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  #181  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2009, 1:52 AM
philadelphiathrives philadelphiathrives is offline
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Originally Posted by cwd22 View Post
The Richard Allen Homes have done the same thing to Poplar. While Northern Liberties and Fairmount have once again become thriving urban neighborhoods, Poplar remains stagnant and crime-ridden (relative to the aforementioned neighborhoods). Imagine North Broad Street between Center City and Temple if it was flanked by solid neighborhoods...
Instead we have two neighborhoods that generate a lot of tax revenue, one that sucks it back up, and a desolate street that should be one of the city's main commercial corridors.
Actually, the neighborhoods around the Richard Allen Homes have been starting to thrive since the rebuilding, which just finished up a couple years ago. I think the depressed nature of these neighborhoods were because of the projects themselves, and the poverty and crime within them, not lack of density.

The Richard Allen and Cambridge Plaza redevelopments have dramatically reduced crime in Poplar, which now is mostly isolated to the four blocks of Richard Allen along 10th Street that were not rebuilt and a couple of old convenience stores left over from the past. The lower end of Poplar is seeing steady development of middle class, market rate housing, at a faster pace than the very densely populated neighborhood of Francisville to the west of Broad.

The new Richard Allen and Cambridge Plaza developments are intended to be safe, affordable neighborhoods for working class families, and that's basically what they are. They may not be exciting, but they are no duller than much of Fairmount or parts of Northern Liberties. They are economically strong enough to lead to the retail revitalization that's starting on North Broad and Spring Garden Streets and are safe enough that drunken Temple students would actually walk through them at all.
     
     
  #182  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2009, 8:47 AM
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Chatting about Poplar, the neighborhood would get a real boost in the arm if somebody can redevelop the old Divine Lorraine. One of the main issues of this neighborhood and Francisville(?) across Broad is that Broad Street remains stagnant and underdeveloped. A real pity, too, because I've walked along this portion and there are still some fantastic late Victorian and early 20th-Century structures along it. Making it a historic district and a retail district, especially for the sorts of inexpensive (and more expensive) things college students tend to get would greatly improve its appeal.
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  #183  
Old Posted Aug 1, 2009, 1:59 PM
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Counterpoint.

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Originally Posted by theWatusi View Post
I think I didn't state my position clearly enough.

1. I'm for Philly Live! and the money it will capture from people attending sporting events.

2. I'm against the zoning board spending a lot of time reworking the "stadium district" to allow for residential/TOD when there are other parts of the city more in need or revitalization.
Well, I get what you're saying: North Philadelphia needs help with planning- but I'd argue more so with economic development. It's a sentiment that can be argued for a lot of Philadelphia neighborhoods (hello southwest Philly). That aside, the planning commission is charged with reworking zoning, which includes TOD designation, for the entire city. Philly Live! (< spare me with the exclamation point) is getting a lot of publicity because of where it is, and the type of investment from hotels and shopping it will garner; a fact that is not lost on the city. Ensuring that the influx of this new development is attractive and congruent with the city's long-term strategy for making Philadelphia a green city (i.e., walkable & ecologically sustainable), is indeed a pressing issue.

North Philadelphia doesn't necessarily have that kind of urgency. The need for preventing mass teardowns (to build strip malls) and the desecration of urban neighborhoods with suburban-styled houses faced with vinyl siding, is real, but North Philadelphia does not require the re-mapping of an entire area and rethinking of massive parking mandates.
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  #184  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2009, 3:54 AM
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I noticed that the Divine Lorraine got a brand new peice of graffiti on it's north side. Says "Save the hood" or something like that. And the other day I saw an encouraging sign of life on North Broad. There were a couple of guys with a mic and some speakers set up outside of a clothing store rapping (not well, but still) about the products the store carries. Unfortunetly their wasn't much pedestrian traffic to draw in, but anything to add to the street life on North Broad is nice.
     
