Pact Paves Way for $49M Children's Center

PHILADELPHIA-City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell has brokered a deal that paves the way for construction of a new $49-million Youth Study Center in West Philadelphia. The plan, assembled by Blackwell in conjunction with the School District of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Housing Authority among others, calls for construction of a 30,000-sf community center and conversion of the Sulzberger Middle School into a themed high school at a total cost of $12 million.

The community center will be constructed at 47th and Aspen streets and connect with the school at 48th and Fairmount near the long-proposed five-acre site at 48th and Haverford Avenue for the new Youth Study Center. The latter will replace the current children’s detention center at 20th Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway that is being razed for construction of the Barnes Foundation museum.

Maintaining that it was “not fair to locate a new youth corrections facility in a neighborhood without balancing it out with a place for positive activities,” Blackwell, who represents the West Philadelphia district, stalled permission for a required change in zoning to accommodate the new corrections center. “The plan has been a long time coming, but the result was worth waiting for,” Blackwell said during a Nov. 29 press conference held next to the school.