Posted on Mon, Jan. 12, 2009, Editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Fairmount Park
A new path
When Philadelphia voters went to the polls in November, they couldn't have known just how important it was that they ratify the plan to improve Fairmount Park by merging its oversight with that of the city Recreation Department.
The merger made good sense before the Nov. 4 ballot, but even more after the voting.
Within days of the overwhelming passage of a City Charter change to realign the two city agencies, Mayor Nutter spelled out the grim details of cutbacks in city funding due to the nationwide economic downturn. Park spending took a $3.1 million hit - zapping the historic increases Nutter had enacted only last spring.
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Posted on Wed, Jan. 7, 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Fox Chase Cancer Center changes legal counsel
By Linda Loyd
In its legal battle to expand into Burholme Park, Fox Chase Cancer Center has hired the former president judge of Commonwealth Court to appeal its case to that court.
After a Philadelphia judge ruled last month that Fox Chase cannot expand into the neighboring public park, the hospital dropped its former lawyers at Pepper Hamilton L.L.P., and retained James Gardner Colins at the Philadelphia firm Cozen O'Connor.
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Posted on Wed, Jan. 7, 2009, The Daily News
Fox Chase, loser in park ruling, wants to leapfrog to Supreme Court
By VALERIE RUSS
Fox Chase Cancer Center wants to skip Commonwealth Court and go directly to the State Supreme Court to appeal an Orphans Court judge's ruling that rejected its planned $1 billion expansion into Burholme Park.
Fox Chase Cancer Center intends to file a "king's bench" appeal next week to speed up the process, Fox Chase spokesman Tim Spreitzer said yesterday.
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Posted on Fri, Jan. 2, 2009, Editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Stimulus Spending
Preserving our parks
As President-elect Barack Obama's transition aides scramble to develop smart ways to spend as much as $850 billion over two years in an economic-recovery plan, they should look at investing in the nation's most treasured places - its national parks.
A watchdog group, the National Parks Conservation Association, is calling for just that. In a report issued the other week, the group highlighted the staggering backlog of maintenance - totaling $8.5 billion - and yearly underfunding of the parks to the tune of $750 million.
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Posted on Tue, Dec. 23, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
A chance for Pa. to invest in its green infrastructure
Andy Loza
is executive director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association
Gov. Rendell has a great opportunity to boost the economy using existing revenue and authority already provided by the General Assembly.
The opening of our publicly owned forests to drilling by private companies for Marcellus shale natural gas recently generated $190 million for the state's Oil and Gas Lease Fund.
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Posted on Tue, Dec. 16, 2008, Editorial, The Daily News
Brainstorming the Parks-Rec merger
By BLAINE BONHAM JR.
THE CITY IS about to enter unfamiliar territory in the management of our parks and open spaces. We'll come out just fine, as long as we first get our bearings, pick the best leaders and head in the right direction.
With the voters' approval last month of a change in the City Charter, the 141-year-old Fairmount Park Commission will be dissolved and the parks and Department of Recreation will be merged starting next summer. A new advisory commission, with members recommended by City Council and chosen by the mayor, will establish new policies for land use, closely guided by community input. The disposal of any parkland still must be approved by City Council.
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Posted on Thu, Dec. 11, 2008, Editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Fox Chase
Keep cancer center local
A judge's ruling against Fox Chase Cancer Center's plans to expand into Burholme Park should prompt the city and the institution to find another solution.
Philadelphia Orphans Court Judge John W. Herron decided that Fox Chase cannot use 19.4 acres of the 65-acre city park to expand its campus in the Northeast. The judge said state law requires the city to hold dedicated parkland in public trust for the community's use.
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Posted on Wed, Dec. 10, 2008, Editorial, The Philadelphia Daily News
A JUDGE BECOMES CITY'S BEST PARK ADVOCATE
BURHOLME DECISION RESTS ON AN EARLIER, WISE STATE LAW
GIVEN THE choice between hundreds of jobs for city residents and a vibrant neighborhood park, even park lovers in or out of city government might hesitate - especially in this economy.
But if yesterday's Orphans' Court decision in the Fox Chase-Burholme Park case stands up on a promised appeal, it's a choice that's not the city's to make.
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Posted on Wed, Dec. 10, 2008, Philadelphia Daily News
Judge rejects cancer center's expansion plan
By VALERIE RUSS
Tim Kearney was first in line yesterday to get a copy of a court ruling on Fox Chase Cancer Center's plan to expand into Burholme Park in Northeast Philadelphia.
Kearney, a member of a citizens' group called Save Burholme Park, emerged into the hallway with the document and let out a yell.
"I just started screaming," Kearney recalled later.
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Posted on Tue, Dec. 10, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Orphans Court blocks Fox Chase's use of park
By Linda Loyd
Fox Chase Cancer Center cannot expand into neighboring Burholme Park because Pennsylvania law protects "every square foot" of the park, a judge ruled today.
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Posted on Fri, Dec. 5, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Three Kensington women doing their part
Tree People are planting a new future for Philly
By Ginny Smith
Ask Nykia Perez why she and her friends are running around Kensington planting trees, and her eyes plead, "You're kidding me."
"OK," she says. "I mean, it's great we have Fairmount Park. But Fairmount Park isn't in Kensington."
Spend some time with Perez, Dina Richman and Jacelyn Blank - librarian, entomologist and teacher, respectively - and you'll soon believe, as they do, that it's only a matter of time before their neighborhood streets are lined with honey locusts and chokecherries, red maples and serviceberries.
