Zoning

Postcard from Germany!

mgolas — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:54:31 -0400

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Aug. 13

Postcard from Pittsburgh

By Arrus Farmer
For PlanPhilly

BADEN-BADEN, Germany - “Yes, we’re going to have to go right to ludicrous speed”

It’s 717 kilometers from Berlin to Baden-Baden, quite the stretch by European standards where culture and language can change from village to village. But the trip is impressive, beautiful countryside, an incredible piece of infrastructure, and a driving culture where the user understands that the right lane is a passing lane. Here driving is a joy, people take pride in their automobiles, and they drive really, really fast. For a person who is unaccustomed to riding at speed of 130 mph+ it can be stressful, especially in those curves that probably should have a speed limit, or a warning sign, or something for the love of god…

Lucky for me, there were a few interesting planning applications along the way which helped to preserve my mental health and overall emotional stability. No matter how interesting though, these distractions could do little to save the door handle which will from now on bare the imprint of my five sweaty fingers.

Like Polka Dots of Civilization

The small towns that dot the German countryside are compact nodes of development contained and surrounded by working fields that produce varieties of grain, feed, and vegetables. Farmers this time of year in southern Germany are cutting their hayfields in wide swaths and the highway is lined with freshly shorn golden fields of stubbled stalks. Some solid planning over the past four centuries has helped to preserve these working landscapes and the towns that they surround. Compact nodal development is prevalent throughout the country and planners use a performance based zoning to manage growth and mix uses.

Although every town does it a little differently, German zoning can best be characterized as build to fit. Height, density, building envelope and even use are often permitted based upon the existing built form or the context that will hopefully be achieved. Similar to American zoning, the Germans have several residential classifications, a few mixed use categories, an industrial classification and a few odds and ends to fit other miscellaneous uses. While the primary goal of zoning in the US has been to separate incompatible uses, Germans historically have used zoning to encourage compact mixed use development which preserves both natural and workable land (agriculture, mining and timber, industry or heavy commercial). This solid regulatory framework produces an enjoyable and consistent form in most German cities. Combine that with high quality European design, pedestrian primacy and a tradition of urban-green, and you’ve got what many planners would call a city well built.

Once Baden, thrice named
Though they may be gifted in the creation of regulations for their cities, Germans have a rotten way of naming them. There is a strange habit of calling multiple towns by the same name, usually they are specified by some other characteristic like the river nearby i.e. Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurt on the Main River, and Frankfurt am Oder: Frankfurt on the Other River. No kidding, those are the actual names of the rivers, and their English translation.

There are no less than three Badens though: Baden bei Wien, Baden im Argau, and of course Baden-Baden. Why the repetition? Baden-Baden is in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, thus the meaning Baden in Baden.

This Baden is a small hillside town at the foot of the Black Forest near the Swiss and French Borders. It’s a popular vacation destination, especially well known for its baths which have been said to have healthful qualities since the time of the Roman Empire. The streets here are lined with impressively preserved Villas that bare the same French influence which plays upon the region’s cuisine, language, and residents. There are nearly 60,000 Baden-Badenites, many of whom walk the streets and sidewalks of the bustling pedestrian zone in the center of the city. Cafés line the streets and one gets the impression that everyone is on vacation, or living out the golden years of their lives since many seem to be of my grandmother’s generation. That could explain the somewhat outlandish prices: 3€ for a cone of lemon gelato (smacks of Capagiro on Rittenhouse Square) but its worth it to be able soak up the warm summer air and enjoy an afternoon of my favorite hobby, people watching.

Casi-Yes

One of the most popular spots in the city is the 200 year old Casino Baden-Baden and in contrast to our American standard it is a sight to behold. The Parisian Chateau inspired building is located at the rear of a public park in the town’s center which it also shares with a small-scale outdoor concert venue, two cafes and a number of small boutiques.

There is a lot of activity here, the café terraces, like those in the vibrant pedestrian area are filled to capacity with folk seeing and being seen. I get the impression that most aren’t here only for the casino, and that they are both residents and tourists alike. The design of the surrounding buildings addresses the park as the centerpiece of the locale. The surrounding uses are accessory to the public and social use of the open space.

The casino building itself is exquisitely designed and ornamented, such that it resembles a small palace or large mansion of its day. A strict dress code of smoking jackets for men and evening wear for women is equally nostalgic. The interior of the casino is reminiscent to the gambling scenes of James Bond films: 007 could approach the bar at any moment, make eye contact with the stunning vixen across the bar, and gesture to the bartender: “Vodka martini, shaken not stirred.” But there is some other force at work here that makes this scene belong to another time and place: there are no cars.

It’s the Parking stupid
Although the streets bustle with passers by, window shoppers and café goers there seems to be little auto traffic here. The roadways seem secondary to sidewalks and there are far more people than cars about. Around the casino are all of the peripheral uses one would expect, numerous hotels, restaurants, high-end retail. What one may not expect after having visited Vegas or Atlantic City is that folks here walk from their hotels to restaurants, gaming houses, shops and parks. The casino is just another destination in a well planned urban system of public and private spaces.

This pedestrian-friendly environment is made possible in large part due to an extensive network of underground parking garages. There are few surface lots to be found here. Hotels, restaurants, and even public spaces like parks and the successful pedestrian shopping district all stand on top of multiple levels of auto garages.

More than 2,000 spaces are managed by a quasi-municipal parking authority which collects user-fees through numerous automated ticket booths, maintains existing lots and provides parking garage planning, construction, and management services to private developers. Additionally, the parking authority administers a bike rental system with depots located at each of their lots throughout the city. Reasonable hourly and daily rates are made available and paid through the same automated system as the parking fares. Through the provision of these services the Baden-Baden Parking Authority finances maintenance and expansion of their product.

When parking is done right it facilitates design with a different emphasis: a pedestrian emphasis. Fewer cars on the roads mean more room for sidewalks, street-side cafes, playgrounds, and other amenities. Removing the developer’s burden of building parking palettes and seas of surface lots makes it possible for public and private spaces to flow seamlessly and the value of public edges to be captured. (Think of the hotels on Rittenhouse Square. Where would they be if there were 500 spaces separating their front door from the park?) Subterranean parking allows for multiple entrances and exits to public and private space, allowing large uses to be integrated into the city’s fabric. The casino and its supporting hotels and restaurants fit seamlessly into the city’s existing street grid allowing guests and passersby equal access to the private and public amenities offered. The costs of implementing similar systems in the States are often thought to be prohibitive, a visit to Baden-Baden however reveals the invaluable benefits of an effective comprehensive parking plan.

email: arrus.farmer@gmail.com

Arrus Farmer is a Robert Bosch Fellow based in Berlin, Germany working in the planning and administration of large scale public-private developments. He holds both a Masters of City Planning and a Masters of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania which were completed earlier this year. Farmer has worked with Praxis on a number of civic engagement projects including the Civic Vision for the Central Delaware Riverfront.

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Third in an occasional series. How pedestrian-friendly casinos, parking facilities fit seamlessly into existing city street grids.

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Breaking: How casinos fit vision

mgolas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:48:37 -0400

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July 30

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

Amid the discussions coming out of a three-day PennPraxis workshop addressing the designs of the two proposed Delaware Riverfront casinos, there were some veritable positive vibes about the gaming halls, especially from a California architect with casino experience in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

While pointing out what he considered “gigantic” parking garages, both the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos would be “actually an amenity to do what you want to do, which is to bring people to the riverfront,” said Tim Magill, a Hollywood architect who has worked with gaming magnates like Steve Wynn and on high-profile projects like the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

“Thinking about how development can happen north and south of both of these sites is an important aspect” of the casinos’ plans, Magill said. “On both sites ... there is potential for major public access. By minor modifications [from the casino developers], you could deliver on your goals.”

