University expansion in West Phila., cost to neighborhoods, examined

The erosion of the West Philadelphia neighborhood known as the “Black Bottom,” chiefly due to the expansion of the University of Pennsylvania and the gentrification that followed, has led a University of Pennsylvania professor to co-write a book on the subject.

The effort, “Becoming Penn: The Pragmatic America University, 1950–2000,” was written by University Archives and Records Center Director Mark Frazier Lloyd, John Puckett, Ph.D., an education professor at Penn. It examines the university’s sometimes–painful expansion under four American presidents, through several governmental pacts and the displacement of hundreds of neighbors.

In fact, Puckett had strong thoughts on the gentrification piece, acknowledging university leadership has had a hard time coming to grips with some of the realities of their expansion decisions, but also that the story of removing residents in accordance to imminent domain clauses somehow grew a life of its own.

“There was a dormitory [Hill House, a former women’s dormitory] rising on what used to be Hill Field. That was the property across from what is now the law school, and ran from 34th to 33rd, Chestnut Street to Walnut Street,” Puckett said. “That property was the first to use federal funds for urban renewal at UPenn, and this was in 1959, 1960.

“The interesting thing about this urban renewal plan was that large percentage of those displaced where white,” Puckett added. “But UPenn got into trouble north of the campus, several blocks up to and beyond Market Street. In the eyes of the city planners and in the university’s eyes, that area was blighted; that area is known in local memory as the ‘Black Bottom’…there was also the problem of not having a legal right to the the redevelopment.”

Puckett said a compact of city universities — including Penn, Drexel and the College of Pharmacology and Science (now the University of the Sciences) — formed a pact with the city on efforts to develop the Black Bottom and surrounding areas.

“If you look at the records, it’s clear that UPenn dominated the commission and it existed to do UPenn’s bidding,” Puckett said. “There was the fear that the Black Bottom and Mantua were all points of, shall we say, undesirable penetration at the end of UPenn’s campus. In other words, UPenn needed a sphere of influence, and one that would serve research. That aspect actually came together well and fairly ingeniously, in some respects.”

That area Puckett is referring to is the University City Science Center, founded in 1963, and now operates as a non–profit science research center supported by 31 nonprofit shareholders.

Still, even with the expansion of the science center, Puckett is aware the issue of gentrification remains a prickly one for residents of the Mantua neighborhood, who to this day are grappling with the continued expansion of Penn’s sphere.

“The issue with the displacement of the Black Bottom neighborhood and residents is not the size — only about 2,000 residents from that area were displaced — but it’s the ramifications and the effects it has had across generations,” Puckett said. “The memory sticks in people’s craws, and it becomes a constant source of irritation for UPenn.”

The relationship between Mantua and the university has improved, said Puckett, when the late Sheldon Hackney became university president in 1980.

Hackney had a keen interest in social issues and civil rights due to his activist upbringing in Alabama, according to Puckett

“Hackney was acutely aware of the sin of slavery and Jim Crow, and wanted to set things right; he was a very good and decent man,” he said. “He set in motion the formal structure for UPenn to restore community relations with Mantua, and created the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.”

While Puckett’s research may seem to cast the university in a most unfavorable light, Puckett points out Penn has been at the forefront of some of society’s greatest advancements, including the support of the women’s rights movement and civil rights efforts.

The university has also experienced its share of riots, protests, stand–ins, sit–outs and other unrest through those 50 years analyzed in his book.

“There’s plenty of controversy over other things that have happened at UPenn over the years, even as the university has become corporatized, more diverse and more open,” Puckett said. “Even though those relationships and images are sometimes not positive, they have improved vastly. The university has an unusual story, as it was drawing off different sources at the time, just as the nation was drawing off different sources at the time.”

Source: Philadelphia Tribune