Maybe not Fairmount Park, but getting there.
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Posted on Thu, Dec. 4, 2008, The Philadelphia Daily News
Letters: Councilman wrong on Philly's green future
COUNCILMAN Bill Green suggests that Mayor Nutter should cut the Office of Sustainability and the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator as a "non-core service" in the city budget. While Green's desire to keep fire stations and libraries open is commendable, the suggestion that these positions are trendy and expendable is extremely shortsighted.
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Posted on Wed, Nov. 26, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Ed Snider saves Philadelphia skating rinks
By Vernon Clark
A public-private partnership is stepping up to save three city skating rinks whose futures were on thin ice.
Mayor Nutter and Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, announced yesterday that the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation would take over operation and programming at three rinks that officials said were targeted for possible closing amid the city's budget troubles. Comcast-Spectacor owns the Flyers.
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Posted on Tue, Nov. 25, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
With help of foundation, city rinks likely to remain open
By Marcia Gelbart
Three city ice rinks will likely remain open under a new public-private partnership expected to be announced today by Mayor Nutter.
As part of a major cost-cutting plan unveiled two weeks ago, Nutter had said Scanlon Ice Rink in Kensington, Laura Sims Skatehouse at Cobbs Creek Park in West Philadelphia, and the Rink at Simons Recreation and Teen Access Center in West Oak Lane would all close beginning this winter.
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Posted on Mon, Nov. 10, 2008, Editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Park Agencies Merger
Preserve the jewel
By an impressive and overwhelming margin, Philadelphia voters on Election Day put their faith in a plan to improve Fairmount Park by merging the park's operations with the city Recreation Department.
Now, Mayor Nutter and City Council have to make sure that the realignment of the two city agencies lives up to its promise.
The merger should enhance the park, but it cannot be allowed to compromise the watchdog role admirably performed for the past 141 years by the Fairmount Park Commission.
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Posted on Wed, Nov. 5, 2008, Philadelphia Daily News
Voters OK merger of parks, recreation
City charter is amended
Voters yesterday approved a change to the city charter that abolishes the Fairmount Park Commission and combines oversight of parks with recreation facilities in a new Department of Parks and Recreation.
The independent Fairmount Park Commission has been in place for 141 years. Mayor Nutter and other advocates of the merger say that it would streamline management and help the city to better provide services.
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Posted on Wed, Nov. 5, 2008, Posted by The Philadelphia Inquirer
Strong support for parks-recreation charter change
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Culture Writer
A change in the City Charter abolishing the Fairmount Park Commission and merging parks and the Department of Recreation appeared headed for an easy victory last night.
With nearly two-thirds of the city's precincts reporting, the charter change was passing by almost a 3-1 ratio.
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Posted on Tue, Nov. 4, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Handling the Homeless
A two-way street
Philadelphia doesn't scrimp on its brotherly love just because someone is homeless. It's just the opposite, in fact.
Every year, City Hall spends more than $106 million to provide hundreds of people with potential escape routes from a life on the streets.
The city supports a broad safety net of social services, shelters and transitional housing - working with private agencies such as Project HOME, Ready, Willing and Able, and others to secure housing and find people jobs.
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Posted on Tue, Nov. 4, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Ballot questions on tap for Philadelphians
By Jeff Shields
Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphians will be asked to vote on four ballot questions today, with reorganization of the Fairmount Park system providing the source of greatest debate.
Also on the ballot is Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr.'s proposal favoring city residents on civil service tests; a $53.8 million city bond proposal for capital improvements; and a proposed $400 million state bond to fund water, sewer and stormwater improvements for local municipalities.
The question of whether to dissolve the independent, 141-year-old Fairmount Park Commission and bring the parks within a new city Department of Parks and Recreation has been championed by Mayor Nutter as the best way to coordinate resources and make politicians directly accountable for the parks they fund each year.
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Aired on Mon, Nov. 3, 2008, Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane
Hour 1
Tomorrow's ballot in Philadelphia contains a referendum to abolish the Fairmount Park Commission and turn it into a department of the city. We hear two perspectives on this question from LAUREN BORNFRIEND, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance and PHILIP PRICE, Treasurer and Member of the Fairmount Park Commission since 2002.
Listen to the Broadcast
Posted on Sat, Nov. 1, 2008, Letters to the Editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Merge parks
As vice president of Friends of Pennypack Park, one of the largest park-friends groups in the city, I urge Philadelphians to vote "yes" on the City Charter change to merge the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation into a new city department.
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Posted on Thu, Oct. 30, 2008, Opinion, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Parks charter change: Fixing a broken system
Lauren Bornfriend and Alexander "Pete" Hoskins are, respectively, executive director and president of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance
Next week, the voters of Philadelphia will have an opportunity to fundamentally reform the city's parks and merge Fairmount Park and the Department of Recreation.
The proposed charter change on the ballot Tuesday is about increased accountability and transparency, more public input, better management and, ultimately, cleaner, greener, safer parks and recreation. It's about the revitalization of our neighborhoods, the economic development of our city and the health of our citizens. It's about creating better opportunities for our children and establishing a sustainable city.
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Posted on Wed, Oct. 29, 2008, Editorial, Philadelphia Daily News
Selling off park land: myths and reality
E-MAILS pinging around the Internet warn of a land grab from Fairmount Park if voters Tuesday finally approve rational park governance.
