I want to thank everyone who responded to our post and became engaged in creating a greener Philadelphia. You can see all of the great suggestions that came in by going back and checking out the comments to that post.
My selection for the best of those suggestions goes to... drum roll...
Alex Doty of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Here are his suggestions, in their entirety:
The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadephia has a 2008 Agenda for a Bicycle Friendly Philadelphia, which is a series of policy steps that the Nutter Administration and City Council could easily take to promote safer bicycling and encourage more people to get out of their cars and onto bikes for commuting, shopping and recreation.
The top agenda items are:
1. Establish a Department of Transportation,
2. Create and fill a new position for a full-time Bicycle/PedestrianCoordinator,
3. Develop and implement a new City-wide Bicycle Plan,
4. Close the gaps in the existing bike lane network with particular attention to creating bike friendly streets that connect the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, and
5. Create more bicycle parking on city streets and garages.
Read the full 2008 Bicycle Friendly Agenda on the Bicyle Coalition's blog at http://bcgp.blogspot.com/
Have a good weekend, folks!
Comments (2)
Again the honor of which part of the city has the potential for the most exciting riverside bike trail goes to Northeast Philadelphia.......and again comes the shear embarrassment of the rest of the city's being totally blind to this -- truly a real-life Cinderella story if ever there was one. So the most suitable-to-be-natural part of Philadelphia gets dumped on once again. And other parts of the city not cut out for this natural state get dumped on by their being forced to be what they're not meant to be. For could there possibly be anything more imbecilic than trying to create a swathe of riverfront greenway through such unfitting places as Fishtown, Kensington and so on?
But alas, the "Ugly Stepsisters" want all the glory. The squeeky wheel gets the grease and all that. Yet all the make-up in the world piled atop such mugs, and at such a high cost, can't help them. So what happens? We spend more money, and more money, and more money, with the crazy theory that eventually it will all change. Never happens though, and it never will.
But after you get up above Rhawn Street it's a different story entirely. And it's a truth that keeps popping through despite all the dumping it gets on it. You have to have eyes to see that natural potential it holds, however, and having a soul wouldn't hurt either. But ugly stepsisters don't have eyes. And as for souls, forget it!
So it becomes another pointless, and money-wasting, year of, here we go again.
Translation: We keep dumping tons of money on Philadelphia's worst parts in hope they'll turn around for the better. Never happens. And we keep dumping tons of trash on Philadelphia's best parts with the expectation that they'll become ugly completely. And that, too, never happens. But what a great day for Philadelphia it would be if suddenly we woke up and reversed these two patterns. But God forbid we should ever come back to our senses that way.
So there ya go, that's my take on Philadelphia's "going green" movement.
Posted by Steve W. | February 9, 2008 2:14 AM
Dan, when it comes to Philadelphia going green, you could not have anything more anti-going green than the Fox Chase Cancer Center's expansion proposal. First and foremost you should know that it's a greenfield development, in this case the full elimination of neighboring Burholme Park. And it's said that one of the chief reasons why it covets this green patch of land so much and wants to develop it is because of the sweeping view of Center City that it holds. With Burholme Park being the highest point in all Northeast Philadelphia, back during the Civil War, when the possibility of the Confederate Army attacking Philadelphia was a very real threat, the Union Army took over that elevated land for a time.
And this time around an entity who clearly intends the city a great deal of harm is seeking to take over that same parcel of land. Yet to date you have not started up a special thread at this blogsite discussing it. Why?
Posted by Steve W. | February 11, 2008 5:19 AM