We're pretty excited here at the corner of Broad and Oxford Streets. Over the last few weeks, we've watched the final demo of the old strip mall Progress Plaza to make way for the new and LONG promised grocery store in North Philadelphia. 

Progress Plaza has a long and storied history on North Broad Street. Progress Plaza, the brain child of Leon Sullivan, a Baptist minster, civil right leader and social activist, was the nation's first black-owned and developed shopping center.

It has served as a field trip for the students involved in ITSRG's BITS program as they explore and document their community. One of the students favorite stories about Progress Plaza has been how the Leon Sullivan got the project started in the 1960s. 

Sullivan suggested the development of the strip mall to address two major needs he saw in the community. First, the need for black-owned businesses and the need for jobs.

The story goes that when Sullivan approached the chairman of the bank to request a construction loan. He was told that Sullivan needed some equity and  to, "think about it," and come back in two, three of four years. Sullivan then presented the chairman with $400,000 in cash raised from the community.

The shocked bank chairman quickly changed his story and told Sullivan he could work with him. The strip mall opened to the community in 1968 and has been home to a variety of stores and  community services since its opening.

The story always brings a smile and a laugh to the students faces and a new appreciation for the plaza and the sometimes hidden treasures found in North Philadelphia.

Today, Progress Plaza is currently undergoing a 16-million dollar renovation. The plaza is soon to be anchored by a 42-thousand square foot Fresh Grocer. Earlier this year, it served as a campaign stop for President Obama.

Caroline Guigar
ITSRG - Temple

BITS student Ken Sprull designed the logo above in the summer of 2007 as part of his experience to engage in actions to improve local environmental quality in North Philadelphia.  He, along with other students in his group, strongly articulated the viewpoint that North Philadelphia environmental concerns are deeply connected to social ones. Their perspective was that those include the need to foster racial harmony and reduce violence in their daily lives. His logo and the group's sponsorship of community-building  events to raise local environmental awareness captured this sentiment.

With this, and many other similar exchanges in our experiences implementing the BITS Program during the past four years in mind, we followed with great interest the events of the presidential election campaign throughout last year. Our staff, the students and  families with whom we work, and Temple students have found the campaign season and Obama's story of community organizer to President-elect to be fascinating as well as inspirational. Our attention has been on the use of information technologies by the candidates, the shocking media attention paid to one of our own staff who was at the center of a national debate on journalistic ethics in a web 2.0 era, and Obama's visit to historic Progress Plaza in October, a site that students in the BITS Program have been depicting as part of our community geographic information systems (GIS) initiative during the past four years.

The logistical juggernaut of the upcoming historic Presidential Inauguration has been the topic of lively conversation during the past few weeks at ITSRG. We spent considerable time debating whether or not to attend, and if so how. We ultimately decided to follow events from the ITSRG Workroom, the spot that has been our vantage point throughout the past year.

We are pleased to share the news that the Office of the Provost of Temple University recently announced that classes in session on the first day of the semester - Inauguration Day - Tuesday,  January 20th may be canceled at the discretion of the instructor from 10:10 am through 1:00 pm so that students and faculty can watch the Inauguration Ceremony. Events will be shown on large screen TVs at five locations across campus:

Howard Gittis Student Center, Room 200, Main Campus
Mitten Hall, Great Court, Main Campus
Bright Hall Lounge, Ambler
Learning Center Auditorium, Ambler
Student Faculty Center, Health Science Campus

ITSRG will share perspectives throughout the day via our blogs and Twitter feed, including those of BITS students with whom we have worked over the years.

Michele Masucci, Director
ITSRG