Hawthorne: A Neighborhood in Transition

1. Hawthorne: A Neighborhood in Transition • Hawthorne is a 3-block by 5-block neighborhood on the southern edge of Center City Philadelphia. • In the 1960s, four 25-story public housing towers were built between Broad Street and 12th Street to the east and west, and Bainbridge and Catharine Streets to the north and south. • By the 1990s, the towers were seen as a failure. The neighborhood was heavily impacted by crime and poverty. • In 1999, the towers were torn down. • Over a 12-year period, the projects were replaced with Hope VI mixed-income housing. There was also great deal of infill development, knitting together the holes left by years of neglect. This summer (2012), work on a $2M park in the neighborhood will also be completed. • This neighborhood once served low-income families, yet provided great access to employment opportunities downtown via walking, the subway, or buses. Have opportunities for affordable housing in the neighborhood been preserved? • I looked at changes in median income in the neighborhood, as well as changes in home ownership rates and home values. • The next step will be to look at parcel-level data and see when the last time each property changed hands. Who lives here? Original residents or new residents with higher median incomes? By Rachel Neumann

6. Skills Used • Slide 1 • Inset map • Clip • Custom Shapefile • Slide 2 • Clip • Graduated Colors • Custom Shapefile • Aggregating Attribute Fields • Slide 3 • Graduated Colors • Graduated Symbols • Clip • Custom Shapefile • Aggregating Attribute Fields • Slide 4 • Graduated Colors • Graduated Symbols • Clip • Custom Shapefile • Aggregating Attribute Fields