting group based in the School of Design that has worked on the project and helped organize the forums.

But others, such as the University City Republicans, were not as convinced that the criticisms could be disregarded so quickly.

Although calling the forums and the process productive and successful in developing community dialogue, Matt Wolfe, the representative Republican ward leader in University City, pointed out that the principles were too vague and not concrete enough for practical use.

"They did a good job, but there wasn't a set-in-stone plan after last night," Wolfe said, adding, "I think that the final principles that they developed were very, very weak."

In fact, the next step for the project has not been determined, and the role the University will play in that process remains up in the air. The Steering Committee is planning to meet in the upcoming weeks to figure out the next steps.

The project is "very much a work in progress," Steinberg said, but the forums were intended as "a reiteration of values, of goals, not a planning study."

Staff reporter Elizabeth Rossi contributed to this report.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.