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Call#: In Process In Process
By Mark Bowden
Once more, SEPTA is on the ropes. It faces a $130 million budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, and unless the state finds a way to plug the hole, services will be cut and fares increased.
In other words, business as usual. Mass transit gets short shrift most places in this country, but nowhere is the political deck stacked against it more deliberately than in Philadelphia. This despite the fact that the city is blessed with a transit infrastructure that would be prohibitively expensive to build today, is being used by about a third of the city's commuters (a percentage that is inching up), and is . . . you guessed it, gradually rotting away.
This article examines the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), Mayor John F. Street’s plan to revitalize Philadelphia’s distressed neighborhoods by issuing $295 million in bonds to finance the acquisition of property, the demolition of derelict buildings, and the assembling of large tracts of land for housing redevelopment. Despite its resemblance to the discredited urban renewal programs of the past, this plan offered real potential for reducing blight by leveraging substantial private investment at a time when public subsidies
for affordable housing and community development have been steadily diminishing.
However, NTI did not promote equitable development that might have fostered broader support for an inherently controversial plan. Moreover, Street’s initial leadership in proposing this bold initiative was followed by a reluctance to promote NTI aggressively after it was adopted in 2002. The result was a watered-down effort that achieved some goals but has fallen short of what might have been accomplished.
| Posted on Thu, Oct. 26, 2006 |  | |
| Involving public in waterfront plan Harris M. Steinberg is executive director of Penn Praxis, School of Design, at the University of Pennsylvania | ||
Mayor creates group with community reps to oversee development
By MARK McDONALD
Sure, the high-rise condos along the Delaware River are either being built or are well along in development, and two giant casinos are vying to locate at water's edge. But Mayor Street, who touted river development as one of the city's critical needs almost three years ago, says that despite the hot real estate market along the Delaware River, it's never too late to develop a master plan for the waterfront between Allegheny and Oregon avenues.
"We don't think the horse is out of the barn," Street said yesterday before signing an executive order creating the Central Delaware Advisory Group, a body heavily laden with community and business organizations.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 12, 2006
Architect named as new Phila. planning chief
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"As we move forward with plans to redevelop and revitalize our riverfronts along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, we need the expertise and guidance of the Planning Commission," Street said in lauding Woodcock and her decades of experience in Seattle, Boston and Portland.
Kenney, DiCicco: Zoning, planning need new look
The councilmen say codes and systems are out of date. They want to set qualifications for appointees.
By Kera Ritter
Inquirer Staff Writer
City Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco plan to introduce legislation today that would revamp the city's zoning and planning systems, which they say are too outdated to be effective.
The legislation would set qualifications for mayoral appointees on the City Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Adjustment and give the Planning Commission more time to review projects. The councilmen also want to have a public hearing on fees paid by developers to help the community.
The Next American City
PHILADELPHIA: Gambling on Philadelphia's Future: Can Casinos Fit into a Big City Downtown?
by Joanne Aitken, Harris Steinberg, and Elise Vider
The mission of the Design Advocacy Group is to provide an independent and informed public voice for design quality in the architecture and physical planning of the Philadelphia region. Our goal is be proactive as well as reactive; effective as well as thoughtful; critical as well as constructive. We want to create an unparalleled voice for design, a group whose opinion on the quality of our environment is sought after and whose contribution makes a difference. We are a group drawn from a broad spectrum of disciplines, comprised of motivated individuals who are routinely engaged in matters of design, development and planning and who are not afraid to speak out.
The city needs a plan—desperately.
by Gwen Shaffer