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Preservation
Preservation
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
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
May 14 By Matt Blanchard
For PlanPhilly
A sneak peak at GreenPlan Philadelphia reveals that the plan is extremely green indeed. In the works since 2006, this parks and recreation planning effort won’t deliver a final report until the fall. But on Wednesday, GreenPlan director Robert Allen offered some early highlights that, if carried out, would mean a block-by-block transformation for much of our city in the next twenty years.
GreenPlan school yard "before and after" That other sort of green – funding – remains an open question. But few doubt Philadelphia needs such a plan. While the city has plenty of green space, it’s concentrated in Fairmount Park and Germantown, which enjoys 34% tree coverage. Elsewhere, in places like South Philadelphia and Kensington, the lightly treed streets will be sweltering again this summer with under 2% coverage. To correct this, improve real estate values and hopefully reduce energy costs and crime, GreenPlan’s 2028 goals are breathtaking: • Plant 995,000 new trees to get Philadelphia’s tree cover up to 30%, double its current coverage, the lowest of any major east coast city. Baltimore already enjoys a 29% cover and is headed for 40%. New York is aiming for 26% in the next ten years.
• Create 4,000 acres of new parkland (a 33% increase) primarily in underserved areas.
• Green 100 school yards (37% of total)
• Green 50% of all city streets (over 1300 miles) with a tree every 30 to 40 feet.
• Ensure all Philadelphians are within walking distance (1/2 mile) of a trail. No green for trees As with so many other measures of municipal health, Philadelphia’s tree planting picture is grim: Portland, Oregon, for example, is one third the size of Philadelphia yet budgets $14 million for tree planting each year. We spend just $300,000. In an era where “green” solutions are being found for everything from cars to carpets -- and where “green roofs” and “green buffers” are reducing energy use and air pollution – Philadelphia streets are actually experiencing a net loss of trees. “The city spends 4 to 5 times more on tree removal than they do on planting,” says GreenPlan’s Allen. “That’ll give you some sense of the tree situation in Philadelphia.” Allen says his team ran a modeling test on one square mile of South Philadelphia. Simply by raising the area’s shade cover to 30% -- his citywide goal – Allen claimed residents would save $1.1 million in energy costs each year. The effect on property values, he said, could be even more dramatic: The total value of all real estate in the study could rise by $121 million. Philly vs. Trees It all sounds like a win-win. Who doesn’t like trees? Yet observers were quick to point out that trees don’t come cheap. Once a tree goes in the ground, some human must care for it with occasional watering, pruning and the sweeping up of leaves. GreenPlan appears to rely on a hefty helping of community volunteerism, which some said won’t work. “We can’t even get the property owners to maintain their trees,” said Marion Johnson, legislative aide to Councilwoman Marian Tasco. “Community groups would like to do it, but they don’t have the wherewithal.” Developer John Westrum raised a slightly more bizarre obstacle to greening. For his recent 230-unit town house development in South Philly, Westrum planted more than 500 trees – only to see dozens ripped out by residents. “We put them in the ground, and they pulled them out and sold them!,” Westrum said. “These were $300 trees. But only about a third are still in there because [residents] wanted their back yards for something else.”
Contact the reporter at blanchard.matt@gmail.com
Previous PlanPhilly coverage of the green infrastructure Mayor Nutter addressed the Zoning Code Commission on Wednesday, stressing again his campaign pledge to make zoning and planning a top priority. “The fact that only about six people in the city understand the zoning code is a problem,” Nutter said. “We cannot continue to operate in the dark ages with this code.” 
He also vowed again to restore the Philadelphia Planning Commission to its 1950s reputation as a model for planning agencies across the nation. The visit was mostly a social call: Nutter shook almost every hand in the room before speaking. But the mayor also cracked the whip just a bit, calling for the group to hire an executive director. Despite its daunting task, the ZCC still has no support staff. Nutter said he wants to review candidates soon and make a hire by the end of this month. In other Administration news: Nutter appointed Mark Alan Hughes Director of Sustainabilty. See news release.
