Last week, Philly Skyline’s Brad Maule dropped in on what appears to have been a pretty sparsely attended meeting of the Fishtown Neighbors Association, Northern Liberties Neighbors Assocation, New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC) and Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Council.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a proposal by Avram Hornik, the proprietor of among other places Lucy’s Hat Shop and Drinker’s in Old City and Rittenhouse.  Hornik is looking to take the old Jumbo Theater at Front and Girard as the site of a new bar and live music venue.

That sound you just heard could either have been a needle scratching across a record or a loud round of applause.  Discussions about this project are happening all over the local blogosphere from Fishtown.us to Philly Blog.  Comments range from the “this could be such an exciting development for this area” to the “why get your hopes up, it’ll never happen” to the “over my dead body because it would bring too many people and too much noise to the area.”

Maule’s write up of the meeting focuses on many of the negative comments brought up at the meeting and some organized opposition that seems to have already gotten the attention of one of our local state reps:

That the four neighborhoods with varying goals and varying populaces came together is a feat in itself, as noted by State Representative Curtis Thomas, who showed up long enough to see part of Hornik’s presentation before announcing that, thanks to a petition filed by some neighbors, he will try to block the liquor license Hornik has applied for.

Great. Before the evening’s grand unveiling — of ideas, unfinished plans — is even fully presented, we learn that Harrisburg is already against it.

From my limited perspective, I don’t see too much not to like about this project.  The venue is right at the crossroads of several mass transit lines including the 15 trolley, the Market Frankford El and at least a few bus lines.  The proprietor has pledged to preserve or restore much of the old theater without even being forced to.  In fact, it seems like he actually wants to save the old-timey charm.  The place would book national touring bands and schedule shows to end in time for most of the concert goers to catch the last train.

If the community associations are on the ball, they’ll welcome the project with open arms and get enough concessions from Hornik to assuage their fears of litter, noise and crime.  Their concerns over parking seem a little misguided, however.  Building more parking would only encourage patrons to drive more.  Knowing that parking is tough to come by often helps to get folks to make the decision to abandon their cars and take advantage of the transit opportunities. Forcing new businesses to add parking leads to more cars driving around the neighborhood, kills the walkable nature of a place and results in the degradation of a neighborhood most feared by residents in the first place.  And who knows?  If enough of these kinds of venues open up along the El, maybe SEPTA would consider extending its hours of operation on weekend nights.  That way, the folks who live in Fishtown could go to other parts of the city and still have a convenient ride home after 12:30 at night.

Maybe I’m missing something but when you have a project with as many potential positives as this one, shouldn’t we be thinking about how to manage the negatives rather than let them destroy the whole thing?  This assumes that if you add up all of the positives and negatives that the net result is positive.  Perhaps someone else can suggest some math that causes this project to be a negative, but so far, I don’t see it.

BONUS:

Maule included links to old photos of the Jumbo from the Philadelphia City Archive.  Click here and here.