Give us some green space

New York has Central Park, Washington has the National Mall and Boston has Boston Common. Among the Eastern seaboard metropolises, only Philadelphia has no large, centrally located green space -- unless you count the virtually suburban Fairmount Park.

Penn has an opportunity to fill this void, improve the University's relationship with Philadelphia and make our campus a more open and vibrant part of the community.

The University is in the process of formulating a plan for the development of the postal lands, a 24-acre swath of property east of campus that Penn will formally acquire next spring. We should use this plot to create a public outdoor area that could become the centrally located, popular green space that Philadelphia lacks.

Imagine it: a park, built by Penn on the Schuykill waterfront, to be enjoyed by Penn students and Philadelphia residents alike. A new gateway between Penn and downtown, raising the University's profile and endearing it to the city. An open air venue that could host fairs, festivals and the Spring Fling concert.

Of course, this vision of eastward expansion does not preclude other uses of the land.

Some badly needed administrative and departmental office buildings would fit nicely between Penn and the green space; after all, professors don't care how close their offices are to Marbar.

Dining, retail and entertainment establishments would complement a park in the postal lands. I personally would like to see the return of an on-campus restaurant like the Palladium, a tasteful bistro founded by Penn professors that was kicked off Locust Walk in 2003. But I'm not picky; any number of non-Taco Bell, non-CVS options would suffice.

Of course, the planning process remains in its early stages.

Student housing, retail outlets, a new student center and a venue for academic conferences are just some of the options other than outdoor public space that faculty, students and administrators have put forth.

While Penn may need more housing and student activities space, the far eastern edge of campus is not the place for it.

Today, the center of campus life is the area bounded by Spruce, Walnut, 34th and 38th streets, and almost all Penn sophomores, juniors and seniors live west of 38th. Building a dorm or a student center in the postal lands would only erode and disperse Penn's already tenuous sense of community.

Take, for example, the "Town Hall" meetings held last semester to foster discussion about the eastern expansion. The last one, on Nov. 14, drew fewer than 20 Penn undergrads -- nearly half of whom were club ice hockey players upset about the potential destruction of the Class of 1923 Ice Rink.

If you, like the organizers, find that level of participation disappointing, just imagine how terrible attendance would be if such meetings were held not at Houston Hall but at a new student center at 31st and Chestnut streets.

If Penn decides to expand its house system, it should take the money not spent building "Hill II" on the postal lands and use it to improve housing at the western end of campus. The University, with its creative lease negotiation skills, should have no trouble acquiring more living space.

I, for one, would be the first to sign up to live in the new Cinemagic College House. Or we could put the finishing touches on the eradication of Superblock green space by erecting another purple high rise -- because misery loves company.

The Campus Development Planning Committee will soon release a report summarizing the past semester's progress toward a plan for the postal lands. Hopefully, this report will reveal more about both the University's priorities and the feasible options for the development of the new property. A riverfront park may ultimately prove unrealistic due to the area's various limitations, such as the Schuylkill Expressway and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line.

Nonetheless, if the decision-makers weigh the interests of administrators, students and the community, they will recognize the benefits of public space and steer clear of building a dormitory or a student center.

But an equitable consensus will only be reached through community-wide dialogue.

So go to a town hall meeting, or write a letter to University Provost Ron Daniels and tell him about your postal land dreams.

By the time the development of the postal lands is complete, most of us will have already left the University. But do you really want to leave the future of Penn's campus in the hands of the visionaries behind "Plateau" and the high rise pastelization project?

Daniel Nieh is a senior East Asian Languages and Civilizations major from Portland, Ore. Low End Theory appears on Fridays.

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