Poplar- Philly’s Northside district with aspirations to become a truly mixed-income neighborhood

Originally, the neighborhood was composed mostly of single-family row houses and with some industry and active commercial streets along Girard, Broad, Ridge, and Spring Garden. The depression interestingly lead to widespread disinvestment in Poplar several decades before its adjacent northside neighborhoods. This prompted the City to raze much of the historic fabric in the 1930s and build Richard Allen Homes, one of the City’s first large public housing projects. The Richard Allen Homes remained Poplar’s defining physical characteristic for the next several decades. Budget cuts by the City in the 60s lead to an egregious degree of deterioration compounded by poorly planned open spaces. This encouraged crime and gave Poplar notoriety as a center for crime and drug trafficking in the 1970s and 1980s. Allen Homes and the Cambridge Plaza high-rise were demolished in the early 2000s and replaced with more suburban-style duplexes and single-family homes. I find most of this replacement housing rather bland and unsensitive to the surrounding urban context, but the redevelopment appears to have greatly reduced blight and crime in the neighborhood.

The edges of Poplar is where the best urban fabric remains. Broad Street still retains much of its grand mid-level urban fabric housing a good array of cultural amenities. Its intersection with Ridge Street has become an excellent urban node with TOD like development near the Fairmount Metro Station. Spring Garden is gritty but is becoming an interesting historic mixed-use area. There is also a good amount of historic rowhouses along the southern and eastern edges of the neighborhood. Girard Street is the least attractive thoroughfare sadly succumbing to the twin forces of blight and auto centric development. My hope is the neighborhood becomes a shinning example of a mixed-income neighborhood. Poplar already hosts a high percentage of affordable housing and has significant room of new market rate development. The neighborhood could use particular attention to building up its retail/neighborhood amenities along its commercial corridors, reconstructing Girard street, eliminating remaining blight, and creating more parks and recreational amenities.

Click here to view my Poplar Album in Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great public transit access and convenient access to Dwtn.
* Good array of dedicated bike lanes and a handful of bike stations in the district.
* Great racial diversity in the district.
* Tons of subsidized units. In really they probably make too high a pct% of the housing units but seem like a good building point as the district fills in with market rate housing. Market rate rentals concentrated along the SW edge, Girard Street, and the Poplar’s east border with Northern Liberties. Some 1-bedrooms leasing in the low to mid $1,000s. 2-bedroom are more plentiful and rent the whole range of $1,000s. Also some 3-bedrooms lease in the 1Ks and 2Ks.
* Decent tree cover helped by all the recent Public Housing Projects.
* Cultural amenities concentrated along Broad, Spring Garden and near Northern Liberties. They include a good array of restaurants, a decent # of bars, cafes & breweries, several art galleries, Philly MOCA, the Jewish Museum of Art, the Met and a couple live music venues.
* Retail amenities are ok. They include an Aldi’s but plenty of little grocerias, several drug stores, a public library, post office, a handful of banks and boutiques, and a Target just SE of the Poplar boundaries.
* Pretty good school options including several decent public and charter schools within the district. Easy access to several more in surrounding areas.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Most intersections have curb cuts but most do not have up to date ADA curbs.
* Economic diversity seems to be slowly improving but still a very high poverty rate (42%). Family diversity not great. Only 30% of households are family households.
* For sale homes are very concentrated in the southern and east district edges. Decent amount of condos and smaller 2 & 3 bedroom flats selling in the high 200Ks and 300Ks. Should be more of this product however. At least 1/2 of the for sale product is larger/higher end homes selling between 400K-700K.
* Recreational amenities aren’t great but several worth mentioning including Poplar Park, the John F Street Community Center, an Carrie Turner Community Park. Some parks within a 1/3 mile of the districts boundaries.
* Good amount of blight still in the community but much of it cleared away by urban renewal. Girard def the most blighted/autocentric/uninspiring street in the district. Crime is prob still moderate but much better than past decades.
* The District’s best urban form and streetscaping is along Broad, Spring Garden and the Southern and eastern edges of the neighborhood. This is also where the best historic architecture lies.

