the perfect suburban community! who pays for heating PHA units anyway?

I dig it and everyone should have the opportunity to live in a first rate spot, but my PHA neighbors can’t keep up with putting their trash out on a weekly basis or even keeping trash/debris/broken stuff off their lawns. So who is going to be watching after all this green space and green tech?

Looks good! Hopefully updating Spring Garden Homes along 7th Street near Spring Garden will be next. Development all around that area. To the North towards Temple… to the East in Northern Liberties… To the West in “Spring Arts” [West Poplar] and Fairmont… to the South in Callowhill… Clearly the PHA development is stymieing growth and development.

The buildings might meet LEED standards but the exterior design elements are not attractive, especially the overwrought and way out-of-proportion faux roof-line caps topping the facades. Ugh.

And I’m sure they’ll look just fantastic in 10-20 years. Remember, old high rises like the ill fated Pruitt-Igoe in Saint Louis received numerous awards when they were completed as well. It has much less to do with the architecture than with the tenants that will predict whether or not a development is considered a success or not.

I’m truly dismayed by the tone of the comments on this post. While I certainly understand the question about what we do with our tax dollars, the commenters create an impossible situation. If you build a crappy housing development, it looks crappy from the get go, the residents don’t take care of it and you get comments saying that the residents can’t maintain anything and don’t deserve anything nice. If you build something nice, you get all the “why do these people deserve anything nice” comments below. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Folks, you have to start somewhere. I’m proud my tax dollars are going to fund this type of project. The system’s not perfect, but everyone deserves a chance to have a nice place to live. To the person who mentioned Pruitt-Igoe, with respect, you’re half right (people have to own their space) and half completely wrong (much less to do with the architecture). Pruitt-Igoe was an absolute disaster from an urban planning perspective and probably 90% of the reason for its failure. The high-rise configuration turned each individual apartment building into a rabbit warren that was impossible to police and therefore, allowed gangs to own and terrorize the residents. Kind of tough to own your space when the criminals can get to you before the police can help you. The elevators were “skip-stop”, where they only went to every third floor (so you have to walk a maximum of one floor up or down). This was thought of as being “efficient”, when in fact, it just made life harder for the residents and dehumanized them. Regular people get an elevator that stops at every floor. You poor folks, you don’t deserve that – you get an elevator that stops within a floor of your destination. But don’t worry – that walk will do you good! The courtyards between the buildings were grass patches punctuated with sidewalks. They looked like prison yards (which is essentially what they were). There was no effort to do anything nice outside. No playgrounds, fountains, community centers, etc. Hence, no one spent any time outside. Additionally, the layout of the buildings was such that it was very difficult for police to get into the complex quickly and respond to issues. Hence, even the exterior spaces were owned by the criminals. While I’m not thrilled about very low density of this project (could have been rowhouses and been much more efficient without losing the ownership idea), studies have consistently shown that the more low density public housing is, the more successful it is and the more the residents will own their space. It makes sense. Build something nice and people are more willing to take care of it. It also raises property values and the neighborhood becomes a safer place.

PGW subsidizes well over 100k people in Philly by capping gas bills at 8-10% of reported earned income.
That is the most generous welfare gas deal in the US (finally, Philly is #1). The 8%-10% cap subsidy is on top of federally funded Liheap programs and state emergency programs. So feel free to crank that thermostat to 85, but only if you are in the “Customer Responsibility Program”.
This nice little extra subsidy cost gets built into the rate base of city residential ratepayers, so Philly has the highest rates in the region despite what should be the largest most efficient pipeline network.
Just another little f u from city council to the taxpayers. The same city council will then take a (meaningless) stand against Marcellus shale drilling to appease the greens, who for some reason have no problem with PGW encouraging wasteful energy consumption.
Between the 100k+ welfare gas voters and the PGW unions that get to retire at age 48 (30 years & out), my bet is city council will drive another 500k people out of the city before they privatize this interest group trough.

Though this is a step forward, two major design-related gripes with these types of units. 1) Sightlines into people’s backyards. Wrap the corners with units and have drive in access to the center. Not all units need ample parking, especially if the city cares about SEPTA’s ridership. Seeing into the backyards is an eyesore. 2) Please stop using vinyl-style siding anywhere in this city. It does not wear well is more fire prone and cheapens the overall look of the development. There was a reason colonial Philadelphia never allowed woodframe housing without at least a brick façade. We’ve never had a major city-wide fire because of that.

[...] At least it seems like this type of urban development is done, these are more recent examples Another Green PHA Development, This Time in Southwest Philly | NakedPhilly LEED Certified PHA Housing Coming Along in North Philadelphia | [...]