May 15
A.D. Marble report
By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly Local historians, preservationists, archaeologists and neighborhood activists say the history of the SugarHouse Casino site is in jeopardy because the federal agency that is supposed to safeguard it has lost control of the process. This group - all consulting parties advising the Army Corps of Engineers as it considers SugarHouse's Clean Water Act permit - has asked the Corps to immediately stop the latest round of archaeology that began at the site Tuesday morning because the Corps did not approve the work plan. They also believe that as advisors, they should have had the opportunity to review the plan before digging commenced. "I am deeply concerned that the Corps would allow work to proceed according to a plan they neither reviewed nor authorized," said Douglas Mooney, a consulting party and president of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum. But the Corps says it has acted properly, and its approval was not needed for the supplemental digging being done by SugarHouse's archaeology consultant, A.D. Marble. The digging is being done in response to a March letter from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The Corps has the ultimate decision-making power - it can decide to grant or deny a permit regardless of what its advisors say. But when it comes to historic preservation, it receives guidance from the Commission. "The applicant did not seek our approval for their latest proposal to do certain archaeological investigations," wrote James Boyer, the Corps biologist who is in charge of the permitting process, in an email to PlanPhilly. "An approval or permit from the Corps would not necessarily be required for such study. Generally, if it is being done in accordance with PHMC's wishes as well as normal archaeological standards, we would not object if PHMC felt the work was appropriate." This roils consulting party Hilary Regan, a member of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association. "It is the duty of the Corps to review the proposed scope (of work) and determine if it is proper," she wrote in an email to Boyer. "Furthermore, the Corps, in conducting this review and prior to any decisions, must seek input from the Consulting Parties." Boyer said the Corps has not asked SugarHouse to stop the archaeological work, which was expected to take only a few days. Regan referred Boyer to a section of the Code of Federal Regulations, which says the permitting agency, in partnership with the State Historic Preservation Office (in this case, the PHMC), shall determine the scope of the historic preservation work. http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2004/julqtr/36cfr800.4.htm
The current digging is aimed only at recovering artifacts or remnants related to a British Revolutionary War fort that once sat on the Delaware Avenue site, and addresses only a portion of the PHMC's March letter.
The consulting parties remain unconvinced that the PHMC approved of the scope of the work. "We are in agreement with what they are doing," said PHMC spokesman Kirk Wilson. But as of Thursday, he said, it had not received a copy of A.D. Marble's work plan, and so Wilson could not comment on the document. Wilson was not certain if the PHMC had given Marble its approval in a less formal way, and referred the question to Mark Shaffer, an archaeologist with PHMC's preservation office. PlanPhilly missed a phone call from Shaffer, and has not yet been able to connect with him. Mooney said he has reminded Boyer that they have "the sole responsibility, and the sole legal jeopardy" for the process. "What you want to have is a concrete plan where everybody knows what steps are to be taken, and in what sequence, so there is no mystery about it," Mooney said in an interview. The result is distrust, he said. The consulting parties wonder if their participation in the process was a waste of time, because the current archaeological work plan does not reflect any of their concerns, except those that were also shared by the PHMC. Many of the consulting parties, including Delaware Nation preservation officer Tamara Francis and Penn Treaty Museum director John Connors, are deeply concerned that ancient Native American artifacts will be left behind. Delaware Riverkeeper Maya VanRossum wants more digging to discover the historic shoreline of the river - so does the PHMC, but the current digging plan does not address this. Kenneth