Philly Mayor endorses PennPraxis

On June 26, Philadelphia's citizens finally got what they'd been waiting for: Mayor Michael Nutter endorsed PennPraxis's recommendations for clearing and greening the Delaware waterfront. Community leaders gathered at Independence Seaport Museum to hear the announcement.

The plan marked a collaboration between citizens and designers. Several of the steps are long-term; Nutter pledged to begin by immeditately appointing a waterfront manager, reforming Penn's Landing Corp. and developing piers to make the waterfront more friendly to the public.

Still unresolved is the issue of the two casinos slated to be built on the waterfront.

As it stands, the Foxwoods and SugarHouse casinos are still going to have a place on the waterfront after a slew of unsuccessful lawsuits by the City Council and various community groups.

The casinos "would need to be drastically redesigned to fit the city vision," said Sokoloff.

Nutter asked PennPraxis officials to study the conflict between the casinos and the city's vision and return within 60 days with ideas.

The changes asked for in the plan are part of PennPraxis's 10-step plan, which strives to revive the currently congested waterway by adding parks, housing and trails accessible to the public. The plan was created under the leadership of executive director Harris Steinberg and is estimated to take 10 years to complete.

PennPraxis officials collaborated with officials from the Penn Project for Civic Engagement who worked directly with community members to create a set of goals that they would like to see the designers to strive toward.

Harris Sokoloff, director of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and a director at Penn's Graduate School of Education, helped facilitate the process by meeting with over 4,000 citizens in at least six different forums across the riverfront. He worked with a team of 30 moderators to establish a set of goals that he could communicate to the PennPraxis designers.

Some of those goals included protecting the waterfront, having strong management in the Penn Landing Corp. and preserving the uniqueness of Philadelphia.

Nutter has committed to an action plan that articulates these goals. "I know that we are going to fulfill this vision because we must," Nutter said. "We've let the years slide by with no vision and no plan."

And to make sure that vision can becomes a reality, Nutter committed to immediately begin reforming Penn's Landing Corp., which has managed the waterfront for more than 30 years and has recently come under fire for secrecy and corruption.

A new board will be appointed within 30 days, and the non-profit will be renamed the Delaware Waterfront Corp.

Nutter also vowed to etch out clear zoning to protect the waterfront and preclude big development from coming into the area.

He promised to match the $250,000 already raised by the Center City District to construct a seven-mile trail along the waterfront. In addition, several piers and parks are slated for refurbishment.

Pier 11, currently a decrepit structure sitting at the foot of Race Street, is due for the most immediate overhaul with planning underway to start renovation within a year.

"I am wonderfully excited. This is a rich, vibrant, and flexible plan," said Sokoloff.

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