May 1: Joe Frazier’s Gym listed in National Register | Penn’s Landing from above | Valueless blight | Drexel buys Firestone building | Broad Street Run mobile surveillance | 15 more food trucks at LOVE Park
It’s a beautiful morning, Streeters. We hope you get out and about today.
Joe Frazier’s Gym has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which does little to protect the building but does make it eligible for preservation tax credits for a rehab project. The Inquirer reports on the efforts of Temple professor Dennis Playdon and his students who prepared the nomination. The building is not listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, meaning that it is still vulnerable to demolition or major alteration in the absence of preservation-minded oversight. Listing in the National Register does not prevent an owner from making any alterations to the building unless the project involves federal funding, which only triggers a review process.
A balloon-mapping workshop held during Philly Tech Week yielded more than 600 images of Penn’s Landing from above, Technically Philly reports. You can view a few of these DIY aerial images on Flickr.
What if a set of vacant, blighted lots have little or no value and sheriff sales keep these lots in limbo? AxisPhilly’s Isaiah Thompson explores this corner of Philly’s vacancy and tax-delinquency problem by considering the example of eight long0-vacant lots on Bellmore Avenue. Will Council President Darrell Clarke’s proposed “development districts” or the land bank legislation introduced by Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez create value where there is none?
Drexel finally snagged the Firestone building at 32nd and Market, Hidden City Daily reports. Drexel could make the wedge-shaped lot could eventually become a mixed-use building, but for now expect Firestone to keep selling tires there.
As part of increased Broad Street Run security, Police will testing out a new tool: solar-powered mobile surveillance units, NewsWorks reports. The units are on loan from the Doylestown company that builds them.
Eater reports that 15 more food trucks have been added to the LOVE Park rotation. Expect to see these new trucks on Wednesdays, and extended hours for all at LOVE Park.
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