Northeast Non-Development Discussion

[Evergrey]

Godspeed, Matt.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Drive carefully Matt, and look forward to the upstate pics.

[Tymel]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Apart from the fact it's in the United States and is full of Americans, it's ok.

You'll get used to us. I dont think where that different from other countries.

[HOME in D-ware]

I know it's a little late but for those who care; George Brett is making an appearance at Frawley Stadium on Tuesday 8/21/07. xzmattzx said he needed to get to a Blue Rocks game before seasons end. Next thing I know he's a runaway.

Bring back some great pics of the north Matt.

[doctorjef]

Yesterday a friend of mine -- white South African, presently living in London but coming over frequently to NYC for business -- who I met up with in Philly for the day, was talking about how appalling the urban blight and poverty had struck him from the train when going through Baltimore on his way down to DC. He also mentioned that he was surprised at the amount of derelict industry (rust belt type stuff, I guess) around the outskirts of Baltimore. Now I haven't been to Baltimore in about 25 years, so I don't really have a first-hand opinion on that, but I'll take his word for it that the city must look very slummy (slumish?) around its edges.

By contrast, I haven't perceived any large scale, severe urban blight in Wilmington, nor mass poverty that has struck me as particularly dire. This isn't to say that some families and individuals are not living in dire circumstances, just that the visible scope of poverty in Wilmington does not strike me as really terrible. Within Wilmo city limits there are sizeable areas that are mildly to moderately unpleasant and where I'm not keen on being, mainly because of the crime potential. But I don't think the place looks like some kind of Soweto.

What do you think? How does urban poverty/blight in Wilmington compare to that in Baltimore and other mid-Atlantic cities?

[HOME in D-ware]

doctorjef:
I'm guessing that the move went rather well and your able to assume your position on these boards. That's good to know.

All cities are going to have urban blight. The amount depends on a city's size and history. Wilmington's history says that there should be a lot of industrial waste and I do think there is a fair amount. As for Baltimore, I'm not an expert on the city and don't know every inch of it but I have seen some rough spots. I imagine Baltimore does have more "slumish" areas than Wilmington only because it's a larger city.

Maybe you should do a little more exploring of Wilmington. I would say the largest amount of poverty in Wilmington is within city limits on the northside of the Brandywine. There are other rough areas in the city but it's very spotty. Most of the industrial wasteland is south of the city. It's all clumped together with a general sweep from Edgemoor, through South Wilmington, the northern parts of the New Castle zip code, and down to Newport. Check it out with satellite images. Beside that area and some others in Claymont, Elsmere, Newark, and Delaware City; there's not a lot of major industry in New Castle County. Most of our air pollution is brought by winds from PA and NJ.

[xzmattzx]

Vacation is going well, I have a couple e-mails to take care of so I have some rare time on a computer. I have a ton of photos from several places, so I will be posting those starting next week, oce I am back in Delaware.

Originally Posted by doctorjef

By contrast, I haven't perceived any large scale, severe urban blight in Wilmington, nor mass poverty that has struck me as particularly dire.

Have you been to any of the neighborhoods in Northeast Wilmington? They look bad. Some look really bad. I have a couple pictures at home on my computer, I'll show you when I get back.

Originally Posted by HOME in D-ware

Maybe you should do a little more exploring of Wilmington. I would say the largest amount of poverty in Wilmington is within city limits on the northside of the Brandywine.

I wouldn't recommend touring some of the roughest neighborhoods. Some of them are REALLY bad. For instance, Prices Run, which is basically northeast of the intersection of Market Street and Vandever Avenue, is extremely bad, and can account for probably half of Wilmington's violent crimes. The intersection of 22nd & Lamotte Streets alone had 7 or 8 murders in 2005 (the entire city of Wilmington had 25 that year). I once took xome pictures of the neighborhood early on a Sunday morning, and drugdealers were coming up to my car at the stop signs even then.

I've also been chased by people in The Valley neighborhood while walking around.

I think Home in Delaware got it right, we don't have huge areas of blight because our neighborhoods in general are smaller than other cities, and so blighted areas are smaller as well. But unfortunately some of those areas can be as bad as areas in much bigger cities.

