Temple is in the Cecil B. Moore neighborhood of North Philadelphia. Temple students refer to it as Templetown, but the residents resist that term because it is being quicky gentrified. In the 70s, I'm sure it was a getto. The University has transitioned over the past couple of decades from Commuter School to a residential university with students living on campus and close surrounding neighborhoods. This has driven retail services coming into the area to support the students living there. The plans for the new stadium continue to increase retail in the area.

Since South Philly and now the West Philly areas around University City have been gentrified and become expensive, North Philly is the new discovered area. Temple is using that to improve its neighborhood overall.

In the 80s when I went to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the same thing was occurring. Midtown Atlanta was very dangerous as well as the Marietta Street area behind campus and the North Avenue area around the Techwood housing projects. Students were living in the neighborhoods north of campus around 10th street, but it wasn't all that great. Back then Chinese students attending American university was new. Georgia Tech had many of them, and almost every month the Atlanta paper was writing about Chinese students getting mugged in Midtown. It was terrible.

If you go to Georgia Tech today, the university's growth has crossed I-85 over into Midtown, and it has been gentrified and developed. I find it unbelievable since I have a mental picture of it from the 80s. The Atlanta Olympics built tons of housing there on campus that have brought students living on campus. What happened at Georgia Tech reminds me of what Temple is trying to do.