Variations on a big theme

Today's City Paper is ripe with more examples of Daily News columnist Mark Alan Hughes' Big Theme for 2007, which we blogged about two days ago.

Following up on their examination of the tension between new and old residents in South Philadelphia over street trees, today they wrote about the tension between new and old residents in Manayunk over beer pong at 2am. I'm going to go out on a limb on the tree issue (no pun intended) and say that the new residents had a stronger argument about whether trees should be planted along their street. However, in the Manayunk case, it's hard to agree with one anonymous source's idea that the old residents should just "move the f*** out" if they don't enjoy hearing the sounds of well played game of "boat race" as they're drifting off to sleep.

The article involves a whole mess of issues for the next mayor to contend with including gentrification, on-street parking, land use, absentee landlords, code and law enforcement, and government accountability.

This column about Penn's grand plan to develop the area between its current campus and the river Schuylkill is one of a myriad of examples (including Delaware waterfront development, high rise condo development, the continuation of NTI, casinos etc.) where the tension between old and new manifests itself in the danger that could come if development happens without sufficient input from city planners. While giving credit to the University for being open and transparent about a plan that makes sense, the writer also advises:

As development progresses, Penn will hopefully continue embracing a strong sense of public benefits and a robust vision of "mixed-use" that maximizes density and involves a broad range of non-university interests.

...as opposed to becoming a borg collective that assimilates a large part of the city making them available only to people with Penn ID cards.

So the first entry for Big Theme of 2007 holds up. Still waiting for other suggestions.