While I agree that the size and design do not fit the character of the neighborhood, I feel that the planned hotel is much needed and will only benefit the area both economically and aesthetically. Currently, the site severely underutilized. The 'historic mansion' right now is just a vacant building, and in my opinion, an ugly one. I strongly disagree with the previous commenter's opinion that this new development will increase crime. Likewise, I feel that the bridge cinema is hardly a "game preserve for muggers and drug dealers to being a blight". It was and is a good idea. The 40th street area is much safer than it was, is much more attractive to local residents and students alike, and will only be improved by the presence of this new hotel.

You would think that by now the officious empty drums who have been busily destroying 40th Street would hang their heads if not in shame at least with a degree of humility. The murder and critical wounding of two innocent bystanders on 40th Street a few weeks ago might be a clue that 40th Street planning has been nothing short of a disaster. Youth Gangs roam 40th Street on evenings and weekends, thanks to the crime hot spot created by people who, undoubtedly, don't show their faces on 40th during the evenings and weekends. What was supposed to be an arts film house on 40th & Walnut became instead a blockbuster movie house which is rarely attended by Penn students and infrequently attended by any other than teens from the area, creating the first ingredient of a crime hot spot. The McDonalds across the street has long been a place where teens from the area gather at night. So too the arcade on 40th and Spruce. Now we shall add an ugly hotel that upscale clients will quickly abandon when they discover that leaving the hotel means walking into drunks stumbling out of Copa Banana and troubled youths looking for, well, trouble. Like the "luxury" Bridge Cinema, this "luxury" hotel will quickly devolve from being a game preserve for muggers and drug dealers to being a blight, and along the way it will drive out homeowners not only around the hotel but for blocks around. Homeowners are what make the neighborhood stable and safe. Students make neighborhoods unstable and dangerous. Bizarre combinations of businesses in this already fragile mix will in short order return Penn to the dangerous place it once was, as homeowners (so painstakingly and expensively attracted to the neighborhood by Rodin's careful planning) shall be driven away by Gutman and company's careless lack of planning and sensitivity to a delicate and precariously balanced community. Taxes are very high in Philadelphia, and so too is crime. Schooling choices are poor. It's not easy living with student and crime culture. UCD leaders and influencers had better take heed. They've been making a bundle of mistakes of late, and it's showing in terms of crime and turnover in housing stock. You lose the homeowners, the families, and the neighborhood will revert in a heartbeat to the old days of students and faculty routinely getting raped, mugged, and murdered.