My visit to the Eastern State Penitentiary was an interesting one to say the least. I gained insight on prison reform issues of the 1800’s which are still issues in our prison system today. It was nice to see the transition the prison took on from a place of repentance, solitude, and self improvement, to a place of punishment.
The facts were interesting; 2nd most expensive government funded facility in the nation and the first penitentiary in the nation. Apparently in the 1800’s people came from all over the world to see this prison and its ideologies played out. It’s pretty cool to think that such a historic site is in Philadelphia and we pass the building everyday not knowing some of the most interesting aspects of it.
Something I overlooked in my paper pertaining to haunted houses being a part of museum programming is the fact that after people visit the haunted house, it inspires them to see the museum at a later date. Even though the number of those return day visitors is minimal, it is still something, and I would like to see some statistics on those return visitors.
After all that being said, I still hold true to my original idea; make money where there is money to be made even at the cost of compromising your true mission. Our tour guide said that this museum would not exist without the haunted house revenues.
Because its owned by the city, I would like to see the sites quarry stone demolished and sold (it’s a lot of reusable stone). I would then like to see half of the land sold to various developers for condos, restaurants, and local businesses, then the other half used at a multi-level turn key paid parking structure owned by the city selling monthly parking and regular parking at discounted rates. This would be beneficial for everyone for many reasons. That area (like manayunk) has a lot of nightlife businesses but not enough parking which discourages out of towners from driving down to get drunk, spend their money, and get DUI’s (more city money). If we could increase access to public parking at a discounted rate more people would flock to that area at night increasing the demand for renters and increasing property values for landowners. Also the increase in access to parking would increase rents and property equity for both COMMERCIAL and residential landlords alike. Now here is the best part, you are not cutting the competitions profits because there are no large privately owned parking lots in that area. The goal of the city is to increase GDP growth and increase business sustainability, normally if the city is selling a product of any type at an extremely discounted rate it will completely shutout the competition. Luckily in this case, there are no large public parking lots for blocks in that area. Also parking lots are insanely profitable in the city. 70% of them are owned by one guy. Its time for someone to brake up his oligopoly and his strong hold on fixing parking prices in the city. As far as owning a parking lot, your biggest cost by far is taxes and if your owned by the city you are not really paying city property taxes. Parking structures have also become completely automated so by implementing the latest technologies, at most you need 1 maintenance guy working there during the day and that’s it.
In conclusion, if you shutdown Eastern State and do what I just said, you can now take that sink hole which I am sure is being leased at a very discounted rate to a historical society that is not paying property taxes, and break it in half, make a huge (tens of millions of dollars) profit on the sale of half of the land then continue to tax the land owners for the next thousand years, while also making ongoing hefty profits with the city owned parking garage. Over the long run as property values increase the amount the property owners in the area are getting taxed increases as well, the residual profits for the city after completion of these projects could be upwards of 75 million dollars with 10 years. These are real numbers.... Do it!
I struggled through reading your post so my following argument could be valid, but I cannot believe you are proposing demolishing ESP. ESP created that community and continues to act as its foundation. As a result of Penn's planning, that area was a vacant wedge between Broad St and the PMA. Haviland's innovative design combined with Franklin/Rush's solitary confinement concept created a Frankenstein of city jails, soon to fail but incredibly popular nonetheless. It remains an important source of revenue for the surrounding area. If ESP is removed, so is the community. Parking lots would not generate any profit in a deserted and feared section of Philadelphia. Enough of those areas exist. Let ESP attract tourists and enrich the community for many future generations.
ReplyDeleteI think (And hope) I am confused - Are you proposing that creating parking garages would encourage drunk driving and the city would benefit from this money? Okay, but, there is a school directly behind this site so clearly there are children present. Dont you think maybe the danger of drunk driving would lower property taxes not to mention be very dangerous? value of human life v. value of money that the city would profit from - and would they even use this money for common good like social improvement programs or school programs? I doubt it. Maybe the city would make massive amounts of money from the demolition of eastern state, but look at the academic value that would be lost! In my opinion what ESP provides to the community in education is massively more important than the site could ever provide in financial gain.