Milano believes the archaeologists should look for evidence of Batchelor's Hall - an old social club to which many noteworthy Philadelphians, including John Bartram was a member. Bartram may have planted his first botanical garden there. In an email to PlanPhilly, Boyer said that more archaeology is likely, and that it would be done with the guidance of the consulting parties. "It is expected that the current process will likely ultimately result in a detailed plan or agreement for moving forward into another phase of archaeology, which would include data recovery (sometimes called "Phase III")," Boyer wrote. "This would not take place until we have considered the comments already received as well as the applicant's responses and whatever plan they propose for moving forward. All this would be closely coordinated with PHMC, as well as other consulting parties as appropriate when we feel that their further advice or comments would be beneficial." SugarHouse spokeswoman Leigh Whitaker said SugarHouse will do further archeological work if the Army Corps asks it to do so. Boyer has been swamped with emails from the consulting parties, and he sent them a group response that touches on the same points as the one he wrote to PlanPhilly. Mooney said the email he received gave him no comfort or confidence, because its language is too vague. "He just said things are going on as they are going on, and it will be sorted out later," Mooney said. "I don't think this is the right way to approach this …There's no guarantee in any of that that the consulting parties' concerns are going to be taken into account. On the one hand he implies that this is an initial round of supplemental testing, and there will be more to follow - but that's not certain." Mooney said he plans to ask that the consulting parties be taken on another site tour, so that they can see the work that has been done. Regan - and many others during the public comment period - have requested that the Corps hold a public hearing prior to making its final decision on the SugarHouse permit. The Corps has yet to decide whether it will do so.
Contact the reporter at kelliespatrick@gmail.com
May 6
By Steven B. Ujifusa
For PlanPhilly
The steering committee of the Design Advocacy Group has announced that Joanne Aitken, an associate at KieranTimberlake Associates, will replace Alan Greenberger as Chair. Greenberger is stepping down from the DAG role in order to take a new position as Vice Chairman of the City Planning Commission.
During a May 5 interview, Aitken explained how over the past six years, DAG has evolved from being a reactionary to a pro-active organization.
“When everyone first got together for DAG meetings, it was with a sense of frustration,” she said. “Community associations, government, and developers were all getting their say in building projects, but everyone was ignoring the design aspect.”
Aitken noted how unproductive it was for the Philadelphia design community to be left out of the development decision-making process. “Design needs a place at the table. As a design professional, if you find out what’s happening late, then no matter what you say, it can be perceived as obstructionist.”
Aitken feels that one of DAG’s great strengths today is how it leverages the tremendous talent of its individual members into collective action. “We no longer have to tell the public: ‘wake up people!’ When we started meeting, we got a lot of people together in the room who were intelligent and experienced. We could come up with amazing ideas. Our individual wishes can become a collective intelligence, and this is the big thing that DAG can contribute.”
Looking forward, Aitken wants to further increase the participation of DAG’s growing membership. “There is an active core that show up to the meetings each month,” she said, “but we have about 1,000 members on our email list. We need to figure out how to involve them more.”
Greenberger, the outgoing DAG chair, is extremely enthusiastic about his successor. “Joanne has had leadership roles in the community as president of AIA (American Institute of Architects) and as a civic activist. We thought she would offer good, steady, and visionary leadership to DAG.”
Bill Becker, a member of the DAG Steering Committee, echoed Greenberger’s sentiments. “Joanne is an outstanding professional who has very active participant in DAG’s affairs. She also writes beautifully. I think she will be a fantastic leader. She’s got great judgment and people skills.”
