The Struggle for University City Homes

         About a couple of months ago. I visited University City Homes. I noticed a great array of tables and tents. There were vendors distributing all types of odds and ends. When I walked inside, one lady was fixing plates of hot dogs and fried chicken with an assortment of vegetables and salads. There was a DJ spinning records, the kids were having a good time. They were all doing their best to drum up support for University City Homes. The government had sold the project to a developer who hoped to turn the project into a science building for the University of Pennsylvania. 

        Years ago, I remember walking through the project. University Homes was the premier elegant public housing complex. The buildings looked so modern and well-kept that one would think that the garden style complex was privately owned. Situated on Fortieth and Market Streets University City homes was in one of Philadelphia’s best neighborhoods. Across the street sat the Presbyterian Hospital, a University of Pennsylvania affiliate hospital, a modern facility with the latest architecture and scientific equipment. Prominent city and community groups still rent the auditorium space on Thirty Ninth and Market Streets.  Immediately behind University City Homes sits University of Pennsylvania, one the nation’s oldest Ivy League universities. The neighborhood along 20th and Chestnut Street is filled with numerous shops and restaurants that service the university area campus. At 40th and Walnut, two blocks away sits the Rotunda, a former church building of the Church of Christ Scientist constructed in 1911, that serves as a cultural center for performing arts, that hosts jazz, plays and other cultural events. Next door is the Cinemark movie theater. Across the street is an ACME Market.  Across from the supermarket is a McDonald’s with a CVS practically next door. Near 40th and Chestnut, one block away is a series of buildings used by the University of Pennsylvania as an art studio for art scholars. One can travel westward, turn the corner northward on Preston Street and find the famed Philadanco dance school.

So why is University City Homes, a successful project of the City of Philadelphia closing? Greed. University expansion means greater profits for the University and its corporation and the corporations that are tied to it. The university says it needs a science facility. There are several along Market Street and two she already owns.  What of the poor? What of the needy? What of homelessness? No one seems to care. We say that we don’t want urban blight. We don’t want ghettos. We want poor people to have the opportunity to and for cultural enrichment. We want poor people to climb out of poverty. We want them to have a decent education. We spent millions of dollars busing African Americans. Most of the people living in UC Homes are African Americans. We want them trained for decent good paying jobs. We want them to live in communities free from crime. I believe they need more than vouchers so they can go somewhere else. I believe to save them and save America; they should be left there. Build decent housing for Americans. Save UC Homes! Save the USA!

   

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