     
  #185  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2009, 7:33 AM
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So anyway over the last coupla days me and a (female) friend (from Chinatown) who shares the same major as me have gotten to talking a lot about the Reading Viaduct...It's a crying shame that there's so little community support--or even community awareness--about the idea of turning it into a trail. So what do two Temple GUS majors do?
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  #186  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2009, 12:38 PM
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Chinatown NOT opposed



photo credit: UCReview

from here: http://www.ucreview.com/default.asp?...review&he=.com


Philadelphia’s possible "hanging gardens"

By Mark Brakeman | 05.AUG.09

Cutting a wide swath through northern Center City, the abandoned Reading Viaduct stands as an intractable ghost of training’s glorious past, but a small band of preservationists are trying get it to move on to a new dimension.

Spurred by talk of destroying the old railway, Sarah McEneaney and John Struble got together in December of 2003 to create the Reading Viaduct Project (RVP) to save the railway from demolition and to turn it into a park instead. They spoke to residents of the area to learn their views on the idea and began taking them to look at the site.

McEneaney said their first step is to gain ownership of the land the railroad sits on. Even Mayor Nutter, who expressed interest in the project to McEneaney, chimed in with that advice.

Currently Reading International owns the land. The company develops, owns and operates cinemas in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Reading International currently owns, operates, or has an interest in 286 screens in 44 cinema complexes. Calls to Reading International for a comment on this matter were unsuccessful.

Michael DiBerardinis is currently the city’s director of Parks and Recreation was asked if he could support the RVP effort. He said it sounded like something the city could get behind, but not during the current financial crisis.

The cost to create a park, however, would be much less than wiping the viaduct off the streetscape.

McEneaney said, however, that some residents of Chinatown, through whose neighborhoods the viaduct passes, are against the Reading Viaduct Project.

However, Helen Gym, a board member of Asian Americans United (AAU), said AAU is in favor of the idea of something happening to the Reading Viaduct. Gym said while more housing in Chinatown is of primary importance in the neighborhood; AAU is in favor of something happening to the long dormant Reading Viaduct.

The two efforts, she said, are not mutually exclusive, but she added AAU would "like to see a more detailed investigation" of the needful the site’s renovation and the plans to do so.

Flanked by abandoned factories and warehouses, a restored viaduct would help restore the neighborhoods it runs through, McEneaney said. "If Viaduct Park [were to be built], these old buildings would be renovated. It’s a perfect [opportunity] for investors."

North of Ridge Ave., the viaduct passes by blocks of abandoned buildings. Architect Louis Chang of the Philadelphia architecture and design firm Fish Tank, said, "The only way for that [area] to get activated is for [the viaduct] to get activated." Chang, who is originally from New York, said the international competition that was held to gain ideas for the design of the High Line should be repeated here for the Reading Viaduct Park redesign. That competition drew international input, he said, adding that such an effort here would get more people involved.

He said the blocks around New York’s High Line had been dilapidated but began to rebound when the park was formed. "It’s like ‘if you build it, they will come.’ It’s not even a question."
     
     
  #187  
Old Posted Aug 9, 2009, 1:49 PM
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render credit: The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

August 06, 2009

Campaign to Complete the Schuylkill River Trail Comes to Montgomery County

The Bicycle Coalition is hosting a public meeting on August 20th at the Montgomery County Planning Commission to make a presentation about the Complete the Schuylkill River Trail campaign. This campaign is an effort to raise public awareness about the potential to build and finish critical gaps and connections that exist in the trail in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The meeting will run from 7-9pm at the Montgomery County Planning Commission, on the second floor of One Montgomery Plaza, across the street from the Montgomery County Courthouse at 425 Swede Street (intersection of Swede and Airy Streets) in Norristown. You'll have to sign in at the information desk in the front lobby.

The program will feature a presentation about the Complete the Trail Campaign, a Q&A, followed by an open discussion about other Montco SRT issues, such as public safety, cleanups, etc.
     
     
  #188  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2009, 3:03 PM
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...