According to the KieranTimberlake website, Aitken has been an associate at KieranTimberlake since 2004. Her professional specialty is high education design, and she is currently working on major projects at Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is past president of AIA’s Philadelphia Chapter, and is on the architecture faculty of Drexel University. She received her bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis and her masters in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Contact the reporter at steven.ujifusa@gmail.com
View from Penn's Landing
May 1
Previous coverage
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly Philadelphia City Council gave final approval Thursday to rezoning sought by developers of the Stamper Square mixed-use project, proposed for the long-barren parcel that once was home to the failed NewMarket in Society Hill. The measure passed unanimously and without comment, and follows months of public debate and a review from the City Planning Commission, which gave Council an affirmative recommendation for what opponents call “spot zoning.” The ordinance allows the site’s height limit to be lifted and contains a one-year “sunset clause” and project-specific deed restriction, also urged by the Planning Commission that would revoke the new zoning should the development be stalled or changed. Marc Stein, owner of Philadelphia-based Bridgman Development, said construction should begin in November or December on the 1.5-acre property, located between 2nd, Front, Lombard and Pine streets. Financing for the project has not been finalized, but today’s approval should move that forward, Stein said. “We have union banks lined up for us,” he said. “Obviously, until we have approvals, we can’t talk realistically with anyone unless we have a project to build.” Stein is unconcerned about the current global credit crunch, and said a loan for a mixed-use project would be easier to come by than if it were a simple condominium development or a regular hotel. A 25-year deal with Starwood Resorts to operate the planned 150-room boutique hotel expires if ground has not been broken by the end of the year. The project has been controversial among residents of Society Hill, and apparently split members of the neighborhood’s active civic association. But Richard Lush, a vocal opponent of the project, said Thursday that the division was “a myth.” Lush provided members of Council with more than 20 pages of signatures from neighbors, saying they oppose spot zoning for the site, or any changes to the zoning there. He said it was a matter of historic preservation, despite the lack of a building on the site. “Our zoning code is what’s being preserved,” he said. “They say nothing is being destroyed, but our zoning is being demolished. The idea of spot zoning coming in and the site going C4, the same as Delaware Avenue with its high-rise condos, it’s antithetical to everything that created the highest residential values in the city.” Lush said he and several neighborhood lawyers were investigating avenues for lawsuits to halt construction, but provided no other details. Stein said the opponents have “put a burden on the process for other developers to come into this city. They are wasting taxpayers’ money here. Any time you give a variance to anything, it is [spot zoning]. We went through the process.” A parking spot for your support Stein also confirmed a matter that has been a consistent criticism of the project – that a few dozen residents were promised free parking spaces in exchange for their support. “Well, that’s the simple way of putting it,” he said. Residents with homes adjacent to the old NewMarket were deeded with parking spots within that old structure, he explained. Those residents were approached, “and we said, ‘You’re either for us or against us.’” “We could’ve challenged the deeds,” Stein said. “We thought it only fair” to reach out to the residents, given the two or three years that construction might be happening right outside their doors. He said 34 residents took the deal of a parking spot in exchange for support, with “four or five” declining. Completion of Stamper Square, if all goes according to schedule, is slated for late 2010 or early 2011, Stein said. In addition to the hotel, the plan calls for 77 condominium units. The design is a collaboration of the architecture firms H2L2 and Gensler. Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com.
April 10
