Back in February an article about the continued revival of Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood was posted on the blog Philly Skyline. Reading the article I was inspired by a current example of the private sector’s superiority to government planning. You can see it for yourself here:
http://phillyskyline.com/bart.htm
The most striking component of the article is the 2003/2008 comparison image. (Construction on a 23 story residential tower with street-level retail recently began on that big lot on the right.) That image only shows the northern half of the neighborhood. The other half has gained a lot recently including an 11 story residential tower.
Meanwhile one neighborhood to the west things are much different. The Poplar neighborhood, which was similar to 2003’s NoLibs, has been nearly entirely demolished by the city and replaced with subsidized suburban-style “plastic” houses. http://tinyurl.com/cc3sq4 The southern section of the neighborhood (which was not wiped out) lately has been seeing a good deal of restoration and new construction.
This has left the city with a neighborhood that will continue to improve and build on its own success and another that has virtually no chance of being gentrified, despite its location just north of Center City and its accessibility to mass transit.