But the viral expansion of the fear-mongering demonstrates why it's so misplaced. The e-mails say that a city-charter-change proposal to abolish the Fairmount Park Commission will give "politicians" on City Council the power to sell off parkland for development. Here's a bulletin: City Council already has the power to sell parkland, which it has used almost never.
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Posted on Wed, Oct. 29, 2008, Opinion, Philadelphia Daily News
Vote yes on park reform
By CHRISTINE KNAPP
THE Daily News hit the nail right on the head with its editorial urging Philadelphians to vote yes on the proposed city charter change establishing a new Commission on Parks and Recreation.
When the Next Great City coalition was formed in 2005, we set out to identify sensible, cost-effective ways to improve the city's environment while strengthening neighborhoods and increasing economic competitiveness.
Ultimately, we made 10 policy recommendations. Yet it was clear from the start that park reform was a top priority for our coalition, as well as for the businesses and residents we work with.
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 28, 2008, Editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: "Yes" on Park Question
A better way
When Michael Nutter was a city councilman from a West Philadelphia district spanning much of Fairmount Park, he may well have represented more trees than constituents.
Once he became mayor, Nutter moved quickly to boost the budget of the perennially underfunded 9,200-acre park system - adding $2.4 million this fiscal year, with a pledge to increase spending by nearly 50 percent over five years.
Even as his administration grapples with cutbacks likely to hit Fairmount Park's budget as well as other city departments because of the national financial crisis, the mayor's credentials as a park advocate remain rock solid. "We will do everything we can to preserve the park's budget," Nutter told a citizens forum last week.
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Posted on Mon, Oct. 27, 2008, Editorial, The Daily News
YOUR GUIDE TO NEXT TUESDAY'S BALLOT QUESTIONS
HOW TO VOTE ON CITY AND STATE INITIATIVES
THIS ELECTION, voters must decide on some important city and state matters, in the form of ballot questions. The biggest is a merger of the parks and recreation departments. For background reading on this issue, go to www.philly.com and search the Daily News archives using the term "Acres of Neglect."
City Charter change
Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to merge the powers and duties of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation into a newly created Department of Parks and Recreation "to establish a new Commission on Parks and Recreation," and to provide for its powers and duties?
This is easy to recommend, since we've spent the last seven years advocating for this kind of change for the city's park system, which has coupled a long history of economic starvation with insular and unaccountable management, via a well-meaning but ineffectual Fairmount Park Commission.
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Posted on Mon, Oct. 27, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Grants seek to get Philadelphians down to the river
By Diane Mastrull
Inquirer Staff Writer
Despite an economic crisis that has left funding wells as dry as Vegas in July, $1 million in grants will flow today to 13 projects in Philadelphia aimed at encouraging more public access to two rivers long monopolized by private industry - the Schuylkill and the Delaware.
If the hoped-for traffic materializes, so, too, should economic development along the banks of the waterways and in adjacent communities hoping for revitalization, planning and investment experts said.
"We think the riverfronts are the city's most significant redevelopment assets," said Shawn McCaney, program officer for William Penn Foundation, which is funding the grants. "The right set of public amenities will help reinforce the waterfronts as desirable places to develop."
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Posted on Wed, Oct. 22, 2008, Opinion, Philadelphia Daily News
Fairmount Park: The city's biggest classroom
By A.J. THOMSON
FOR MANY OF us in the Pac-Man generation, the most familiar park was Jellystone, where Yogi and Boo-Boo stole pic-a-nic baskets.
It's easy to understand why.
A lot of us went to the Shore or took road trips up and down the East Coast on vacation to visit other famous parks.But in in our own hometown, for some reason, the great outdoors was concrete and blacktop or the local ballfield, and it most certainly didn't include the vast expanses of Fairmount Park.
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 21, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Debate over Fairmount Park referendum
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Culture Writer
For 141 years, the Fairmount Park Commission has been charged with preserving and protecting what has grown into one of the largest municipal parks in the world.
The 16-member commission must approve acquisition and disposition of all park land, and manage the complex ecosystems knitting together the five watersheds that form the heart of the 9,200-acre park.
But on Nov. 4, voters will be asked to abolish the independent commission, established by state law in 1867, and merge Fairmount Park with the city Recreation Department, placing the whole under the mayor as a standard city department.
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Posted on Sat, Oct. 18, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
New city park with storied name
By Brittany Talarico
Inquirer Staff Writer
Elizabeth Young has lived on Montrose Street for more than 70 years and has witnessed her South Philadelphia neighborhood transform from professionals to working class to a now integrated community of young newcomers and established families.
Now, at age 94, as she peers out the window from her rowhouse near 22d and Montrose Streets, Young speaks optimistically about the once-abandoned lot at the end of her block that has been turned into a "passive park."
"There used to be people living there back in the day, but they knocked those buildings down," she said. "Then we had the Adam and Eve garden there. We were the first ones to start a garden like that, and then they had them all over Philly." The garden fell into disrepair a decade ago, leaving the lot as a dumping ground.
Today, neighborhood residents will gather at noon along with city officials and members of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to cut the ribbon on the new park, now named in honor of African American architect Julian Abele, who lived on nearby Christian Street for most of his life. Abele's only surviving child, Julian Abele Jr., now 82 and living in Florida, will also attend.
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Posted Wednesday, 15 October 2008, KYW Newsradio 1060 Philadelphia
Mayor Nutter Pushes for Control of Fairmount Park by City
by KYW's John Ostapkovich
It was no walk in the park on Wednesday for Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter -- or maybe it was -- as he promoted a city ballot question that would create a combined department of Parks and Recreation.