Those goals comprise the 10-step civic action plan laid out by PennPraxis for the central Delaware waterfront for the next decade. But Magill was laying out facts about the gaming industry around the country – that, if developed in a smart fashion, casinos can be leveraged to pull in the public and increase surrounding property values.

After the morning session, Magill pointed to an example on a large map, among many views of the river pinned to the walls. He told PlanPhilly that one site, now the home of Wal-Mart and Home Depot (and their accompanying mega-parking lots), would probably be redeveloped, since it sits directly south of the Foxwoods site. The big box stores represent “property values that have not been fully realized,” he said. “The developers know that. What they’ve done is sort of land-banked it” with the retail chains serving as an interim means of cash flow.

It’s about the vision
The workshop, with a couple of dozen city representatives and experts on traffic, transit, environmental and ecological matters, got started Tuesday night, with the group concluding that the two casinos are not currently compatible with the “civic values, principles and design guidelines” put forth in the Praxis vision of a redeveloped waterfront. (See previous story from earlier this morning here: http://www.planphilly.com/node/3607.)

The presidents of both casinos declined invitations to the workshop from Harris Steinberg, executive director of Praxis, in strongly worded replies (see Foxwoods' and SugarHouse's) that said their presence would be pointless, since Steinberg had stated publicly several times that he and Praxis were against the casinos ever breaking ground.

But Steinberg stressed that he’s not anti-casino, and that Tuesday evening’s conclusion that the casinos were incompatible meant “only as currently designed.” His goal, he said, is to tease out how these projects, on these sites, can contribute to the overall Praxis vision and action plan, endorsed last month by Mayor Nutter.

That’s what Steinberg charged a smaller afternoon group to come up with. Magill started that process by laying see-through drawing paper over the Foxwoods site and marking up areas where, for instance, retail could replace parking garage facades, or spots that seemed realistic as possibilities for more vertical development. With a few “minor modifications,” Magill said, the casinos could be “activity generators that will prime the pump for other properties” down the line.

“Casinos are highly public,” Magill assured the attendees. “The key is to optimize the public’s access to the river. I actually think you’re on your way.”

‘No man’s land’
But before that happy scenario can play out, there are infrastructure questions galore, not the least of them having to do with parking and the importance of incorporating the casinos’ plans for extending existing streets to the riverfront, along with the opportunity to stress impacts to the environment, from the new buildings themselves and from the traffic they bring to the problematic Columbus Boulevard (also known as Delaware Avenue), which Steinberg called a “no man’s land” for pedestrians.

“By what criteria do they contribute?” Steinberg said was the main question underlying the workshop. “Tim [Magill] is saying they could be, but not necessarily that they will be. The real concern is that there is clearly not a parking solution. And we’re going to push back hard to see where things fall in terms of the civic vision. We’re here in an advisory capacity.”

Steinberg said he’d like to deliver a report on the group’s findings by Friday, Aug. 8.

Even with the parking question, which dominated the afternoon session, Magill posited some California optimism, suggesting that encouraging bus transportation and off-site “employee parking pods” would actually enhance sustainability and a transit-oriented boulevard.

Ecological and environmental concerns were aired before lunch, with the theme of “honoring the river.” Using the water in the best way and protecting the estuary were main points. Mark Alan Hughes, the city’s first Deputy Mayor of Sustainability, admitted that any recommendations on these fronts would be “aspirational” at this point.

“We just want to know where they are,” Hughes said. “There can be no deal-breakers. There are tools [related to energy and emissions] that are just not there yet. We have a set of mechanisms that we are working toward.”

Waiting and seeing
Terry Gillen, senior adviser to Mayor Nutter for economic development and the interim executive director of the city’s Redevelopment Authority, said the most significant issues have to do with air quality, within the context of traffic and parking. “It’s a very car-centric industry, at least in the U.S.” she said of the casino business. “In Europe, they have a different model.”

Magill also said that modern casinos have been increasingly moving toward maximizing spaces for non-gaming activities, such as nightclubs and spas. Indeed, the state of Nevada reached a point several years ago when non-gambling revenues surpassed the total “take” from slots and table games, a trend that has only increased.

The proposed Philadelphia casinos are said to be “mixed-use” from the start, and attendees at the afternoon workshop wanted to make sure of that. But subsequent phases of development, contingent upon the success of the initial building phases (with 2,500 slots for each casino) have been a consistent concern among city officials since Nutter took office earlier this year.

Foxwoods and SugarHouse have had an entirely different relationship with City Hall since the change in administrations, and contend that permits have been intentionally stalled by order of Nutter. They cite nothing but favorable decisions from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the state Supreme Court.

“There have been at least five different traffic studies, including ones by the Mayor’s Gaming Advisory Task Force, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, SugarHouse, Foxwoods, and the City Council,” according to information on the SugarHouse web site.

“I can only hope that we can come up with some decisions that they’ll look at,” said Gillen. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

On the Foxwoods web site, the owners say the casino “supports the city’s long-term goal of economically reinvigorating the remainder of the riverfront, and will provide public access to the river.” For its first-phase development, it lists restaurant and lounge venues open to the public, fine dining, sports bars, a 2,000-seat showroom, retail shops, a 4,200-space parking garage and a riverside walkway, in addition to the 3,000 slot machines.

The Philadelphia problem
Regarding the possibility of later phases of development, with a large hotel and more casino space, Gillen said that’s historically been “the Philadelphia problem. Developers come in and tend not to put all their cards on the table, and don’t tell us about future plans. We want to make sure there are no surprises down the road. The problem is that no one talked about that issue until January.”

Gillen said nailing down long-term plans is especially important from the city’s point of view because only when the later developments – the hotels, restaurants, nightclubs – become reality will the city see tax revenues. For the first phase, which will mostly be income from slot machines, the state will be the beneficiary.

Paul Levy, the popular president of the Center City District and the Central Philadelphia Development Corp., said developing master plans is vital for setting guidelines for major developments, but he may have surprised some attendees by suggesting that with regard to the casinos, “the horse” is “out of the barn, or partially out of the barn.”

“These casinos started the design process, and we as a city are trying to change the rules,” Levy said. “The development of a master plan is absolutely essential. ... We’ve all got to realize that we’re playing catch-up.”

In less direct terms, others agreed, saying recommendations on street landscaping, balance of retail with gaming, the creation or reduction of traffic lanes, pedestrian metrics, access to the river, ecological concessions, safety and any other concerns – broad in scope or narrow – should be offered as an opportunity to implement smarter growth along the waterfront.

“This is a neutral analysis,” Steinberg said, as the afternoon session started. “The report that’s issued will be used as a political tool by various constituencies, so it’s important to be sure about ‘What would it look like for a casino on that site to comply?’” with the Praxis vision and Action Plan.

In the meantime, Magill said that in his experience, casino developers usually listen to well thought-out alternatives, if only to see if they would make financial sense. Also, trends in the gaming industry have been drifting toward smaller “neighborhood casinos,” even in the Las Vegas and Reno metropolitan areas, Magill said (relatively speaking, SugarHouse and Foxwoods are not considered especially large gaming destinations). These venues have generally placed interactivity with their neighbors as a high priority, even when initially opposed.

