Pushing Back the Gates: Neighborhood Perspectives on University-Driven Revitalization in West Philadelphia

3. Early Returns on Dramatic Efforts to Change: The West Philadelphia Initiatives, 1990–2005

On October 21, 1994, Judith Rodin walked into her inauguration and into history as Penn’s seventh president, after a distinguished twenty-year career in higher education . she returned to Penn as the first woman president of an Ivy league institution. Rodin’s return to Philadelphia was also significant because it was a homecoming to the section of the city where she had been raised. stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily Pennsylvanian, as well as some university announcements, suggest that Rodin’s realization that her tenure would be about resolving the “West Philadelphia problem” came only after a series of highprofile crimes on and around the Penn campus in the mid-1990s, but there is evidence that refutes this suggestion. In her inaugural speech, Rodin stated: Philadelphia is my hometown. I first came to Penn three decades ago, wide-eyed, only because of a precious scholarship for local students. Returning here, I find special meaning and emotion in so many of each day’s rituals and experiences. . . . Early Returns on Dramatic Efforts to Change The West Philadelphia Initiatives, 1990–2005 3 52 C h a P t e r 3 I have no doubt that this city,despite its problems,is one of Penn’s greatest blessings.It is central to the Penn experience— not a world apart. I intend to work every day that I am here, as both a personal and an institutional mission,with community leaders and public officials, with our schools and health clinics, on things both large and small, to enhance the relationship in ways that will enrich both Penn and Philadelphia. We are, and must be, truly one.1 During my research, a Penn staffer I spoke with shared copies of administrative memos and reports given to Rodin and other senior university administrators regarding Penn’s impending action plan for West Philadelphia. In one briefing paper from March 1994, nearly eight full months before her inaugural,I identified five priority issues that required attention: (1) safety, (2) jobs, (3) economic and commercial development, (4) quality of public education, and (5) health care.The report geographically separatedWest Philadelphia into two areas with different populations, challenges, and priorities.The first area was an“inner ring”that was (and is) more racially and economically diverse than the “outer ring” that was (and remains) more homogenous and predominantly African American.The briefing paper speaks specifically to the university’s activities and to a clear rationale for urban engagement—self-interest. In late november 1994, a much more detailed draft report, “strategy and Actions for West Philadelphia Plan,” provided more information about specific opportunities for engagement and steps to be taken by the university to take advantage of them.While jobs, public education,and health care were still a part of this second report, they were much less prominent. In their place, economic and commercial development—particularly along distressed retail corridors— was described as a critical piece of West Philadelphia’s urban revitalization . The report differed from both its predecessor and later drafts about the West Philadelphia plan by its lack of hubris about the university’s capabilities and by referencing opportunities to partner or support the work of local organizations in their community development/urban revitalization projects. e a r ly r e t U r n s o n d r a m at i C e f f o rt s t o C h a n g e 53 The last pre−West Philadelphia Initiatives (WPI) report I uncovered was a draft prepared for the university in november 1996, which most closely resembled what actually took place between 1994 and 2004. It called for improvements in commercial and economic development, housing, and general quality of life and educational opportunities for children.The total proposed cost at that time was more than $10 million.Those funds would be used in a variety of ways, including the construction of a new public school and a supermarket, a public safety effort, and property acquisition and rehabilitation. In the end, the WPI proved to be larger and more expansive than any draft report had proposed. As a result, “buckets” of activity were defined to organize disparate (and possibly contradictory) efforts across and beyond the university.To that end, five major strategic objectives or themes were identified: (1) clean and safe streets, (2) excellent school options, (3) high-quality housing options, (4) reinvigorated retail, and (5...