Volume 90, Issue 22

Page 1

temple-news.com VOL. 90 ISS. 22

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012

A District in Dissent

Big East takes in Temple After years, Temple will rejoin the Big East for all sports during a two-year span. BRIAN DZENIS Editor-in-Chief

Bill number 120020, as it sits in council, lays out a plan in which the NCNID would answer to the North Central Management Corporation, a nonprofit created for the district that would act as the Neighborhood Improvement District Management Association. The affected area would roughly stretch from York Street to Girard Avenue and from 19th Street to Broad Street, excluding properties on Broad Street. The district also includes the area ranging east from Watts Street to the SEPTA Regional Rail tracks and south

The Owls are back in the Big East Conference. After the football team exited the Big East in 2004 after originally being voted out of the conference in 2001 due to a lack of competitiveness on the field and funding off the field, the team will return in 2012 while Temple’s 21 other sports will join it in 2013, Big East commissioner John Marinatto announced last Wednesday, March 7, at Madison Square Garden. The move had been in the works for more than a year. “[Athletic Director] Bill Bradshaw and I first met to explore possible Big East Conference membership well over a year ago, and our discussions intensified over the past several weeks,” Marinatto said. “I also had the pleasure of working with Board Chair [Patrick J.] O’Connor and General Counsel George Moore to bring a potential partnership together.” One of the key points in that partnership was figuring out a way to exit the Mid-American Conference, where Temple football used to play and the Atlantic Ten Conference, where all of Temple’s other sports resided with the exception of gymnastics. Originally, leaving the MAC required a $2.5 million exit fee with two years’ notice and the A-10 required a year’s notice and $1 million. Temple will pay $6 million to the MAC and $1 million to the A-10. Assistant Vice President of University Communications Ray Betzner told The Temple News last week that the Big East will be covering all of Temple’s exit fees. “No college money will be paying for this,” Betzner said. Marinatto declined to specify how much and in what fashion the exit fees will be covered by the Big East.

NID PAGE 2

BIG EAST PAGE 3

TIMOTHY VALSHTEIN TTN

Plans to improve the North Central Philadelphia area near Main Campus have angered many long-time residents, who said they want more representatation in the proposed neighborhood improvement district. The district will be signed into law in coming months, unless affected property owners vote the bill down.

Improvement plans have divided residents and property owners pushing the bill. SEAN CARLIN Assistant News Editor

I

t’s a familiar sight: A group of developers and a pastor sit in a room on North Sydenham Street, talking about their investment in the community seated just off Main Campus. Perhaps a familiar setting, but it’s not familiar in terms of context. Instead of talking about student rates or building more apartments, the group’s discussion of late, in this TempleTown Realty office, has been about a different issue: an extra tax. And the same people pushing the extra fee are among the ones who would be paying it. This site, along with others throughout the community, is where the idea behind the North Central Neighborhood Improvement District was

OPINION BIG RIVALS, p.4 Joey Cranney discusses Villanova’s impact on Temple’s delayed Big East admitance in basketball.

LIVING RECOGNIZING WOMEN, p.7 In honor of March being National Women’s History Month, The Temple News profiles Women of Color, which unites diverse women.

A&E CITY STORY p.9 The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent reopened with two exhibits after a three-year hiatus.

SPORTS MARCH MADNESS, p.20 The Owls look to regroup after a loss in the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament, as the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

molded. “A lot of hours have been spent in this room and other rooms in this neighborhood trying to figure this thing out,” said Herb Reid, a landlord in the area and member or the informal steering committee pushing the bill. Though the process of putting the bill together may have been exhausting in and of itself, the hard labor is yet to come. The NCNID is supported by City Council President Darrell Clarke, who introduced the bill to council, and Temple, which is expected to make a significant contribution to the district. But the reaction from the community has been all but supportive.

FRAMEWORK

A NID is a nonprofit set up by the city in a specific zone and funded through outside resources in order to improve the appearance, economy and security of the neighborhood. Throughout Philadelphia, NIDs and business improvement districts have been created

as a way to, “improve business never be able to figure out what profitability and property val- exactly they bring to a neighues,” according to the Drexel borhood in terms of quantitaLaw Review. tive value added.” These districts range in The idea for NCNID was size and stature from zones born out of meetings in Nowith more than vember 2010 4,000 properties, among longas seen in the time residents, Center City Dislandlords and trict, to blocks of Clarke, who land that feature represents the fewer than 100 area, which is properties as seen included in the in the Port Richfifth district. mond Industrial The meetings Development Enwere held to terprise. address issues While each between studistrict is differdents, landent, Richardson lords and resiDilworth, director Peter Crawford / dents in the tapa member, developer area, Reid, a of Drexel University’s Center for member of the Public Policy said he’s been Temple Area Property Associaimpressed by the impact of tion, said. NIDs on the community. “Sixteen months ago, we “In my experience from sat in City Hall. [Clarke] had dealing with [NIDs], I have brought together a concerned been really impressed at what group of landlords, the unithey’ve brought the neighbor- versity [representatives], a hoods,” Dilworth said. “You’ll concerned group of residents,

“We’ve got the resources as landlords, the residents have the vision. Instead of fighting each other, let’s work together.”

among others,” Reid said. “What we discussed that night was longstanding issues and some new issues that plague the community.” Reid added: “What [Clarke] said was, ‘I think the answer to this is a neighborhood improvement district,’ and basically he told us to get it done.”

NUTS AND BOLTS

Activists sit-in at Board of Trustees session Trustees approved a number of items as student-activists sat-in at their meeting. ANGELO FICHERA News Editor Not on the schedule of speakers at yesterday’s Board of Trustees meeting, studentactivists sat-in and addressed the university’s top-decision makers before the board approved a slew of actions recommended from their committees. Members of Temple Community Against Mountaintop Removal, a student-activist group associated with Occupy Temple that seeks to end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, demonstrated before the board yesterday, March 12, for the second time¬. The group first

NEWS DESK 215-204-7419

surfaced when it protested at a public session meeting in October 2011. Donning tape over their mouths, members of the group and of several other campus organizations, including Temple Democratic Socialists and Students for Justice in Palestine, stood in front of their seats in the Feinstein Lounge of Sullivan Hall silently as the meeting began. When President Ann Weaver Hart finished delivering a report about student leaders on campus, the group chimed in. “Speaking of student leaders...as students, we feel we deserve a better manner for dialogue, engagement and decisionmaking with the administration. Until these manners are made available to us, it is our statement that we have no voice,” the activists chanted, following the

BOARD PAGE 1

ABI REIMOLD TTN

Student-activists with Temple Community Against Mountaintop Removal staged a sit-in at yesterday’s Board of Trustees meeting. Members said they wanted to bring their cause and concerns about student voices at the university to light.

NEWS@TEMPLE-NEWS.COM


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.