ReplyDeleteClmcmonagle336, and Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry if I have offended you guys. I know my grammar is terrible and tough to read as I write these things pretty informally, but lets start with Jessica.
Jessica- I am sorry to be so straight forward but you are wrong about the business end of this situation. In writing this post, I made some assumptions that the reader knew more about that area of the city including businesses and residents. And that the reader could follow my ideas that I based off of further developed areas of the city that have seen growth in the demographics that the art museum area is poised for. I never make an assumption without past examples to underline my ideas. You can't just make up ideas using examples that are too different in characteristics from the idea that you are trying to propose. This is a big question for me when I am looking to make connections/assumptions on the history of one area in comparing it to the future of another area. I just want to you understand that is usually where I start in creating these assumptions (making sure my comps, are very comparable).
Your ideas on generating revenues for the city and referring to the art museum area as "a deserted and feared section of the city" makes me realize that I made too many assumptions about the reader in writing my article. ESP is a money pit..end of story. The 75 million in Revenues over 10 years I came up with was a combination of newly generated government revenues, the majority of which was new development and an increase in property values (in term and increase in property tax revenues) which I determined based on my access to an MLS site. (its a membership site for realtors and real estate appraisers which they use to look up property taxes, history, and values of individual and comparable properties.)
What I said about the 75 million was not a joke or crazy idea, it was a proposal based off of a conservative calculation of facts.
I am stating this as a justification for my numbers, not as a justification for the value of my proposed 50% commercial and business residence/ 50% parking structure in place of the current ESP.
I unfortunately do not have enough time to explain the other assumptions I made about the reader. Assumptions of understanding the different businesses I discussed and the business and residential setting of that area in the city.
Regardless, thank you Jessica for reading my blog and taking an interest enough to leave a comment, even if it was based on pure contempt for my proposal of what to do with ESP lol.
Clmcmonagle - I have class now but I will get back to you tonight. Thanks for reading.
Clmcmonagle, I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. Here are some answers to your questions/statements about my post.
ReplyDelete1.
Q- "I think (And hope) I am confused - Are you proposing that creating parking garages would encourage drunk driving and the city would benefit from this money? Okay, but, there is a school directly behind this site so clearly there are children present. Dont you think maybe the danger of drunk driving would lower property taxes not to mention be very dangerous?"
A- Yes that is what I am saying. I am just stating the extra (minimal) city profits that will come from DUI arrests from shutting down the ESP and setting up the real estate I was proposing. The DUI profits are very minimal and intangible at this point without further research of similar areas but it was something to be noted.
Do I think it will be dangerous for school children? No, kids go to school during the day not at 12am at night so except for isolated incidents (which could happen and do happen anywhere in the city) I don't see area schools being in danger from this transition.
Would more DUI's lower property taxes? Absolutely not. There would have to be a major influx of reckless DUI's and crashes like never seen before, and once that took place many other safety's requirements would be put into place by the city to take care of the problem. DUI checkpoints every weekend in that area of the city, stiffer DUI laws, stuff like that. but it would never come to any of that. So there's no value of life vs. value of money at play here.
Q- "would they even use this money for common good like social improvement programs or school programs? I doubt it. "
A- the city would use the money for whatever any persistent tax payers demanded. Compared to our current "resolved" city budget deficit, the extra cash from the ESP transition is still not enough annually to create a budget surplus.
So I am assuming it will prevent more cuts from happening and good chunk of that cash will go to that specific area of the city b/c political officers of that district will fight for the use of it and they are probably right.
As far as school programs and DUI's-
I would recommend checking out at least to things.
www.getMADD.com - a fact finding website against the extorting money machine known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
and if you have netflix a good documentary on the education system in America is called "The Cartel".
The cartel will briefly go over past solutions for our terrible education and show you exactly why more money to fund school programs is not the answer. This 2 hour documentary will piss you off even further and make you want to boycott teachers unions.