Title
Calling for a hearing on Philadelphia's "middle neighborhoods," which are neighborhoods where housing is typically affordable and where quality of life - measured by access to high quality public amenities and advantageous employment, crime rates, and school performance - is sufficiently good that new home buyers are willing to play the odds and choose these neighborhoods over others in hopes they will improve rather than decline, and to explore potential intergovernmental policy solutions to stabilize and support these neighborhoods.
Body
WHEREAS, "Middle neighborhoods" are defined by several characteristics, including the fact that housing is generally in acceptable condition; they are mostly comprised of single-family housing; they are vulnerable to decline, but in many instances are providing a good quality of life for their residents; property values are generally flat and the value trajectory is not clear; and as a group, they are more racially diverse than strong and distressed neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, David Boehlke of The Healthy Neighborhoods Group describes "middle neighborhoods" as "not thriving enough to attract sustained private investment, yet...not troubled enough to warrant concentrated public attention," and
WHEREAS, Paul Brophy, the editor of a new book entitled On the Edge: America's Middle Neighborhoods, estimates that about 46 percent of Americans live in middle neighborhoods, and contemporary Reinvestment Fund estimates are that just over 40% of Philadelphians live in these neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, Middle neighborhoods face many challenges, such as the fact that the middle class is shrinking in 9 out of 10 cities, income segregation is growing, existing housing stock is not meeting market demand, job locations are not near middle neighborhoods, and some middle neighborhoods are competing with nearby suburbs; and
WHEREAS, Some of the main challenges facing middle neighborhoods are neighborhood stabilization and h...
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