Callow Hill- Philly’s Ultimate Loft District

I used the boundaries of Broad, Spring Garden, 6th St. and 676 for Callow Hill. The district was named after Hannah Callowhill Penn, William Penn’s second wife. Callowhill became a major large-scale manufacturing hub siting just outside of Central City in the turn of the 20th century but it always retained a decent residential population. During the 1970s and 1980s, industrial warehouses began to decay and the district’s population also fell. Since probably the early 2000s, developers started to employ adaptive reuse projects, so much so that many call Callow Hill “The Loft District” Callow hill also hosts a large Chinese population due to its proximity to Chinatown just to the south of I-676.

Grit lovers will certainly find a home here in Callow Hill. Not only do you encounter fascinating industrial lofts apartments, but the district retains a incredibly raw and gritty feel. This also comes with downsides like, few trees and green spaces, limited streetscaping improvements, and plenty of unattractive industrial building with autocentric layouts. But the district has many quality urban attributes including quality cultural amenities, decent retail amenities, excellent public transit, convenience to Center City, and a good array of quality walkable schools. Callow Hill also hosts Philly’s high line, a former Reading Railroad Viaduct that will be converted into a quarter-mile-long, elevated park.

I fully anticipate Callow Hill to continue filling in and attracting a niche of grit and historic architecture lovers. There is so much potential for urban growth here.

Click here to view my Callow Hill Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent public transit access and very convenient to Center City.
* Very good dedicated bike lanes and a several dedicated bike stations in the district.
* Almost half of the district’s population is Asian., 38% White and a good mix of other races. Excellent economic distribution living in the district.
* For sale housing includes mostly industrial loft conversions. Some very interesting spaces. Decent amount of 1 & 2 bedroom product selling in the high 100Ks, 200Ks, and 300Ks. Higher end product selling in the 400Ks & 500ks. True luxury product and townhouses doesn’t exist here yet.
* Rent is pretty moderately priced. 1-bedrooms lease for around 1,000 and 2-bedrooms in the mid to low $2,000s. 3-bedrooms generally in the $2,000s.
* Historically some very interesting old warehouses and excellent architecture along Broad Street.
* While prices aren’t as high as other surrounding districts, a buzz definitively seems to be building here.
* Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars, cafes, and breweries, several art galleries, several live music venues & theaters, and convenient access to many of Central City’s cultural amenities.
* Retail amenities include a target, several drug stores, an Aldi’s a quarter mile north of the districts border, several ethnic grocerias, a handful of boutiques and banks, and several industrial supply stores.
* Several great school options spanning age and public/private pretty well. Many other schools walkable in adjacent districts.
* Urban form is generally good along the main biz districts (Broad and Spring Garden) but not great along the eastern edge. No recent investment in the streetscaping. Rough in spots within the district.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Decent ADA curb cuts along the main arteries (i.e. Broad, Spring Garden and Ridge) but pretty poor on the side streets, albeit always with sidewalks.
* Pretty Low density for a Philadelphia district but at 12K/ sq mile its not too bad.
* Family households is only 30%. Decent amount of adult diversity between 20-50 but few elderly.
* Other than the rail park, trees are very limited. Also no other park space the rail park. There is however a climbing wall and decent access to plazas in nearby Center City. Fortunately there are plans to expand the rail park.
* Mixed bag with urban infill. Some nice newer projects have been erected but plenty of ugly post WWII industrial buildings.
* No post office nor library in the district. Few unique or creative retail.

Cecil B Moore- A North Philly neighborhood in the shadows of Temple University

The Cecil B. Moore district is located between Susquehanna Ave to the north, Girard to the south, Broad to the east and 24th/Ridge to the West. The district is named after Cecil Bassett Moore, a 20th century Philly Lawyer active in the Civil Rights movement and major player with the local NAACP chapter. The oldest parts of the neighborhood development along Broad. There is a large concentration of grand 3-5 story flats built between the 1860s-1890s. The rest of the neighborhood was built in the late 1800s mixing large and more modest rowhouses. Plenty of affordable in-fill built between 60s-90s as well, as the district experienced significant blight and disinvestment.

Living in the shadows of Temple University has not surprisingly created conflicts between longtime residents of the neighborhood and the University. Development west of Broad street feels to residents as a take over of their community and Temple University has a tendency to isolate itself due to the district’s safety issues. Worse was the controversial term “Templetown” coined by former Temple president Peter J. Liacouras.

But for all these tensions between the University and Cecil B. Moore, the neighborhood has benefited in many ways through a decent amount of neighborhood and cultural amenities, more development and better schools than neighboring North Philly districts, and good urban form along Broad and Cecil B More Avenues. My hope is that the neighborhood continues to revitalize but with a strong sense of partnership between the university and community with attentiveness to the needs of both communities and creating affordable housing alongside market rate investment.

