Here’s a great chance to learn more about the historic West Philly neighborhood of Powelton Village. On Saturday, Oct. 1., the Powelton Village Civic Association is organizing a 4-hour-long tour which will guide you through the neighborhood’s tree-lined streets and will introduce you to its beautiful homes and gardens and their history.

The tour will begin at 11:00 a.m. with the starting point and check-in at 3501 Baring Street (four blocks north of Market). Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. Check the flyer for more information. All questions should be addressed to: president [at] poweltonvillage.org

In a recent piece in Philadelphia Magazine, the new Drexel president John Fry lays out his hopes for the remaking of the neighborhoods near the campus – the Eds and Meds (universities and medicine/science) approach a la Penn. Fry imagines a Drexel that is the most “civically engaged university in America.” The plan seems to be similar to what has taken place at Penn, where Fry was a vice president under former president Judith Rodin. The plan includes more police, help with faculty and staff mortgages and improved schools.

From the piece:

The short-term goal is to make the northern University City neighborhoods around Drexel more like the clean, leafy, surprisingly safe and prosperous precincts that adjoin the Penn campus, whose very niceness Fry had more than a little to do with creating during a seven-year stint as Penn’s executive vice president under then-president Judith Rodin.

The piece is also sprinkled with contrasts between Fry and the neighborhoods he proposes to revamp – references to his Land Rover, his degrees and the fact that he lives in Bryn Mawr.