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Actually, this evaluation is about 10-15 years out of date. Penn began investing heavily in its surrounding neighborhood in the early 1990s, and the results are readily apparent to anyone who has spent time exploring the immediately surrounding neighborhood in recent years–lots of new restaurants, cafes, stores, boutiques, etc.; several high-end and student-oriented apartment developments; and an ever-improving and gentrifying Victorian neighborhood to the west. In fact, Penn has been recognized as THE national leader in this type of town/gown neighborhood development based on its efforts over the past 10-15 years, as evidenced by this 2-year-old Washington Post article:</p>
<p>[Urban</a> Colleges Learn to Be Good Neighbors](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html?sub=AR]Urban”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html?sub=AR)</p>
<p>The CURRENT development plan referenced by hawkette is completely different from the West Philadelphia neighborhood development Penn has been pursuing for the past 15 years, and involves 24 acres EAST of campus, which previously belonged to the Postal Service before it recently moved its central processing facilities to a new location. This was a vast array of Postal Service parking lots, garages, and mail-sorting facilites, and was neither residential nor really part of the West Philadelphia neighborhood that surrounds Penn and extends west of it. In fact, although adjacent to Penn’s campus, the former Postal lands weren’t really accessible–or even VISIBLE–from the campus. However, now that Penn has acquired this land, it opens the opportunity for Penn to build connections to it, and to convert it into attractive open space, additional athletic fields and facilites, and additional academic and commercial development that will further enhance the campus and its connection to the Schuylkill River and Center City Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Finally, while it’s true that several blocks west of Penn’s campus the neighborhood begins to decline precipitously, the University City neighborhood that immediately surrounds Penn’s campus has become quite nice in the last 10-15 years, and now boasts some of the higher property values in the city.</p>
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While much of the ride from the airport (which is about 10 miles) is through industrial or depressed areas that are not attractive, the same can be said of the ride from airports in many other large cities such as New York, Chicago, LA, etc. To judge the ambience of a city or its many neighborhoods by the ride in from the airport makes about as much sense in Philadelphia as it does in those other cities.</p>
<p>In fact, a statement that “ambience is not a Philly strength” indicates a lack of knowledge and experience of many prominent Philadelphia neighborhoods, such as Rittenhouse Square, Fitler Square, Society Hill, Washington Square, Queen Village, Old City, Fairmount/Art Museum, Northern Liberties, Manayunk, Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and yes, even Penn’s own University City. Each of these and many other picturesque, historic neighborhoods is known–to those with more than the most superficial knowledge of Philadelphia–precisely for its unique and charming ambience. Add in attractions such as the magnificent Greek Revival Philadelphia Museum of Art (3rd largest art museum in the country), the ornately Victorian Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (oldest art school and museum in the country), the stately Academy of Music (built in 1857, it’s the oldest opera house in the world), Fairmount Park (at 9,000 acres contained completely within Philadelphia’s city limits, it’s the largest landscaped urban park in the world), over 200 sidewalk cafes in Center City, and many, many other amenities and attractions, and it’s clear that Philadelphia offers an abundance of unique ambience matched by few other cities.</p>
<p>However, to experience that ambience, you DO have to explore more than just the drive in from the airport. :)</p>