14 story aparment complex planned behind Ave. North

Zoning for a new 14-story apartment building was approved by the City Council’s Rules Committee yesterday for a block near Avenue North, as reported by philly.com. The $50 million complex is designed to have 300 units, capable of housing 1,100 students. Its location is described as is shown on the map on the right, which can only mean it will be built in the parking lot between Avenue North and the Edge. I envision many water balloon wars between the buildings, and lots of binocular spying.

Councilman Darrell Clarke, whose district encompasses Temple, making him our representative, applauded the project. Clarke has been a sneaky dude when it comes to his treatment of Temple students so far. He was behind the Yorktown eviction incidents of last fall, and also helped to write legislation currently in committee that would turn Temple into an educational housing district. That means that students would have to register their addresses and cars with the University and police, and implement a three strike policy that would result in a UDC trial. (Think 2 parking tickets and one noise violation= UDC). Not exactly a Temple student's best friend.


Clarke was quoted saying that the complex would help to bring more commerce to the neighborhood and also help the "problematic" trend of students encroaching into local communities.


What's missing here? Temple University. Temple continues to ignore the housing issue and leave it to the all too defunct trifecta of students, developers, and the city. That is, until they realize there are too many students for campus and rent out 4 floors of The Edge for freshman, pushing more upperclassmen off campus. Sure enough, the new building will help to alleviate some of this demand, but Temple needs to stop neglecting its duties and work with all of the groups mentioned to come up with solutions.