After the workshop’s findings are written up and presented to Nutter, what then? Looking at large-scale, detailed maps taking up the better part of two large walls, peppered with post-it notes and varying computer-generated images, Steinberg was asked if he thought one or both or neither of the proposed and state-approved casinos will have broken ground a year from now.

It might have been a question he’s heard before. “I’m not a betting man,” he said, without batting an eye.

Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com

SugarHouse web site: http://www.sugarhousecasino.com/home/index.php

Foxwoods web site: http://www.foxwoods.com/AboutFoxwoods/FDC_foxwoodsphiladelphia.aspx

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July 30, By Thomas J. Walsh Experts in transportation, sustainability, infrastructure, ecology grapple with merging near-term realities and long-term goals.

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July 30, 2008

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Casino analysis underway

mgolas — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:09:26 -0400

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July 30

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

The second day of a “casino workshop” featuring senior city officials, traffic consultants, planning experts and architects began early Wednesday morning under the direction of PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the UPenn School of Design.

The discussions were part of what Praxis calls an “independent, third-party analysis of the current casino site plans” relative to its recent 10-year action plan for the Central Delaware Riverfront, which was endorsed by Mayor Michael Nutter.

Per Nutter’s request, Praxis plans to issue results from the casino report within 30 days. Present for the discussion were deputy mayors Rina Cutler (transportation and infrastructure) and Mark Alan Hughes (sustainability), Nutter’s economic development czar Terry Gillen, Center City District President Paul Levy and about 20 other professionals, some of them local specialists and some from other cities around the country.

Noticeably absent were representatives of the planned Foxwoods and SugarHouse casinos. “You are not an ‘independent’ voice in the casino debate,” wrote Robert Sheldon, president of SugarHouse, in response to an invitation to the workshop by Praxis Executive Director Harris Steinberg. “Even before being tasked by the Mayor to conduct an analysis, you concluded that casinos do not fit into your vision of the waterfront.”

Likewise, James Dougherty, president of Foxwoods, wrote to Steinberg that he had spoken out several times against the casinos within the Praxis vision, but that in any case, the point was moot, since the first phase (of three) of the casino development has been greenlighted by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (during the Street administration) and the state Supreme Court.

While Steinberg, in his opening remarks Wednesday, said that the casinos as currently designed do not meet planning and transportation needs for the long-term, he stressed that the workshop was not about re-location of the casinos, or about gambling.

“It’s not about use,” Steinberg said. “It’s about form” and how we as a city talk about investment in infrastructure and sustainability. “We’re not going to be taking sides whether these are good or bad developments.”

The morning sessions were broken down into four breakout groups to discuss transportation, urban design, ecology and sustainability.

Participants were issued a “civic vision matrix,” meant to facilitate discussion of specifics, with 10 goals broken down into detailed questions about the design and infrastructure of both casinos. If the questions were deemed in the negative, the chart further answers if the problem “can be fixed” or “can’t be fixed.”

“You’ll note that there’s a lot of ‘can be fixed’ in this,” Steinberg said.

Among the transportation subgroup, the discussion moved into not only the capacity and width of Columbus Boulevard (the location of Foxwoods), parking, parking garages and the possibilities of enhanced public transit, but also the future relationship between the casino and the big box retailers to the south, such as Ikea and Home Depot.

“We have the only waterfront Wal-Mart in America,” noted Cutler. “The whole thing was developed in a truly suburban fashion. For me, part of what needs to happen is that a.) we don’t make those same mistakes over and over again and b.) to see if there’s a way to mitigate it.”

Cutler and others in the group generally agreed that Foxwoods’ plans for re-working Columbus Boulevard would work in the near-term, but there was much concern expressed about ultimate goals for the area.

“They are prepared to make big investments, but they might not be the investments we want to see, long-term,” said Jeremy Alvarez, a traffic engineer with Center City-based Stantec Consulting, which has worked with the city on a variety of traffic and transportation issues. “How much are we tying our hands if we allow these investments to go forward?”

Cutler also reminded the group that Columbus Boulevard is the official, federally mandated “escape route” for Interstate 95.

The concept of a new light rail system, which would alleviate many of the congestion concerns, was talked about, but such a system is “10 years away and a lot of money” at best, Cutler said.

PlanPhilly will continue to update this developing story as well as bring you video out-takes of the conference.

Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com

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July 30 / By Thomas J. Walsh Experts in transportation, sustainability, infrastructure, ecology grapple with merging near-term realities with long-term goals.

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July 30, 2008

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Why we need civic engagement

mgolas — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:21:19 -0400

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March 31

By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly

Over the last 18 months, the city has had a case of “civic engagement” fever. The symptoms are a rash of Sharpie-wielding facilitators, an outbreak of breakout groups, a yen for cold cuts and cookies, and contagious debates on the future of Philadelphia.

• PennPraxis asked communities to rethink what can be done on the Central Delaware Riverfront.
• Great Expectations sessions were organized by The Inquirer to figure out how to make us the next great city.
• Multiple city agencies and organizations led Green Plan discussions on how to improve the environment.
• The City Planning Commission set up a circuit of Imagine Philadelphia roundtables as the first phase in drawing up a new comprehensive plan.

And there are more requests for your presence coming down the pike. Anyone with a mind to share an opinion has had a choice of soapboxes and a variety of willing ears.

But what is behind the recent spate of invitations and concern for public input? Just how much longer will people show up before they sink into civic engagement fatigue? And why does the city seem so damned democratic lately?

Athens, Rome, Philadelphia

Coordinating the civic engagement programs for both Great Expectations and PennPraxis has been Harris Sokoloff, director of the Center for School Study Councils at the University of Pennsylvania. Sokoloff traces the framework of that work to the senates of Athens and Rome.

“In every decision-making process we have where people come together in some sort of equal terms, we use some form of deliberative model,” going back to those early republics. “The tools we’re using are different; the ideas are still the same. It’s still a matter of: people get together, find a way to identify the issues, what the pros and cons are, the different ways of understanding the issues and the different forms of action, and use that in the decision-making.”

As in ancient Rome, “power politics” always play a part, Sokoloff adds, but there are ways to keep the process transparent and the public an important partner.

Beverly A. Harper traces her involvement in modern civic engagement to the early 1970s. Harper is founder, president and CEO of Portfolio Associates Inc., the agency that managed the series of Imagine Philadelphia meetings held in neighborhoods around the city over the winter.

Back in the ‘70s, Portfolio Associates conducted a study for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that examined how and where citizens could become involved in the transportation planning process. The agency surveyed the 50 state transportation departments around the country, then took an in-depth look at four departments’ experiences with civic engagement.

“We found that in the Boston area there was almost a billion dollars in projects that had been stopped because of public involvement,” which occurred at “a very late stage in the projects,” Harper said.

“Involving the public early in a realistic way – and realistic means letting them know all of the different factors that will go into the decision-making – does help a project have a smoother development,” she said. “If you involve them early enough and know the kinds of issues and concerns that they have, you can do things to mitigate some of those concerns.”

Civic involvement programs continued into the 1980s, according to Harper, then trailed off for the next 10 years or so. The resurgence in Philadelphia is the result of several factors, she said.

“I think that part of it has to do with federal guidelines related to the National Environmental Policy Act,” the 1970 measure that required federal agencies to prepare Environmental Impact Statements before taking action and then sharing the information with the public. “Many government-funded projects and public agencies use those guidelines to identify the projects where they need engagement,” Harper explained.

Another reason for greater public involvement is governments’ limited funds and resources, she continued. “So one of the ways to help identify what should be done, and how it should be done, is by engaging citizens.”