Students from Discovery Charter School looked on as Mayor Nutter signed a mockup of what he hopes to sign for real next month: a bill bringing Fairmount Park into the fold.
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Posted on October 15, 2008. The Daily News
New Park Day
Among the appearances in Mayor Nutter’s exhaustive public schedule, a visit to a playground today at noon is both notable and historic.
At Mander Playground, at 33rd and Diamond, Nutter will sign a bill proposing a consolidation of the Recreation Department and the Fairmount Park Commission. This is a question that voters will get to decide on Nov. 4, and it’s long overdue.
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Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Envisioning a Centennial District in western Fairmount Park
By Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Culture Writer
Not much disturbs the red-bellied turtles slowly carrying on, as turtles do, around Centennial Lake. Wind puffs down George's Hill, rippling murky water, buffeting the crust of lily pads. A stately row of rehabilitated historic houses across Parkside Avenue stands watch over lonely pond and empty field.
Half a mile to the east, gleaming Memorial Hall - now transformed into the home of the Please Touch Museum - rises above grassy parkland. Half a mile to the west sits the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.
These sparsely settled plains - also known as west Fairmount Park - are a new frontier, an underutilized prairie that once represented the future of the city and, indeed, the nation. Nearly 10 million people visited this grassland during the great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, mesmerized by its visionary displays of technological innovation.
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 14, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Decorum on the Parkway
Civic groups want tighter rules for homeless.
By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
Nowhere in Philadelphia do rich and poor commingle so awkwardly as on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the cultural hub that is slated for a half-billion dollars' worth of investment and improvement.
Guests of the Four Seasons Hotel look out their windows at hundreds lined up for free food on the far side of Logan Square.
Brides at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul alight from limos across from a park where several people live.
Midday runners pass homeless "campers" asleep on benches.
Now, two powerful civic groups are pushing for regulations that will make the area a flash point in the debate over how to manage the city's homeless population.
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Posted on Thu, Oct. 9, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
On the Side:
On Parkway, better late . . .
By Rick Nichols
Inquirer Food Columnist
It seems more than a little unfair that it took until last week to open what's being called the first free-standing sidewalk cafe on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (at 16th Street) - a full century after the grand slant was cut through Philadelphia's checkerboard grid to make way for, among other things, the casual joys of French cafe culture.
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Posted on Sat, Oct. 4, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Bonjour!
Parkway's new jewel
When the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was modeled on the Champs-Élysées a century ago, Philadelphians stumbled over one critically important detail: They failed to include the sidewalk cafes. Until this week.
On Monday, the first year-round cafe on the Parkway opened on a triangular slice of Fairmount Park land at 16th Street near JFK Plaza's LOVE Park.
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Posted on Mon, Sep. 22, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Opposition has Walnut Lane Golf Club changes on hold
By Vernon Clark
Inquirer Staff Writer
When it comes to the Walnut Lane Golf Club, residents of Philadelphia's Roxborough section say the addition of a mountain bike trail or a restaurant - indeed, any change in its use - is out of bounds.
Little more than a week after angry neighborhood residents shouted down a presentation of a study on potential new uses of the golf course, Mark Focht, executive director of the Fairmount Park Commission said the presentation would be updated.
"We're developing an online summary so residents can give their feedback to the presentation," Focht said.
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Posted on Tue, Sep 16, 2008, The Review and Mt. Airy Times Express
Residents fight for Walnut Lane
By Bernard J. Scally
It was such a devastating blitz; Fairmount Park officials and consultants never stood a chance. Hundreds of residents attended a meeting to protest any negative development of the Walnut Lane Golf Club. It was Democratic 21st Ward Leader Lou Agre who led a Napoleonic charge for community input at the meeting held at W. B. Saul High School last Thursday."We want your assurance that we will have our voices heard," said Agre.
Two weeks ago, Fairmount Park quietly notified residents and media outlets that they would be holding meetings, one at Juniata, the other at Saul, to discuss future recreational use at these sites. Walnut Lane and Juniata are the two public courses in Philadelphia not under the stewardship of Billy Caspar Golf.
"The one thing this meeting dispelled for me was the thought that no one cared for Walnut Lane Golf Course," said Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. "We will preserve this golf course."
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Posted on Fri, Sep. 12, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Wilderness . . . under the surface."
Newcomer learns nature of Phila.
By Ginny Smith
When author and poet Sharon White moved to Philadelphia nine years ago from Springfield, Mass., she thought of the city as "this concrete and barren place that's disconnected to the outside."
But as the months went by, she was amazed to discover the richness of plant and animal life here.
White found a community garden in the middle of her Spring Garden neighborhood. She encountered raccoons, opossums and deer in her backyard and beyond. And she learned about the historic landscapes of a young nation, right here "in the crossroads of colonial America."
"I came to realize that there's a real connection between the wilderness and the city," says White, who turned that realization into a book. Vanished Gardens: Finding Nature in Philadelphia is due out Monday from University of Georgia Press.
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Posted on Mon, Sep. 8, 2008, Philadelphia Daily News
The greening of Philadelphia
By MARK ALAN HUGHES
'THE GREENEST city in America." That's the ambitious goal Mayor Nutter has set for Philadelphia.
The attention and energy focused by this goal is our opportunity to reposition and repurpose Philadelphia as a city of the future and with a future.
For the first time in a century, changes beyond our control (primarily rising energy prices) are increasing the value of our assets.