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent public transit options and access to Dwtn only about 2-2.5 miles away.
* Great connectively with this very gridded street network.
* A surprisingly high diversity of for sale options. Outdated more modest homes sell in the 100Ks. Nicer or medium sized homes in the 200Ks and 300Ks. The district’s southern edge is starting to see higher end new construction or renovations selling in the 400Ks.
* Good amount of rentals and many of them are quite affordable (at least for Philly). 1-bedrooms lease between $800 and low $1,000s. 2-bedrroms in the low to mid-$1,000s, and due to the large student population there are a lot of 3-5 bedrooms homes. These go anywhere from the low $1,000s to mid $2,000s depending on size and condition.
* Temple University has brought a good amount of cultural amenities to the district especially along Broad street. This includes a cineplex, a good array of restaurants and bars along Broad and Cecil B. Moore, the New Freedom Theater (dedicated to A.A. arts), several Temple performing arts spaces, a handful of live music venues, and several museums.
* The University has also helped bring a fair amount of neighborhood retail to the district esp. along Broad (i.e. supermarket, several banks, a paint store, several drug stores, a Barnes and nobles, a public library. Also plenty of convenience stores, salons/barbers shops along Cecil B. Moore Ave.
* Temple police force adds patrolling of the district and hopefully results in less crime for the neighborhood.
* Good number of walkable schools in the neighborhood for all ages. Mix of poor, medium and excellent ranked-schools. Carver High School is a highly ranked Engineering and Science charter school.
* Urban and form is a decent along Broad St. Some car centric uses. Cecil B Moore is surprisingly a solid urban and streetscape. Temple seems to have played a role in promoting good urban infill with lots of neighborhood serving retail.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* ADA infrastructure concentrated along Broad St. Most of neighborhood streets have curb cuts but not up to date ADA curbs.
* Lots of blight and abandonment remain in Cecil M Moore. But the neighborhood is certainly headed in the right direction with plenty of revitalization along Broad, especially in Tempe University and in-fill housing concentrated in pockets (i.e. Cecil B. Moore.
* Bike infrastructure isn’t great as there are no dedicated bike lanes and only a handful bike stations.
* Economic diversity seems to be increasing as more Temple students decide to live in the district, but likely at least 70% African American.
* Very high poverty rate (around 45%) . Some income diversity from students and new development.
* Thanks to the heavy student population family households is pretty low but they create decent age diversity.
* Parks and recreation space is so . Unfortunately the Temple fields and parks sitting within the neighborhood don’t appear accessible to residents. There is a decent MLK rec center and the new Ingersoll Park but not much else. Some parks nearby in adjacent districts. There is also a YMCA along Broad.
* No post office in neighborhood and limited access to doctor’s offices and hospitals.

Sharswood- North Philly’s next district to revitalize

Sharswood is a small neighborhood located between Cecil B. Moore, 25th Street, Ridge, and College Ave. The district is named after Georges Sharswood, a Pennsylvania jurist. The district is comprsied of mostly 3-story large rowhouses built in the 1870s-1890s. Like much of North Philly, the district experienced significant disinvestment starting in the 1960s. Sharswood was hit especially badly and has lost nearly all its business districts along Cecil B. Moore and Ridge Ave. The neighborhood has only recently begun its long path to revitalization starting with quality historic renovations and a sprinkling of infill rowhouses. The Philly Housing Authority is also investing heavily with its new headquarters and a mixed-use development along Ridge Ave.

Hopefully Sharswood’ revitalization continues with a healthy amount of affordable housing mixed in. Its seems to be moving in that directly. More of a challenge than building new housing will be recreating the district’s historic business districts along Ridge Ave and Cecil B. Moore. But the neighborhood has a lot going for it with its close proximity to Center City (2.5 miles) and stable adjacent districts to the west and south (Brewerytown and Francisville to the west and south).

