34th Street Magazine

Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: feature

This is the first article in a two-part series in which Street will examine the effects of gentrification on West Philadelphia.

erched defiantly on the westernmost frontier of University City, the Dock Street Brewery and Restaurant is situated far beyond what many Penn students consider to be the no man's land of West Philadelphia. Outside, an array of fixed-gear and vintage road bicycles surround the converted firehouse that the new brewery - along with a trendy café, bike shop and acupuncture co-op - occupies on the corner of 50th and Baltimore streets. Such a sight may be incongruous for students operating under the assumption that everything past 42nd is the ghetto; yet, on a recent Friday night, the brewery's crowd spilled onto the sidewalk with little apparent anxiety about their urban surroundings. Smokers lounged around patio tables and leaned against the building slowly dragging on their cigarettes, while a buzzed drinker stumbled, beer in hand, into the street as he fidgeted with his iPhone.

Inside, a mixture of indie-infused rock and underground hip-hop played at a tastefully low volume, faintly audible above the subdued din of the packed dining room. The crowd was predominantly young, white and hip. Patrons casually picked at their gourmet pizza, sipped their micro-brewed beers, and chatted with one another nonchalantly in that ironically detached kind of way. The room brimmed with stylishly thick-framed glasses, v-necked t-shirts and tight jeans, while older diners sporting oxford and polo shirts were peppered throughout the group. Every major neo-bohemian stereotype seemed to be present and accounted for - hipsters, yuppies, punks, hippies and even the ever-elusive white Rastafarian. The entire place exuded the relaxed air of artists and professionals alike unwinding with a few drinks after their long week of non-manual labor.

There's only one word to describe the burgeoning scene that is sprouting up there, so deep into the wilds of West Philly: Gentrification. It's a contentious term, one that is particularly apt to incite passionate responses among civic-minded urbanites. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is the process by which an urban area is rendered middle class. For many, gentrification is the product of an indifferent society whose wealthier residents ignore the plight of the working class they displace, while for others, it functions as a synonym for "improving neighborhoods." But regardless of how it is interpreted, there is little controversy over the fact that the neighborhoods surrounding Penn to the west are undergoing a process of rapid gentrification.

Continued...

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