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Posted on Mon, Aug. 18, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bikers, walkers in each other's way on Kelly Drive
By Fabian Loehe, Inquirer Staff Writer
At first glance, the scene on the Kelly Drive bike path at Boathouse Row seems idyllic. A breeze blows through the trees. Leaves rustle. The last shafts of sunlight gently touch rowers, walkers, runners, in-line skaters and bikers.
But try walking there.
On weekdays between 5 and 7 p.m., the path is so crowded that it mocks the traffic jam right next to it on Kelly Drive. Bikers whizzing by especially anger pedestrians who cross the path looking left and right as if it were a main road. The same is true on weekends.
"Sometimes I yell at them: 'Slow down!' and then they look at me as if I was a jerk - in fact they are the jerks," said Clete Graham, a commodore in the Schuylkill Navy, which represents the rowing clubs on Boathouse Row. A year ago, he was horrified when a cyclist ran down a middle-age woman and some of her teeth got kicked out.
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Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Reducing Homelessness
Tough LOVE
The fatal stabbing of a homeless woman in broad daylight in CenterCity's JFKPlaza on Tuesday raised the stakes exponentially in the city's efforts to wrest control of its prized downtown squares.
In a setting nicknamed LOVEPark, the irony of a killing arising from a supposed lovers' quarrel made headlines that underscore the city's homeless problem.
Before LOVEPark hit the news, the city got another black eye over homeless people in Rittenhouse Square - where they camped overnight, bathed in a fountain, and even engaged in park-bench sex.
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Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Despite fatal stabbing, life goes on in LOVE Park
By Peter Mucha and Sam Wood
Inquirer Staff Writers
Police stepped up patrols in LOVEPark yesterday morning following Tuesday's fatal stabbing of a homeless woman in the shadow of the famous Robert Indiana sculpture that dominates the plaza.
"We're going to have a high police presence here today," said acting Capt. John Wilzcynski of the Ninth Police District as he surveyed the park yesterday morning. "We just want people to feel safe."
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Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
Fatal love triangle in LOVE Park
By DAVID GAMBACORTA, Philadelphia Daily News
gambacd@phillynews.com 215-854-5994
While Tony Stewart stayed cool, lounging in the shade near the LOVE Park fountain, a bitter feud started to heat up between his girlfriend and another woman.
"Man, they were up there fighting over me," Stewart said yesterday, gesturing toward benches that line the other side of the park near JFK Boulevard.
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Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Quarrel turns deadly in LOVE Park
By Barbara Boyer and Bonnie L. Cook, Inquirer Staff Writers
An altercation between two women in Center City's LOVE Park yesterday afternoon - possibly over the affections of a man - quickly escalated, leaving one of them dead with a knife wound to her chest and the other under arrest, police said.
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Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Rethinking the picnic
In the movies, it was romantic and leisurely. Today, any outdoor meal - a bite at the ballpark, a snack at a festival - can fit the basket.
By Joyce Gemperlein, For The Inquirer
In the movies made from Jane Austen novels, there is often a leisurely picnic scene, in which the heroine, while enjoying a lavish lunch, receives her first kiss from a suitor - and then slaps him.
In contrast, the last legitimate picnic I attended was squeezed between a trip to the vet and a meeting about people speeding on neighborhood streets. I took homemade cold pea soup (see recipe) and was the love interest of many mosquitoes.
Given contemporary activities and multitasking lifestyles, eating outdoors has become more necessity than relaxation.
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Posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Decline seen in Rittenhouse Square's homeless
By Dan Lieberman, Inquirer Staff Writer
The number of homeless people spending the night in Rittenhouse Square has decreased - by about half - since news coverage last week on the phenomenon, according to observations made by many, including the homeless themselves.
Indeed, a survey overnight Tuesday into yesterday morning by The Inquirer found that 16 people had bunked down at the park, about half the number typically found last week spending the night on benches or the lawn.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
A drop in the homeless in Rittenhouse Square
By Dan Lieberman, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The ranks of the homeless sleeping overnight in Rittenhouse Square have dropped over the past week.
The reason? Philadelphia police officers have been directed to more strictly patrol the square after news accounts last week of the homeless sleeping, fornicating, bathing and shaving in the park.
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Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Franklin Square: Back into play
By Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer
Halina Dziewolska remembers the old Franklin Square.
"There was pretty much nothing here," said Dziewolska, 43, of Queen Village, a native Pole who moved to Philadelphia 16 years ago. "Well, the trees were here. And the homeless people."
The fact Dziewolska was speaking Thursday as she pushed her 3-year-old daughter Marisha on a playground swing is a sign of the square's transformation.
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Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Phila. more tolerant of homeless than other cities
By Jennifer Lin, Inquirer Staff Writer
With Center City parks like Rittenhouse Square filling up with homeless people this summer, other cities, too, are struggling with similar situations.
And many of those cities are taking a considerably harder line than Philadelphia.
Increasingly, the response elsewhere has been to make loitering, sleeping in parks, and panhandling crimes, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington.
That is in contrast to Philadelphia. Officials here have taken a more laissez faire approach to the dozens of homeless who have taken to using Rittenhouse Square as a campground, sleeping on benches and bathing in the fountain.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Rittenhouse Square homeless: Overnight rain lowers numbers
By Dan Lieberman, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Overnight storms lowered the ranks of the Rittenhouse Square homeless but it didn't deter 15 men and women from covering themselves in plastic and sheets to spend the night there. While the numbers are higher on dry nights, typically between 30 to 60, many of the homeless this morning said they preferred a wet park bench to a shelter.