The third factor is increased sophistication on the part of the citizenry, Harper believes. “Thanks in part to the Internet, they can find out what’s going on. When there are things they don’t like, they know how to get involved and who they should be contacting.”

Sokoloff’s plunge into the deep end of civic engagement came in 1995, in partnership with Inquirer editorial page editor Chris Satullo. Each year Sokoloff and Satullo took on a new topic that included civic engagement initiatives, from national to local issues, on everything from health care to the needs of a particular school building.

Over the past year, their collaboration on Great Expectations was part of a larger effort, the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, which also included the Delaware waterfront project led by PennPraxis executive director Harris Steinberg. Sokoloff, Satullo and Steinberg had worked together four years before on the attempt to find a developer and the right development for Penn’s Landing.

Sokoloff said the civic trend is due to the realization on the part of government leaders and agencies that “those who must be involved in supporting or solving a problem or challenge ought to be involved in naming and framing the problem, and in helping to find a solution.”

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, for example, recently acknowledged that he can’t do anything without the support and involvement of other people, Sokoloff said.

“The leaders can no longer say ‘do this’ and it happens,” he said. “Issues are too complex; the solutions are too complex. Everything requires adaptation. …It requires a different kind of citizen involvement and engagement, and that’s why you’re seeing all these community forums.”

The Right Model

There are many models for conducting civic engagement, Sokoloff said, and he doesn’t claim to have the best one, “though we try to make it better and are constantly revising it.”

In too many cases, the process takes the form of an expert- or advocate-driven discussion. “An expert gets up in the front of the room, makes a presentation, and has a question-and-answer period. Or there may be a group of people who have developed an agenda and all they want to happen is for all the people to bless the agenda,” he said.

Liz Gabor, a real estate manager at the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, was a participant in two civic engagement efforts in recent months. The Imagine Philadelphia session, she said, was an “organic” interchange in which neighbors were asked to brainstorm solutions to city problems. “People were imaginative and came up with very good ideas.”

But Gabor said her experience in the Great Expectations did not seem as productive. “We were told, ‘read this report and comment on it.’ It was too guided.”

Another participant in both the Imagine Philadelphia and Great Expectations sessions found them equally constructive. “I heard similar comments at each meeting and a consistency in what people were saying,” said Jo Ann Desper, a senior consultant for a healthcare services company. “They were both good, open forums.”

Public involvement means more than meetings at which participants offer opinions and possible solutions, Harper said. “That is one tool that you can use to get reaction and input. There are lots of others that can be used,” including surveys, focus groups, and online interaction.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is in the midst of a public outreach effort for its long-range strategy, entitled “Connections – The Regional Plan for a Sustainable Future.” An online survey is underway through the end of March that will help refine planning in the areas of transportation, land use, economic development and the environment. The survey will be followed by planning exercises, focus groups and public workshops.

The public meetings have dimensions beyond surveys, Harper said. They serve as an educational tool that shows participants how the next person thinks, and they provide “directly and subtly an empathy and understanding of the position that the agency or organization has in trying to come up with a plan, knowing that everyone is not going to be of one mind.”

Those differing views are a vital component of civic engagement. A diverse group of participants is a primary goal in calling the meetings. “I was very pleased with the diversity of the Imagine Philadelphia sessions,” Harper said. “It was diverse in lots of different ways. The meeting in West Philadelphia had lots of young people, and I thought that was terrific. In the Northeast, there were lots of Eastern Europeans, but they were from different ethnic groups. I’m very happy with the cross-section we achieved” over the course of the nine citywide meetings.

Sokoloff also seeks a diverse group of participants. “The idea is always to make the group as inclusive as possible – by gender, ethnicity, race, and different levels of expertise,” he said. “The more diversity, the richer the conversation.”

While different viewpoints are sought, the civic engagement sessions organized for Penn’s design department or the meetings for the City Planning Commission did not specifically invite developers to the table.

But they would not have been turned away, either. “For Imagine Philadelphia, we wanted to hear from ordinary citizens,” Harper said. Developers may have attended, but they would have probably been there in their roles as residents. “The only people we explicitly invited by letter were elected officials.”

In the Central Delaware engagement process, separate meetings were held with developers to gather their input and expertise. “That’s where you say, ‘We’re going to have a closed session with developers.’ And when you do that, you let people know you’re doing it,” Sokoloff said. “It is a matter of transparency, but I like to think beyond transparency to co-production – the idea of experts working with citizens.”

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Even an engaged citizen may need to rest his voice occasionally. To prevent civic exhaustion, Harper suggests more collaboration among agencies. Portfolio Associates is currently undertaking public research into two projects – one looking at ways to ease traffic congestion on the west side of the Ben Franklin Bridge and the other exploring an extension of the PATCO line along the waterfront – with a combined questionnaire and meetings that will ask stakeholders about both issues.

“This is to recognize that people’s time is valuable. I think we need to do a little bit more of that,” she said. “So that you’re not asking the public to come out too many times.”

A more serious problem arises when organizers of civic engagement create “unrealistic expectations about how much say people will have in a project. I think it’s something you have to repeat early and often – that this is just one of the factors you use in the decision-making process,” Harper emphasized. “I think it is incumbent upon organizations who are managing this process to be truthful with people about what their involvement is going to mean.”

There must be an implementation mechanism in place, she said, to show participants their input had a result. If there is no implementation, “I think that hurts other efforts,” she said.

The new Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Charles Ramsey, conducted his own form of civic engagement, a round of six town hall meetings in the six police districts, when he took office earlier this year.

“The commissioner had said he wanted to get the public’s input for developing a plan for Philadelphia,” explained Lt. Frank Vanore, of the police public affairs department. “He knows about policing, but he didn’t know Philadelphia. He was following a format he did in Washington, D.C., where he held town hall meetings to create his strategy.”

According to Vanore, Commissioner Ramsey took notes at every meeting in Philadelphia and shaped a plan to fit each neighborhood. The result? “Some of those things the people said went verbatim right into his plans.” The commissioner’s Crime Fighting Strategy was then posted on the police department’s website for town hall participants to read.

Every municipal or regional issue does not require public involvement sessions, Sokoloff said. “You don’t want to do it with every decision. … You’d get stuck. You don’t have time to do it all. There’s so much that has to be done quickly.”

The problems that require the most “citizen adaptation” are those that call for citizen participation, he said.

But keeping the public engaged through rounds of meetings is “a real challenge,” Sokoloff said. “It’s a possibility that they will get fatigued. I think it’s less likely to happen if what comes out of the engagement – the action steps, policies, proposals, whatever – is responsive to the citizen voice.

“The minute you engage the public in this kind of conversation, you have a responsibility to tell them what you heard, what you did with what you heard, and how what you heard impacted your decisions,” he said.

“People need to know their time is being well spent. They need to know they’re making a difference.”

Desper, the healthcare services consultant, hasn’t tired of civic engagement after participating in two projects. “The more of these the better, as far as I’m concerned. They are a wonderful example of our government working the way it should. They are opening up opportunities for what citizens want at a very basic level.”

Contact the reporter at alanjaffe@mac.com

Home Page Summary

Citizens involved in supporting or solving a problem must also be included at the get-go in framing and naming the problem.

