Turning Spring Garden into greenway a great idea
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial
December 17, 2011
Illustration by Jennifer Kohnke
Wouldn't it be fun to safely ride your bike or take a leisurely walk on a tree-studded path from the banks of the Delaware to the Schuylkill?
The Pennsylvania Environmental Planning Council, a statewide organization with regional offices that work to revitalize communities, protect working farms, preserve critical wildlife habitat, and protect lakes, streams, and rivers, is working its way through an extensive process to come up with a plan, including a budget and funding sources that could turn Spring Garden into a greenway that serves as a link on an urban trail stretching from Canada to Key West, Fla.
In some ways, the plan could bring Spring Garden Street back to its 19th-century days as an "elegant, leafy boulevard," according to PEC's project website at springgardenstreetgreenway.com.
Working with the city and neighborhood groups, the council hopes to report its ideas in the summer.
PEC executive vice president Patrick Starr says Spring Garden - a straight 2.2 mile shot between the Art Museum and the Delaware River waterfront - acts as a barrier that cuts off the energy from Center City and from the neighborhoods on the north side.
The street is wide enough to accommodate cars, walkers, and cyclists. But right now, cyclists and motorists find themselves dodging each other. Planners envision a center lane for strollers and bikers separated from traffic, which would give users some peace of mind.
Of course, this is a plan and can change. But the element of safe passage for all users should make it to the final draft.
Beyond dressing up with more trees, Spring Garden Street can also serve a practical purpose as a place to manage and contain storm water, Starr says.
The city is sprucing up the Delaware riverfront and has plans to develop the old incinerator site at the foot of Spring Garden Street.
At the same time, some residents of the lofts on the east side of Broad Street are excited about a proposal to turn the Reading viaduct into a park like New York City's High Line.
A dedicated bike and pedestrian path would create a stronger link between Spring Garden's neighborhoods and all the walking, cycling, rowing, and running that goes on along the Schuylkill.
It would enhance the quality of life not just for those in motion but for those who appreciate bustling street life as well.
Heaven in Hunting Park: Transformation at Critical Mass
www.flyingkitemedia.com
December 12, 2011
by Sue Spolan
Hunting Park Community Garden Dedication in October with Mayor Michael Nutter (courtesy of Fairmount Park Conservancy)
Hunting Park is on fire. Not in the way you see in the news, which is often enough. But in a fervent, community building, spirited manner that seems the work of a larger-than-life force. Over the past five years, the North Philadelphia neighborhood, which runs from 5th to Broad Street, Erie Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, is undergoing a dramatic transformation.
According to the latest Philadelphia Police statistics, overall crime in the 25th District is down from 2010 to 2011. Total offenses dropped 7% in the same reporting period.
Millions of dollars have poured into Hunting Park from many directions. The showpiece of the area is an 87-acre park in the midst of a $21 million dollar transformation. Hunting Park is, according to Michael Diberardinis, head of Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, Philadelphia's second largest neighborhood park, outsized only by FDR Park in South Philadelphia. "It's a unique asset," explains Diberardinis. "There's nothing like it in that part of the city."
Central Park, the Soundtrack
New York Times
December 7, 2011
by James C. McKinley Jr.
Clamp on headphones, start up the iPhone app by the musical duo Bluebrain and walk into Central Park. The music does not begin until you pass through an entrance and head into the trees. Then it sounds like an orchestra tuning up, a chaotic jumble of wind chimes, electronic moans and discordant strings. Push farther into the park, and a sweet violin melody emerges over languid piano chords.
As you walk, new musical themes hit you every 20 or 30 steps, as if they were emanating from statues, playgrounds, open spaces and landmarks. At the Bethesda Fountain a string quartet plays a hopeful march. The Kerbs Boathouse, with its tranquil pond full of model sailboats, triggers a soothing Pachelbel-like motif with a descending bass. Strolling across Sheep Meadow you hear a pastoral piano theme with a bubbling undercurrent of electronic arpeggios.
Committee sends zoning code bills to Council for final vote
www.FixItPhilly.org
December 7, 2011
The Committee of the Whole Council gave favorable recommendations to Bill 110845 and Bills 110835 and 110844 as amended, voting unanimously to suspend the rules so that a first reading of the zoning code bills can take place at City Council’s next session. Final action on the bills is expected on December 15. Public testimony at the committee hearing was largely in support of the new code, although some speakers requested last minute amendments to address particular concerns.
The committee heard about two and a half hours of testimony from development industry professionals, civic groups, and individual residents. Most spoke favorably of the zoning reform process, as well as the final product, thanking the ZCC, City Council, and staff and consultants for their efforts. Speaking on behalf of the Development Workshop, Craig Schelter congratulated those involved. “Forty years in Philadelphia and I have never seen such collaboration take place,” he said. “I strongly encourage City Council to approve these bills.” James White of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations said the new code would “balance competing interests and enhance revitalization efforts.”
City is attacking crime by removing grime
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial
December 2, 2011
Philadelphians can point with pride at the city's brilliant program that replaces the tires, mattresses, and weeds on vacant lots with freshly mowed lawns, trees, and wooden fences.
Philadelphia LandCare has raised property values and sparked investment in forgotten neighborhoods. Now, there's research showing it has also helped cut violent crime and may improve health.
An epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Charles Branas, is the lead author on a study connecting blight and crime. Some of his inspiration came from watching antiviolence programs come and go with few lasting effects. He and his researchers wondered about new ways to intervene.
Get moving on fracking fees
Philadelphia Daily News Editorial
December 2, 2011
* Opponents of natural-gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed march to the New Jersey Statehouse. Speakers at the rally included the actors Mark Ruffalo and Debra Winger, and the documentary filmmaker Josh Fox. (JULIO CORTEZ / Associated Press)
IN MANY PLACES, caution is the byword when it comes to gas drilling. Last week, the Delaware River Basin Commission, made up of the governors of four states, postponed a vote that would allow drilling in regions near the Delaware - a vote most likely derailed when Delaware Gov. Jack Markell announced he wouldn't be supporting it.
In New York, a moratorium on drilling expired in July, but no permits or licenses are being issued pending the release of an environmental report.
Here in Pennsylvania, lawmakers are also cautious about taking any action which might upset the gas industry. That's why, under the Rendell administration, they resisted imposing a 5 percent extraction tax that the governor was pushing.
University of Pennsyslvania study links vacant-lot cleanups, reduced gun crime
Philadelphia Inquirer
November 25, 2011
by Tom Avril, Inquirer Staff Writer
By clearing trash and planting grass in thousands of vacant lots in Philadelphia, work crews did much more than beautify the landscape.
They also struck a big blow against crime, according to first-of-its-kind research from University of Pennsylvania scientists.
In the areas immediately surrounding 4,436 lots that were "greened" by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, there was a net reduction in assaults, gun assaults, and gun robberies compared with areas around lots that were not greened.
Rehabilitating vacant lots improves urban health and safety, study finds
www.Medicalxpress.com
November 17, 2011
Greening of vacant urban land may affect the health and safety of nearby residents, according to a
study published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology this week. The team, led by senior
author Charles C. Branas, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine,
University of Pennsylvania, found in a decade-long comparison of vacant lots and improved vacant lots,
that greening was linked to significant reductions in gun assaults across most of Philadelphia and
significant reductions in vandalism in one section of the city. Vacant lot greening was also associated with
residents in certain sections of the city reporting significantly less stress and more exercise.
City Howl Help Desk: (PLAY)GROUND ZERO: Where can Dogs Run?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
by Juliana Reyes
Philadelphia Daily News
Help Desk: This park is not for the dogs
MATT'S SIBERIAN huskies are all leashed up with nowhere to go.
He used to take his dogs to his neighborhood park, Chew Playground, in Point Breeze. His huskies, Jack and Ollie, especially loved the park in winter.
"They swim through the snow like seals," says Matt, who asked that we use a fake name for him because he sometimes works with the city. "It's awesome."
But one day last March, a banner went up: "NO DOGS ALLOWED IN PARK," it said in big, red, capital letters. It wasn't clear if it was an official sign or the work of some vigilante dog opponent.
(PLAY) GROUND ZERO: WHERE CAN DOGS RUN?
Philadelphia Daily News
City Howl Help Desk
November 9, 2011
MATT'S SIBERIAN huskies are all leashed up with nowhere to go.
He used to take his dogs to his neighborhood park, Chew Playground, in Point Breeze. His huskies, Jack and Ollie, especially loved the park in winter.
"They swim through the snow like seals," says Matt, who asked that we use a fake name for him because he sometimes works with the city. "It's awesome."
But one day last March, a banner went up: "NO DOGS ALLOWED IN PARK," it said in big, red, capital letters. It wasn't clear if it was an official sign or the work of some vigilante dog opponent.
City Council considers an alternate route to zoning reform November 4, 2011
by Jared Brey
For PlanPhilly
Four-and-a-half years ago, as PlanPhilly readers know, City Council enacted an amendment to the home rule charter—approved by more than three quarters of voters—creating the Zoning Code Commission and charging it with the task of reforming Philadelphia’s zoning code.