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly About 60 members of the advocacy group Casino-Free Philadelphia took advantage of a balmy spring afternoon Thursday by trooping from the west side of City Hall to the South Broad Street offices of Gov. Ed Rendell. The protesters staged a peaceful 'debate-in' and sought attention for a new cost-benefit report they commissioned for the city's two proposed casinos. According to security personnel at 200 South Broad, nobody from the governor’s southeast office was in the building. Access to the elevators was blocked, but the demonstrators were allowed to hold mini-rallies on the sidewalk in front of the building and in the lobby. “It means the casinos can get into the governor’s office, but we can’t!” yelled one sign-carrying protester (“Democracy is a beautiful thing. Casinos are not.”). “We don’t have enough money to see him.” In lieu of the governor himself, protesters brought along a large papier-mâché Rendell head (the governor “is a puppet for the casinos,” some of the gathered shouted) as a target for their voiced concerns. “You can’t build a casino in a vacuum,” said Daniel Hunter, a leader for the group. “They accumulate the profits, but disperse the costs. It is not a straightforward economic engine.” The organization contends that “hidden costs” in the form of additional police, municipal services, reductions in property values, opportunity costs, regulation fees and other losses mean an annual net cost to the city budget of $52 million. That’s assuming roughly $75.8 million in benefits through host fees, increases in non-casino tax revenues and state-funded cuts via wage tax reduction. The total in the “likely” costs column is $127.8 million. In compiling the 21-page report, the organization used a “survey approach” by bringing together data from various sources, including the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Task Force, the Nutter administration, Hallwatch.org and Frederic Murphy, a Temple University economist. “It’s a little sad that we had to do it ourselves,” Hunter said. “What we’re doing today is asking Rendell to address the numbers,” said Lily Cavanagh, 23, a West Philadelphia organizer who has been working on the Casino-Free campaign for five months. The general sentiment among the protesters is that Rendell is the goat to Mayor Michael Nutter’s hero, especially after Nutter’s recent stated position that the city never had the power to grant the proposed SugarHouse Casino the right to build on the Delaware River’s submerged (riparian) lands. [ link: http://www.planphilly.com/node/2949 ] Hunter told reporters and the crowd of about 50 or 60 people a sobering story to illustrate his point about hidden costs. He cited a recent suicide attempt at Philadelphia Park, the horseracing track that is now a “racino” since it acquired slot machines in a room the size of a warehouse. Dispatching police to the scene starts the meter running, he said. Getting the patient to the emergency room incurs municipal costs, which increase when he is incarcerated. Subsequent court and trial costs run up the tab further, along with rehabilitation funded by taxpayers. “This economic social cost has been mostly ignored or minimized,” the report states, adding that the organization tapped the Chicago-based National Opinion Research Center for additional figures. Several Philadelphia Police officers from the Civil Affairs Unit were on hand in plain clothes from the beginning of the march. Lt. Dennis Konczyk said the Casino-Free group presented no problems during previous demonstrations. He and other officers helped to briefly halt traffic while the protesters walked along 15th Street and Walnut Street before arriving on Broad Street. Representatives from several neighborhood organizations were present at the rally, including Debbie Scoblionkov, a writer from Northern Liberties. “It’s terrible,” she said, her hand on her heart. “It’s just ... it’s my neighborhood.” The report is titled “You Pay Even If You Don’t Play,” and can be found online at: http://www.casinofreephila.org/node/936
Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com
April 9
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly
Rina Cutler, who knows her way around a traffic jam, is one of the city’s definitive realists. The former Philadelphia parking czar is now the deputy mayor for transportation and utilities. Wednesday, she related a pretty solid Philadelphia story.
In a cab from the airport, she got into it with a cabbie who didn’t want to take her credit card. Forget about SEPTA for the moment. Cutler, as everyone in this small conference room at the Four Seasons knew well, is not one to be trifled with. She’s to the point, to say the least. She argued with the cabbie. “I was thinking, I will get arrested, which would be front-page news ... or he’ll keep my credit card.” Instead, Cutler surrendered a business card. The cabbie deferred to her authority, and put through her credit card. It was a white-collar guffaw, sure. But the humor was in the imagination of those who have dealt with her. She had other stories – some funny, some not; some poignant, some just bureaucratic but gut-level germane.