Source

Written By

AlanJ

Publish Date

March 31, 2008

Abstract

Casino lawsuits' twists and turns

mgolas — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:05:55 -0500

Bio

Body

Foxwoods aeriel view

Jan. 29

Rendell calls council stance gutless

Casino-Free Philadelphia challenges the governor

By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

   Philadelphia still faces a lawsuit that was filed after its Commerce Department gave SugarHouse Casino a permit to build on riverbed land - even though the city revoked that permit last week.
   "We really think it's a moot point since we revoked the licenses," said Maura Kennedy, a spokesperson for Mayor Michael Nutter. The city filed a brief with the Supreme Court stating as much shortly after Nutter announced the permit decision Friday.
   But state Rep. Mike O'Brien - one of the cadre of local legislators who filed the lawsuit in late December, said the case is not about whether a permit exists, but who has the right to grant one. The legislature does, he says, and the city does not. The city disagrees.
   When making last Friday’s announcement, Nutter criticized the administration of former mayor John Street for its handling of the permit, saying errors were made and the decision was rushed. But Nutter's legal staff agrees with Street's -- and SugarHouse's -- that a 1907 law gives the city the right to make the call on riparian rights.
    "The city does have a right to decide, it was just done improperly," Kennedy said.

Sugarhouse aeriel view

Historically, the right to build a project the size of SugarHouse on riverbed land - also called riparian or submerged lands - has been granted through an act of the state legislature. But tradition holds that only a legislator representing the district where a project is located introduces that legislation. None of the local contingent were anywhere close to doing that for SugarHouse when the casino's attorneys found the 1907 law and applied to the City Commerce Department.
    The legislators and their legal experts maintain that newer laws - including the Administrative Code of 1929 and the Dam Safety and Encroachment Act of 1978 - override the old law.
"The initial cause for action no longer stands, (but) the overriding principle of law does," O'Brien said, and thus the lawsuit will go on.
    In another twist, SugarHouse officials are now using the lawsuit filed when their revoked riparian rights license was issued to argue that the license should stand.
"We have been advised by our legal team that the City’s action to rescind our submerged lands license is contrary to law given the pending litigation surrounding that license," said Greg Carlin, chief executive officer of HSP Gaming, the company developing the casino.
    Nutter anticipates the Commerce Department will take a second look at whether SugarHouse should have a license to build on riverbed lands. SugarHouse has 30 days to appeal the revocation, and that appeal would launch the process, Kennedy said. She said there would be at least one public hearing.
SugarHouse executives don't think they should have to appeal the revocation, because they believe the permit should stand. They filed a brief with the Supreme Court detailing these arguments.
Spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker said SugarHouse has not yet decided whether it will file an appeal, anyway. "We're exploring all of our options," she said.
   Philadelphia's other proposed riverfront casino, Foxwoods, may also find itself in a riparian rights battle - even though officials say they do not need to build on the submerged lands.

   Foxwood's changed its original proposal by pulling in a promenade, and so, officials have said, they no longer need riparian rights.
But some state and local leaders disagree.
In fact, the very day that Nutter announced SugarHouse's submerged lands license had been revoked, City Councilman Frank DiCicco introduced city legislation that would give Foxwoods the zoning it needs to build. But DiCicco's proposal contains several conditions that Foxwoods must meet first, and one of them is that they are granted riparian rights, via the state legislature.
DiCicco's spokesman Brian Abernathy said last week that Foxwoods first proposal, which required riparian rights, was a better design and the one that was approved by the Gaming Control Board.
   Abernathy predicted that Foxwoods wouldn't like the conditions on the proposal, which must make it through committee and then be read twice more before city council before it could be adopted. He was right.
Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said in written statements that the riparian rights condition and the others are unlike anything that council has demanded of a zoning applicant up to this point, and therefore unlikely to hold up in court.
   "We believe very strongly in our legal position, and we believe the City will have a difficult time in abandoning the position it has consistently taken in this case and in its last two filings with the Supreme Court," she said.
   It was the Supreme Court that gave SugarHouse the zoning it needed, saying that the city had intentionally stalled for too long. That ruling prompted DiCicco to submit the zoning proposal, in hopes that the city would retain some power in the matter. The zoning is necessary before Foxwoods can move very far, because the zoning permit is a prerequisite of others. Foxwoods has not received any of the permits it needs yet, but "we're working with (the state's Department of Environmental Protection) to determine the appropriate permits for our project," said Garrity. Foxwoods is also working with the city's water and sewer departments, she said.
   O'Brien believes even Foxwoods' amended plan actually requires riparian rights. Regardless of what happens with City Council, if Foxwoods begins construction without securing riparian rights, O'Brien pledged to seek a restraining order and file a lawsuit "as soon as they put a spade in the ground."

Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com

Home Page Summary

Foxwoods and SugarHouse keep legal departments busy with issues of riparian rights and city council precedent.

Source

Written By

KellieP

Publish Date

January 29, 2008

Abstract

New day for the Delaware

mgolas — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:10:20 -0500

Bio

Body

Nov. 14

By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly

A new vision for the Central Delaware waterfront, forged over 13 months in more than 200 collaborative, occasionally contentious civic meetings, was formally introduced last night with dramatic flare and some compromise on the most disputed elements.

Inquirer coverage
Metro coverage
Daily Pennsylvanian

The proposal to bury a section of I-95 was softened by less drastic options. The dense riverfront street grid was proposed with a nod toward developers’ concerns. And the casinos, the hottest issue, were plotted on the plan – and then dissolved on an alternative map.

The audience of about 1,200 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center cheered the proposals and offered a standing ovation to the concluding video fly-over, a time-warp that transformed the current waterfront into an active, thriving scene of green spaces and well-balanced development and communities.

Public reaction

Approval for the plan, which was coordinated by PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the design department at the University of Pennsylvania, came from nearly every front. Mayor Street lauded the process for engaging the river ward communities and taking on a challenge that has eluded the city for decades. Michael DiBerardinis, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, called the Civic Vision “meaningful and important.” Riverfront developer Bart Blatstein said the plan is “a great start.”

Dissenting voices in the audience condemned any allowance for casinos, intermittently disrupting the presentation by PennPraxis executive director Harris Steinberg, who has guided the Civic Vision through several combative meetings. Outside the Convention Center, a six-foot skunk urged people to wear clothespins to show their displeasure with the Foxwoods and SugarHouse sites.

A panel of government, business and community leaders were invited to respond to the presentation, and they lent their support to most aspects of the plan. But there was a clash over the issue of funding a major I-95 reconfiguration. Rina Cutler, deputy secretary at PennDot, warned that an estimated $10 billion needed to depress the interstate at Penn’s Landing would be hard, if not impossible, to raise. Mayor Street disagreed. Initial response to large projects is always negative, Street said, but “there is plenty of money” if the public says “this is the priority.”

Overall, the evening was upbeat, congratulatory, and very hopeful.

Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose constituents’ fears of waterfront gaming sparked his suggestion that the city create a master plan for the Central Delaware, said the unveiling last night was “the highlight of my political career.” He thanked the William Penn Foundation for providing more than $1.6 million for this first phase of the waterfront process. He also credited Street for signing the executive order in October 2006 that charged PennPraxis with leading the effort.

The mayor noted that “plan after plan failed” to make the best use of the 13-acre parcel on the Center City riverfront. “The thing that should distinguish this report from other studies is you,” he told the audience last night. “We never had this kind of community engagement” in the process before, and “what will deter it from sitting on a shelf is you not letting it happen.”

With just over 50 days left in his term, he urged that the plan more forward with the formation of an organization that will take up the banner and “ensure that this work has not been done in vain.”

Steinberg then took the podium to present the culmination of his team’s year-long labor in an eloquent, 30-minute sales pitch. With archival, contemporary and conceptual images of the waterfront beamed on two screens flanking him, and on screens in an adjoining hall for the overflow crowd, Steinberg emphasized the historical and regional context of the Central Delaware -- from William Penn’s arrival, through the riverfront’s industrial dominance, through the traffic-jammed state of things today. The initial question was, “how do we create a framework for growth?” he said.

