Once several years ago, while walking on Chestnut Street, I passed a somewhat shabbily dressed guy soliciting business with a sign:
"URBAN PLANNER," it read. "WILL PLAN YOUR CITY FOR FOOD."
This is a honest-to-God true story. I did see this, and I have forever wished that I had a picture of it.
It was funny, of course, which was the point, but I think about it not unfrequently for a different reason. Philadelphia is an epicenter of thought on cities and how to develop them intelligently. From Jane Jacobs to Penn Praxis to the Center City District, we inspire anger, thought and action all aimed at making cities more useful, enjoyable places to be.
If you can joke about how many urban planners your city spawns, you're in the middle of a movement.
And now we're getting recognized for it.
Starting Saturday, Philadelphia will plan host to the National Planning Conference of the American Planning Association. Yes, we have lots of conferences here. Yes, this one is special. This is the largest conference devoted to thought about how cities work and how policies can shape them, and it's here.
(That's no isolated event. Starting May 17, the city will host the Congress for New Urbanism, the gathering of an influential movement that promotes walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl. Starting May 30, we'll host real estate journalists from throughout the nation. And from April 12 through 22, DesignPhiladelphia will point out just how creative we are with exhibitions, parties and more on design fields in the city, including urban design and architecture.)
Fortunately, the smart people at the Center City District have seized this opportunity to get the mayoral candidates to think about city planning. They are hosting two events:
Sunday, at 1 p.m., at the Convention Center Roon 202, they will present a new publication, "Center City: Planning for Growth, 2007-2012" as part of an APA session.
Then, Monday at 4 p.m. at the Four Seasons, they're going to ask the Democratic candidates to respond to it.
The candidates are busy guys, worried about crime and education, rushing from event to event. It would be a great achievement of this race if we could force them to stop and think for just a moment about how our city could prepare not just for the next mayor's term, or the next two terms, but about how smart planning can build a city for the next century.
Comments (2)
"Forum shows urban planning not priority in mayor's race" -By Inga Saffron
This article, covering the urban design forum last monday- where Brady & Knox were absent, says all we need to know on how the candidates feel about planning:
"Both Fattah and Evans listed the so-called councilmanic prerogative as the top impediment to good planning."
Evans: "If I had to rank priorities, I'd start with police stations and rec centers"
Fattah: "I'm interested in rebuilding the lives of people and not just the skyline", "Most people in this room will not have their lives fundamentally changed by the next mayor," Fattah told the audience, which was dominated by white, middle-class design professionals.
Not surprisingly, Nutter "suggested that planning was not just an issue for the well-to-do. He argued that strong urban-planning policies were essential to expanding the city's job base and would help the city's poor far more than government antipoverty programs. If Philadelphia hopes to compete with other cities for taxpaying residents and businesses, he argued, it needs a modern, professionally run planning department." (Inga paraphrased here)
In other words- if you care about planning, zoning, etc.. Fattah & Evans are not your men. They made similar remarks about the low importance of planning, and other sustainability issus, at the Next Great City forum back in Feb. I still don't understand why these guys go to these forums only to tell the audience that the things we care about don't matter to them. It would be less dammaging to just stay home. Maybe someone can explain this to me?
Posted by Liz | April 13, 2007 1:00 PM
The subject of city planning fails to get traction with the public because it strikes most residents as something completely distinct from more moving issues like crime, education, and employment. But the truth is that planning and land use zoning are tools that have been underutilized recently in Philadelphia.
With some more support and progressive legislation, the referendum question on the primary ballot that relates to the rewriting of the zoning ordinance has the potential to be a catalyst for significant improvements in city life. An updated ordinance could make real estate development in Philadelphia more predictable and, subsequently, more attractive to investors. A carefully crafted ordinance with provisions for inclusionary zoning will encourage good gentrification without squeezing out current residents. More investment = more jobs and less crime. Increased real estate value = more funding for schools.
City planning is not limited to abstract aesthetic concerns. But it isn't a panacea for all the city's problems either. Philly needs to recognize that the increase in real estate values in cities like New York, Boston, and Washington was not all determined by external factors. Planning is the only way to create comprehensive and sustainable improvements. A better ordinance & dropping the business privelege tax are the best first steps.
Posted by Colin Schmitt | April 13, 2007 2:22 PM