What do we think about American street?

[John Goodman]

I don't know too much about what businesses are there but it seems a bit underutilized

It should be the major jobs center for that region of town




I have to wonder how things would be different if the American st corridor were a keystone opportunity zone....

[MariusPontmercy]

It used to be a rail/industrial corridor, hence the wideness and the current underutilization.

[cjPhilly]

I have to wonder how things would be different if the American st corridor were a keystone opportunity zone....

Probably not much different, since N American St. IS a KOZ corridor:

KOZ Maps and Descriptions

[thetalkingmule]

Developers have bought up half of American Street already. It'll get going once the development at 2nd and Thompson gets going/finished. I just wish the Crane Arts folks were able to establish more of a footprint up there to make it a true arts corridor.

[John Goodman]

Probably not much different, since N American St. IS a KOZ corridor:

KOZ Maps and Descriptions

Lol shows how much I know

[BarryG]

Probably not much different, since N American St. IS a KOZ corridor:

KOZ Maps and Descriptions

Yep and another KOZ, the office building at 2nd & Spring Garden, is being converted to condos. There just isn't enough demand for commercial up there.

[Sharkfood]

I believe one of the issues is the industrial zoning. Industrial zones do not permit residential or even retail uses.
The crane arts building couldn't even open a cafe if they wanted to do. This is a case of the city tenuously clinging to a vanishing industrial job base.

[ArcticSplash]

mispost

[InYourVacancies]

Even though I don't have any idea's as to improvement for American, but I do think that whatever happens, maybe narrowing it in a useful way from Jefferson up would be good, given it's relatively low traffic, which even still can make it tricky to cross if walking.

[Fecteau03]

Might seem like a good idea to narrow Am Street but there are still a significant number of large delivery trucks serving industrial users there. They have a hard enough time getting out of the industrial zone and over to I-95 already. So the City won't narrow the road. Curb bump outs are a possibility further north where there's an excessively wide right of way.

According to the City's Commerce Departmetn, the larger industrial Am Street industrial zone houses about 200 business employing roughly 1300 people.

As for zoning, it's in place to protect the existing industry from enroachment by residential development. Anything zoned L4 (old code), ICMX (new code) has been able to, and will be able to, include commercial development by right. That hasn't changed. Barry G is correct - not enough demand for commercial.

There's also a new category that will only be mapped onto specific blocks only by request to City Council. It's called IRMX and it's basically an artists' loft district. But again, that won't appear without a Council ordinance for a specific block.