Click here to view my Sharswood Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great public transit service and solid access to Central City.
* Solid racial and family diversity.
* Rental housing is certainly cheaper than most Philly neighborhoods but more than you expect with a district that still has a lot of blight and disinvestment. 1-bedrooms go in the lot-mid $1,000s. And 2-bedrooms in the mid-high $1,000s. 3 bedrooms around 2K. But this is nicely renovated apts. Plenty of affordable hsg in the neighborhood. The Housing Authority is currently constructing a new mixed-use development on Ridge Rd.
* For Sale prices are definitively on the upswing here, but still a good mix. Unrenovated 2&3 bedrooms selling in the high 100Ks and low 200s. Smaller but renovated homes selling in the 200ks-mid300Ks. Larger renovated or new build selling between mid 300Ks to about 500K. Few condo units.
* Good connectivity and decent neighborhood border but few landmark buildings or nodes to create a strong sense of imageability here.
* Mix of quality and bland modern infill. There is more and more quality contextual in-fill rowhouses popping up but also a large affordable housing development from the 1990s that is quite bland.
* Nothing special about the streetscape of Ridge and Cecil Moore but at least the sidewalks are in decent shape and new ADA curb cuts have been installed.
* Good density even though the district has largely emptied out from its historic peak population.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Most intersections have curb cuts but most do not have up to date ADA curbs.
* Bike access not great. The district does include a couple dedicated bike stations but no bike lanes.
* High poverty rate at 30% but still some economic diversity here.
* Tree cover isn’t that great here.
* Few parks within the district (other than a couple urban gardens and small plazas). A couple of nice recreational centers in nearby districts.
* Cultural amenities are limited as there are few restaurants, no bars or cafes. At least the district is within a mile of some descent biz district (Girard in Brewerytown and Broad St).
* Neighborhood services aren’t much better. But some services remain including a local pharmacy, plenty of mini marts/small grocerias, and a public library.
* Crime is certainly above average and plenty of blight here, even though some revitalization efforts are underway.
* A nice array of walkable schools within Sharwood but generally of poor quality.
* Urban form is good where buildings are still standing. Lots of vacant lots along Cecil Moore and Ridge, the historic biz districts.
* Sharswood is still considered a rough district but some buzz and new in-fill development started around 2019-2020.

Brewerytown- Philly’s historic Germantown

I used the boundaries of Cecil B Moore and Popular to the north and south and Fairmount Park and N 25th to the west and east. Brewerytown got its name because of the numerous breweries that were located along the Schuylkill River during the turn of 20th century. Proximity to the river and nearby farmland allowed these establishments to flourish. By the early 20th century Brewerytown was a thriving German settlement. Two world wars and prohibition certainly did a number on the German heritage of Brewerytown but its wasn’t until the 1970s that the neighborhood went down hill. North Philly’s economic depression spread to the district, especially the north and eastern edges. Sadly much of this was along racial lines.

Brewerytown benefitted from the slow revitalization expansion of the Fairmount neighborhood from the south, although its pretty clear that the southern half of the district witnessed much less deterioration than the northern half. Brewerytown’s biz district Girard Ave is an attractive in-tact district with a good mix of businesses and restaurants but definitively still gritty. Many of the breweries on the western edge of the district have been renovated into lofts and plenty of good infill as well. Master St is more or less the dividing street between blight and renovation. The contrast is stark juxtaposed with blocks that have new in-fill and others with almost none and plenty of vacant blocks.

Hopefully the renovation of the rest of Brewerytown continues to the northern and the eastern sections of the neighborhood. While this will certainly raise gentrification concerns there is actually a nice array of price points with for-sale options. Rental housing, however, is much more expensive. Hopefully affordable rental housing will be more intentionally built. Brewerytown could also use better bike infrastructure and tree cover, more consistant ADA infrastructure, a complex streetscaping rehaul on Girard, and more neighborhood services and cultural amenities.