"I survived. I'm not a difficult person," said 68-year old Michael Vincent Covello, who identified himself as a retired Marine who fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Covello said that he opted for Rittenhouse Square instead of shelter floor, where he has been robbed. He has a waterproof sleeping bag that he said holds up under any weather conditions.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Homeless on the Square
Night and day
Who wouldn't want to live in one of the ritziest zip codes in America? Even the homeless want a Center City address amid the greenery of Rittenhouse Square. But when that leads to open-air bathing and copulation, it's time for them to hit the road.
But where should they go? Many of the homeless want to do better, but right now they can't. They want shelter, but don't want to be forced someplace where the weak become prey to the unprincipled.
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Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Rise and shine, the homelss of Rittenhouse Square
By Dan Lieberman, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
It's 6 a.m. in Rittenhouse Square in Center City -- one of Philadelphia's most exclusive neighborhoods. As the sun rises over the leafy green park, its overnight summer residents -- nearly two dozen homeless men and women - are asleep on benches.
Along one row of benches at the northeast corner of the square, six men are lined up one after the other - some covered by dirty blankets, others simply rolled over on their side. Further down on the south side of the park is a man with a cast on his leg, his crutches propped up against the bench he's sleeping on.
"It's free air. There's a breeze. It's better out here," said a still groggy Chris Coleman, a 41- year old homeless man from West Philadelphia, who was using his unlaced sneakers and socks as a pillow to rest his head.
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Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Chris Satullo: An alien life form: Phila. officials who care
Over the years, I've led a lot of citizen forums. Until recently, though, none featured Martians.
At the latest Great Expectations forums, citizens of Philadelphia stared, agog, at some guest speakers as though they were creatures from another planet. These odd beings spoke in a strange tongue, using words such as service, promise and listening.
In their day jobs, these exotics work in the Nutter administration.
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Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Save the Pedestrians!
A friendlier Parkway
It was a hair-raising adventure for many of the folks on foot who carefully made their way to the center lanes of Benjamin Franklin Parkway for Thursday's public announcement of a welcome $17.1 million plan to upgrade the boulevard.
Cars whizzed along the outer lanes as usual, making some pedestrians' journey a potential life-and-death moment.
Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter needed no better illustration of why the Parkway needs to be more pedestrian-friendly. Their announcement was welcome to those who have waged a years-long effort to wrest back the Parkway from car and truck traffic.
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Posted on Friday July 18, 2008 The Philadelphia Daily News
$17M facelift OK'd for Parkway
By CATHERINE LUCEY, Philadelphia Daily News
luceyc@phillynews.com 215-854-4172
Over the next three years, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will receive a $17.1 million face-lift, complete with enhanced sidewalks, new trees and shrubbery and two revamped parks.
Gov. Rendell officially unveiled the project yesterday, saying the historic Parkway deserved the investment.
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Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Parkway improvements to include park updates
By Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer
Benjamin Franklin Parkway is about to get a makeover that designers hope will make the tree-lined boulevard more pedestrian-friendly.
Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter and philanthropic representatives yesterday revealed plans for $17.1 million in cosmetic and traffic improvements that will cover a three-quarter-mile stretch between JFK Plaza and Eakins Oval.
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Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 The Philadelphia Daily News
Better days - and pedestrian access - ahead for Ben Franklin Parkway
By CATHERINE LUCEY, Philadelphia Daily News
luceyc@phillynews.com 215-854-4172
Better pedestrian access and new landscaping are among the details expected today when Gov. Rendell unveils a $17 million plan to enhance the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Officials were mum yesterday on the nitty-gritty of the plan, which will be paid for with public dollars and private foundation funds. But pedestrian improvements are definitely on the list, insiders said.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
$17 million to beautify Parkway
By Joseph A. Gambardello, Inquirer Staff Writer
A $17 million mix of government and foundation funding has been put together for landscaping and other improvements as part of the effort to revitalize the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, sources familiar with the project say.
An additional $2.1 million is earmarked for a long-awaited, eco-friendly park at 12th and Catharine Streets, in the city's Hawthorne neighborhood, where a high-rise public-housing complex once stood.
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Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
PROGRESS IN THE PARK
'CENTENNIAL' PLAN CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM
THE FAIRMOUNT PARK Commission has been on a roll. Last week's announcement by Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Chaka Fattah that the park's evolving Centennial District could get $45 million kept the momentum going.
So now, three years after the release of the district master plan, and with the Please Touch Museum set to open in Memorial Hall in the fall, things are revving up for the 700 acres that includes the former exhibition grounds of the 1876 Centennial.
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Posted on Tuesday July 8, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
$45M allotted to revive Fairmount Park as tourist destination
By JOSHUA MELLMAN, Philadelphia Daily News
mellmaj@phillynews.com 215-854-5218
Standing at the site of the nation's 100th birthday party, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah yesterday announced legislation to authorize $45 million to create a Centennial District in Fairmount Park.
The district's aim will be to revive the area as the tourist destination it once was, Casey said at a fountain in front of Memorial Hall that hasn't operated in decades.
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Posted on Tuesday July 8, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
$45 million sought to fix part of Fairmount Park
By Vernon Clark, Inquirer Staff Writer
Looking to connect Fairmount Park's rich past to the present, officials yesterday announced federal legislation to authorize funding for a major revitalization of the park's vast historic Centennial District.
At a fountain in front of iconic Memorial Hall, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah said they were seeking $45 million to upgrade the Centennial District, which encompasses the Philadelphia Zoo, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the Parkside Avenue corridor, and Memorial Hall, the future home of the Please Touch Museum.