That amendment, which Council wrote, established the membership of the Commission, described its guiding principles, and laid out a timeline for the completion of zoning reform.
The timeline requires that “Council shall either enact into law, reject or table the Commission's Zoning Code Proposals contained within the final report in their entirety” within sixty days or five Council sessions after the report is issued. The ZCC is expected to issue its final report next week.
Last week, 10th-District Councilman and Zoning Code Commissioner Brian O’Neill introduced a bill that, if enacted, would give Council the ability to amend the Commission’s final report rather than just accept it or reject it in its entirety. In theory, it could allow Council to ignore the ZCC’s final report altogether.
On Thursday evening, November 3rd, Parks Alliance supporters joined us for our annual Celebration event at Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park.
City to build $1.4 million home for police mounted unit November 1, 2011 | By Vernon Clark, Inquirer Staff Writer
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey views members of the city's reestablished Mounted Unit in Fairmount Park, where stables large enough for about 40 horses will be built. Construction services are being donated, and fund-raising is expected to cover the $1.4 million cost. (MATT ROURKE / Associated Press)
Standing in a muddy field next to a stables in Fairmount Park, city officials announced plans Monday to build a $1.4 million home for the Philadelphia Police Mounted Unit.
"This is huge," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said of the plans to build the facility on Chamounix Drive that will house the mounted unit, reestablished this spring after being disbanded in 2004.
Fairmount Park stable planned for new police mounts
October 31, 2011
By Tom MacDonald
NewsWorks
The Philadelphia Police Department's mounted patrol unit will soon have a new base.
The police plan calls for a $1.2 million stable to rise in Fairmount Park near Belmont Plateau. The construction site is right next to McCarthy Stables. Read More
At FDR Park, it's pay-to-play
October 31, 2011 | BY CHRIS BRENNAN
Philadelphia Daily News
FRANKLIN Delano Roosevelt Park is a 97-year-old jewel of the Fairmount Park system, 300 acres of sporting fields, tennis courts, lakes, a boathouse, walking trails and a skateboard park in South Philly.
And it now costs $30 to use this city-owned expanse if you drive there on a day when the Eagles have a home game.
Not going to the game? Doesn't matter. Mark Focht, the first deputy commissioner for the city's Department of Parks & Recreation, said that some Eagles fans were scamming a system that allowed park users to enter for free. Read More
Kendrick Recreation Center in Roxborough will receive a quarter of a million dollars for repairs Saturday, October 29, 2011
By Sue Ann Rybak
Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. promises to donate a quarter of a million dollars to make immediate repairs on the recreation center, which was built in 1926.
Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. committed to donating a quarter of a million dollars to repair Kendrick Recreation Center, 5822 Ridge Ave. on Thursday night at a rally held by Roxborough residents to demand that the deplorable conditions at the center be addressed.
About 45 residents met in the gymnasium to voice their concerns about the unsafe conditions at the dilapidated facility.
Delaware River Waterfront Corporation Releases the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Oct. 28, 2011, 11:49 a.m.
PHILADELPHIA, PA, Oct 28, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Having completed the Master Plan for the Central Delaware, today, the board of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) unanimously endorsed the framework and recommendations it contains and transmitted the plan to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission for further action. To view the final plan, please visit www.plancentraldelaware.com.
DRWC embarked on the master planning process in 2009 in order to provide a framework of land use, open space, economic, transportation, and development recommendations for the Central Delaware waterfront, utilizing DRWC resources and a $1 million grant from the William Penn Foundation. Read More
5 gunmen rob players, spectators at W. Phila. rec center game October 26, 2011 | By Kia Gregory, Inquirer Staff Writer
The basketball game had just ended when five young men armed with guns and cloaked in masks stormed inside the recreation center in West Philadelphia and ordered everyone to the ground in a robbery.
The incident happened about 9:35 p.m. Monday at Christy Recreation Center, 56th and Christian Streets. The game was part of a league for men 30 and older. Read More
Eye of the needles: Used drug kits are everywhere in Kensington's McPherson Park October 26, 2011 | BY PHILLIP LUCAS
Torres displays a water bottle containing used drug-injecting paraphernalia that he collected near the library located in the park, in Kensington. (DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A LACK OF interactive programs and waning community interest aren't the reasons why more people aren't visiting the McPherson Square Library and park, on Indiana Avenue near F Street.
Here's what's keeping them away, according to Kensington neighbors who attended a community meeting yesterday:
Open-air drug-dealing, junkies shooting up on park benches and dozens of used hypodermic needles scattered across the grounds of the nearly 95-year-old building.
Group to pitch park-in-the-sky idea to Council Posted on Mon, Oct. 24, 2011 | Philadelphia Daily News
Residents who want to see the forbidding and abandoned Reading viaduct become a park in the sky will lobby City Council on Thursday in support of a measure to help make that happen.
Council's rules committee will have its second public hearing at 1:30 p.m. on a plan to create the Callowhill Reading Viaduct Neighborhood Improvement District.
The district would be financed through a 7 percent property tax, which is opposed by many in the Chinatown North community.
Read More
Trails connect Philly and Main Line Montco, city to be linked by “park in the sky” October 21, 2011 By Bonnie L. Cook
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a wind-whipped setting high above the Schuylkill, officials shook hands Thursday over a plan to link the region's trail system by running a pathway across the old Manayunk railroad bridge, creating a "park in the sky."
"This is a fantastic opportunity we have to personally, economically, and physically unite the city with the suburbs," Mayor Nutter said.
The ceremony at midspan launched a $1.5 million project that when complete - estimated at 18 months from now - will use the bridge as a greenway for hikers, bikers, and joggers. Read More
Park in the Sky October 17, 2011
By Luis Rodriguez
The Temple News Online
Attendees look at the part of the track that is below street level.[CHRIS MONTGOMERY TTN]
Plans for the abandoned Reading Rail Viaduct aim to transform it into a park above the streets.
Inspired by the highlines of New York and Paris, Philadelphia could be getting its very own citywide park.
Split into two branches, an elevated Ninth Street Branch and a City Branch drops below street level, covering a total of three miles.
Upper Rox. Civic Association Enjoying Halcyon Day A pair of initiatives it's long clamored for are progressing rapidly. October 14, 2011 By Tom Sunnergren
For the Upper Roxborough Civic Association, times are good, as an agenda they've long advocated is coming to fruition.
"We've been saying 'thank you' a lot lately," joked vice president Rich Giordano at Wednesday night's monthly meeting at the Roxborough Presbyterian Church. "It's nice for a change."
After years of simply defending the 34-acre Upper Roxborough Reservoir from prospective developers—"In 1998, the Eagles actually wanted to put their practice facility here," said association president Bob Turino—they've since had opportunity to restore it. At the urging of the association, the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department acquired the 34 acre lot—which had become profoundly overgrown since it was decommissioned in the '60s—and cleared much of the superfluous flora.
"K9Grass is Safe" - City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Defends Decision to Install K9Grass in Schuylkill River Park Dog Run PRWEB.COM Newswire
Albuquerque, NM
October 11, 2011
The City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department issued an open letter to users of Schuylkill River Park recently about their decision to install K9Grass, an artificial grass designed for dogs, in the park's dog run. The dog park surfacing product was recommended for the park by the project's Design Concept Team, which includes citizen representatives from the Friends of Schuylkill River Park, Schuylkill River Park Alliance, and Center City Residents Association.
A few residents raised concerns about the synthetic grass surface, claiming issues of safety and suitability for the project, but Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis provided overwhelming evidence in support of using K9Grass for the dog park in the open letter he issued. The letter was written to clarify "misinformation about K9Grass and how it was selected." Read More
Sister Cities Plaza: Youthful vision of a Parkway oasis October 07, 2011 | Nathaniel Popkin, For The Inquirer
An architects rendering of Sister Cities Plaza. The pond is fed by a stream, and the low roof of the cafe is covered with plantings. (DIGSAU)
'Maybe all the little things add up," says architect Mark Sanderson, standing on Logan Square in front of what will be the new Sister Cities Plaza, a cafe, pavilion, and garden designed by his firm, DIGSAU. This is surely the prayer of the decade: that in an age of shrunken budgets, a city such as Philadelphia can nevertheless reassert itself on the urban scene.
In the morning shadow of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Sister Cities Plaza is indeed an ideal place to test the power of this prayer. The plaza is one section of one square on the long Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which itself is one stitch in the reknitting of Philadelphia. But if successful, the project will tell us a great deal about the potential of small interventions to transform the way we experience the city.
A trek for peace Posted on Thu, Oct. 6, 2011 Inspired by Penn Treaty Park, Peter Prusinowski walks to Oklahoma - the route of Leni-Lenape Indians forced westward. By Art Carey
Inquirer Staff Writer
Post-tornado Joplin, Mo., photographed by Prusinowski on his 2,000-mile, 143-day Trail of Hope walk. He spent eight days there helping in the cleanup.