Click here to view my Brewerytown album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density.
* Good diversity especially economic diversity. The median income hovers around the City average of 47K. Mix of all types of incomes although still too much poverty (around 1/3 of households).
* Excellent array of price points of for sale housing. Good array of modest 1-3 bedroom flats and condos selling in the high 100Ks and 200Ks. Modest but well renovated or new construction selling in the 300KS and 400Ks. The top end of the market are large new (or recently renovated) 3 & 4 bedrooms selling in the 500Ks & 600k.
* Quality park and recreation assets esp. with Fairmount park on the neighborhood’s eastern border. Athletic Recreation Square also bring a rec center, pool, playground and Jefferson St. Park a basketball court & playground.
* Culturally a nice array of restaurants, bars, and cafes especially along Girard the district’s primary main street. Also a handful of art galleries and breweries.
* Solid neighborhood amenities including: a bike shops, a pharmacy, several local clothing stores, an ALDI’s supermarket, several hair salons, a butcher shop, a bank.
* A decent 3 of walkable schools within and nearby the district, but generally ranked poor or mediocre.
* Solid modern in-fill architecture particularly good with fitting into the existing urban form.
* Generally very good form including the main biz district along Girard. The vacant lots of the district northern and eastern edge certainly takes away from Brewery town’s overall urban form.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Generally good ADA infrastructure limited ADA current ramps on residential districts.
* Bike infrastructure could be better. District includes one dedicated bike lane running along Fairmount Park and a handful of dedicated bike stations.
* Good array of rental housing but a bit on the expensive side. 1-bedrooms lease in the low-mid $1,000s. 2-bedrooms span the $1,000s topping out around 2K. 3-bedrooms a mix of the mid 1,000s to 2Ks.
* No theaters or museums within Brewerytown but only about 1.5-2 miles from many options in Logan Square.
* Still a lot of blight and abandonment in the northern half of the district (north of Master’s Street). Amazing how start the change is from one block to another.
* Streetscaping is fine but nothing inspiring. I wish they would invest in a revamped streetscape along Girard.
* Tree cover is not great but not terrible. Certainly much to be desired including only a smattering of trees along Girard.

Spring Garden- A Stately District in North Philly

The Spring Garden district is between Fairmount Ave and Spring Garden St, Fairmount Park and Broad Street. The district goes back to the early 1800s as estates close to Fairmount Park were subdivided up and filled in. The district really took off between 1850 to 1876 and grew to over 60K. The district is still dense but hosts about half this population. Thanks to its extensive history, Spring Garden hosts a diverse array of attractive historic styles including Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Venetian Gothic. Most streets contain the classic Philly “terraced” set ups with small gardened plots, often raised, in the front of homes. Most rowhouses are of the denser 3+4 story variety highly conducive to single floor flats.

Spring Garden is only 1 mile from City Hall, the heart of Central City. This gives the district convenient access to the many amenities of Central City (e.g. great museums, culture & night life, job access, park amenities, and even good retail options. Spring Garden also has solid neighborhood retail and restaurant options along Fairmount Ave. and Spring Garden St., many walkable schools, and quality urban form. Because of its convenient access to Central City its not surprising how expensive Spring Garden is. The district has decent racial and income diversity, but poor generational diversity as few families reside here. Other than creating more affordable housing, my hopes for Spring Garden is that it’s eastern border along Broad St. fills in with quality mixed-use development. This would bring more amenities and vibrancy to the district.

Click here to view my Spring Garden album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent multi-model options and very walkable neighborhood. Dwtn less than a mile away.
* Nice park assets with convenient access to Fairmount Park. The Spring Gardens and Clemente Park also provides a diversity of recreational amenities right in the middle of the district.
* Solid tree cover, especially the western half of the district.
* Maybe a bit gritty along Broad St. but otherwise a very safe district.
* Excellent historic architecture, especially the mid-late 19th century mansions near Fairmount Park.
* Nice array of walkable school options both public and private covering most age groups. Also good access to some quality school options dwtn as well.
* Solid urban form in the biz districts. Good streetscaping on Broad, decent on Fairmount, but uninspiring along Spring Garden.
* Solid cultural amenities when one also includes the amenities within 1 mile walk. Within the district there are a decent # of restaurants, bars, and cafes especially along Fairmount and Spring Garden. The neighborhood also hosts the Jewish Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of art and the quirky Keen Collection. One also needs to include the many museums located on the district’s southern border (e.g. Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum, Franklin Institute, and much more).
* Good retail amenities. Supermarket’s include a couple local stores, ALDI’s and Wholefoods, several drug stores. Other amenities include: a hardware store, bookstore, plenty of banks, a bike store, boutiques, and a decent amount of unique stores along Fairmount and a Target only 1/4 mile from the district.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Generally good ADA infrastructure but up to date ADA curb ramps are missing at most intersections.
* Majority of residents are young adults and limited family households.
* Median incomes are pretty high but still a decent diversity of incomes.
* For sale housing is pretty expensive but a good amount of moderately priced 1 & 2 bedroom condos selling in the 200Ks, 300Ks & 400Ks. Some 3-bedrooms in the 500Ks & 600ks but plenty more expensive. 4-bedrooms start around 700K and go up into the low 1 Millions.
* While there is a good amount of rentals they are pretty expensive. 1-bedrooms going in the low to mid $1,000s. 2-bedrooms high $1,000s and low 2Ks. 3 beds in the $2,000s.
* Modern in-fill is pretty limited but some nice contextual historic infill and modern condos near Fairmount Park.

