April 18, 2019
Stadium Stompers Statement on Temple’s North Central Special Services District:
Temple University’s March 5th announcement of the creation of the North Central Special Services District (NCSSD) is yet another betrayal to the long term residents of North Central Philadelphia. Despite Temple carefully framing the NCSSD as a community partnership, this entity was planned completely behind closed doors, with private money, and with a small hand-picked selection of long term residents. Make no mistake, this Special Services District is a part of the university’s ongoing efforts to gentrify our neighborhood and a step towards reopening the football stadium discussion.
Since breaking the unenforceable Charrette Agreements of 1960 and 1980, in which Temple agreed not to develop west of Broad street, Temple University has engaged in a perpetual pattern of unilateral decision-making about land development in North Central. Last week’s betrayal, however, cuts deeper than Temple’s typical maneuvers, because we also witnessed the compliance and cooptation of our friends and neighbors who accepted Temple’s appointments to the NCSSD board and met with Temple behind closed doors for months.
The NCSSD is intended to look like community control, with five residents on the Board, however, it’s resident portion is not even a small fraction of the authentic community engagement needed to cover the expanded scope of this intended project. Regardless of their intentions, these five neighbors will not be able to maintain any influence over the SSD, because they are overpowered by the university and the web of wealthy developers and politicians who have an economic interest in developing North Philly.
Despite Temple’s efforts to erase our community, North Central has networks of block captains, committee people, RCO’s, community organizations like Stadium Stompers, churches, and development corporations as well as local businesses and individual residents. The fact that these organizations were not contacted or involved in open widely advertised meetings about the NCSSD leads us to believe that a far more sinister plan is at hand than Temple advertises.
Citywide, SSD’s have been used to advance university-led gentrification and over-policing in historic Black neighborhoods. In the now totally demolished area of West Philly called the Black Bottom, Penn and Drexel created the University City District (UCD) in 1997 with dual $500,000 donations from each institution. UCD’s board is now populated by representatives of landlords and developers, CEOs, and the Vice President of Penn. UCD is now an expansive entity with decisive influence over West Philly’s public spaces, city planning, and policing. UCD advocated for an additional police sub-station and employs dozens of police-like “community ambassadors” who coordinate closely with the Philadelphia, Drexel, and Penn police forces. We believe the NCSSD is already being planned in close coordination with the PPD’s proposed 22nd District police station at 22nd and Diamond, which Stadium Stompers opposes.
Instead if paying property taxes into the city’s general fund on the increasing amount of land they control, non-profit tax-exempt universities like Temple and Penn prefer instead to create private services entities that target clean, greening and policing in specific areas they prioritize for redevelopment.
Legally, private funding enabled Temple to establish this entity quickly and without CIty Council approval. An organization funded by corporations and alumni that is not accountable to the community is a problem. Temple established the NCSSD through the Pennsylvania’s Department of State like any non-profit; however special services districts are not a typical non profit because of their impact on city planning and city services. Our local and state governments are providing inadequate oversight and accountability in our communities around our rights.
Lastly, and critically, we have no doubt the SSD and the Stadium are still intertwined. In March 2018, Temple University’s president Richard Englert said, referring to the proposed stadium, “The facility would be the linchpin for a special services district.”
District 5 City Councilperson Darrell Clarke also heavily referenced a NID-- Neighborhood Improvement District-- and a potential SSD in North Central in his op-ed to the Inquirer, when he finally spoke out against the stadium on April 11, 2018 after three years of silence.
Our community faces a lack of high-paying jobs and high-quality affordable housing and public institutions in crisis. This Special Services District will not address these issues in our neighborhood for long-term residents. Doing street clean-ups and increasing police surveillance in North Central is like using concealer to cover up acne-- the problem is still there.
When we began fighting the Temple Stadium, in November 2015, we knew the struggle against the 35,000 seat station was also about winning permanent and democratic community control of our neighborhood. Though we have beaten back Temple’s stadium for over 3 years, private planning entities like NCSSD and closed-door civic plans like the new 22nd District police station show us we still have lots of work to do.
Stadium Stompers Steering Committee