When his children were young, Peter Prusinowski walked them in Penn Treaty Park. The place spoke to him. The Polish immigrant was fascinated by what happened there in 1682, the year William Penn and Chief Tamanend of the Leni-Lenape Indians made a pact of peace under a magnificent elm.
"It was a treaty based on friendship and love," said Prusinowski, who lives in Fishtown. "The place became sacred to me, and one day, my heart was telling me this is something I needed to do."
That "something" was something indeed - a 2,000-mile, 143-day journey from Philadelphia to Oklahoma - on foot. The route Prusinowski took - across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas - followed the path of migration of the Lenape or Delaware Indians as they were pushed west during the 180 years after the treaty.
Collaboration seeds new trees in Fairmount Park Tuesday, October 4, 2011
What started as Temple student Mark Raczynski’s desire to learn about plant propagation evolved into a massive project to plant 2,000 trees in Fairmount Park over three years.
Temple’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture collaborated with Ambler Arboretum, the Philadelphia Zoo and Fairmount Park on the project, which will reduce Philadelphia’s carbon footprint, control storm water runoff and restore wildlife habitats lost due to invasive species.
Mural is faded, but not memory of 'Gib'
He had "this deep caring for the neighborhood." By Kia Gregory, Inquirer Staff Writer October 04, 2011
James Gibson was "the glue that held this community together," his brother Rochelle said, standing before the faded James Gibson mural at Third and Norris Streets. (ED HILLE / Staff Photographer)
There is no name on the faded mural, a blurred image of a man in a fedora, with piercing eyes. There is just a poem, about a warrior who persevered through trials and tribulations, who faced defeat too soon.
It hovers above a playground of concrete, scattered trash, and two lonely swings.
It is passed every day, taking up the wall on the side of a rowhouse, and overlooking the old junkyard on Third Street near Norris. Many in this sliver of North Philadelphia, even those who live on the side of it, a block mixed with flower boxes and abandoned houses, don't remember the man. But to a handful, he is a legend. Read More
Inquirer Editorial: Eyesore can become a jewel Posted on Tue, Oct. 4, 2011
Some people look at the long-closed Reading Railroad Viaduct, northeast of Center City, and see an ugly relic of the city's industrial past, a homely rampart of rusting rails and girders that's a magnet for trash and divides the neighborhood. In their minds, it's a blight to be torn down so the neighborhood has room to grow.
Others look at the viaduct and envision a ribbon of elevated, pleasant parkland busy with walkers, bikers, and joggers enjoying spectacular views of the city skyline. They see a park that's connected to renovated lofts and apartments, helping attract residents and small businesses back into the city, and encouraging further improvements in the neighborhood.
GreenSpace: "Seeing Trees" an appreciation of nature's great gifts Posted on Mon, Oct. 3, 2011 By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer GreenSpace Columnist
The other morning, Nancy Ross Hugo was in her Virginia backyard, contemplating a white oak she recently planted and thinking how it could outlive her by 500 years.
At the moment, it was busy with birds and insects. "It's like a city out there, so much is going on," she said.
Hugo has spent a lot of time noticing trees lately. She and photographer Robert Llewellyn have collaborated on a splendid book, Seeing Trees, recently published by Timber Press.
They immersed themselves in the lives of 10 common trees - thus, the subtitle, Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees.
Read More
Inquirer Editorial: Parking industry shouldn't get a tax cut Posted on Sun, Oct. 2, 2011
At a time when city services are, at best, stretched and revenues falling, Philadelphia can't afford to give a tax break to parking operators at the expense of others.
In spite of Mayor Nutter's plans to cut business taxes in 2014, City Council voted to single out the parking industry with its own 3 percent cut. The city can't afford to do this, especially when tax revenue slipped $5 million below projections in July and August. Officials are now discussing budget cuts to compensate.
New playground at FDR Park dedicated Philadelphia Business Journal
By Jessica Herring
Friday, September 30, 2011
Mayor Nutter and members of the Fairmount Park Conservancy cutting the ribbon to dedicate the new playground.
Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy dedicated a new playground in FDR Park on Saturday, Sept. 10., as part of its 8th annual “Growing the Neighborhood Volunteer Day.” More than 150 corporate and community volunteers helped to beautify the 348-acre park by picking up trash and debris, mulching new trees and participating in vegetation cleanup. Children also had a chance to participate in a variety of fun activities, including fire truck tours, face painting, fishing and environmental programs.
Mayor Michael Nutter presided over the playground’s ribbon cutting ceremony, and in a speech he spoke of the importance of Philadelphia’s park system and community volunteers.
The Walls That Whisper Back By Jerry Jonas | Saturday, September 24, 2011 | PhillyBurbs.com
Near the intersection of Concourse and Lansdowne drives on the western edge of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park is a large memorial that was erected in the late 1890s to honor Pennsylvanians who fought for the Union in the American Civil War.
Featuring two colossal columns supported by curving arches that flank both sides of the structure, the memorial is easily seen from miles away.
At the base of each arch is a curved stone bench backed by a curved stone wall.
Each bench and its adjoining wall is about 30 feet long, yet the slightest sound or whisper from one end is transmitted across the arced wall and is perfectly audible at the other end. It’s a physical phenomena much like that which occurs in some acoustically designed music halls, or even in the Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Get POPPED! in Philly this weekend By MATT CHIMENTO | For the Courier-Post • September 23, 2011
...
POPPED! Festival President Alexis Rosenzweig took a few minutes to discuss this unique and special event.
...
Q: Why is Philly such a great staging ground for the festival?
A: Philly is smack in the middle of a very busy corridor on the East Coast. Festival goers are coming from NYC, DC, Baltimore, Boston and Delaware to attend. Philly is also home to the largest urban park system in the country, Fairmount Park. I have wanted to bring POPPED! into Fairmount Park for the last 4 years and it is amazing that the time has finally come. The city of Philadelphia is very supportive of this festival, and has been from the beginning. The success of any festival in a city is greatly attributed to the city's support, much like the city of Chicago's support of Lollapolooza in Grant Park. A festival in a city can create community, revenue, and bring attention to issues, like greening, local business, and supporting the park. Many folks I spoke to in Philly had never heard of FDR Park, and I feel more people will know it and fall in love with it like I did after POPPED!
...
Shane Victorino reopens Nicetown Boys & Girls Club September 22, 2011 | By Kia Gregory, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The all-star centerfielder had made a promise to renovate the rundown Boys and Girls Club, near a gas station and a struggling high school, into a place of dreams and pride.
Standing outside its doors Thursday, under the threat of gray clouds, the Phillies' own Shane Victorino, dressed plainly in a white shirt and jeans, with leis around his neck, stood on a makeshift stage, lowered his head, and wiped away tears.
The newly renovated club in Nicetown, which now bears his name and his promise, had officially reopened.
Time flies when you're having fun: Happy Hollow rec center turns 100 September 22, 2011
By Kiera Smalls
for NewsWorks
Dance Team group shot before performances. (Photo courtesy of Philly Food for Thought)
This past Saturday Happy Hollow held their centennial celebration, making it the oldest playground in Philadelphia.
According to historian Rochelle Christopher, in 1911 E.W. Clark, the son of one of most important bankers in Philadelphia, gave a tract of land to the Parks and Recreation Department at Wayne and Logan Streets to be known as Happy Hollow Playground.
"The name Happy Hollow was suggested by Clark's wife, it suggested the happiness to come to the little ones, and the fact that the playground was in a "hollow" surrounded by tall bluffs or mountains," explained Christopher.
Penn Park opens as a sustainable gateway between University and Center Cities FLYING KITE | Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Last week, the University of Pennsylvania made an effort to bridge the gap between itself and Center City by opening a newly-constructed 24-acre park. Penn Park, which combines a former postal service parking lot with university property, is bounded by Walnut and South Sts. to the north and south, and rail tracks to the east and west.
One of Penn Park’s most notable qualities is the opportunities it provides for pedestrian connection to Center City. According to Anne Papageorge, Penn’s Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services, the park is "knit together" by three pedestrian bridges. One bridge connects the park with Walnut St. just past the Schuylkill River, while another bridge enables pedestrians going to or coming from downtown to access the park from the South St. bridge.
Neighbors in evolving Callowhill section debate proposed tax Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2011
John Chin of the Phila. Chinatown Development Corp. A proposal to help spruce up the Callowhill area puts hardship on some citizens, he says.
By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
For years, the neighborhood around Callowhill Street east of Broad Street has been slowly morphing from a wasteland of dead factories and warehouses into an enclave of loft-living artists and young professionals.
Now, with the city hoping to turn the abandoned Reading Co. railroad viaduct from an aging eyesore into an elevated park to rival New York City's High Line, the neighborhood is poised for an explosive transformation.
Zoning forum offers food for thought Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2011 BY DAVID GAMBACORTA
Philadelphia Daily News
THERE THEY sat, the well-worn faces of the city's ongoing efforts to overhaul its outdated zoning code: Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger and City Councilmen Frank DiCicco, Bill Green and Darrell Clarke.