[modestproposal]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Yesterday a friend of mine -- white South African, presently living in London but coming over frequently to NYC for business -- who I met up with in Philly for the day, was talking about how appalling the urban blight and poverty had struck him from the train when going through Baltimore on his way down to DC. He also mentioned that he was surprised at the amount of derelict industry (rust belt type stuff, I guess) around the outskirts of Baltimore. Now I haven't been to Baltimore in about 25 years, so I don't really have a first-hand opinion on that, but I'll take his word for it that the city must look very slummy (slumish?) around its edges.

By contrast, I haven't perceived any large scale, severe urban blight in Wilmington, nor mass poverty that has struck me as particularly dire. This isn't to say that some families and individuals are not living in dire circumstances, just that the visible scope of poverty in Wilmington does not strike me as really terrible. Within Wilmo city limits there are sizeable areas that are mildly to moderately unpleasant and where I'm not keen on being, mainly because of the crime potential. But I don't think the place looks like some kind of Soweto.

What do you think? How does urban poverty/blight in Wilmington compare to that in Baltimore and other mid-Atlantic cities?

Yeah, I've taken Amtrak to NYC and seen those areas too. The worst parts of a city are usually by the railroad tracks and it's no different with Baltimore. That is honestly the very worst part of town. BTW, I believe Baltimore's median household income has surpassed or has nearly surpassed Philly...and that doesn't include many areas in the Washington MSA that closely associate with Baltimore (like Bethesda).

[HOME in D-ware]

I remember someone saying how low the foreclosure rate was in their city (or maybe it was how high). I think it was in Rochester. Well I want to make a comeback with some info I heard on the news here in Wilmington.

Delaware ranks 48th as a state in foreclosure rates. About 1 in 10,000 homes in Delaware are up for foreclosure in comparison to the U.S. average of 1 in 900.

[Evergrey]

omg!

http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pi...ml?t=printable

Dunkin' Donuts seals deal for 105 stores

Pittsburgh Business Times - 3:47 PM EDT Thursday, August 23, 2007
by Tim Schooley

If Dunkin' Donuts has its way, there soon won't be any hole left in the Pittsburgh market for the Canton, Mass.-based baked goods chain.

In what it describes as the largest store development agreement in its history, the company announced Thursday a deal with the Heartland Coffee Co. of Pittsburgh to open 105 new Dunkin' Donuts locations in the city and throughout Allegheny County within the next several years.

That would be more than 10 times the number of Dunkin' Donuts locations now in the Pittsburgh market, according to the company.

The company expects to pursue a variety of store types in its expansion plan, including freestanding outlets, strip mall locations and stores within convenience marts, among others.

Overall, the company is undergoing a campaign to triple the number of Dunkin' Donuts stores in the United States to 15,000 by 2020.

Dunkin' Donuts' aggressive expansion comes under the new ownership of a trio of major private equity firms: Thomas H. Lee Partners, the Carlyle Group and Bain Capital, which jointly bought Dunkin' Brands Inc. from French beverage firm Pernod Ricard in a deal that closed last year.

"We are extremely excited to bring Dunkin' Donuts to more people throughout this region," said Ed Jaten, president of Heartland Coffee Co. "Dunkin' Donuts is a daily ritual for millions of people who depend on their coffee and baked goods to get them through their day. We believe we're not just bringing people faster, more affordable food and beverage choices; we're truly going to make life easier for people who live and work here."

Jason Cannon, a vice president with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, is handling the site search for new locations on behalf of Heartland. He declined to comment.

David Glickman, a vice president for Downtown-based Grubb & Ellis Co., saw Dunkin' Donuts bid to penetrate the Pittsburgh market as roughly comparable to Subway, the sandwich chain, which seeks to open a new location for every 10,000 residents in the region.

"In retail, it all comes down to penetration rate," Glickman said. "You're talking about something that could go in almost every neighborhood."

Glickman expects Dunkin' will succeed where Krispy Kreme, the Southern-fried doughnut of choice a few years ago, has largely failed to catch on in the Pittsburgh market. It operates only three locations after entering the market more than five years ago.

The reason: coffee.

