By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

Formal workshops between civic associations, CDCs, developers, city planners and members of the Zoning Code Commission will take place in January, backed by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects and with funding expected from the William Penn Foundation. FULL STORY HERE.

By Thomas J. Walsh

PHILADELPHIA – Contrary to popular belief and endless snide remarks from national sports commentators, Philadelphians are not, for the most part, rude. But they also won’t back away from a fight very easily, and despite some long-sought movement on the building of two slots halls here, a three-year-old anti-casino movement has been growing – and seems to be gaining some staying power.

Known as a “city of neighborhoods” with individual pride of place and rivalries, Philadelphia can be as NIMBY as the next town. However, dozens of groups – started by of a handful of people initially opposed to specific casino locations – have now banded together, forming the “No Casino in the Heart of the City Coalition.” They’ve even rented out a storefront on Market Street, a block from Independence Hall.

On September 29, 14 members of one of the first groups, Casino Free Philadelphia, staged their first serious act of nonviolent civil disobedience, camping arm-in-arm on the sidewalk at the front entrance to the SugarHouse Casino, which was undergoing the first stages of construction after years of delay.

Click here for part 1 of the 5-page article.

Click here for part 2 of the 5-page article.

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

David Belt, at Community Design Collaborative; Oct. 30, 2009

“Just do it” and “easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission” were the orders of the day from David Belt, the provocative guest speaker and designer from Brooklyn. Teams focused on schemes for Kensington and Chinatown, where plans are a couple years away.

FULL STORY AND PHOTOS HERE

By Thomas J. Walsh

Siena's Piazza del Campo at night. October 2009.

For PlanPhilly

SIENA, Italy – It’s not the pizza; it’s the piazza that makes Italy Italy. The town center gathers and disperses. It is forever open, changing only with the centuries. A chip here and there, but on the whole, the same.  And anybody up for some stickball?

FULL STORY AND PHOTOS HERE.

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

With the public input phase of the Zoning Code Commission’s efforts to re-write the city’s antiquated zoning code well underway, architects, architecture critics and at least one developer took time Thursday to examine one possible aspect of the new code. It’s an idea that has been gaining momentum as well as a bit of controversy: a new Design Review Committee that would be a part of the city’s Planning Commission.

FULL STORY HERE.

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

The Point Breeze and Gray’s Ferry sections of southwest Philadelphia, riddled with urban decay, declining populations and an increasing vacancy rate, were re-certified as officially blighted by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission Tuesday.

The agency also approved new design guidelines for the North Delaware Riverfront Greenway (to be a part of the East Coast Greenway system), approved amendments to the fiscal year 2010-2015 capital program and the fiscal year 2010 capital budget and gave the go-ahead for two neighborhood redevelopment projects.

FULL STORY HERE (with videos of meeting).

Governor's Island, New York City

An “urban-planning Rorschach.” Wish we had thought of it first, regarding the re-do of Penn’s Landing. But here we’re referring to Nutten Island, a.k.a. Governors Island, a 172-acre anomaly in the mouth of New York Harbor profiled in the Aug. 31 issue of The New Yorker by writer Nick Paumgarten.

The place sounds less like our Petty’s Island than our Navy Yard, with its former off-limits-to-the-public nature, its stately old residences, ghost town ambiance, military bearing and location at the foot of the city between two rivers. It is a seven-minute ferry ride from the South Street Seaport or from Brooklyn – about the same amount of time it would take you to drive from Washington Avenue straight down Broad and into the Navy Yard.

Paumgarten has some interesting things to say about the designs in waiting, and the zeitgeist marrying green ambition with urban re-use, “the kinds that involve the clever transformation of dilapidated postindustrial wastelands or garbage dumps into useful and conscience-easing recreational space.”

READ FULL TEXT HERE.

A Friday afternoon in the park, August 2009.

Photos copyright 2009, Thomas J. Walsh

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

Lost in all the recent talk about the Reading Viaduct – the elevated, abandoned railroad bed that slices through the city from Vine Street northeast to Fairmount Avenue – is that if things had gone a certain way a decade ago, the City of Philadelphia would already own the property.

What’s more, Reading International Inc., the California-based movie theater and real estate company that is the ancestor of the Reading Railroad, wanted to give the city between $2 million and $3 million to take the property off its hands, say veteran economic development professionals who were with the city’s Commerce Department at the time.

…Meanwhile, the highly touted, highly publicized High Line in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood has already served two big roles for Philadelphia’s own version of a possible elevated park in the sky.

FULL STORY HERE.

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