They were lined up on a small stage in the Daily News/Inquirer building last night for a public forum on zoning, attended by dozens of people who were hungry for information on a proposed new code - or, perhaps, for the sandwiches and cookies that were offered before the forum started.
Either way, those in attendance got a healthy overview of this vital, complicated issue.
Council Hears Hours of Public Testimony on ZCC Proposals, Agrees to Take Up the Issue Again in Two Weeks September 15, 2011
By Jared Brey
For PlanPhilly
Working from a single-item agenda on Wednesday, City Council held a seven-hour session of public testimony on the proposals of the Zoning Code Commission. And if the ZCC has its way, the first public hearing on the draft new zoning code could also be the last.
Inquirer Editorial: Council shouldn't stall passing new zoning code Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2011 After nearly four years of work on an updated zoning code that enables Philadelphia to grow smarter, the last thing that's needed is a long delay so a new City Council can grapple with the issue starting in January.
City voters ordered a new zoning plan in 2007, and there's plenty of time left for this Council to finish work on it.
Read More
After a six-hour hearing, City Council takes no action on zoning overhaul Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2011 By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
City Council took no action on a zoning overhaul after hearing more than six hours of public testimony Wednesday, but key members expressed confidence that the ambitious endeavor to rewrite the zoning code could be passed this year.
"I'm cautiously optimistic," said Councilman Frank DiCicco, who has championed a new code. "The cooperation we saw today leads me to believe this is doable."
During the daylong hearing, Council members heard from a wide range of public interest groups, civic and neighborhood associations, and developers and lawyers.
City Shaping III: The Philadelphia Story Posted: 9/13/11 in The Huffington Post By Charles A. Birnbaum, President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation
The transformation of the urban core, as I've written before, is hot, hot, hot. Currently, there's a great deal of attention focused (justifiably) on the much-talked-about opening of the second phase of the much-talked-about High Line in New York, which has put yet more vim into that city's vigor. But if you want to see some serious va-va-voom, set your sites on Philadelphia (and don't get all snarky quoting W. C. Fields now). Philadelphia's exceptional array of parks and open spaces, and the visionary, entrepreneurial and civic-minded people behind them, is where to really see a city center in high gear (and the BYOB restaurant scene is taste bud nirvana).
Read More
New park at Penn offers open space for all Philadelphians Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2011 By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
The newest 14 acres of the University of Pennsylvania used to be a parking lot for a fleet of mail trucks.
Two years and more than $46 million later, Penn has transformed that wedge of land into a green welcome mat that extends all the way to the Schuylkill.
Those pushing Philadelphia waterfront development
say things will be different this time By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
From the rooftop of a gutted eight-story storage building just south of the SugarHouse Casino, Michael Samschick looks out on the sweeping Delaware River vista - and what he hopes is the future.
Across Delaware Avenue is 12 acres that the city wants to transform into housing and shops, with a promenade stretching to the water's edge.
To the north and south are parking lots, vacant land, old warehouses, and empty buildings, all ripe for new uses.
An omen of summer's end City pool regulars lament the season's draining away
August 21, 2011 | By Kia Gregory, Inquirer Staff Writer
Alston sisters - Kinanta, 12, and Kyziaah, 8 - and a friend (right) on the last day at the Awbury pool in Germantown.
(KIA GREGORY / Staff)
Kinanta Alston stood in her wet bathing suit on the side of the pool at Awbury Recreation Center in East Germantown on Friday afternoon and faced the inevitable. Dozens of kids swam and squealed away the remaining hours of unofficial summer, a lifeguard presiding over the din.
"I don't like it," Alston, 12, said of the pool's closing, as her younger sister Kyziaah waddled to the pool in her pink one-piece and jumped into the cool waters, feet first. "It's too early."
The city's 70 outdoor pools have been steadily closing this week, the last draining their waters Saturday.
Ambushed on Kelly Drive Posted on Mon, Aug. 15, 2011
Inquirer Opinion BY CHRISTOPHER DEAN
The author and the injuries he suffered.
IT'S MY favorite thing - biking from the suburbs into the city. I call it my Cradle of Liberty Ride, and I'm convinced I can sell anyone on the merits of Philadelphia with just one ride.
I travel through the Wissahickon along Forbidden Drive, onto Kelly Drive paralleling the Schuylkill, past Boathouse Row, the Art Museum, then onto Old City, most all of it on bike paths. It is arguably the most beautiful inner-city ride in the nation.
Philly Among Best Hiking Cities: Nat Geo Philadelphia ranks among cities like Portland and Salt Lake City By Joe Hyer | Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 | NBC Philadelphia
When you think about recreational activities, Philadelphia may not come to mind, but National Geographic seems to think it should.
Philly was voted one of National Geographic’s 15 Best Hiking Cities in the Country -- praising the Wissahickon Valley.
Philadelphia curfew for minors set to take effect Recreation Centers expand hours and programs August 12, 2011 | By Melissa Dribben and Mike Newall, Inquirer Staff Writers
...
Extra staff and programming will be made available at the 20 city recreation centers, which will extend their hours to 10 p.m. this weekend, officials said.
"With less than a week's notice, we're not going to have hyper-organized programs," said Leo Dignam, a deputy commissioner at the Parks and Recreation Department.
But there will be more basketball, table tennis, and Dance Dance Revolution tournaments, he said.
The thin green line: Investing in urban parks August 5, 2011 By Mona Iskander
Blueprint America
As state and local governments struggle to find money for necessities, the conventional wisdom is something has to give. When budgets for school systems and police departments are being cut, it can be difficult to make an argument for funding something like a public park. California’s governor faced that very problem, and now the Golden State plans to close 70 of its 278 parks, including some of the parks where you can see California’s famed redwoods.
Great Escape: Dog Parks Take man's best friend on a great walk.
By Liz Wagner Chestnut Hill Patch
August 3, 2011
Summertime is the favorite season of many, and you can be sure that your dog is on that list. It’s the perfect time to really get some sun with your best friend, and your pup will love you if you extend your trips from around the block to a nearby park. The good news is that there are plenty of dog-walking parks and trails in this section of the city, so grab your leash (and make sure you do – the city is citing for unleashed dogs) and take your dog for a walk. And make sure you clean up!
August 03, 2011 | By Gregory Thomas, Inquirer Staff Writer
Al Wachlin Jr. waters a 10-foot willow oak he planted recently outside the family's warehouse at 18th and Fairmount. (CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer)
Two years ago, Robert Cheetham applied for a $90,000 government grant built around a question as old as the practice of urban planning: What can a tree do for a neighborhood?
Sounds simple. But Cheetham's analysis digs into storm-water management, carbon sequestration, heat effects, "even real estate value," he says.
POSTED: July 25, 2011 LOCAVORE Neighbors work to restore natural beauty to Hunting Park
By Inga Saffron
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Tiffany Thurman, executive director of Action Harvest Inc., samples sweet corn at the Hunting Park farmers' market. A community garden in the park is expected to be ready for fall planting. APRIL SAUL / Staff Photographer
A weekend morning in Hunting Park used be the time for Leroy Fisher and Catalina Hunter to assess the damage to their beloved neighborhood green, the flotsam of needles, condoms, and trash that had washed in from the previous night's revelries. But the only serious trash on this broiling Saturday was neatly tucked under the tables where an Amish farmer was stacking blushing peaches, fresh sweet corn, a cooler of homemade lemonade, and bricks of goat's-milk soap.
Yes, a farmers' market has come to the so-called badlands of Philadelphia.
Posted on Fri, Jul. 22, 2011
Forests' clean-air role is bigger than anyone knew
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writer
Yude Pan, a scientist for the U.S. Forest Service’s research Station in Newtown Square, is the lead author of the forest study.
Taken together, the world's forests - the humid tropical realms, the productive trees of the temperate zones, and the boreal expanses of the north - make up a third of the landmass of the planet.
As such, they command a great deal of respect among scientists and others.
But a paper recently published by two Newtown Square foresters and an international cadre of colleagues has upped the cache of forests considerably.
The group found that the forests sock away far more of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, than anyone thought.
Officials respond to rash of violence at Philly parks, rec centers
July 19, 2011
By Mara Zepeda
WHYY NewsWorks
An increase in after-hours violence and injuries, some fatal, at several Philadelphia parks and recreation centers has officials concerned.
In less than a month, there have been six reported incidents of gun violence at or around parks and recreation centers--Penrose, Cherashore, Kingsessing, Cecil B. Moore, East Poplar. There was also a fatal shooting at Mander Playground.
"The Mander situation at the end of June. That really opened my eyes," said Leo Dignam, deputy commissioner for programs with the city parks and recreation department.
Impact fees a good start
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial
July 19, 2011
Gov. Corbett's industry-heavy advisory panel has recommended that gas drillers pay impact fees to cover damage to roads and the environment.
But lawmakers in Harrisburg should go further than that and enact a plan that makes drillers at least also pay their rightful share toward keeping Pennsylvania green.
During the roughly two years that a gas-drilling tax has been in dispute, the state has lost more than $200 million in potential revenue, according to a liberal-leaning Harrisburg think tank.
