University City Renaissance

Over the last 10 years University City has developed into an incredibly diverse, progressive, and exciting area of the city. A part of University City’s growth is due, in part, to the restaurant scene.

University City is usually identified as the area between the Schuylkill River and 52nd street. This small section of Philadelphia holds Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Sciences, The Restaurant School and University City Science Center.

In the past two years alone, there has been a significant amount of growth. Three new apartment buildings, Domus, The Hub, and Radian Apartments opened. Jean Madeline, a salon and beauty school debuted in University City and the restaurant scene continues to explode.

An unprecedented restaurant, Distrito, opened in July of 2008 featuring unique and modern Mexican creations from executive chef Jose Garces. Gourmet chocolatier Naked Chocolate Café is opening its second location on 34th and walnut in University City.

“[People] know a good investment when they see it. They are seizing an opportunity,” said Mark Christman, Marketing and Communications Director for University City District.

University City District is an economic development organization. They organize programs to maintain cleanliness, help with basic infrastructural upkeep, and plan social events for the community to participate in.

The number of restaurants in an area may seem insignificant, but it can have a noticeable effect.

“I think it’s really key to a revitalization of an area. Especially if there are a lot of locals being employed and [restaurants] are using resources that are local, “Christman said.

Given the amount of universities and college students in this area of Philadelphia, it may seem that University City should have always been thriving. Unfortunately, University City is still shaking the stigma of an unsafe area.

“The potential wasn’t always prevalent. There are challenges to putting yourself along a corridor where there isn’t a lot of foot traffic,” he said.

Many students are leery of venturing pas the 40th street divide. According to the Pennsylvania Gazette, the University of Pennsylvania magazine, 40th street had become “an invisible campus boundary.”

“It’s a perception that carries on from many years ago and that perception, at this point, is way out of line with the current statistics,” Christman said. “One doesn’t need to be anymore cautious at 45th and Spruce than you need to be on campus.”

Restaurants and cafés typically seen in center city and old city are finally making their way into University City. Distrito and Naked Chocolate Café are just two examples of this.

“We’ve really been trying to attract other Philadelphians. Crossing over the river after 5:00 p.m. is acceptable and worth their while,” he said.

Christman hints of some new retail stores on 40th street, but can’t reveal what they are just yet. He does admit that there are plans for two more apartment buildings.

“The folks who brought us The Hub, are bringing a Hub two and three,” he said.

University City is not a typical college town. Unlike most, it is not flooded with bars and cheap hangouts. Instead, there are reasonably priced restaurants, socially conscious cafés, and of course a few cheap eats.

“I think it has a lot to do with young student’s savyness in 2009. [People] are interested in a more sophisticated experience, whether it’s from a restaurant or movie theater. Christman explains.

“There is healthy competition here; there are going to be more and more opportunities for people to explore the area.

Access to Healthy Food in Philadelphia (2nd Investigative Story)

Philadelphia residents are struggling to provide their families with nutritious food and the economy is not solely to blame.

While Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the nation, it has the second lowest number of supermarkets per capita.

According to The Food Trust, a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, low-income, minority adults and children struggle to maintain a healthy diet due to limited access to healthy food in their neighborhoods.

The Food Trust is dedicated to insuring all residents have access to affordable and nutritious food through several of their programs including the Pennsylvania Fresh Financing Initiative (FFFI), the Supermarket Campaign, the Corner Store Initiative and the Farmer’s Market Program.

The lack of supermarkets in the Philadelphia area is due in part to the growth of the suburbs and in part to retail disinvestment from urban communities.

Many supermarkets left the cities to follow the population growth in the suburbs. Supermarket developers are unsure that building in low-income areas is a profitable business investment.

“I don’t think it’s a conscious decision and in no way an evil decision. I think it’s just a business decision,” said April White, communications coordinator for the Food Trust.

“For example, is there a well trained workforce in the neighborhood that they can work with? In under served, low income areas, they tend to believe the answer is no. We have found that is not really the case,” she said.

Prior to her role as communications coordinator, White was the food editor at Philadelphia magazine for eight years. She also co-authored a cookbook with famed chef and restaurateur, Jose Garces.

The Food Trust’s FFFI serves the financing needs of supermarket operators that plan to operate in under served communities. Frequently, traditional financial institutions and banks will not provide the loans and credit necessary to proceed with this type of project.

“That is one of the most important points of the initiative … this gap financing allows supermarket developers to look at this as a great business decision in addition to being helpful in other ways to the community,” White said.

One of the under served areas is in North Philadelphia, usually defined by locals as north of Girard Avenue. This is also the home of Temple University.

Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania have had major impacts on the landscape of University City and West Philadelphia. In the last five years, three new apartment complexes opened and the restaurant scene continues to expand featuring a new Mexican restaurant by Jose Garces.

In University City, there are two grocery stores within three blocks of one another; the Fresh Grocer on 40^th and Walnut Street and a Thriftway on 43^rd and Walnut Street.

Despite the purchasing power of thousands of Temple University students, the same development has not occurred in North Philadelphia.

“When Amy Guttman came in at Penn, she had a very clear vision for expanding Penn beyond its boundaries. They made a really big push to embrace that neighborhood … you see less of that from Temple,” White said.

But Temple University students and North Philadelphia residents have been promised a grocery store is coming to their neighborhood. A Fresh Grocer, to be located in the historic shopping center, Progress Plaza. This project has been postponed on numerous occasions, often for years at a time. The most recent completion date, January, 2009 was missed and is now expected to open in January, 2010.

Progress Plaza was the first black owned and developed shopping center in the nation. It initially opened in 1968.

Progress Plaza is located on North Broad Street between Jefferson and Oxford Streets. This community has been without a grocery store since the Super Fresh, also located in Progress Plaza, closed 10 years ago.

“Progress on Progress Plaza’s development has been halted and delayed so often, the jokes playing on the center’s name stopped being funny a while ago,” said the Editorial Board of Temple-News Online.

The Temple Student Government is combating these delays by providing a shuttle service for students that will run from the main campus to a shopping center in South Philadelphia that contains retailers like Super Fresh and Target.

While North Philadelphians continue to anticipate a grocery store in Progress Plaza, the Food Trust stresses that grocery stores and large supermarkets are not the only remedy to the problem of access to healthy food.

“The size of the access that you put in is not necessarily important,” said White.

As a part of the Food Trust’s Corner Store Initiative, they have succeeded in providing residents with fresh, healthy options in the community’s corner stores.

“We put in fresh fruit salads and helped with marketing. We also introduced a brand of water; both financially competitive with other things you can buy in the store,” she said.

This initiative educates students in the classroom and also works with corner stores that surround the schools. The plan is that students will buy healthier items when they come and go to class. The fruit salad is $1.00 and the water is 75 cents.

“The classic, enormous, supermarket model is very difficult [to implement] in the city … but that’s not the only solution,” she said.

The Food Trust also operates 29 farmer’s markets in the Philadelphia region. Some of the most popular are the Clark Park and Headhouse farmer’s markets.

“We accept access cards and food stamps at all of our farmer’s markets. We also do a lot with outreach to inform people about their options with food stamps,” White said.

Some Philadelphians argue that new supermarkets and grocery stores will not solve the deep seeded issues of low-income, under served communities.

“The problems of lower income (urban and rural) neighborhoods are very complex. Food is a basic essential, and children who are healthy and well nourished have better opportunities,” she said.

White also noted that increased access to healthy food can curb epidemics like childhood obesity which can manifest into diabetes and other dangerous, expensive health issues.

Supermarkets act as economic engines. They employ people within in the community and often serve as the anchor store for the development of other stores. White points out that an area that has higher employment, typically has less crime.

White explained: “It’s not going to solve every problem, but it’s a positive on a lot of fronts.”

A Miracle Fruit?

Have you ever taken a bite out of a raw onion or eaten a lemon, unfazed by the bitterness? These are just some of the things that the miracle fruit makes possible.

The miracle fruit originates from West Africa and contains a glycoprotein called Miraculin. Miraculin bonds to the mouth’s taste buds causing sour and bitter foods to taste sweet. While the berry is from West Africa, it is grown in Florida by Curtis Mozie, better known as the “miracle fruit man.”

Mozie first came across the berry by accident when he went to a nursery to look for a fruit he remembers eating as a child. It was called a hog plum tree. The nursery did not have that plant, but instead introduced him to the miracle fruit.

Mozie has been growing the miracle fruit for 12 years on over 10 acres of land in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Everyone is involved; my children, my grandkids, even my neighbor who doesn’t speak to me,” Mozie said.

Due to increased media attention, the popularity of the miracle fruit has grown significantly since early 2007 when the Wall Street Journal first reported on the fruit. In May of 2008, The New York Times published an article called “A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue.” The article created so much buzz the fruit was back ordered for three months in June of last year.

“Before the New York Times article, I had been selling the fruit online for a year,” Mozie said.
The day after the article was published, Mozie noticed a staggering change.