Cutler, new deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, was a guest of honor at an event sponsored by the Urban Land Institute that brought together a roomful of developers, brokers, architects, planners and city officials. It was a late-day gathering introduced by Paul Levy, long-time leader of the Central Philadelphia Development Corp. (CPDC) and its better-known subsidiary, the Center City District (CCD). It was a time for upbeat prognostication, branded by a signature-quick Levy PowerPoint that left not much room to doubt Philadelphia – Center City in particular – as an inspired, rising metropolis. Tons of investment opportunities. Great office vacancy rates. Bubble-immune and steady and yeah, we lose some market share to the suburbs pretty consistently – so what? With her Philly-style humor, Cutler was surely not surprised that she was bad cop to prodigal son Andrew Altman’s good cop. Impressively, he is keeping to his own truth – in his first few months as new chief of planning, commerce, and economic development – that he knows relatively very little about how the city works, with its labyrinthine levels of Licenses & Inspections, Planning, departments of Streets and beyond. “I've been gone 20 years,” said Altman, who is in his mid-40s, speaking of his life in general, not his career. The first thing he noticed recently about his native city was the “remarkable transformation of Center City and so many parts of the city since leaving, that’s just incredible. It’s a testament to the Center City District and so many others.” He spoke of “vibrancy,” “expansion” and neighborhoods. Recently, he had been at 13th and Bainbridge and in the midst of Grays Ferry. “I remember these neighborhoods growing up and we wouldn’t have been driving through” with the mayor, he said. Altman said it took his leaving the city – to the likes of Boston, Washington, San Francisco and Jerusalem – “to truly appreciate Philadelphia.” Yet he still very much feels that negative vibe. Several times a day, maybe even 10 times a day, he hears this: “That’s Philly.” That’s this town, man. That’s Philly, bro. Yo, like’s what’s new, man? Cutler said she knows the feeling, and has the added experience of serving in Harrisburg, where the rest of the state likes to ignore the massive economic force generated from the five-county Philadelphia area. With an audible inhale, Cutler brought to mind Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men.” Altman, for his part – and this may have made a few shudder – said that the city right now makes him feel like a certain time in the history of Washington, D.C. When “urban life and urbanism and city-ness” fixed a downtown effort into a framed result. “It has to do with my own transformation,” Altman said, referring to the way he now looks at housing, parks and the pride he hears and feels from Philadelphians these days. “That’s why I’m here,” Altman said. “It really does feel to me like the stars are aligned right now.” “What I heard today was inspiring, but not surprising,” said Dana Spain-Smith, former owner and chief operating officer of DLG Media Holdings, which in February sold its stake in Philadelphia Style magazine and online publications DC Style and ACConfidential.com to a New York entity. Cutler, Altman and the rest of the Nutter administration “are not running” from the enormous expectations they have shouldered, Spain-Smith said. “For me, as a Center City resident and a business woman,” she said, “The change is exciting.” Ultimately, Cutler, said, everything comes down to infrastructure – transportation and utilities. Sure, the topic will not be front-and-center at next year’s Academy Awards. But, “You cannot do development without dealing with both of those infrastructure problems,” she said. Last year’s Act 44 in the state legislature, “breathed new life into SEPTA,” Cutler said, referring to December’s passing of the Pennsylvania Public Transportation Trust Fund, combining state funds into a single pool via state sales taxes, Turnpike Commission funds, lottery money and transit funding sources. “This is the first time that I’ve been here that they’ve not been under siege,” Cutler said about SEPTA. “It’s an astounding freedom SEPTA has not had before. For the first time they may have the breathing room to try to do some planning, and that’s a very big deal.” That said, the city’s bridges and streets “are woefully under-funded,” Cutler said. Roads “are in atrocious shape.” The upside? The city’s economic development, transportation and utility arms are walking in unison, Altman and Cutler said. Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmnail.cm
Previous conference coverage March 28
Mayors and representatives from four industrial cities which have similar problems associated with crime, housing, planning, regionalism and infrastructure talked about the potential that some best practice solutions they are trying will have in spurring growth and success. The well attended Morning with the Mayors session closed the three-day city planning conference that was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the gathering was titled, “Reinventing Older Communities: How Does Place Matter?” While moderator Michael Nutter covered a wide range of subjects in relation to commercial revitalization, one example of a small city (Stamford, pop. 123,000) and a large city (Philadelphia, pop. 1.5 million) with similar visions was the waterfront plan being undertaken by the southern Connecticut town. By creating a pedestrian friendly, accessible, mixed use development on 82 acres on Stamford's South End, mayor Dannel Malloy said the city would create a public realm of parks and waterfront that would feature six upland pedestrian connections. Following Malloy's presentation, Nutter spoke of his efforts to elevate the role of planning in Philadelphia, citing years of neglect from previous city leaders in strategic thinking for the city's built environment. Nutter has previously said transforming Philadelphia's waterfront will be a priority for his administration.
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