PennPraxis conferred with elected officials and every civic group with a stake in the waterfront so that the “pinheads from Penn,” as he heard one resident describe his team, “would not impose their image on the waterfront.”

The planners relied on the values expressed by residents in that series of meetings, and on the best practices for riverfront redevelopment accomplished in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Hoboken. “Man, if we can’t beat Hoboken,” Steinberg laughed.

What the Philadelphia team came up with was three frameworks based on movement, open space, and development.

Movement refers to connections across and beneath I-95 to the river, a street grid that replicates the feeling of Center City life on the waterfront, and a north-south urban boulevard.

A reborn Delaware Boulevard, the “spine” of the riverfront, would mean keeping a six-lane avenue for now, but eventually “skinnying up” the current road to allow for a light-rail or other mass transit line down the center.

The street grid would recall the 17th-century template designed by William Penn “which has guided our identity,” Steinberg said. “We need to think about extending that to the river,” not only to disperse traffic, but also as “the connective tissue” that links land parcels.

The audience applauded the Civic Plan’s suggestion that Septa and Patco lines be linked on a reinvented waterfront. Water ferries and water taxis are also part of the plan, as opposed to a Camden-Philadelphia tram that links the two cities.

Turning to the high-profile proposal of burying I-95 to reclaim the Penn’s Landing area, Steinberg offered a conciliatory tone. “Is there a way to sink it? I don’t know. There is lots more study to be done. It is something that the plan doesn’t live or die on.

“But if we don’t start thinking about it,” he said, “Philadelphia will miss the boat to capitalize on that potential.”

The open space framework in the Civic Vision foresees “a great lawn” at Penn’s Landing, “a great democratizing element of the city.”

Frankford Avenue and Spring Garden Streets were presented in artist’s drawings transformed into pedestrian-friendly green streets of trees, blooming medians, and bike lanes. The string of parks and open spaces along the Delaware would “do work,” Steinberg said, filtering stormwater and pollutants, and creating wetlands, wildlife habitats, tidal gardens, and a healthier city and river.

Land development along the water, and specifically how casinos fit into the plan, has been “the most contentious part of this project,” Steinberg said,

“Not an option!” an audience member shouted.

“Yes it is!” responded another.

“Bull----!” answered the first.

Acknowledging the debate, PennPraxis provided two options for those sites on the waterfront plan, with and without the casinos. But Steinberg said the issue is “not about what is there. It’s about how the buildings relate to each other” and surrounding streets, and whether they allow access to the waterfront.

Other development issues should be addressed through zoning code reforms, according to the Civic Vision. The street grid plan must be codified and buildings must “meet the street line,” with retail, commercial and “life-affirming” uses, Steinberg said. Tall buildings should be staggered along the landscape to ensure “everyone has light and air and views of the river,” he also said.

There is a place on the river for big-box development, too, so long as it is “done more gracefully,” Steinberg said.

The presentation ended with the video, reminiscent of the 1964 World’s Fair ride that looked ahead to the city of the future. The audience was remarkably silent as it was given a glimpse of what Philadelphia could become 50 years from now. When it ended, they rose and applauded the vision.

In an official response to the plan, DCNR secretary DiBerardinis, a 30-year resident of Fishtown, said the unveiling of the plan was an “important event for Philadelphia.”

A century ago, he said, Pennsylvania stood at a similar crossroads, with its forests decimated and streams polluted by the Industrial Revolution. But some leaders had a vision for the commonwealth that helped save its ecosystems. “We are in a similar moment in this time,” he said. Conservation and sustainable communities will become policy imperatives, and “cities that imagine a waterfront like this are the ones that will succeed,” DiBerardinis said.

“The plan is right. The economy of the future will be built around efficiency and sustainability,” he said.

To make it happen, the city must build on the collaboration of the community, DiBerardinis continued. There must be consistent city leadership to shepherd the plan forward, and it must move from a vision to a detailed planning process. Strategic investment must be made and leveraged through the local, state and federal governments, he said. And “early victories” should be implemented “so people can see the reality.”

Inquirer columnist Chris Satullo moderated the panel discussion that ended the evening, posing his own questions and those from the audience.

Blatstein, of Tower Investments, said “planning is not the enemy. The enemy is lack of planning.” He said the Civic Vision has been a “marriage of planners, developers and communities.”

Blatstein also said there should be no gated communities along the waterfront and there should be open and free access to the river.

Cutler, of PennDot, who was among the supervisors on Boston’s Big Dig project, said Philadelphia should not become too focused on a large I-95 reconstruction. “If we spend years debating if it is possible to bury 95, we will miss the opportunity to rethink what else exists there.”

A better choice, she said, might be improved public transit on the waterfront. Because of funding limitations, “we may have to make those choices,” she said.

Mayor Street said an ambitious 95 redo can happen. “It will not happen unless we say this is the kind of investment we want from the local and federal government,” he said. That will require the support of surrounding counties, who must also see that a revived city waterfront will benefit their residents. “The biggest deterrent is perceived regional differences,” he said.

Steinberg said the next steps in the process will be “early action projects,” such as the blazing of a bike trail from the Pier 70 neighborhood to Penn’s Landing, the restoration of riverfront wetlands, and the release of an implementation guide in the spring.

“This is the very beginning,” he said.

Alan Jaffe is a former Philadelphia Inquirer editor. He can be contacted at alanjaffe@mac.com

Home Page Summary

PennPraxis and Central Delaware Advisory Group present <a href="/vision" target="_blank">Civic Vision</a> for Philadelphia's waterfront. Public <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUxB6quu7wU" target="_blank">reaction</a>.

Source

Written By

AlanJ

Publish Date

November 14, 2007

Abstract

How is administration's team measuring up?

mgolas — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:08:29 -0400

Bio

Body

Deputy Mayor for Planning and Commerce, Andrew Altman

Sept. 5

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

Changes implemented by the Nutter administration to the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Adjustment are all well and good, but developers at this week’s local Urban Land Institute breakfast at the Union League seemed to be somewhat hesitant about the pace and scope of that change.

“I think that’s normal, given the interaction between government and money,” said Andrew Altman, deputy mayor for Planning and Economic Development, when reached for comment after the meeting. “I’ve been on both sides of that. There’s understandable concern. Any time there’s change or uncertainty, people are concerned. I think it’s a healthy part of the dialogue. I thought it was a good meeting ... a healthy discussion.”

Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities and one of the other panelists for a session moderated by Center City District czar Paul Levy, said she hopes a long-term infrastructure plan will be in place a year from now, but that the Planning Commission had essentially been “privatized” over the years. “The government needs to take the planning piece back,” she said.

That was at the start of the discussion. Cutler seemed to mollify the crowd, well populated with commercial real estate brokers, lawyers and private developers, with an off-ramp to the hour-and-45-minute discussion: “The goal of planning oughta be action, not planning.” Those were the last words of the morning.

In between, there was interesting back-and-forth between a pleasantly blunt Carl Primavera, the 30-year veteran real estate and land use attorney from Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg & Ellers LLC; Altman; and Cutler. (Altman is also the city’s Director of Commerce).

Growing pains
Given the national political rhetoric of the past fortnight, I hate to say it, but the word “change” was in the air at the breakfast. As in: It’s not easy.