Quote:
Originally Posted by bucks native View Post
Currently Reading International owns the land. The company develops, owns and operates cinemas in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Reading International currently owns, operates, or has an interest in 286 screens in 44 cinema complexes. Calls to Reading International for a comment on this matter were unsuccessful.
What a fun match it could be, imagine a portion of the RVP that is sectioned off where they show first run movies outdoors throughout the warmer months? The city skyline off in the background--state of the art AV system--you'd have to pay of course for a seat--everyone else could just stroll up to a fence and watch from the park path...

Why does a cinema operator own rundown real estate in PHiladelphia--was it a spinoff of the reading rail company?
     
     
  #189  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2009, 3:33 PM
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Reading International is all that's left of the former Reading Railroad.

According to their website they own 317 acres of former railroad property in PA.
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  #190  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2009, 3:19 PM
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The New South Street Bridge

Here are drawings of the Option chosen for the South Street Bridge. I also posted this on the Philly VII.



Daytime View


Night View
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  #191  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2009, 5:43 PM
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I like the fact that the bridge seems to be bike and pedestrian friendly. The renderings look nice, a little better than I expected.
     
     
  #192  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 6:22 PM
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http://weeklypress.com/default.asp?s...ypress&he=.com

Quote:
Chinatown leaders favor destruction of the 'Chinese Wall'
By Mark Brakeman


Chinatown is bursting at the seams, and its rallying cry to find room for its growing population could be "Go north, young man."
North after all, is the only way to turn since all other options for spreading the neighborhood’s boundaries re blocked by the Gallery on the South, the Convention Center on the west and Franklin Square Park on the east.

In its quest for new, affordable housing, the neighborhood’s leaders are looking beyond Chinatown’s traditional boundary north of Vine Street. Already, new residences have been built near Ninth and Vine in what civic leaders are calling "Chinatown North," but full development of the area is stymied by the presence of the hulking, abandoned Reading Viaduct.

John Chin, executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC), said that the overhead railway – which in its day carried trains to points north and east of the city – slices diagonally across developable parcels of land, making building on them impractical.

In addition to expounding affordable housing north of Vine Street, Chin also said PCDC wants to spread Chinatown’s business sector in the area.

"That’s really, really hard with the Viaduct there."

He said the PCDC proposes to have the Viaduct razed between Noble Street to Spring Garden Street. It’s the section that would most hinder development of Chinatown North. Besides, most of the remaining railway rests the on support of solid rock rather than more easily removable steel I-beams.

That option would keep intact two sections of the current structure: one piece between Vine and Noble and another from Spring Garden to the Viaduct’s terminus at Eighth Street and Fairmount Avenue.

First, though, the property must be acquired from its owner, Reading Entertainment, an owner and operator of movie theaters, before anything can be done to or with the trestle.

Chinatown is not the only group with designs on the future on the Viaduct, though. A group calling itself Friends of Viaduct Park would like to see the structure kept where it is but with an urban park developed atop it.

But one person’s playground is another person’s elephant in the living room. Andy Toy, a longtime advocate for Chinatown’s interests, said the feeling in that community about the Viaduct is "tear down that ‘Chinese Wall.’"

Sarah McEneaney, one of the founders of Friends of Viaduct Park, said "there is so much vacant land in the area, there’s plenty of room for development and the park."

She said her group supports the construction of new housing but feels part of the area’s renewal should be a park.

Chin said the controversy over the future of the viaduct boils down to "the basic needs of the community versus an amenity…. That’s the debate for me."

He also bristles at the notion of non-residents of Chinatown pushing projects that affect development in his neighborhood. Chinatown has for years withstood the municipal government directing development on Chinatown with its own development projects (such as the commuter rail tunnel that replaced the viaduct’s service, the Vine Street Expressway and the Pennsylvania Convention Center), he said.

