I think it is a few things. The El is right there on Spring Garden. There are huge tracts of land that either are vacant or just under utilized along Spring Garden. You are right about favorable zoning laws, most of that area is CMX-2, CMX-3 with some ICMX/IRMX scattered about which is very favorable to these big developments. It's just right outside Center City so you can even easily walk to Old City and Center City and the like. The whole East Spring Garden Corridor is gonna explode.

I got some as well and they were all very fresh and hard to eat. A little fuzziness on the stems but I wash them all off and they are good to go. Definitely have heard some bad ones around. Definitely hit or miss and I'd say people shouldn't be afraid to say these ones are bad.