Levy employed his usual efficiently eloquent and realistic litany of the pros and cons of the regional development situation and an acknowledgement of the tough credit markets that exist nationally. Locally, he called the current situation “a very, very interesting and challenging time for our city and region,” and that we have a mayor who is implementing the kind of reform that most of the people sipping coffee in the room in front of him had been seeking for a long time.

“We have what I would call the challenge of change, which is precisely because the Nutter administration is involved in the restructuring of government that we asked them to do,” Levy said. “That is, in putting the pieces together differently, there are new uncertainties. Many, many people did not like the old rules, but they understood how to play the game. Right now, new rules are being written, and they’re not fully codified. And so there’s some uncertainty about how things will work.”

That breeds a certain amount of unease across the board, Levy said – not necessarily a negative thing.

“The difference that I see is that there is a huge amount of public interest and media interest in the campaign commitment from the mayor on planning and zoning.” Primavera said. “We’re hoping to perfect the process that will define and implement the vision for the city. The question is this: Is the process an end in itself? We don’t think so.

“If the process is transparent, and predictable and efficient, and yet people in the community are not happy with the results of that process, will they still be happy and content? Will the process just be a way of saying that we didn’t like some of the decisions made in the past, so the process will be the cure-all for that? That remains to be seen.”

The good news for Primavera? Nutter’s early executive appointments have been fantastic, he said. Cutler and Altman smiled.

Answering Primavera in the Q&A portion of the program, Altman said that no, the process was not meant to be an end unto itself. “We’re trying to move through those major transactions, we’re trying to make those fixes in the process.” The mayor’s demand that Planning be restored to its proper role has been already evidenced by several major projects presenting “information only” public presentations before the commission, Altman said – a “way of early vetting” to prevent the city from being an obstacle as plans move along.

And another thing
The traditional concept of “councilmatic prerogative” has been “the bane of a lot of mayors and a lot of developers,” Primavera said. “If the councilperson from the district doesn’t want [a given project,] the mayor and the colleagues on City Council are helpless, so they say, to do anything about it.”

Nutter promised to do something about it, Primavera said, and he’s going to hold him to it, because it’s just the tip of the iceberg concerning disparities created by City Council as a wedge between it and the Zoning Board, and vice versa. These systems of containment have created mistrust among community groups, multiplying them and emboldening them, he said. The hope is that the new “process” will create an unimpeachable vetting mechanism, wherein even if a decision is wildly unpopular, at least the residents will know that “they should not continue to fight, that in effect, democracy has worked. … I’ll just say, ‘Let’s stay tuned to that.’”

But even with community support and conditions perfect, it has still been problematic, from “inclusionary housing” to big box retail, he added.

Likewise, Primavera said that the PennPraxis plan for the central Delaware River waterfront, sans a “rigid, austere approach” is welcome “as long as it’s flexible and as long as it tries to accomplish something, and not just be a plan for its own sake. But let’s stay tuned on that.”

Change, infrastructure, vetting, and bridges (to Nowhere and beyond)
Cutler lamented a lack of maintenance perspective on all levels of government, a problem that worsens by the day, especially in the current economic environment. You’d think after a catastrophic, fatal bridge collapse in a big city like Minneapolis, she said that people would pay attention, but no.

She asked a favor of the developers and builders on hand. While the new administration has generated a lot of excitement, there is still a profound lack of resources available for the city’s biggest projects, like fixing roads, bridges, rail lines and other services often taken for granted.

“As folks try to figure out how to piece deals together and how to keep financing together, we’d like you to at least recognize that we are under the same financial constraints as all of you,” Cutler said. Outlining her myriad responsibilities (including traffic congestion, emergency response, balancing priorities), “I assume at the end of the day, if everyone is a little bit unhappy I’ve probably done it right.”

The upside is that long-term transportation and aging infrastructure are finally being tied to a newly established city Sustainability Department, she said. “We are back to thinking about transit in a way that I have not heard in a very long time.” Cutler has been a senior executive for PennDOT and the Parking Authority, with forays as the head of transportation and traffic for the cities of Boston and San Francisco, respectively.

The role of Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, she said, “has a very different role than in previous administrations.” Now, operating groups for the city’s transportation and utilities departments are directly under the deputy mayor’s purview, a very different structure, she said. “Within that realm for me is the Streets Department, the Water Department and the airport.” In a secondary role, her “sphere of influence,” is PGW, SEPTA, the Parking Authority, relationships with the Philadelphia Port and the Delaware River Port Authority. “Having influence matters a lot. Conversation and trust really need to be re-worked.”

That goes for the regional authorities, too, she said. “There is nothing in the world of utilities or transportation that does not cross county lines. The roads don’t stop at the end of Philadelphia; the water and sewer systems don’t stop.”

In particular, transportation policies at the federal level are “in flux completely, and really, they will have a long-term bearing on what happens in the next decade with transportation infrastructure,” Cutler said.

For all our differences, we are all Philadelphians
Being a good partner with the private sector means bringing the vision together, Altman said, for coherence and clarity on how decisions are made, resources coordinated, the direction the city is headed and what kind of service and information is being made to the public. Cutler and he face the challenge of meeting Nutter’s vision while “fixing the basics.”

“We have something like 170 business permits,” Altman said, adding that he still does not have a road map for fundamental city functions. “That needs to be collapsed and reduced, simplifying government and making it easier to do business.” Uniform steps for the development process, reliable yes-or-no timeframes and an online presence are a few things to start with.

An official city Office of Business Services is one of Nutter’s ideas that will be rolled out shortly, Altman said. Employees would not just give referrals, but actually be caseworkers, guiding developers and other business owners through the process.

“We’re going to have a new wave of development in the city in the next five years if you look at what’s happening with the expansion of the Convention Center ... the Barnes, the Jewish History Museum, the new Please Touch Museum ... there are a significant number of major institutions” that are part of the “repositioning” of the city in the near-term, Altman said.

Partnerships – such as a new agreement with Temple University to help with their expansion plans and take advantage of the growth to benefit the whole city (a deal also to be announced soon), only make sense with this kind of anticipated volume, he said. “Leveraging and maximizing” the opportunities is the key, and in terms such as those, with some frequency, there was no doubt to his claim that he’s been on both sides of the planning and development divide.

Employer-assisted housing is one item on a checklist of many, he said. Actual, meaningful public-private partnerships make things happen. And marketing. According to Altman, a native but living and working elsewhere for 20 years, Philly’s inferiority complex is evidently alive and well, like a trick knee: “Wherever I go, the first thing they do is bad-mouth Philadelphia. It’s unbelievable. We have to change that image. The mayor is the best asset – [he’s] an incredible salesperson for this city.

“Internationally, we have a presence with international institutions – Temple, Penn – we’re all over the world. We need to exploit those opportunities.”

Altman honeymoon over?
People have been talking about Andy Altman since his arrival six months ago, but only over the past two weeks have there been some questions asked about his workload, and a possible perceived conflict-of-energy between his jobs as the city’s head of planning, economic development and commerce.

Three senior planning and economic development specialists, all of them independent of each other and all of them asking not to be named, said they believe Altman is doing a fine job so far, but that perhaps he has too much on his plate.

Unattributed sources have their place, but not really in this context, so we gave Altman the choice if he wanted to address it. If not, well – no name, no airtime. But he didn’t hesitate.

“Lots of cities do this,” he said of his multiple duties. “It’s not unusual to have planning and economic development under one [person]. We’re also in a start-up mode of operation. I think a lot of that is going to change in terms of balance, because you’re going to have [current vice chairman] Alan Greenberger at the Planning Commission [as the new executive director, starting in November].