Fairmount- An attractive Philly neighborhood well on the road to recovery

There are several sub-districts in Fairmount. I decided for evaluation purposes, due to size and individual identity, to include Francisville in this eval but to exclude Spring Garden as a separate district. The neighborhood boundaries are therefore Spring Garden to the South, Popular/Girard to the north, Broad to the east, and Pennsylvania Ave. to the west.

Prominent city families established countryseats in Fairmount in the 1700s & 1800s especially along the Schuylkill River. The Eastern State Penitentiary was built further inland in 1829. Development really came in force in the mid-late 19th century with the construction of many rowhouses to support a growing number of factories and breweries in the area. Francisville likely was a separate village established along a stagecoach stop.

Historically Fairmount was home to working class and middle class families. A divide occurred in the 1960s where the eastern half of the district (generally east of Corinth), primarily centered on the Francisville sub-district, fell into disrepair and blight. West of Corinth remained stable. Sadly this was largely along racial lines. South of Fairmount Ave is the Spring Garden district which historically was a high-end district with larger flats. The western half of Fairmount also gentrified first. It is only within the past decade that areas east of Corinth have seen significant investment. Because of the deep distress of the neighborhood, investment is bringing an explosion of in-fill and thankfully of a high urban quality.

Most of the commercial amenities are along Fairmount Ave. Ridge Ave and Broad Ave were historically thriving business districts but are taking longer to recover than near by residential areas. In 5 years I’m confident that Ridge Ave will once again be a thriving biz district resembling Northern Liberties in many ways. Hopefully the same is true for Broad Avenue. That street is just to well built and iconic to remain blighted and underutilized.

Click here to view my Fairmount and Francisville Neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great Density, transit access, and overall walkability.
* Fairmount sits only 1-1.5 miles from Downtown.
* Good bike access with a bike lane along Fairmount Ave and Pennsylvania Ave along with several bike stations.
* Very attractive rowhouses with a mix of higher end and worker housing. Very attractive historic commercial bldgs along Broad St.
* Generally West of 22nd Street is most White and east is mostly Black. But the with revitalization, the line is being more blurred. Median income follows very similar lines.
* About 50% of households are family, a high pct for the City.
* Excellent modern in-fill with a high level of urban form closely resembling the form of historic buildings.
* Great access to the main recreational amenities of Fairmount Park, esp. the western half of the neighborhood. Also a nice recreational amenities at Francisville Playground (Rec center, pool, playground, and ballfield). Really no other rec spaces in the district.
* Fairmount, Broad, and Ridge are the main comm. areas but also some businesses mixed into residential areas in the western half of the District.
* Generally good urban in the biz districts but some auto centric dead spots along Broad and Ridge. Hopefully with rapid redevelopment (esp. on Ridge) these wholes will be filled in with good form.
* Good of array of decently rated schools. Lots of private school options. Girard College is basically a boarding school for the underprivileged.
* Solid cultural amenities when one also includes the amenities within 1 mile walk. Within the district there are a decent # of restaurants, bars, and cafes especially along Fairmount. A couple great live music venues including the Met Philadelphia, and the South jazz club is just south of Fairmount. The district also hosts Eastern State Penitentiary. One also needs to include the many museums located on the neighborhood’s boundaries or within a mile walk (e.g. Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum, Franklin Institute, and much more).
* Solid retail amenities esp. when you include stores in adjacent district but walkable. There is an Aldi’s & Whole foods on the neighborhood’s edge and a small grocery within it. Other amenities include: a couple drug stores, a hardware store, bookstore, plenty of banks, and a decent amount of unique stores along Fairmount. Target is 0.5-1 from the district depending were you live.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* For-sale Housing getting expensive but still a good amount of moderately priced housing existing. 2-3 bedroom rowhouses selling in the 300Ks & 400Ks Larger/newer or more renovated homes selling between 500K-800K.
* Lots of rental options but also pretty expensive. 1-bedrooms leasing around $1,000s and 2-bedrooms in the mid 1,000s-$2,000. Some dedicated rentals mixed in.
* Decent tree cover in the western half of Fairmount not so great around Francisville. Sadly this matched closely race and wealth lines of the two areas.
* Generally a safe community although still some blighted areas and rough patches along the eastern edges of the district.
* Generally good ADA infrastructure but some missing sidewalks (sometimes due to development) in Francisville and not consistent ADA modern ramps, esp. in the res. streets.