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Posted on Thursday, June 20, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
City Council approves Fairmount Park takeover
By Jeff Shields Inquirer Staff Writer
The city would take control of Fairmount Park and hand over the city's sludge operations to a private contractor under separate bills approved by City Council yesterday.
Councilman Darrell L. Clarke and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, who have been pushing a city takeover of Fairmount Park since 2004, finally won approval of a ballot initiative slated for November.
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Posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer
Editorial: Plan for Fairmount Park
Polishing a valuable gem
A plan to streamline oversight of the city's 9,200-acre Fairmount Park system finally appears ready to take root and then bloom.
Mayor Nutter and City Council prepared the ground by adding $2.4 million to the budget of the perennially underfunded park system, with a further pledge to boost spending by nearly 50 percent over the next five years.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 The Philadelphia Daily News
Welcome to Philadelphia's wreck centers
By JOSHUA MELLMAN, Philadelphia Daily News
mellmaj@phillynews.com 215-854-5218
TOYS LAY SCATTERED on mats stacked to the top of a doorway, blocking an emergency exit of one city recreation center. At another, power cords stretch across a pool of water on the bathroom floor. At a playground, a 3-foot-deep concrete pit lies within 10 yards of a play area.
"That's like the trap you would find in a war zone," said City Controller Alan Butkovitz at a news conference yesterday. "It's almost like it's intentionally there to hurt somebody."
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Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 The Associate Press, Lebanon Daily News, do delaware, CBS3 News
Philly City Council works to end Fairmount Park Commission
PHILADELPHIA—Philadelphia's Fairmount Park Commission may become a thing of the past.
A Philadelphia City Council committee took a first step Tuesday toward stripping the 141-year-old commission of its power.
Council's Law and Government Committee unanimously approved a plan to merge the city's massive park system into the city-run Recreation Department.
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Posted on Sunday, June 15, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
City gets $2 million for parks
Six parks and historic sites in Philadelphia received $1 million in grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Mayor Nutter announced yesterday.
The grants were matched by funding from the city and the state through Rep. John Taylor, bringing investment in the projects to $2 million.
"This funding is crucial to our efforts to create a more accessible, green, healthy Philadelphia," Nutter said in a statement.
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Posted Sunday June 15, 2008 Metro Philadelphia
Reformers’ Roundtable: Controlling the park
by josh cornfield / metro philadelphia
A City Council committee Tuesday approved a ballot measure that would combine the Recreation Department with Fairmount Park, putting the park system under city control instead of under the Fairmount Park Commission, which is chosen by judges.
This week's Reformers' Roundtable — consultant Phil Goldsmith, banker Kevin Thomas Jr., attorney Matthew N. McClure, and park activist David Carlin — address the issue.
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Posted on Saturday, June 14, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Fox Chase to weigh a new site
By Stacey Burling, Inquirer Staff Writer
After years of testy negotiations with neighbors about its expansion plans into nearby Burholme Park, Fox Chase Cancer Center's board next week will consider alternate locations in the region for a new campus.
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Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Karen Heller: A park deal true to Penn's vision
You can't put a price on nature, but it doesn't hurt to try.
Fairmount Park, according to a recent study, is worth $1.9 billion a year in income, services and taxes. For 9,200 acres, that's dirt cheap.
"I would submit," Mayor Nutter said Monday, "that a well-run, properly funded and focused park system is priceless," though in the recent past none of these conditions has applied.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
Proposed merger of Fairmount Parks and Rec Dept. likely to be decided by voters
By CHRIS BRENNAN, Philadelphia Daily News
brennac@phillynews.com 215-854-5973
City Council yesterday took a major step toward radically changing the way Philadelphia has managed 9,200 acres of parks for the past 141 years.
Council's Law and Government Committee approved legislation that would ask voters if they want to fold the Fairmount Park Commission, established in 1867, into the city's Department of Recreation. That would give the mayor control over the parks through creation of the new Department of Parks and Recreation.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bill to scrap Fairmount Park panel clears hurdle
By Jeff Shields, Inquirer Staff Writer
A proposal to meld Fairmount Park with the city Recreation Department appears headed for a November referendum, with park advocates, City Council and Mayor Nutter aligned to radically change oversight of the 9,200-acre city jewel.
With a unanimous recommendation from Council's Law and Government Committee yesterday, the measure faces few obstacles to gain final Council approval next week.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, The Philadelphia Daily News, Editorial
Editorial: Time for a New Day in Fairmount Park
A Merger of the Commission with Recreation Dept. is Long Overdue
IN 1993, the Philadelphia Charter Change Commission recommended the merging of the Fairmount Park Commission with the city Recreation Department, but Philadelphians weren't ready.
Oh, boy, they weren't ready! That proposal engendered so much opposition, it doomed the entire comprehensive charter-change proposal to defeat.
Fast - actually, not so fast - forward to yesterday. City Council's Committee on Law and Government voted out a charter amendment proposal to go on the November ballot that, if passed, would merge the operation of parks and recreation in the city.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Metro Philadelphia
Parks and recreation combo close to vote
by Brian X. McCrone / Metro Philadelphia
CITY HALL. Combining the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation is a step closer to reality after a City Council committee yesterday approved a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to decide.
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Parks supporters push for changes, cash
by Brian X. McCrone / metro philadelphia
Posted June 10, 2008
CITY HALL. The largest advocacy group for Fairmount Park released a report yesterday that shows the large economic virtues of the 9,200-acre system, including a $23 million increase in property values surrounding the city’s 63-plus parks in the Fairmount system.
