May 31, 2002
Greenway project will bring
the city closer to its river
Inga Saffron
Smack in the middle of Philadelphia is a fabulous
public amenity that could help stem the city's
population loss, revive old neighborhoods, reverse
the course of blight, boost real estate values,
and attract new jobs. It's called the Schuylkill.
Unfortunately, the river isn't always treated
like the powerful development tool it could be,
and its banks are fabulous only in parts. The
Kelly Drive path, West River Drive, Boathouse
Row, and refurbished Waterworks are green and
glorious. But the vast West Philadelphia rail
yards, the unwelcoming bridges, and the unfinished
Schuylkill River Park are not.
Imagine how Philadelphia could be transformed
if these fragments were improved, and the two
banks of the Schuylkill became one continuous,
green loop from the South Street Bridge to the
Falls Bridge.
Developers, who know that recreation and water
can be an irresistible combination, would rush
to fill in the waste ground along the riverfront
with housing. Neighborhoods cut off by industry
in the 19th century would be reconnected. West
Philadelphia and Center City would feel as close
as the two banks of the Seine in Paris.
There are signs that City Hall has started to
understand the river's potential. After nearly
a decade of lobbying by the Powelton Village
Civic Association, the city's Streets Department
has begun to design the newest fragment of the
river park: the West Bank Greenway. The highfalutin'
name is more ambitious than the $2.2 million project
itself, but that's OK. It's time for the city
to be ambitious about the Schuylkill waterfront.
The greenway project is essentially a strip park
along the high ridge that forms the western shore
of the Schuylkill and hovers over the 30th Street
Station rail yards. The intention is to turn a
weedy, neglected stretch of 31st Street into a
pleasant promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists.
As conceived by Jose Almiana, a Powelton
resident and landscape architect at Andropogon
Associates in Manayunk, the strip park would be
a Philadelphia version of the Brooklyn Heights
promenade, which overlooks lower Manhattan. Although
a jungle of junk trees and trash now mars Philadelphia's
panorama, the 31st Street ridge offers what could
potentially be the best skyline and river views
in town.
Clearing the way
The work is planned to start in October and be
completed in the fall of 2003, according to Bob
Wright, the Streets Department official overseeing
the project. Once the city clears the jungle,
widens the sidewalk, and landscapes the edge of
the ridge, people will be able to meander the
greenway from the Philadelphia Zoo to Powelton
Avenue, where Drexel University's sphere of influence
begins.
The greenway will be linked to Center City by
the Spring Garden Bridge, which the Streets Department
plans to make safer as part of the greenway project.
With sidewalks that are less than three feet wide,
that bridge is now the least hospitable of the
inhospitable Schuylkill crossings. Even so, pedestrians
stream over the bridge toward the Philadelphia
Museum of Art and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
As a first step, the city plans to remove the
bridge's high metal barriers, which are painted
with an amateurish mural. That will open up views
of the skyline and make the narrow sidewalks feel
more spacious, if not actually wider. Bike lanes
will run in both directions. At the eastern end
of the bridge, the city will adjust the intersection
to permit turns onto the road that loops around
the museum. The city also plans to run a sidewalk
downhill from the bridge to the West River Drive
- another important link.
Closer to Center City
Joe Revlock and John Dowlin, two Powelton
Village residents who nurtured the project
during its long gestation, see the greenway as
more than a neighborhood amenity. They believe
it will also make Powelton and Mantua more
accessible to Center City, and therefore more
desirable places to live.
The greenway is sure to improve the trip into
town, but not completely. If pedestrians want
to continue east to the parkway after crossing
the Spring Garden Bridge, they will still have
to navigate an impossible tangle of crosswalks
at Eakins Oval. If they want to head south along
the east bank of the river, they will find their
way blocked by fences that were erected after
this winter's fire at the Waterworks.
Meanwhile, the plan for the Schuylkill River Park,
which would extend the Kelly Drive path to the
South Street Bridge, has been tragically bogged
down by litigation between the city and a disgruntled
contractor.
Still, in spite of these problems, the West
Bank Greenway promises to bring Philadelphia
a step closer to its river.
Copyright (c) 2002 The Philadelphia Inquirer,
reprinted with permission |
