Gentrification
Urbanist Websites Confuse Philly With Boston — and With Bristol, CT
Websites that write about cities should probably keep a keen eye on which city is which, especially when aggregating content or using copyrighted photographs. Let’s […]
On Spike Lee’s Gentrification Speech, or Why Won’t They Build a Fancy New Grocery Store in Mantua?
There has been considerable ink dedicated to chronicling the ongoing battle between culture and capital as Brooklyn becomes the epicenter of hipster chic. Of all […]
Morning Headlines: Saffron Says New Templetown Housing Achieves the Impossible
In her latest column, Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron writes about the new North Philadelphia development Paseo Verde, calling it “a trifecta of socially responsible […]
Confessions of a Gentrifier
A few months ago, toward the end of the summer, I was walking my dog near my house in East Kensington when my neighbor Franky […]
Report: Chinatowns Still Disappearing
A report released two weeks ago confirms what people have been worrying about for a few years: That Chinatowns are a dying breed and that […]
“Opportunity Index” Ranks Philly, ’Burbs for Social Mobility
In the decades since the term was first coined – in the preface of a 1931 book by historian James Truslow Adams – the notion […]
The Ori Feibush/Point Breeze Situation Just Got Incredibly Stupid
The latest in the case of Ori Feibush vs. The World is an accusation that OCF Realty’s Feibush fabricated violent, threatening, and grammatically poor text […]
“There Are No Urban Pioneers, Just Checkbooks With a Christopher Columbus Complex.”
A year ago, my best friend came into town for a conference and met me at my job for lunch. At the time, I was […]
Does Philadelphia Need Gentrification Relief?
We all know that Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods, and that the constant push-and-pull between forces that would preserve those neighborhoods and their identities […]
AVI: Also Screwing City Council Members
City Paper has compiled a handy chart documenting how each City Council member will get affected by the city’s Actual Value Initiative (provided the current […]
Where Philly’s “Creative Class” Lives
The mighty urban theorist and Atlantic Cities honcho Richard Florida has descended upon Philly to judge its creativeclassishness. The results: Philly has two substantial but […]
Note to Gentrifiers, Rich People, and Pretty Much Everyone: Your Taxes Are Going Up Under AVI
According to City Controller Alan Butkovitz, 343,191 properties will experience tax increases under the city’s proposed Actual Value Initiative (AVI) overhaul, compared to 107,603 which will […]