West End- Winston-Salem best urban district

There is no well defined boundaries for the West End neighborhood but my sense is that it extents north of the highway, between Hanes Park and Broad Street, and south of Northwest Blvd.

West End was planned as a picturesque streetcar suburb developed at the turn of the 20th century and including some structures from the late 19th century. Because of its mixed-use character, multi-model transportation, and access to Dwtn, this is by far Winston-Salem’s best urban community.

Yet like most southern urban neighborhoods West End also has a lot of urban deficiencies including a low density, limited bike infrastructure, hit or miss urban massing in the biz districts, and lack of important amenities such as a supermarket or drug store. Hopefully West End will continue to densify with quality urban form. Still plenty of lots to build on.

Click here to view my West End Flickr Album

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great access to Dwtn via all moods of transportation.
* ADA ramps are consistant in commercial districts but largely missing in residential areas. Sidewalks are consistant though.
* Great economic diversity and decent racial diversity.
* Nice diversity is size and price for for-sale options. Plenty of 1 &2 bedroom condos selling for around 200K and 300K, respectively. Large SF homes selling in between 400K-650K, small SF homes selling in the 200Ks.
*Very nice Park along Peter’s Creek, a multi-functional park with lots of rec fields. Also a nice neighborhood park (Grace Court).
* Culturally a decent # of restaurants bars, & breweries, a cafe, a couple live music venues. Convenient access to all the cultural amenities Dwtn as well.
* Several public schools with decent ratings line the western edge of the West End.
* This appears to be a very safe community with limited blight.
* Good array of historic architecture. Also pretty decent modern infill.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is pretty poor for an urban district.
* Bike infrastructure is pretty weak. There is a dedicated bike lane on Northwest but that’s the northern edge of the neighborhood. No dedicate bike share stations, although there may be dockless bikes available.
* Family households make up less than 25% of the population. Most residents are young adults here.
* Rentals are pretty limited. Seems to be a nice price diversity of 2-bedrooms but limited 1-bedroom options.
* Other than restaurants and bars retail amenities are a bit light. There are several banks, salons, and a nice array of home goods, furniture stores, & consignment stores. Good amount of services close by in Downtown but no supermarket or major retail.
* Urban massing of commercial district is a mixed bag. Limited investment in streetscaping.

Downtown Winston-Salem

Downtown boundaries are a bit fuzzy. I used the boundaries of: Broad Ave to the west, 421 to the south, the railroad to the east and 6th/MLK BLVD to the north.

For southern cities of its size, Winston-Salem scores in the middle of the pack in my evaluation. On a positive note it has seen a resurgence in buzz and residential living recently helping to create three strong nodes: 4th street with its historic main street and theatre district. the Arts District centered along Trade, and the Innovation District (primary composed of old tobacco buildings). Dwtn also transitions pretty seamlessly to the West End neighborhood to the west.

In-between these Dwtn nodes is mostly dead spaces mixing parking garages & lots and large office buildings. Like other southern downtowns, Winston-Salem does not provide good transit and bike connections to the broader metro area, nor is to a major jobs hub for the region. Another large deficiency is a lack of parks and a civic heart. The Innovation District’s Bailey Park helps with this somewhat, but it is located on the eastern edge of Dwtn. Downtown also needs a significant increase in neighborhood serving retail and uses, although access to quality schools is certainly strong here.