Meanwhile, the austere budget Corbett just signed contains major cuts to education and other key programs.
Given that track record, even the tepid proposal for an unspecified impact fee represents progress. The strong industry influence on Corbett's panel - just four of its 30 members came from environmental groups - gives added heft to the recommendation.
Posted on Mon, Jul. 18, 2011
5,500 compete in Down and Dirty Mud Run
By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
Not a drop of rain has fallen in many days.
But, as e.e. cummings might say, the world was mud-luscious in Fairmount Park on Sunday morning.
More than 5,500 competitors ran, crawled, climbed, and slithered their way through something cummings never experienced but might have enjoyed: the Merrell Down and Dirty Mud Run.
Posted on Mon, Jul. 18, 2011
Ownership dispute shadows the Water Works Restaurant
By Marcia Gelbart
Inquirer Staff Writer
After 30 years of failed restoration efforts, the Fairmount Water Works finally seemed cursed no more after the 2006 opening of an upscale restaurant that helps preserve both a national historic landmark and the city's most breathtaking view of Philadelphia's iconic Boathouse Row.
Now the taxpayer-financed Water Works Restaurant & Lounge and its politically connected owner, Michael Karloutsos, are entangled in a lawsuit in which an allegedly spurned business partner contends profits are being "siphoned away" and asks a city judge to place the business in the hands of a court-appointed authority.
5 years of staggering progress on waterfront planning
By Harris M. Steinberg
Inquirer Guest Columnist
Think back five years.
Philadelphia was booming, and the river wards were the epicenter of a development frenzy. Projects were sprouting like weeds between cracks in the summer sidewalk with one more outlandish than the next. One, possibly two, state-mandated casinos were slated for the Delaware, and easy money fueled by a tax abatement was feeding a rush to develop the long-stagnant riverfront.
Posted on Thu, Jul. 14, 2011
Hey, city parks, it's time to get into better shape
By PETER HARNIK & COLEEN GENTLES
WHEN IT comes to health and fitness, the U.S. is in crisis.
Forty-nine percent of Americans get less than the minimum recommended amount of physical activity, and 36 percent of U.S. adults engage in no leisure-time physical activity at all. These people are not all obese, of course, but lack of exercise is certainly a risk factor for being overweight, and we are the most overweight nation on earth. On average, an obese American racks up nearly $1,500 more a year in health-care costs than one of normal weight, for a national total of $147 billion in direct medical expenses.
Penn Park is an "oasis" in West Philadelphia By Helen G. Kunda
For PlanPhilly
Summer is fully upon us, and on its heels is Penn Park.
Penn Connects, a long-range land use and urban design campus plan for the University of Pennsylvania initiated this project in conjunction with the goals behind Penn’s Climate Action Plan, and now the park is “growing greener” by the day.
A rec-center resurrection The city is keeping pools open, basketball courts busy - and, most important, youths involved.
By Karen Heller
Inquirer Columnist
On Friday, the temperature soared to 108 in Phoenix, a hot city beset by hard times. A third of the public pools are closed due to budget woes for the third straight year. Across the country, 350 civic pools have been drained as funding dries up.
"The bizarre part is that because of the desire not to cut police and fire, parks end up being the primary public interface service that's being cut," says the National Recreation and Park Association's Bill Beckner. "A couple of years ago, Atlanta closed most of its centers. Why would you want to put all these kids on the street?"
City Council plans to spend the summer coming up with a new set of boundaries for its 10 districts.
Former Councilman Rick Mariano says it may be a long, hot summer - regardless of the weather.
He remembers visiting a recreation center in Rhawnhurst about 10 years ago when he got an urgent call from one of his aides. Several of Mariano's colleagues, the aide reported, were meeting in the Council president's office, privately reviewing a map of proposed revisions in districts to deal with 2000 census figures.
Philadelphia flash mob spreads cheer in Rittenhouse Square
By NATALIE POMPILIO
Philadelphia Daily News
A TYPICAL SUNNY June Saturday at Rittenhouse Square. People were walking their dogs, pushing their baby carriages, chatting on their cellphones. A pretzel vendor hawked his wares. A camera-carrying tourist from France stopped to consult his map.
Panting to catch his breath, the captain rotated to reveal a scrape on his thigh the size of a bratwurst.
"The blood came after my second slide," Brad Yarbrough said between gasps.
Yarbrough leads a squad of weeknight warriors in a sport that is selling out rec leagues and dominating field reservations year-round in the city and across the globe: adult kickball.
Schuylkill parks bridge is a go, but pet owners not biting
By CHRISTINA GALLAGHER
Dog lovers are barking about a pedestrian bridge that will close a popular dog park and interrupt afternoon walks and frisbee catches with their furry friends.
Construction of the bridge to connect the Schuylkill River and Schuylkill Banks parks, near 25th and Spruce streets, which began yesterday, will close the dog park until October 2012.
Read More
Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2011
Users want more say in expansion plan for Schuylkill Banks park
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
If a good park is defined by the variety of users it attracts, then Schuylkill Banks in Center City is one of the best. On any given day, the narrow waterfront trail is crammed with strollers, joggers, cyclists, dog walkers, Segway riders, sunbathers, and people just trying to find a quiet spot to read a book.
So perhaps it is no surprise that some of those users want a bigger say in how Schuylkill Banks handles its first major expansion since it opened 10 years ago as a no-frills asphalt strip linking Martin Luther King Drive to Locust Street.
Excitement surrounds the opening of city's pools
By Alia Conley
Inquirer Staff Writer
As the Beach Boys summer song "Surfin' USA" boomed in the background, about 20 children joined Mayor Nutter Wednesday for the first ceremonial splash into Mander Recreation Center pool on Wednesday.
"School's out! In the pool!" Nutter said, inviting the "young and young at heart" to enjoy the city's pools on hot days.
The Mander pool in Strawberry Mansion opened along with 12 other city pools. All 70 city pools will open by mid-July and remain open through Aug. 12.
June 21, 2011 7:54 AM
Supporters Of ‘Growing Greener’ Call For The Program’s Renewal
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – More than $200 million have been spent since 1999 to protect Pennsylvania’s natural resources, as part of a little-known initiative called “Growing Greener,” which is set to expire at month’s end. Supporters gathered at Yards Brewery in Philadelphia Monday, calling for the program’s renewal.
Deputy mayor Mike DiBernadinis says businesses and educated workers want to live in sustainable cities and states: “They’re the ones that will have a green infrastructure, that provides outdoor recreational amenities, that protects farmland and forest land. The Schuylkill River trail, one of the most popular in the state, was funded by Growing Greener.”
Posted on Fri, Jun. 17, 2011
Changing Skyline: A park on high The extension of New York's vibrant High Line sparks excitement for our own Reading Viaduct - what could be "a linear version of Rittenhouse Square."
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
NEW YORK - It's easy to find the new entrance to the High Line park. Just follow the stream of people in skinny jeans and espadrilles heading west from the subways around Penn Station. The parade becomes a throng as you near 10th Avenue, once a lonely outpost where the blocks were lined with trucks and streetwalkers and not much else.
The Pied Piper of Parks opened its second section only last week, extending its reach to 30th Street, but the surrounding streets have already assumed the vibe of a real neighborhood. So many people have been trekking to the far west side that there have been lines to enter the park, built on an old rail trestle.
By Jeff Shields
Inquirer Staff Writer
Watershed decisions on modernizing the city's zoning code will wait until the fall, as City Council on Wednesday tabled further action on a plan proposed by the city's Zoning Code Commission.
The commission, formed after approval in a 2007 referendum, has worked since then on a consensus to update the city's antiquated and confusing regulations.
A garden pops up on an ugly lot It's a four-month showcase for local greening and feeding programs
By Virginia A. Smith
Inquirer Staff Writer
You've passed by the northeast corner of 20th and Market Streets so many times, you can't even remember what's there.
For the record: nothing since the Penn Center Inn was demolished in 1990.
But for the next four months or so, the scenery will be dramatically different. This dusty, rocky, weedy, littered and windy lot - three-quarters of an acre overshadowed by Independence Blue Cross and other tall buildings - has been transformed into a huge garden by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
Posted on Tue, Jun. 14, 2011
Inquirer Editorial: New look for river's edge
The sizzle factor in the new plan for the central Delaware waterfront, which was given its formal debut Monday, is that - unlike any grand scheme that's gone before - this plan to reconnect Philadelphians to the river could become a reality.
In this case, real life beats any previous pipe dreams that might have been shaped more by visions of a transplanted South Beach, or a Disney theme park.
Posted on Sun, Jun. 12, 2011
Revising strategies on Delaware waterfront
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
Philadelphia's waterfront has shifted identity many times since William Penn first stuck his toe in the Delaware, evolving from a pioneer settlement to a bustling port, from an industrial wasteland to a big-box entertainment and retail district.
Now, as Philadelphia wraps up a five-year planning effort, the river is being prepped to take on a new role. A detailed master plan, which will be presented to the public Monday evening, shapes the empty acres along the central Delaware waterfront into the flagship of a 21st-century lifestyle city, with dense neighborhoods of middle-class housing, street-level retail, gracious parks, restored wetlands, and a riverside recreation trail.