But non-governmental influences are a new twist on an old story than Chin has a hard time accepting. "With all the things the [city] government [has done], we never thought other neighborhoods would tell Chinatown what its best interests are. I find that offensive."

A park atop the viaduct as it now exists, Chin added, would not be accessible from the ground, only from a few buildings that abut against it.

"I don’t think that’s family friendly."

The discussion over what to do with the viaduct has been conducted without considering the needs of the people of Chinatown, he added. "There’s a disconnect to the people of this community. That’s very bothersome to me."

He is also concerned about the very unsafe shadowy area beneath the viaduct. Development of the area, he added, would drive out the drug activity and prostitution that exists there now.

Chin said the financial deterrent to razing the entire viaduct would not apply to PCDC’s proposal. A 2004 study of the practicability of destroying the viaduct found that removing the entire structure, from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue, would cost $35 million. But demolition of just the section PCDC recommends would cost only $9 million, he added.

With the city trying to find additional sources of revenue wherever it can, Chin said, one part of the solution is encouraging community growth.

"If the city is such dire straits for revenue, this is the way to do it…. If we develop homes, the government would benefit from real estate and wage taxes."

Chin said PCDC was started in 1966 (and incorporated in three years later) in response to the city’s plans to demolish houses in the neighborhood to make way for the SEPTA underground rail tunnel.

The trend of the loss of pieces of the neighborhood for development projects continued more recently with the construction of the Gallery at Market East, the Convention Center and the Greyhound bus terminal at 10th and Filbert Streets.

"The city took away a lot of houses and land," Chin said.

Toy, who is also the executive director of the Business Enterprise Center, said that although PCDC understands the need for developments, the CDC wishes planners would consider the needs of Chinatown when considering projects in their area.

"The neighborhood is tired of the government telling us what to do," Chin said.

Normally reserved Chinatown was given a boost by the youth movement in the 1960s, and that helped PCDC assert itself, according to Chin.

With the nationwide rise in youths themselves becoming more accepting of different ethnicities ands lifestyles and to push the country in the same direction, young people began to move into the neighborhood, the PCDC director said.

The ideals of the youth movement of that era also began to spread to the community, he continued.

"Chinatown got caught up in the civil rights movement." Contrary to older residents’ idea that you can’t fight city hall, he added, younger people thought you could and should do so.

"If that had never happened, we wouldn’t have the Chinatown we have today."

But life is not easy for much of the neighborhood, he said.

For instance, 38 percent of Chinatown families live at or below the poverty level, and versus a city-wide home ownership of 50 percent, in Chinatown the figure is 15 percent.

Chinatown today, said Chin, is not just a neighborhood, but the hub for the city’s Asian community.

He said that Chinatown’s strengths, even beyond its value as a cultural center for the city’s Asian community, lies in its diversity.

He pointed to the neighborhood’s generous mix of business and residential uses and the mixed income levels of its residents. "Other communities don’t know how to create the mixed-use [model]."

Toy said Chinatown is a good neighborhood for new Chinese immigrants since the language of their homeland is used freely and newcomers do not have to learn a foreign tongue.

"It’s an important place, and we have to grow it."
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  #193  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 9:45 PM
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Why does Philly hate railroad viaducts so much? Chicago is criss-crossed with hundreds of miles of them, but I've never heard anybody seeking to tear our viaducts down, even the abandoned ones. I mean, there have been a small few teardowns, but only in random, scattered locations. We're close to starting our first High Line-style project on the Bloomingdale Line, and we have already adapted the North Branch Line's viaduct into a basic bike trail.

Yet Philly was willing to spend millions back in the 70s to tear down the PRR viaduct, and now may spend millions again to tear down the Reading viaduct. What gives?

Of course, Chicago may not have torn down its railroad viaducts, but we sure carved up our L lines.... I guess stupidity knows no bounds.
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  #194  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2009, 11:55 PM
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The city didn't tear down the PRR viaduct, the PRR did in the early 50's at the same time they tore down Broad St Station.