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Generally good racial and economic diversity Dwtn.
* The grid functions very well but lots of autocentric one-way streets through Dwtn.
* For sale prices are generally on the high end but good diversity in price points (high 100s-800K) and llots of 2-bedroom and even 3-bedroom townhouses. Rental inventory is a bit limited but moderate for Dwtns with 1-bedrooms renting in the low $1,000s and 2-bedrooms closer to 2K.
* Culturally a good array of restaurants, bars, and live music venues. There is also a thriving arts sub-district Dwtn hosting many galleries. Dwtn also hosts a nice set of theaters (movie, performing, community theater, and historic concernt hall).
* Typical gov’t bldgs and a nice convention center are located Dwtn.
* Host Dwtn safety and clean ambassadors.
* Nice array of boutiques and unique stores esp. along Trade St. in the Arts District. Also a couple drug stores.
* Solid historic architecture.
* Nice skyline, esp. for a mid-sized city.
* Distinct subdistricts (Arts and Innovation District) give Dwtn some good imagability. But certainly plenty of blah spaces Dwtn.
* Several quality schools located Dwtn. The public high school located just east of Dwtn.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Solid public transit access downtown and in immediately adjacent neighborhoods, but becomes mediocre pretty quickly. Also no transit access to the airport.
* Bike infrastructure is limited to several small bike lanes segments and dedicated bike stations only in Dwtn. Across the City/region only large segments of bike lanes in parts of South Winston-Salem.
* Family activities pretty limited.
* ADA infrastructure is a mixed bag throughout Dwtn.
* Parks are pretty limited. The best one is the new Bailey Park, part of the Innovation District. This is very active and has lots of events. The other two are tired looking modernist plazas.
* Bailey Park fucntions as the best Civic Plaza but not centrally located.
* Limited musuems and only one sports stadium located on the western edge of Dwtn.
* Total jobs Dwtn is only about 20-25K, pretty low for a region of this size.
* No supermarkets and certainly no Department stores.
* Much of the modern architecture is bland modern towers. Some nice post modern skyscrapers.
* Urban form solid along Trade St and 4th St and some surrounding streets and in the Innovation District. Much of Dwtn are either autocentric and filled with skyscrapers not relating well to the street.
* Only a small medicine college located Dwtn, but Winston State University (5K students) is lcoated just SE of Dwtn.

Sheraden- A westside urban district with convenient access to Dwtn Pittsburgh

Originally incorporated as Sheraden Borough in 1894, Sheridan quickly grew and was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1907. The neighborhood became a hub for Irish and German immigrants in the early 20th century. Like most European Ethnic groups most families moved to the suburbs in the 70s on the westside leaving a large African American population behind.

Sheraden has struggled ever since shedding at least several thousand residents leading to many pockets of blight and disinvestment. The commercial districts along Chartiers and the Sheraden and Hillsboro node also suffered as well leaving a handful of bars and restaurants, a dollar store, and several convenience stores. Yet with the rise in interest and values in Pittsburgh since the 2000s, Sheradan has begun to slowly rebound, most visibly with a rise in price of its attractive turn of the century housing stock now selling in the high 100s and low 200s. There are also several pockets of stable 1950s housing in the Corliss sub district on the hill tops. With a great central park (Sheraden Park), busway access, and downtown only 3.5 miles away, I’m confident the neighborhood will stabilize and hopefully revitalize a couple nice urban business nodes. The speed of this work ready depends on how serious the City of Pittsburgh is about revitalizing its blight.

Click here to view my Sheraden page on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid public transit access, especially with the West Bus Way running through the neighborhood.
* Great access to Dwtn via public transit and driving. Access to Oakland a bit challenging via public transit.
* Good racially diversity with a surprisingly large Asian population. Large Pct of family households and good age diversity.
* Large range in housing prices from 25K-the low 200KS depends on condition, size, and amount of blight in a particular section of the neighborhood.
* Sheraden Park is a large and amenity rich park located at the heart of the neighborhood. Several other nice smaller parks throughout.
* Pretty good historic architecture especially in the nicer streets of Sheridan.
* Decent tree cover on the residential streets, excellent along the hill sides and hollers.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Density is pretty low but better than other Westside neighborhoods.
* Sidewalks are generally pretty consistant but ADA curbs missing in most intersections. Also plenty of sidewalks are not in great condition.
* Very high poverty rate (around 36%) but still decant economic diversity.
* Rental product (at least officially listed) is very low here.
* Retail and cultural amenities are limited to a couple restaurants & bars, a dollar general and several convenience stores. Downtown McKees Rocks has some good amenities a mile away though.
* Crime doesn’t appear to be a more issue here, but still a fair amount of blight.
* One elementary school located is the community is fair at best. A Middle school with a stem focus is located in adjacent Crafton Heights.
* Limited modern in-fill but at least there are some stable 1940-1950 homes on the hillside portions of the neighborhood.
* Decent urban form at the small biz node of Sheraden and Hillsboro. Chartiers is a tired early 20th century mixed-use Pittsburgh run with some good urban form but few open businesses.
* The streetscape is pretty underinvested and has been touched in decades.
* Pedestrian activity is fair at best.