Read More
Posted on Fri, Jun. 10, 2011
Changing Skyline: A small-scale vision of Philadelphia's future
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
In 1960, Philadelphia peered into a crystal ball and tried to divine how the city would look 25 years in the future. The exercise in clairvoyance produced the city's first Comprehensive Plan, an amazing, 375-page document that showed the rough outlines of what would become Penn Center, Market East Station, and the revitalized Society Hill neighborhood.
City planners also misread some key signs. They were way off in their prediction that the city's population would balloon to 2.5 million by 1986. And when they designated land for a new waterfront neighborhood called Penn's Landing, they neglected to recognize that a certain planned interstate highway would fatally wall off the site. Still, if planners had not pursued a few transformative ideas, such as the tunnel projects that paved the way for a single, unified transit system called SEPTA, Philadelphia probably would not count itself today among the nation's survivor cities.
Posted on Fri, Jun. 10, 2011
Cobbs Creek revival: Parks & Rec merger is kicking grass
By DAN GERINGER
Philadelphia Daily News
TONY CROASDALE, a heavily tattooed bird-watcher/punk-rocker from South Philly, was leading a Saturday bird walk in November on a wooded trail along Cobbs Creek when Wendy Willis, a high-school student in the Cobbs Creek Environmental Center's naturalist training program, said, "I see a yellow bird."
Croasdale, a high-octane dude who brings the headbanging energy of his defunct thrash band R.A.M.B.O. to birding (imagine going on a bird walk with Iggy Pop) remembers thinking, "Goldfinch."
IN THE PAST two days, we have reported on how, years of neglect of Philadelphia's parks have been reversed over the past decade.
Which brings us to what looks like a template for a future in which green space is a treasure available to every Philadelphian.
Ten years ago, when this newspaper investigated the parks for an series called "Acres of Neglect," we couldn't imagine a future that looked much different. The people running the parks did not seem interested in doing things differently.
Posted on Thu, Jun. 9, 2011
DN Editorial: How Park wrecks became Parks & Rec
Philadelphia Daily News
ON SEPT. 5, 2005, the Daily News ran a front-page headline that was startling, even for us. It said, "Why the Fairmount Park Commission Must Die."
The editorial series that ran with it added a mitigating "in its present form," but we had officially abandoned trying to "fix" the then-148-year-old relic, convinced it was incapable of providing the leadership and vision - not to mention a plan - that the city's parks so desperately needed.
Posted on Wed, Jun. 8, 2011
DN Editorial: A decade of change has benefited the parks Philadelphia Daily News
A FEW MORE ACRES, a lot less neglect.
Ten years after this newspaper's editorial series "Acres of Neglect" began a multiyear focus on the poor conditions, bizarre governance structure and unrealized potential of the city's parks, we are pleased to report significant change - in fact, a transformation.
In 2011, Philadelphia parks - at 10,500 acres, one of the largest urban park systems in the world - no longer are the dumping ground we found in 2001, when they were littered with thousands of old tires and hundreds of abandoned cars and assorted appliances, not to mention building materials and hazardous waste.
Wed, Jun 08, 2011
Weekly Press
Mayor Michael Nutter & Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Celebrate Grand Opening of Cosmic Café in East Fairmount Park with Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
By Haywood Brewster
Staff Reporter
The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department announced the grand opening of the Cosmic Café at Fairmount Park’s Lloyd Hall with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, May 26th. City of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Deputy Mayor for Environmental and Community Resources Michael DiBerardinis provided remarks during the ribbon cutting ceremony. Lloyd Hall, #1 Boathouse Row, is a multi-use recreation facility operation by Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. The Cosmic Café, solely owned and operated by Chef Peg Botto, offers locally grown, nutritional and healthy food concessions and is committed to using seasonal and organic ingredients whenever possible. Cosmic Café practices sustainability by using all biodegradable utensils and composting all waste through Philly Compost. The Cosmic Café is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Posted on Sun, Jun. 5, 2011 Biking the East Coast's 3,000-mile trail
By Art Carey
Inquirer Staff Writer
Don Carey, Princeton University Class of '51, returned to his alma mater for his 60th reunion last weekend. Carey, 81, a retired physician, and his wife, Barbara, 82, traveled from their home in Gilford, N.H., a distance of 540 miles - by bicycle.
This was the fourth time the Careys (no relation) pedaled to a reunion at Old Nassau, but this trip was different because they followed the East Coast Greenway, which bills itself as the nation's premier intercity long-distance trail. The 2,900-mile-long Greenway spans 15 states and links 25 major cities between Calais, Maine, and Key West, Fla.
Having Philadelphia hailed by influential environmental groups for its plan to deal with storm runoff that contributes to water pollution is a win-win for the city.
If the plan given official approval on Wednesday works as designed, Philadelphia in coming years will be greener - with more parkland, gardens, trees, and cutting-edge streets and paving that soak up water, instead of letting it run down the drain.
With it being so important for a city's image and growth to create positive buzz, it's also an achievement that other metropolitan areas are said to be watching Philadelphia.
Philadelphia's Common Market wins $1.1 million grant By Dianna Marder
Inquirer Staff Writer
One in an occasional series on the demand for locally grown food and its impact on our region.
What started as an effort to bring a farmers market to Strawberry Mansion instead became a socially conscious food-distribution business bringing freshly picked, locally grown produce to schools, hospitals, and workplaces. And now Common Market, launched in 2008, has received the largest grant of its young life - $1.1 million from the Kellogg Foundation
The not-for-profit, which started with five customers, among them Cooper University Hospital, now has 60-plus customers and works with more than 100 farmers, earning a reputation for treating growers fairly and paying them promptly. The Kellogg grant, spread over two years, will allow Common Market, located at 29th Street and Hunting Park Avenue, to get a cooler, a forklift, and a refrigerated truck, as well as retrofit its space for anticipated changes in federal food-safety regulations, said executive director Tatiana Garcias-Granados, a former investment banker and University of Pennsylvania MBA who left the Wall Street world to live and work in North Philadelphia.
Philadelphia moves ahead with 25-year water-management plan
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia got the green light Wednesday for a $2 billion storm-water plan that will transform the way the city deals with rain.
The 25-year plan, which has been hailed as a national model, envisions green roofs on office buildings, porous pavement on city streets and parking lots, and plants and trees with tubs of gravel below ground to hold water and stall runoff in a storm
All would be designed to let rainwater seep back into the ground rather than gush into an aged sewer system where it mixes with raw sewage and overflows into streams and basements.
Nutter bans smoking at recreation centers
By Miriam Hill
Inquirer Staff Writer
Having a smoke at a city playground or pool could get you kicked off the property starting July 1, when an executive order banning smoking at more than 200 recreational centers takes effect.
Mayor Nutter signed the order Monday at the Kingsessing Recreation Center.
The latest ban extends the Nutter administration's efforts to reduce smoking among Philadelphia residents, especially adolescents and teenagers.
AONE-ACRE pier-park opening on the Delaware last week might not sound like a big deal, but it packs a wallop for changing our Central Delaware Riverfront from an overlooked backwater into the front door to our city and region.
The pier, formerly a commercial shipping berth that recently served as a parking lot, is an early project in our effort to develop the Central Delaware into a welcoming urban place with continuous connections to the city's renowned, dense, walkable downtown.
GreenSpace: A plug for picking a green power option
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer GreenSpace Columnist
I may have shocked the man I was conversing with at a party a few months ago.
But after talking to me, I bet he didn't feel as guilty.
It was just as Pennsylvania's power market was being deregulated. Suddenly, instead of Peco's being the only electricity provider for Southeastern Pennsylvania, there was a gusher of choices - more than two dozen.
People could do more than look for cheaper alternatives. They could look for greener ones.
Two city neighbors saw a need for a park for all. FreePlay on the Parkway opens Saturday.
By Karen Heller
Inquirer Columnist
Outdoor play is an underrated activity. Most Americans spend far more time concerned with work and relationships, which can also be work, than with the pursuit of unstructured pleasure.
A few years ago, Christine Piven spent five weeks visiting Paris. She was "stunned by the number and variety of small, interesting playgrounds, not the traditional spaces we have here."
Posted on Thu, May. 12, 2011 Milestone for the Delaware waterfront
A park begins to reconnect the city to the river.
By Thomas Corcoran
Today, Philadelphians will take another step toward a more open, accessible Delaware River waterfront.
Situated below the Ben Franklin Bridge, just north of Penn's Landing, the Race Street Pier is one of the first new waterfront parks to be built in the city in decades. It's also an early sign of success for those who hope to see the Delaware waterfront fulfill its potential to be a beautiful public amenity and a source of economic vitality.
Nutter seeks to turn the tide on Delaware River waterfront
By JASON NARK
Philadelphia Daily News
narkj@phillynews.com 215-854-5916
THEY HAVE flowed throughout time, their murky water carrying the hand-carved canoes of the Lenape tribe and freighters filled with black crude.
