Philadelphia To Seize 1,330 Properties For Public

Redevelopment
Along with other ideas that have lost appeal in America, one is the notion that powerful government
agencies should master-plan large swaths of cities. While such agencies still play roles in specific
redevelopments, they seldom imitate the social engineering found, say, during post-War II "urban
renewal." But this has not stopped the Philadelphia Housing Authority from pursuing a mass
eminent domain scheme that will revisit these past mistakes.
On June 18th, city council voted overwhelmingly to allow the Philadelphia Housing Authority to
redevelop Sharswood, a blighted neighborhood north of downtown. The area is defined by a large,
crime-ridden public housing complex called the Norman Blumberg Apartments, a rundown retail
strip along Ridge Avenue, and hundreds of abandoned homes.
To combat the blight, the PHA will expand control over a six-by-four-block area, using
redevelopment strategies that have become popular elsewhere. It will tear down the public housing
and replace it with mixed-income units, and rehab lots in disrepair. But a closer look at additional
measures suggests that, like past ones in Philadelphia, the plan will come rife with waste, abuse and
incompetence.

Primarily, PHA will confiscate 1,330 properties through eminent domain, amounting to a massive
land coup. About 500 of these are already owned by the city, including the public housing. But
another 800 are privately owned, and while some have been seized because of abandonment and tax
delinquency, others accommodate functional households and businesses. Among those properties
are two well-maintained row-homes owned by lifelong Sharswood resident Mike Scott, and a nail
salon that has been open for 20 years. Although owners will supposedly get fair market value for
their properties, they still must find new neighborhoods and customer bases.
Another problem is that the plan, rather than adding to city coffers, as private developments do, will
be a net cost to heavily-indebted Philadelphia (not to mention U.S. taxpayers). The city already
received a Choice Neighborhood Grant from HUD, which went towards conducting "studies" in
Sharswood. Phase I will include the construction of 57 affordable rental units for $21 million, or
$368,000 per unit--an astounding cost for low-income housing. In total, the plan will have 10 phases
that include housing, retail, and a new PHA headquarters. This will cost $500 million, and because
much of the land is publicly owned, will generate little property tax revenue.
The third problem is that the plan will further concentrate poverty. One widely-accepted notion
amongst planners today is that poverty should be diffused, since this improves the poor's
mainstream social integration. That is why public housing that gets demolished is replaced with
mixed-income projects, where typically no more than 30% of units are affordable. But in Sharswood,
about two-thirds of the proposed 1,200 units will be affordable, and many will cater to renters. This
means that, even after demolishing the Blumberg apartments, the area will have even more poor
people.
This concentration of poverty, moreover, will likely hinder what appears to be Sharswood's organic
revitalization--which is the fourth problem. Recently, several surrounding neighborhoods--namely
Brewerytown--have improved because of downtown growth and the students from nearby Girard

College. PHA officials have expressed a desire to include Sharswood in this revitalization. A sensible
strategy would have been for them to demolish the public housing, which has long stigmatized the
area, while letting the private property owners remain and serve as business catalysts. But PHA is
contradicting these goals by booting out the owners to bring in more renters. And as Philadelphia
Magazine noted, by confiscating homes just prior to neighborhood improvement, the PHA is robbing
owners of a valuable asset, including many African-American owners who have endured the
neighborhood's rough times, and were hoping to finally cash in.
But the worst thing about the plan is that it's being overseen by the very agency that blighted the
area. For decades, the PHA, like so many other top-down urban development bureaucracies, has
been notorious for waste, corruption, mismanagement, and for delivering poorly-run, substandard
complexes that degrade their surroundings. By 2011, the agency had grown so incompetent that
HUD temporarily took it over.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2015/06/26/philadelphia-to-seize-1330-properties-for-govern
ment-redevelopment/
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