Nobody is tearing down the RDG viaduct either as it's owner, Reading International, doesn't seem interested in selling it.
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  #195  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2009, 3:25 AM
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I wonder what Reading International is waiting for? Although it's good news for us.

Tearing down the bit that crosses Tenth and leaving the rest is sort of like ripping Newtown Junction out of the SEPTA Main and then saying, 'Well, the rest of the lines are still there.' A park of this nature doesn't function unless it's linear and without that bridging piece you'll just have a bunch of sections too short to be turned into a linear park.

BTW the original Chinese Wall (the PRR embankment) is still there: JFK Boulevard rests on it.
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  #196  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2009, 8:16 AM
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full read here with a lot of photos:http://www.planphilly.com/node/9734

Reading Viaduct
Aug. 28

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.

“The reason why nothing’s been developed is it is owned by the Reading company still,” said Andy Toy, who was the city’s first brownfields coordinator and worked at Commerce for 15 years, handling real estate transactions, zoning issues and sheriff’s sales. “It’s a liability for them.”

“They did have a deal, though,” Toy said this week, during a conversation about ongoing debates between parties that want to turn the Viaduct into Philadelphia’s version of New York’s successful High Line, and those who would rather tear it down. The period he was referring to was in the second Rendell mayoral administration, and before Toy left Commerce for another job.

“They were going to give us money to take it,” Toy said. “It got stalled because there were concerns about releasing the Reading company from liability, which is ridiculous. If we had done our [environmental] study right, we would’ve realized there would be no big surprises.”

Toy, who believes turning the Viaduct into a park is not a great idea, said that at the time, he wanted to take control of it because the city already had – indeed, still has – partial liability. In a long ago agreement, liability for the railroad’s safety, environmental remediation and demolition was split between Reading, the city and SEPTA. Reading still maintained the majority of the liability – about 60 percent, if Toy’s memory serves.

(The city acquired and demolished part of the Viaduct, from the north side of Vine Street to the converted Reading Terminal Headhouse at 12th and Market streets, when the Convention Center was built.)

On Reading’s current position, “the more they think there’s an opportunity and the more they think there’s an interest,” the more they’ll likely charge for it, Toy said.

“The question right now is if there is serious interest on the city’s part,” said Toy. “I would guess the answer is no, because the city has no resources.”

High Line = high bar
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.

First, one of its original advocates, Joshua David, co-founder of the nonprofit Friends of the High Line in New York, was invited to Philadelphia in December 2003 by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

“Nancy O’Donnell at [PHS] was aware of our efforts,” said Sarah McEneaney, co-founder of Philadelphia’s Reading Viaduct Project. “Joshua spoke and completely inspired us. We ... invited neighbors and everybody we could think of, and started talking it up. We talked a lot with Joshua in the beginning.”

Second, with the High Line’s completion earlier this year and subsequent chorus of enthusiastic approval, it “has really lit a fire under everyone, and made a lot of people see what our’s could be – when maybe they couldn’t before,” said McEneaney, an artist and founding member of the Callowhill Neighborhood Association, where she has lived for 30 years.

The Viaduct is about a mile in total length and close to five acres in overall size.

McEneaney and her partners on the Reading Viaduct Project have met with a whole host of city and state officials, along with the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a national group. The Philadelphia Water Department has been in recent contact, she said, regarding the possible use of federal stimulus money for “green infrastructure” projects.

“They are interested because it is essentially a giant green roof already,” McEneaney said. “And they are interested in doing a more up-to-date environmental study.”

McEneaney said she’s also given recent tours of the Viaduct to high-level, local economic development executives, including Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District and the Central Philadelphia Development Corp.

“I think it’s a thing that’s really worth exploring,” said Alan Greenberger, executive director of the City Planning Commission. “Not just because the High Line in New York is cool. I mean, it is cool. But, it’s just one of those things that’s sitting in our midst that we can drive opportunities on.