As businesses transformed into fence-lined industries, buffered by concrete highway moats, Philadelphia's rivers, particularly the Delaware, became a thing residents drove over, something eyed from a distance, like clouds.
The planned ribbon-cutting Thursday for a whimsical finger-pier park at the foot of Race Street represents a triumph for the city's vision of a thriving, pedestrian-friendly Delaware River waterfront.
The Race Street Pier - designed by its landscape architects with all the flair they used to create New York City's High Line Park along a defunct railroad viaduct - promises to be as great a draw as Penn's Landing, if not greater.
Saturday, May 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer Saffron: Philly's love-hate relationship with parks
How often have you heard people proudly call Philadelphia a “greene country towne,” quoting William Penn’s evocative description of the city he founded? Along with “City of Brotherly Love” — another catchy Penn coinage — the phrase ranks as the granddaddy of all municipal brands, predating “Big Apple” and “Big Easy” by almost three centuries. Penn didn’t just talk the talk. When he laid out the street grid, he gave Philadelphia the gift of five public squares. Yet it would be wrong to assume from this history that Penn instilled Philadelphia with a commitment to public space. From the city’s earliest days, its parks have been underfunded and underappreciated. Instead of valuing them as places for leisurely enjoyment, Philadelphia has too often treated its parks as workhorses that can be harnessed to practical municipal goals, especially economic development. Philadelphia’s beautiful parks have continually defended themselves against private interests, parochial concerns, and municipal parsimony in a never-ending struggle for survival.
Changing Skyline: Delightful pier park brings hope to waterfront
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
Editors Note: Errors were corrected in this column.
When a new city park opens Thursday on the Delaware waterfront, on a narrow finger pier at the foot of Race Street, Philadelphia will have finally beaten the curse of Penn's Landing.
That desert of unrealized dreams, of course, still takes up 13 acres of valuable real estate, a modern ruin of crumbling walkways, parking lots, and the forgotten monolith of a never-finished tram. But now that the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. has successfully completed a cozy new park a few blocks north, the 40-plus years of failure at Penn's Landing don't sting as much. The city has moved on.
At a time when natural-gas drilling poses a threat to so many Pennsylvania communities' rivers, streams, lakes, and drinking-water supplies, Harrisburg lawmakers cannot permit the state's open-space and environmental cleanup effort to run dry.
Yet, the Growing Greener initiative - a signature program launched by Republican Govs. Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker - is running perilously close to the edge on its funding.
Trees brighten city streets and delight nature-starved urbanites. Now scientists are discovering that they also play a crucial role in the green infrastructure of America’s cities.
BY JILL JONNES
On April 8, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, attired in a dark suit and top hat, could be found in Fort Worth, Texas, where youngsters looked on from a nearby window as he shoveled soil over the roots of a sapling. It was Arbor Day, which schools across the nation had recently begun commemorating, and he ever vigorous president was demonstrating his hands-on love of trees. For Roosevelt, Arbor Day was no publicity stunt. In an address to America’s schoolchildren a couple of years later, he celebrated “the importance of trees to us as a Nation, of what they yield in adornment, comfort, and useful products.” He saw trees as vital to the country’s well-being: “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as hopeless.”
An Earth Day proposal: A simple change of construction material would end the battle between maturing roots and concrete.
By Thomas Hylton
In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the value of trees in urban areas. Trees not only beautify our cities and towns; they also cleanse the air, absorb carbon dioxide, and lower ambient temperatures. Here in the Delaware Valley, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society recently launched an initiative to coordinate the planting of one million trees by 2020.
Posted on Monday, April 18, 2011
Why are we such pigs? Cleanups, education are failures - we ARE Filthy-delphia
By DAVID FOSTER
Philadelphia Daily News
fosterd@phillynews.com 215-854-5973
ABOUT 100 VOLUNTEERS, joined by Mayor Nutter, got a little sweaty fighting grime as they raked, swept and painted at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center, in North Philadelphia, to make it sparkle during the 2011 Philly Spring Cleanup on April 2.
Four days later, the center again had become a dumping ground, with more than 10 bags of trash, plastic bottles and a garbage-filled cardboard box lining the black, wrought-iron fence outside the center.
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
ITS OUR MONEY
Posted on Mon, Apr. 18, 2011
Tax has city at odds with parking industry
IF WE SAY THE words "Philadelphia" and "parking fight," you probably picture a ruthlessly efficient Philadelphia Parking Authority employee giving the cold shoulder to a frustrated driver. Or maybe, if you're from South Philly, you imagine a fistfight over the last space in the middle of Broad Street.
But there's another parking fight in town, and it actually involves the (usually) more genteel parking lots and garages.
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
Posted on Mon, Apr. 18, 2011
DN Editorial: Landmark law
Philadelphia Daily News
DESPITE the growing green mania, these are tough times for the environment. Between natural disasters and regulatory rollbacks, our air, water, and land are under siege.
And Pennsylvania's cuts to Department of Environmental Protection and the loosening of regulations related to gas drilling puts our commonwealth front and center of this troubling trend.
Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011
Saving Fairmount Park for future generations
Fairmount Park enthusiasts who brave the March-like weather Saturday for the launch of a citywide clean-up campaign have new assurances that their beloved open spaces are better protected as a result of rules put in place just this week.
The rules governing any sale of city-owned parkland were approved by City Council on Thursday, and signed into law Friday by Mayor Nutter in a ceremony on Belmont Plateau.
The New York Times, Opinionator, April 7, 2011, 8:15 pm
The Power of the Playground
By DAVID BORNSTEIN
Ask a young child, “How was school today?” and you’re likely to hear about recess. My son is 7 years old, and like many children his age, recess is the emotional core of his school day. Whether he comes home light- or heavy-hearted depends on what happened during play time. This is common. Researchers say that one of the best predictors of whether kids feel happy in school is whether they feel comfortable and competent during recess.
This is not exactly a groundbreaking insight. Philosophers and child development experts have been trumpeting the importance of play for centuries. Piaget said that children discover the world through play. Friedrich Froebel, who opened the first kindergarten in 1837, called play “deeply significant.” And Plato believed that children had to grow up in an atmosphere of play to become virtuous citizens.
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011, Philadelphia Daily News
Penn joins in to re-tree Philly
By CATHERINE LUCEY
Philadelphia Daily News
luceyc@phillynews.com 215-854-4172
Anne Papageorge still remembers being given a seedling to take care of as an Earth Day gift back in 1972 when she was in fifth grade.
"We planted it in my yard," said Papageorge, who today serves as vice president of facilities and real-estate services at the University of Pennsylvania. "It's one of the lessons in my early education that sparked my interest in becoming a landscape architect."
Philadelphia could use a bit of the Windy City's sense of can-do and self-regard.
By Harris Steinberg
Travel can teach you more about your hometown than it does about the places you visit, as I learned during a recent trip to Chicago.
My graduate students in planning at Penn are studying the potential for development above the rail yards at 30th Street Station, and we visited other cities to learn how they've handled similar challenges. We've been to New York, which is working on an impressive plan to create a 26-acre platform for new development over the Long Island Rail Road tracks on the West Side. And we went to Chicago to visit Millennium Park, a public space built over active rail lines.
POSTED: February 28, 2011,Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia has one last chance for skateboarding at LOVE Park
By GREGORY HELLER
PHILADELPHIA has an unfortunate reputation for selling itself short.
The planned renovation of LOVE Park isn't an issue most Philadelphians might think would have major implications for the city's international image. But if the renovations remove the features that made LOVE Park an international icon for skateboarding, the negative impact will be profound.
In the 1980s, LOVE Park became a world famous center of skateboarding at a time when the sport - already building popularity for more than 40 years - was becoming more international, diverse, and urban. Through an accident of history, LOVE Park, with its curving granite stairs and walls, perfect obstacles for "street skating," became famous.
Mayoral Bill Bans Smoking In City Parks and Beaches
By Henry J. Stern
Mayor Bloomberg this afternoon signed a local law that would prohibit smoking in city parks and beaches.
The bill was approved by the City Council on February 2, twenty days ago. The Council vote was 36 in favor and 12 opposed. 3 members were excused. In the municipal legislature, that is considered a close vote on a controversial issue. On most questions put before the Council, fewer than a handful of members differ from the majority, which usually represents the views of the Speaker (Christine Quinn). Many bills are approved without dissent, any problems either having been resolved in committee or vanishing in thin air.
Posted on Sun, Feb. 20, 2011, Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer
Shale tax is a fair solution
As Gov. Corbett prepares to deliver a budget full of proposed cuts next month, there's one source of available revenue he should tap. Natural-gas production is surging here. The industry is no longer in its infancy, but Pennsylvania is still the only major gas-producing state without a tax on extraction.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 11, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Changing Skyline: In play: The soul of the city's center
Three plazas to get a much-needed revival.
By Inga Saffron
For much of the last half-century, anyone who passed through Philadelphia's civic heart had to traverse at least one of three inhospitable islands encircling City Hall. The trio of granite-paved plazas - Dilworth, Municipal Services and JFK - were an unfortunate legacy of the 1960s, a time when such grandiose spaces were built as pedestals for buildings, rather than parks for people.