“In terms of concerns about, can you do planning and economic development, absolutely,” Altman said. “Particularly if you have someone as strong as Alan coming on board who is going to run the Commission.” That means “I’ll be able to focus a lot on commerce and the economic development side of the equation.”

Altman is unsure if he’ll stay on as chairman of the Planning Commission once Greenberger takes over, and indeed Greenberger has taken over many of the commission’s meetings since January, when Altman was either not present or called away, during the meeting, to beat feet back to City Hall for yet another meeting where the mayor wanted him present.

“Look, it’s a big agenda ... It’s a broad piece of the government that you’re rebuilding. A natural part of the start-up is building your team, but I don’t think there’s a distraction between commerce and economic development.”

He said that on Thursday, for instance, there was an important milestone for the South Philadelphia Produce Market move, which required a large amount of time and moving parts. “It’s not as if projects’ aren’t getting done, or not getting announced. I haven’t found that there’s a conflict.”

The Unisys sign dust-up (which came up at Thursday’s ULI meeting), he said, is not the result of diverted attentions, either. Rather, it was normal community opposition to plans by the business community, which – in this case – he and Nutter found unfortunate. “But that’s not a reflection of [not] focusing your priorities, because we’ve put a lot of time and energy into that.”

The denial of the sign by the Zoning Board of Adjustment was a reflection of things running as they should, he said, not a lack of focus – though the episode could well end up in a change of language for signage in the new, developing zoning code, he told the audience. Altman said they’ve been talking and meeting with officials from Unisys regularly since the decision, including Thursday. He cited other examples of the Commerce Department’s current priorities that have not grabbed as many headlines or involved a company’s international headquarters, but were significant nonetheless.

During his address to the ULI crowd Thursday, he said Nutter’s deputy mayor structure was working well, “particularly in my case ... to look at systems that have been disconnected and to try to connect them, so you have the planning world, the permitting world, the economic development world and the workforce world, which all kind of existed – even within them – in sort of parallel universes.”

Everyone seemed to know exactly what he meant.

Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com

Home Page Summary

Nutter's reform agenda around planning and commerce is creating a response that is both hopeful and cautiously critical.

Source

Written By

Thomas J.W

Publish Date

September 5, 2008

Abstract

Postcard from China!

mgolas — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:57:45 -0400

Bio

Body

Across the river in Shanghai (photo above), the Pudong district is an ever-growing financial center that hosts many new skyscrapers, namely the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Sept. 4

By Fred Kunda
For PlanPhilly

BEIJING – During the four short years between my summer visits to Beijing and Shanghai in 2004 and 2008, China changed dramatically in many ways: physically, culturally – even politically. Fantastic new structures now dot the skyline in many cities.

Thousands of new visitors and foreign businesses have appeared on the landscape. Even the Beijing government appears to have to eased its television and cyberspace censorship.

Inside the Grand Hyatt Shanghai: "The Tallest Hotel in the World." This is the breathtaking 33-story atrium between the 53rd and 87th floors of the Jin Mao Tower.

The effect of the Olympics on Beijing was overwhelmingly apparent. “One World, One Dream” and other Olympic slogans were painted, plastered, and posted everywhere. Whole buildings were covered in banners glorifying the spirit of international sports.

Every light post from the airport to downtown Beijing (even along the entire two-hour highway drive out to the Great Wall) had an Olympic message on it. There were special Olympics-only commuting lanes throughout the city to make athlete and media transportation a breeze. The city morphed into an architectural wonderland of exciting, modern buildings – including many that were not built four years ago.

Beijing spent over 40 billion dollars (see BBC news http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7523235.stm) on the games – more than was anted up during the previous five Olympiads. While much of this outlay was used to produce the Games, a significant portion created sustainable development: new subway lines, more hotels, redone apartment complexes, extensive roadwork and fantastic arts/sports venues.

A picture of the Jin Mao Tower taken in 2004. The building looks like it belongs to the Galactic Empire in Star Wars.

In 2004, I was a 17-year-old Radnor High School student lucky enough to get an “insider’s tour” of China. I traveled with my best friend and his family and saw things that many tourists on their more structured journeys never come across.

My friend, Ben Zhang, a junior at Conestoga High, was visiting family all over China. We stayed in Beijing, Shenyang, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Shanghai – squeezing a little Great Wall in between.

Instead of hotels, I stayed in homey middle-class apartments. I rarely ate in restaurants that were not filled entirely with locals – and with unfamiliar local cuisine - or watched television stations other than those run by Chinese Central Television (CCTV). At times, we were grouped with throngs of tourists in Beijing and Shanghai as we made our way through the must-see attractions.

Other times, I would not see a single foreigner for days in cities like Shenyang and Xiamen. The attention I sometimes drew, in Shenyang for example, was literally as if I was dancing down Market Street naked on a Tuesday afternoon. Needless to say, it was both unsettling and awesome.

This 480+ meter monster is the Shanghai WFC. Four years ago, the neighboring Jin Mao Tower was the tallest in the PRC at 420 meters.

I also got my first glimpse of China and its rapid rise as an economic and political powerhouse. The growth rate was staggering. In Shenyang, I looked out the window and saw more cranes than I could count. KFC and Starbucks were everywhere (even inside the Forbidden City). Throughout all of this, I would watch China winning gold after gold in the Olympic games of Athens.

I knew they would soon become an even more potent sports juggernaut.

The largest outdoor LCD screen in Asia. We stumbled across it on Dongdaqiao Road when we were looking for a good bar to watch some USA v AUS basketball.

This August, however, was different. Ben invited me back for the XXIX Olympiad and I witnessed some stunning transformations. Of course, many things looked familiar and I was cursed with déjà vu almost every day. But Beijing had changed – a lot. The city is a cleaner than I remembered. The streets seemed wider, the traffic more organized, the buildings more pristine, and of course, the skies were blue and air was clean. Even more impressive were the bold, new structures all over Beijing and Shanghai. The CCTV Headquarters defies gravity. The Grand National Theater looks like a lunar colony. The creative and bold design of the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube are now known around the world. Shanghai’s new World Financial Center now ranks as the tallest in China and third in the world after Burj Dubai and Taipei 101 (neither of which are completed). None of these structures had even broken ground four years ago.

Pudong, Shanghai from the riverbank at night.

However, not all of these changes are grand and majestic. The blitzkrieg progress can leave you with an impression of sterility and excessive commercialization.

The Beijing apartment building I spent most nights in, with units worth roughly $1.5 million dollars, was hardly occupied. The two-month-old and strategically-located Qianmen shopping street (right next to Tiananmen Square) is still filled with mostly gray, unoccupied facades. Obviously, there are growing pains.

Another example of a psuedo-Chinese style architecture in a modern format. On the facade is a massive screen.

Crowds of Chinese hug the railings in a mall to watch one of many giant screens showing 24-7 Olympic games coverage.

While I don’t intend to trivialize Beijing’s raze-and-pave tactics to prepare the city for the games, the foray onto the international stage got some bad neighborhoods cleaned up, turned old industrial complexes into parks and world-class sporting grounds, improved existing transportation infrastructure, and created a fantastic airport (more like a spaceport) that I can only hope we see the likes of in Philadelphia by 2050.

CCTV Headquarters / photo by http://beijingman.blogspot.com

Fred Kunda is a senior majoring in Marketing and minoring in History at the College of William & Mary. He spent the last semester studying abroad in Seville, Spain. Contact him at fwkund@wm.edu. To see more pictures of development in China, click here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/FredKunda.

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Fourth in a series: How Beijing and Shanghai transformed the public infrastructure in the four years prior to hosting the Olympics.