The Chinatown Viaduct plan(s)
Voices opposing the retention of the Viaduct were raised during the creation of Chinatown Neighborhood Plan, published in December 2004 by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., with help from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the design firm Kise, Straw & Kolodner.

The plan itself acknowledges the rift, but a compromise that includes “selective demolition” could have legs, and it is something that Toy supports (though his personal preference remains complete removal).

Heller explains the compromise well in his posting: “The quarter-mile, masonry-supported spur west to Broad Street would be retained and transformed into a park. The northern spur would be retained for about 0.2 miles, up to Ridge Avenue, where it would ramp down to the surface and connect with a planned new ‘town square’ park, surrounded by mixed-use development. In this compromise solution, the remaining 0.4 miles of the northern spur of the viaduct would be demolished. This compromise would allow Chinatown to develop its own ‘dramatic downtown overlook’ or ‘sky park’ while also clearing some land for redevelopment.”

In this scenario, the remaining part of the Viaduct would form a sort of cursive (and appropriate) “V” shape, with the main line cut off near tiny Noble Street, between 10th and 11th – four blocks south of Spring Garden Street.

But, to some backers of a Pennsylvania Environmental Council effort to re-make Spring Garden Street into the city’s connector for the ambitious East Coast Greenway, a direct connection to even more bike and walking trails on a redeveloped Viaduct would seem to be a perfect marriage of old and new green infrastructure. It would provide a natural southern route into Center City for users of the Greenway, which seeks to link future green trails on the Delaware River and the recently completed Schuylkill River Banks.

Terry Gillen, Mayor Michael Nutter’s senior economic development advisor and executive director of the city’s Redevelopment Authority, said this week that she has not studied the Viaduct, and that no related projects are on the RDA’s radar.

The Viaduct’s future holds nothing but question marks. Currently, though, owing to the success of the High Line on Manhattan’s meatpacking district, there seems to be momentum in favor of saving it.

“It’s very exciting that everyone is coming together on this,” McEneaney said. “Everything is sort of on hold for now, but the recession won’t last forever.”

Aside from the High Line, advocates for a beautified Viaduct point to Paris, where La Promenade Plantée is another high-profile success story of a former rail line that’s been re-used and embedded into the fabric of a vibrant city.

In Chicago, efforts are underway to refurbish the three-mile Bloomingdale line, which is already in use as a bicycle path. Other big cities, such as Atlanta, have similar proposals pending.

Under the National Trails System Act, passed by Congress in 1983, there are other options for the Viaduct, but they would seem to necessitate cooperation with Reading Entertainment. A legal conversion method known as "railbanking" emerged from that law, which has already allowed for the conversion of 4,400 miles of ground-level rail corridors in 33 states, according the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

The act states that railbanking is “a voluntary agreement between a railroad company and a trail agency to use an out-of-service rail corridor as a trail until a railroad might need the corridor again for rail service. Because a railbanked corridor is not considered abandoned, it can be sold, leased or donated to a trail manager without reverting to adjacent landowners.”

But a couple of hours of intense scrutiny of the Viaduct makes it clear that it shares very little in common with the High Line, even if nothing had yet been done to the New York property.

“Maybe the High Line in Chelsea makes sense – it’s a straight line and doesn’t take out development opportunities,” said Toy. “The Reading Viaduct is curvilinear” and runs through several neighborhoods.

The High Line is a truly elevated structure, resting on steel girders that allow the eye to grasp the streetscape beyond and between it. It’s a sort of propped-up throughway in the sky. The Reading Viaduct, on the other hand, is an enormous earthen presence, creating valleys, tunnels and grime-besotted urban caves.

It meanders along two spurs and is much, much larger than the High Line, especially in the amount of infrastructure to negotiate. It is more like a long, low mountain than a traditional urban, elevated train platform.

Contact the reporter at thomaswalsh1@gmail.com.