"One of the main reasons Dunkin' Donuts has done so well and Krispy Kreme hasn't in the Pittsburgh region is Krispy Kreme never had a strong beverage following, and Dunkin' has," Glickman said. "Beverage can be half of their sales."

Dunkin' Donuts expects the first of the new locations to open within the next 18 months.

tschooley@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3826

[TalB]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08242007..._times_sq_.htm
IHOP SWEET ON TIMES SQ.

By LOIS WEISS

August 24, 2007 -- Start salivating over syrup and pancakes - IHOP is cooking up a deal to flip into Times Square.

The Post has learned that the California-based, 1,319-location, easy-eating chain once known as the International House of Pancakes is in heated talks with Vornado Realty Trust for the former Bar Code arcade at 1540 Broadway.

The 23,000-square-foot, triple-stacked space has an entrance on Broadway and two levels of dining. IHOP's "Come Hungry, Leave Happy" menu would be expected to appeal to tourists, office workers, theatergoers and nightclubbers.

"We're constantly looking for new locations," said IHOP spokesman Patrick Lenow.

[xzmattzx]

I'm back in good old Delaware from my vacation in Buffalo and Canada.

[Ex-Ithacan]

^ Look forward to the pics Matt.

[vivo]

Originally Posted by modestproposal

Yeah, I've taken Amtrak to NYC and seen those areas too. The worst parts of a city are usually by the railroad tracks and it's no different with Baltimore. That is honestly the very worst part of town. BTW, I believe Baltimore's median household income has surpassed or has nearly surpassed Philly...and that doesn't include many areas in the Washington MSA that closely associate with Baltimore (like Bethesda).

bethesda closely associates with bmore? how so?

[xzmattzx]

For anyone in the Delaware Valley: did you know that Kennett Square is building a lowrise office building? I had my first class at West Chester tonight for grad school, and drove through Kennett Square on the way home. The Franklin Center is at the corner of State & Broad Streets. It's 5 stories high, and will be an office for Genesis Healthcare, a national company with a presence in Northern Delaware and presumably in suburban Philadelphia as well.

Website with renderings

[Evergrey]

wow, that Kennett Sq. building looks sweet!

[HOME in D-ware]

It seems like Wilmingtonians are always talking about the city never annexing land since the street grid was laid out hundreds of years ago. Here are some of the suburban zip codes together with the city zip codes. I believe that Wilmington would have included all this if it had been able to annex. Info is from BrainyZip by Google.


* Was not included in the totals of population and land area.

The total population would have been 262,573 in 2000. I'm sure the current pop. is closer to 275,000. The total land area is 84 square miles.

You can see I had to do some guess work when I split the large New Castle zip code. Those numbers should be close. I also left out zip code 19807 because it is mostly rural (valley dotted with mansions).

[doctorjef]

Yet 19807 takes in the more densely populated areas of Westover Hills (Westhaven, too, I would think) and the bits of residential Greenville on either side of Kennet Pike. Really, there's a good deal of suburban population density, in addition to the rural chateaux pockets. It would also seem that Westover Hills and Westhaven are absolutely contiguous with Wilmington. Greenville proper could arguably be a little more separate, though lots of cities include such close-in suburbs within their boundaries.

[HOME in D-ware]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Yet 19807 takes in the more densely populated areas of Westover Hills (Westhaven, too, I would think) and the bits of residential Greenville on either side of Kennet Pike. Really, there's a good deal of suburban population density, in addition to the rural chateaux pockets. It would also seem that Westover Hills and Westhaven are absolutely contiguous with Wilmington. Greenville proper could arguably be a little more separate, though lots of cities include such close-in suburbs within their boundaries.

Yes, I know what you mean. Those areas probably should be included if all the others I mentioned were.

Zip Code: 19807
Post Office: Wilmington
Population: 7,345 (2000)
Land Area: 18.9 sq. mi.

I would split 19807 much like 19720.

Southern 30% of 19807
Area east of Centerville Rd. and south of Campbell/Kirk Rds.
Population: 4,845 (guess)
Land Area: 5.7 sq. mi. (guess)

[xzmattzx]

I was down in Rehoboth Beach enjoying the warm weather and warm water before it's gone, and I saw a school of dolphins for the first time ever.