“The first few hours, we received about 8,000 dollars worth of orders. We had 20,000 dollars by the end of the day and 60,000 dollars in the next two days,” Mozie said.

In the 1970’s an attempt was made to commercialize Miraculin, but the FDA would not approve products containing the protein. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, many people including Robert Harvey, founder of The Miralin Company, a major producer of miraculin based products believe that the sugar industry played a role in the FDA’s denial.

“[Miraculin] would have probably replaced 50 percent of the sugar industry,” Mozie said.

Despite the FDA’s denial, people were and still are fascinated by the berry. Parties called “flavor tripping” parties have emerged as a way to let people taste and experience the berry. The effects on the taste buds vary on the size of an individual’s mouth, but usually last from 30 minutes to three hours.

“You need to eat the skin and juice. In order to get the full effect, remove the seeds after you first bite into it,” Mozie said.

In the scientific community, there has been discussion about its benefits for diabetics and cancer patients.

“As far as diabetics, if you are not supposed to have sugar and you want something sweet; you can take some water and lemonade, eat a miracle fruit and it will satisfy your craving for sweetness,” Mozie said.

Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy routinely experience side effects. One of those is a metallic taste in the mouth. The miracle berry may be able to eliminate this taste and stimulate appetite for these cancer patients. There is no conclusive evidence of this at this time.

“There is a cancer research in Tampa, Fla. I sent them some of the fruit; some of [the patients] stated that it helped, some of them stated that it did not,” Mozie explained.

The miracle fruit takes three years to grow from seed to harvest in the United States and bears fruit all year round. In Africa, it takes five years and only bears fruit twice a year because there are only two rainy seasons.

While its origins are in Africa and its harvester in Florida, anyone can grow the miracle fruit.

“You can put it in a container and grow it, and it makes a great container plant,” Mozie said. “I guess God wanted everyone to have one.”

The Drexel Sierra Club

Transparency of the Drexel University endowment, a revolving loan fund and a written commitment to university-wide carbon reduction; these are just a few of the policies that the Drexel Sierra Club is asking for in its petition.

The Drexel Sierra Club is a student organization for the environmentally conscious who are interested in creating a more sustainable environment at Drexel University and around the community. While Drexel University is making environmental progress, the Sierra Club would like the administration to put their commitment to environmental sustainability in writing.

“Presidents around the country are signing the Presidents Climate Commitment. We’ve asked them to sign it several times, but they have declined. We want a written commitment, even if they draft their own,” said Catherine Burtness-Adams, president of the Sierra Club.

The Presidents Climate Commitment brings together presidents and chancellors of American universities to initiate the development of a plan to achieve climate neutrality, initiate tangible actions to reduce greenhouse gases while the initial plan is being developed and make the plan and progress reports publically available.

Despite the administration’s resistance to signing the commitment, they have been supportive to the Sierra Club in other ways.

“We’ve been in communication a lot with the administration. They actually sent us to the Power-shift conference in D.C. We got to meet other students, we also got 90 signatures for our petition,” Adams said.

The petition also asks for an Office of Sustainability that would oversee the specifics of the written commitment.

“We want to have at least one position on campus that is committed to sustainability. It would be one full time position so that they don’t have to split their attention with other obligations,” Adams said.

The most controversial part of the petition is the request for endowment transparency and a one percent investment of the 2009 endowment into a revolving loan fund for environmental efficiency projects on campus.

“[The revolving loan fund is] when money is put into a big pot all at once, and is lent out in grant funds over time. There are high upfront costs, but also long term cost benefits,” she said.

Adams wants to make it clear that the money would be paid back into the fund and would allow for a renewable financial resource to further environmental projects. One example would be replacing all of the shower heads on campus with low-flow shower heads that conserve water. There would be a high up front cost for the purchase of these items, but a long term cost benefit of lower water bills campus-wide.

In celebration of Earth Week 2009 and to promote the Sierra Club petition, Adams and other active members hosted a few events around the Drexel Campus. There was a clothing swap in front of North Hall, tree planting at Malcolm X Park in University City and a day dedicated to informing students and faculty about waste, bottled water and the global water crisis.

Adams stressed that individuals can do a lot to help the environment by committing themselves to small actions like turning down the thermostat, turning off your car engine while stuck in traffic, turning off unnecessary lights and not buying bottled water.

“To produce meat, uses a lot more energy than vegetables. Choosing to eat meat one time less per week, can significantly reduce your carbon footprint,” she said.

Overall Adams is optimistic about Drexel’s progress. There is more recycling on campus as well as new solar trash compactors.

“Just the fact that [the administration] is talking about the issues is a big step.”