Mayor Michael Nutter hosted the Philadelphia Parks Alliance in his reception room to release the report on the eve of a possible vote by a City Council committee to ask voters whether to combine the park commission and the recreation department.
“We are actually one of the few big cities across the country that has not made to move,” Nutter said yesterday of combining parks and recreation under one city department. “I am supportive of the legislation that has been proposed.”
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Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Report: Parks net big returns
It says they are worth $1.9 billion to the city. The Park Commission's future is on the Council table.
By Jeff Shields, Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia's parks are worth nearly $1.9 billion annually in services, income and taxes to the city, Mayor Nutter and advocates said yesterday on the eve of a crucial City Council hearing on the future of Fairmount Park. The Philadelphia Parks Alliance yesterday released a report by a national expert that quantifies parks' value in terms of pollution control, property values, health and tourism. It also puts a price on all the services the parks provide that residents would otherwise pay for.
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Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008, WHYY News
Arts & Culture Desk reporter, Alexandra Schmidt
ANCHOR LEAD: A PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE HEARS TESTIMONY TODAY ON ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO MERGE THE FARIMOUNT PARK COMMISSION WITH THE CITY RECREATION DEPARTMENT.. MAYOR NUTTER SUPPORTS THE MOVE. THE HEARING COMES ON THE HEELS OF A STUDY SHOWING THE HUGE ECONOMIC IMPACT THE PARK HAS ON THE CITY. FROM WHYY'S ARTS AND CULTURE DESK, ALEX SCHMIDT REPORTS.
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Posted: Tuesday, 10 June 2008 2:05PM
City Moves Closer to Taking Control of Fairmount Park System
by KYW's Mike Dunn
A Philadelphia City Council committee on Tuesday took a first step toward stripping the Fairmount Park Commission of its power, approving a plan to merge the city's massive park system into the city-run Recreation Department.
Council's Law and Government committee unanimously approved the proposal, which could be voted on by the full Council next week, at its last session before the summer break.
After gaining the mayor's signature, the plan would be put to voters in the form of a question on the November general election ballot.
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Posted on Wed, May. 28, 2008 Philadelphia Daily News
PARKS GET MORE GREEN
FINALLY: MORE MONEY, OTHER CHANGES DUE
TREES CAN'T vote - long the reason for how ill-funded our parks have been - but soon, they will be peaking eloquently.
Thousands of them will soon be standing to testify about a remarkable change that the city's parks have undergone. That change begins with more money - $2.5 million that Mayor Nutter included in his first budget. Of that increase, $1 million will be set aside for planting 3,500 to 4,000 trees throughout the city's parks and neighborhoods. Smartly, many of them are planned for the city's nine high-crime neighborhoods.
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Published: May 28, 2008 Philadelphia City Paper
NEWS . Political Notebook
Funding Fairmount
Everyone's favorite park finally gets some love.
by Mary F. Patel
Good news last week for advocates of city parks: City Council approved the additional parks funding in Mayor Michael Nutter's proposed budget. Nutter allocated an additional $2.5 million for Fairmount Park and the Department of Recreation. The total budget for the parks is now $13 million.
Lauren Bornfriend, executive director of the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, was thrilled with the infusion of cash, saying it was the first increase seen in decades. "For Philadelphia to become a first-class city, investing in parks is investing in families and quality of life," she says.
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Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer
Stunning factory seconds
While examples of America's first porcelain get show treatment at the Art Museum, old shards turn up in a South Phila. park.
By Stephan Salisbury, Inquirer Culture Writer
A week or so ago, Mike Toklish experienced a serendipitous Philadelphia moment, the kind in which idle curiosity opens up onto the vast expanse of the past.
Arriving early to see a big, splashy show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Toklish had some spare time and decided to visit a small, distinctly unsplashy exhibit of ceramic wares produced by America's first successful porcelain factory, Philadelphia's American China Manufactory.
Toklish, who happens to be president of the Friends of Jefferson Square Park in South Philadelphia, knew nothing about Gousse Bonnin and George Anthony Morris' factory, which produced porcelain from 1770 to 1772 at its complex near Front Street, south of Washington Avenue.
But Toklish was stunned when he entered the exhibit. A map on the wall showed that the factory had been located a scant block from Jefferson Square. And the porcelain wares - all 19 that have survived - looked disconcertingly familiar.
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Posted on Friday, February 1, 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Nutter brokers deal to allow Fox Chase expansion
By Jeff Shields, Inquirer Staff Writer
Fox Chase Cancer Center will proceed with its planned $800 million expansion project after Mayor Nutter brokered a deal between the hospital and City Councilman Brian J. O'Neill.
Heaping praise upon the new mayor in closing the deal in a closed-door session Wednesday, O'Neill introduced legislation yesterday that allows Fox Chase to build on 19 acres in neighboring, 69-acre Burholme Park.
In exchange, Fox Chase will contribute $4 million to the city's capital program to be earmarked for projects - preferably the acquisition of open space - in the community, O'Neill said.
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Posted on Fri, Feb. 1, 2008 The Daily News
Fox Chase plan is alive again
By CHRIS BRENNAN, Philadelphia Daily News
A deal to help the Fox Chase Cancer Center expand into a nearby park - a project that faltered at the end of Street administration - has new life.
Councilman Brian O'Neill yesterday reintroduced legislation to allow the center to lease 19 acres in adjacent Burholme Park after Mayor Nutter hosted a meeting Wednesday to negotiate a preliminary settlement.
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