South Philly Review

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Over the next decade, if everything goes according to plan, the City of Philadelphia, its residents and visitors will witness a transformation along seven miles of the Delaware River from Oregon Avenue in South Philly to Allegheny Avenue in Port Richmond.

Among the top priorities outlined by PennPraxis, a group of students and faculty from the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania who work in architecture, public art, planning and the like, are making the stretch accessible and enjoyable as a green space. Planned for the water's edge are trails, parks, extended public transit and a greenway, which is a corridor of land that will be preserved or used for recreation.

When Joann Schmidt learned about what was being developed, the 11-year Queen Village resident was ecstatic, especially in light of failed attempts to revitalize the space in years past, including the multimillion dollar proposal by the Simon DeBartolo Group Inc. -- the nation's largest publicly held real estate developer -- to build an entertainment complex in 1997.

"Being able to tie the Delaware riverfront to the rest of the city has been such an issue," she said. "It would be great if they had a solution. Not enough people go down there."

The biker who rides the Schuylkill River path to Valley Forge would surely be the first to hit the starting two miles of the trail that will be close to her home at Second and Queen streets. The ribbon is one of the initial phases of the plan. Over the next decade, 10 objectives have been set under categories such as setting a new course, enjoying the river, getting there and cleaning up -- each of which includes ways to beautify the land and bring people to its shore.

"I would much rather see a greenway and trails than retail," Schmidt said. "I think it's better for the entire city -- tourists and citizens."

Schmidt said although it's not a problem for her, she can see how people would have trouble accessing the banks with hot spots for traffic and hindrances to the water in I-95 and Columbus Boulevard.

Rene Goodwin, a board member for the Pennsport Civic Association, agreed.

"A lot of people have viewed I-95 as an incredible barrier. It has never deterred me or the people who lived or grew up here, but there are lots of things that can be done to improve accessibility," the member of the Central Delaware Advocacy Group (CDAG), which was created by PennPraxis and is comprised of representatives from more than 15 civic groups affected by the plan, said. "I think it's sort of an idea whose time has come. If we let the waterfront continue to be developed piecemeal, there will soon be nothing left to develop.

"People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. The history of the waterfront has been an example of that. Now we have a plan to be really committed and do whatever we can, even if it's small steps to bring it into the community."

PennPraxis' plan was explained at a meeting at the Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Blvd., last Thursday. Mayor Michael Nutter was on hand, announcing the immediate reformation of the 26-member Penn's Landing Corp., the nonprofit that was in charge of the area, into the Delaware Waterfront Corp. Nutter said he would appoint a board within 30 days with the goal of taking the focus off Penn's Landing and putting it onto the whole riverfront in addition to making the meetings public and providing up-to-date information on the group, which will assume all of the old body's duties.

"I want things to be open. I want to remove as many back rooms from City Hall as possible," he said to the crowd of about 500.

According to published reports, in 2005 the Penn's Landing Corp. held a secret, two-day session where a decision was made to lease public land to investors seeking a casino license. Leonard Ross, an associate of then-Mayor John Street, is serving a 30-month prison term for using his role in development deals at Penn's Landing to collect campaign donations for Street.

That same year, a group of city-planning students from Penn were chosen by the Street administration to analyze the city's waterfront along the Delaware and propose a redevelopment strategy. They worked with the Philadelphia-based planning-and-design firm Wallace Roberts and Todd, who completed a conceptual plan for the same area two years prior. Eventually, Penn's students took over from the firm completely.