Neglected for decades, at least partly out of disdain for their harsh designs, the spaces have now become a priority with city officials. With the Convention Center about to establish a presence one block north of City Hall, all three are being targeted for major makeovers.
Some time in 2012, the surface of the 45-year-old popular open space will literally be stripped away so that repairs can be made to the leaky, non-handicapped accessible garage that lies beneath it.
There's no way to put a new waterproof membrane on the garage without first peeling off the park, said project leaders from the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the Fairmont Park Commission, which are among the city agencies and organizations collaborating on the re-do.
The innovative ways in which cities are finding new park space
By JoAnn Greco
What do a popular spot for watching toads migrate and a historic cemetery have in common? They'e two non-traditional area examples that can be viewed as part of our overall open space — and as models for finding more.
Representatives from these two bucolic treasures— the Roxborough Reservoir and Laurel Hill Cemetery — spoke last night at The Academy of Natural Sciences' presentation, "Hiding in Plain Sight: Finding the City's New Green Spaces," co-sponsored by the Academy, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the Philadelphia Commission on Parks and Recreation.
In Garrett Elwood's estimation, Manayunk is a little disconnected. Not from the outside world, that is — but from itself.
"Pretzel Park feels detached from Main Street," says Elwood, director of economic development for the Manayunk Development Corporation (MDC). "And the Canal and Towpath have the same connectedness problem. The neighborhood feels like three distinct entities."
Posted on Wed, Jan. 26, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia's duck boats may return to the Delaware
By Miriam Hill
Just hours after the city rejected a plan Tuesday to move the duck boats to the Schuylkill, the company that operates them said it plans to return to the Delaware River, the site of a July 7 accident that killed two Hungarian tourists.
There appear to be few hurdles in the way - at least for now.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 26, 2011, Philadelphia Daily News
Soft landing for Ducks in Delaware?
By REGINA MEDINA
No Schuylkill? No problem.
Ride the Ducks, a tour-boat company, said yesterday that it has approval from the Coast Guard to reboot its operations on the Delaware River, after the city denied its bid to operate on the scenic Schuylkill.
"I'll expect that we'll aim for returning to the Delaware, and we're going to work closely with our stakeholders, being the Coast Guard and the city, on that decision in the coming weeks," Chris Herschend, president of the company, said yesterday.
Peter Harnik on "Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities" and their applications for Philadelphia
By JoAnn Greco
Peter Harnik, the director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land, comes to Philadelphia next Monday to talk about Green 2015, the action plan to introduce 500 new acres of parkland to Philadelphia.
To prepare, PlanPhilly spoke with Harnik about the ideas he covers in his new book, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities, and the reasons why we need to look beyond numbers.
The city will not award a contract for amphibious vehicle tours of the Schuylkill River, Mayor Michael A. Nutter announced today.
“The City has fully reviewed Ride the Ducks proposal for the Schuylkill River and does not feel that it meets the City’s standards for operations,” Nutter said in a written statement.
An RFP was issued on November 19, 2010 for Amphibious Tours on the Schuylkill River. Ride the Ducks submitted the only response. The Managing Director’s Office, Parks and Recreation, the Office of Transportation and the Law Department carefully crafted that RFP to capture many community concerns, including noise, traffic, the on Schuylkill Banks and other potential disruptions of recreational uses on the River.
Mayor Nutter today announced that the city will not award a contract to the amphibious tour company Ride the Ducks to operate on the Schuylkill River.
“The City has fully reviewed Ride the Ducks proposal for the Schuylkill River and does not feel that it meets the City’s standards for operations,” said Nutter in a press release.
Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Changing Skyline: Should the duck boats be on the Schuylkill - at all?
By Inga Saffron
The people who run the Ride the Ducks tours may be quackers, but they're not stupid. Recognizing the public opposition to their plan to tear up Philadelphia's beloved Schuylkill Banks park, they've come up with a new spot for their boat launch, a sliver of land on the west side of the river, in the shadow of I-76.
Although the new route was submitted to the city in late December, the Nutter administration has kept the contents a virtual state secret while it negotiates a financially - and politically - acceptable deal with the tour company. But details began leaking out after Ride the Ducks presented the scheme Jan. 4 to the Parkway Council, an influential alliance of the boulevard's cultural institutions.
Parks & Recreation Commission Chairperson Nancy Goldenberg began last night's public meeting at the Central Branch of the Free Library, by wishing everyone a happy new year. She then went on to observe that just as this is a good time to set new resolutions, it also merits a glance back.
She then briefly outlined the Commission's accomplishments of 2010.
They included the body's formation itself, she said, and the "careful crafting" of its role. Other highlights included an organizational retreat and several full-day tours of P&R facilities; a series of public meetings; the retention of consultants to look into expanding opportunities for concessionaires; the creation of a web site and blog; and, last but not least, the drafting of an Open Lands Protection Ordinance.
Posted on Sun, Jan. 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
String bands on the river?
Philadelphia deserves more than the generic duck tours offered elsewhere.
By Karen Heller
I'm not sure who likes Ride the Ducks besides public officials and misguided tourists.
The experience is expensive, loud, and unequivocally obnoxious. In July, it turned deadly, when a tug-driven barge ran over a duck boat on the Delaware, killing two young Hungarian visitors.
Lawsuits, hand-wringing, blistering editorials, and emotional hearings ensued, but the likely outcome appears relatively unchanged, according to the tour company's website - with one major exception.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 13, 2011, Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Secret duck-boat deliberations
Why is Mayor Nutter's administration applying star-chamber secrecy to its deliberations on a public policy issue of widespread interest: whether to let duck-boat tours disrupt the bucolic Schuylkill?
This isn't exactly the Manhattan Project.
Yet Managing Director Richard Negrin refuses to name the city officials who are advising the mayor on whether Ride the Ducks will get to resume tours this spring, eight months after the death of two patrons in a July 7 crash on the Delaware River.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 13, 2011, Philadelphia Daily News
Ronnie Polaneczky: Ducks on the Schuylkill: Public getting goosed?
By Ronnie Polaneczky
THERE I WAS on Tuesday, poking around the American Bus Association's trade show at the Convention Center, when I spied a rack of materials promoting Philly's visitor attractions.
Displayed amidst the brochures and pamphlets was a glossy, blue-and-green flyer. Its banner read, "Inter-Quacktive fun for Groups of all Ages!"
I figured that the flyer belonged to Ride the Ducks, since anything in this city containing the word "quack" is often associated with the amphibious-tour company
Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia keeping players in duck boat decision out of public eye
By Miriam Hill
Sometime this month, a group of city officials will advise Mayor Nutter on whether to let Ride the Ducks start operating boats on the Schuylkill.
But the Nutter administration will not say who those officials are, even though state open-records laws broadly define what public information is.
"I can't think of any situation under which that information would be shielded," said Terry Mutchler, executive director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.
Two tourists were killed July 7 in an accident on the Delaware River when a city barge ran over a duck boat. In October, the city and Ride the Ducks announced that the vehicles would start operating again in March, but on the Schuylkill near the Art Museum.
Posted on Fri, Jan. 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Changing Skyline: Small stuff makes Philly better, a bit at a time
By Inga Saffron
Architecture tends to follow the money, and right now there isn't much green stuff to be pursued. But just because banks aren't lending and governments aren't spending doesn't mean we should assume urban design is dead.
Welcome to the year of small - small parks, small houses, small improvements, small plans, but not necessarily small thinking.
Only a short while ago, there wasn't a big city in America that didn't salivate at the prospect of building a downtown sports arena, an attention-getting museum, or a clutch of vertiginous condo towers, preferably by brand-name architects. That's done.
Posted on Fri, Jan. 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer
Philly gets $5 million grant for waterfront project
By Miriam Hill
A $5 million grant from the William Penn Foundation announced Thursday will help the city complete several key, target projects that will advance the dream of creating a string of parks along the Delaware River waterfront.
The first $650,000 will be spent on what the city and the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., which is overseeing the project, are calling the Race Street Connector, an attempt to make the walk to the river at Race Street friendly to pedestrians.
The current route forces people to travel a dark path under highway overpasses. The redesign will add a wall of light-emitting diodes, landscaping, and a dedicated bike lane, and widen sidewalks and crosswalks.
Posted on Mon, Jan. 3, 2011, Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Paddling upstream
Some may think the duck boats were an endangered species, given the way the Nutter administration appears to be forging ahead with a misguided plan to bring the lumbering, noisy vehicles, filled with quacking tourists, to the bucolic Schuylkill.
Despite impassioned public opposition to moving the ducks across town from the Delaware River, the administration belatedly sought bids for an amphibious tour operator on the Schuylkill.
No surprise, the bidding produced just one bid - the same Ride the Ducks attraction involved in a fatal crash on July 7. With no competing proposals, Nutter administration officials will be left to evaluate the bid in a vacuum. Clearly, there's not a big market for this attraction.