ON THE WEB:

Reading Viaduct Project:
www.readingviaduct.org<http://www.readingviaduct.org>

Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp.:
www.chinatown-pcdc.org<http://www.chinatown-pcdc.org>

Reading International: www.readingrdi.com<http://www.readingrdi.com>

The High Line: www.thehighline.org/<http://www.thehighline.org/>

La Promenade Plantée:
www.promenade-plantee.org/<http://www.promenade-plantee.org/>

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:
www.railstotrails.org<http://www.railstotrails.org>

New York Times (“For High Line Visitors, Park Is a Railway Out of
Manhattan,” July 21, 2009):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/ny...2highline.html

Philadelphia Inquirer (“Parkland in the air,” Aug. 23, 2009):
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/54227192.html
     
     
  #197  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2009, 8:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theWatusi View Post
The city didn't tear down the PRR viaduct, the PRR did in the early 50's at the same time they tore down Broad St Station.

Nobody is tearing down the RDG viaduct either as it's owner, Reading International, doesn't seem interested in selling it.
Well, the phrase "Chinese wall" itself is a Philly-ism. No other city has shown such a cultural hatred for railroad viaducts - I've never heard the term used outside of a Philadelphia context.

Plenty of cities have viaducts, but it seems that the widespread use of this term in Philly indicates that, at least once, their presence in the city core was quite a controversy.
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  #198  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2009, 9:32 PM
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Check out this aerial image of Philly from 1930. You can see how much the PRR viaduct blighted center city west.

http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-...troAerials.009
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  #199  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2009, 1:08 PM
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Significant renovation work on the existing building has already been completed, including the restoration of the Parkway Central Library's Main Lobby—as well as the original skylight above the grand staircase—and the replacement of the building's entire roof. Another exciting addition to Parkway Central opened on April 16, 2008; located on the Library's main floor, the H.O.M.E. Page Cafe is the result of a partnership between the Free Library and Project H.O.M.E. Open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., the café offers Parkway Central users beverages, baked goods, and lunch fare, as well as a seating area with free wireless internet access.

Parkway Central Library Hosts Mayor for City’s First Green Roof

PHILADELPHIA: The Parkway Central Library’s new green roof demonstration project. Encompassing 5,000 square feet on the south side of the building facing Logan Square, the green roof includes 100 cubic feet of soil and more than 5,400 plants. The Library’s green roof demonstration represents the first green roof on a city-owned building and is part of the Mayor’s initiative to make Philadelphia one of the greenest cities in the country. “I want to commend all of those involved in making this vision a reality,” commented Mayor Nutter. “This project is another example to cities across the country of what can happen when many different sectors – government, business and non-profits – work in partnership towards a common goal.”

With several unique layers designed specifically for insulation, drainage, and waterproofing, green roofs offer energy-saving and environmental benefits by improving air quality, reducing runoff to city sewer systems, and keeping buildings cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. In addition to eco-friendly and cost-saving features, green roofs also offer an aesthetic improvement over conventional blacktop roofs. Several species of plants will now call Parkway Central’s roof their home. From white stonecrop and blue spruce to blue cadet and prairie dropseed, the plants were chosen for their combined benefits of requiring little maintenance and being able to withstand severe weather conditions—many of the plants are drought tolerant. The demonstration space will feature a pathway to allow the public to experience the green roof up close; signage features information on the variety of plants.

The Library’s green roof was designed by Moshe Safdie and Associates, the Library’s nationally-renowned architect of the Parkway Central Library’s expansion project. Sustainability and green building practices are being incorporated into the new 180,000 square-foot addition, and the Library is seeking a silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation for the new building.
     
     
  #200  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2009, 5:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shivtim View Post
Looks good - but is it a historic landmark, and could this affect it's status (like Soldier Field in Chicago losing it's status after renovation)?
The difference between the proposed Free Library expansion and the renovation of Soldier Field is that the library is only adding space, while Soldier Field decreased it's capacity by almost half, I believe. I don't see it's historic status threatened since nothing's going to be done to the original structure.
     
     
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