Jonathan Shazar: The Bridge's place in University City

Today, when the Bridge movie theater-bar-restaurant complex at 40th and Walnut streets opens, it will undoubtedly be greeted with both open arms and a healthy degree of cynicism.

The fancy new movie house and its ultra-fashionable new digs certainly offer the community something entirely, well, new -- an extremely nice and remarkably inexpensive place to see the latest movies in a beautiful environment with a full bar. There is no doubt that a large number will embrace it.

The cynics, myself included, will surely comment on the almost absurd lavishness of it -- the Bridge is, after all, just a movie theater. Walking through it during yesterday's ribbon-cutting and cocktail party, I felt a bit out of place. Maybe it was all of the well-dressed bigwigs, but it just seemed a little grand for a place whose primary purpose is to show the latest blockbuster.

And, of course, there is the delay. This complex was, after all, supposed to open as the Sundance Cinema during my freshman year, before nasty things like bankruptcies got in the way. I must admit to chuckling about the fact that the Bridge is opening almost exactly four years after Robert Redford came to campus and took our Burger King away.

But the truth of it is, the first group has the right idea. The Bridge is exactly the kind of retail development the University ought to be pursuing. It isn't just a business or another storefront, but a real addition to the community. And it fits in precisely with the best parts of Penn's development plans.

It plans to be open from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day, giving students a place to grab bagels and coffee in the morning and, along with the 24-hour Freshgrocer across the street, keeping foot traffic on Walnut Street into the wee hours of the morning.

It brings to campus a much-needed amenity and, again, like its neighbor across Walnut, has kept high quality reasonably affordable, offering $7 tickets to students at all times.

Nor does it seek an air of exclusivity -- its doors are open to all, regardless of whether or not you've got a ticket. The Bridge has the potential to serve as something like a community center, welcoming people as other locations -- most notably the Inn at Penn and its obnoxious second-floor lobby, seemingly designed to keep the student riff-raff from using it as a shortcut -- have shut them out.

And then, of course, there's the bar, and we can never have too many of those on campus.

For all of the inconveniences and frustration is has caused, the Bridge has been well worth the wait -- even if it comes three years late.

But the Bridge's opening, removing one of the most intractable construction sites on campus for the first time in any undergraduate's memory, also highlights a keen failing in the University's retail plan.

Just around the corner from the new theater, along 40th Street, there are two empty storefronts. One was supposed to be a Mexican restaurant, but that didn't work out so well and now we have temporary office space. The other was supposed to be a hot dog store, and that's what we got. But Papaya King soon found out that, well, we didn't really need a hot dog store.

Down the block from the Bridge sits the another retail vacancy, the former Baskin Robbins. And at the heart of the new "University Square" is another hole, the old Commerce Bank location. And along Spruce Street, the former Steve and Barry's sits without a new tenant. And with the Bridge open, it isn't too much to wonder how long Cinemagic will survive.

But even more troubling are some of the recent retail additions, and their fates. There's the Papaya King fiasco. And we are, after all, on our third diner in as many years. We have a new yoga school on Walnut Street, as the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center gears up to offer yoga classes of its own. And Ma Jolie didn't last too long in Sansom Common.

Yet, in spite of these failures, the University seems to be sticking to its long strategy of planning everything from above. After the higher-ups determined that a Mexican restaurant was what 40th Street needed, nothing else was acceptable. So two years after the Friendly Express was shut down, there's still nothing at 40th and Locust. Nothing that we can use, anyway.

Anchors are important. The Freshgrocer, the Bridge and Pod were all well worth the wait. But whatever does eventually find its way to the Friendly Express location will not be worth these years of vacancy and lost foot traffic.

What's more, it's hard to sell things like the Bridge as a sign of a revitalized retail corridor when getting to it requires a tour of Penn's less successful ventures.

Empty spaces don't make anyone happy. And while a long-term vision is needed, University officials would do well to remember that a lot of things are affected in the short-term, too.

Jonathan Shazar is a senior History and Political Science major from Valley Stream, N.Y., and editorial page editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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