The Perfect Storm of Poor Planning

Remember the scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise's Chief John Anderton stands in front of a large screen with dozens of images playing out simultaneously? By moving the images around and looking at them in different ways and in different orders, Anderton is able to make sense of it all and figure out who's about to commit a heinous crime that hasn't yet occurred.

Over the last couple days, I've been having that same feeling as I group together news articles and commentaries from various sources and begin to see a disturbing pattern emerging that portends ill for the city. Let's start with yesterday's Daily News. In the opinion section of the paper are two very compelling commentaries on behalf of better city planning in general and planning for the Delaware riverfront in particular.

Details after the jump.

In the first, civic activist, staff attorney for the Redevelopment Authority and erstwhile candidate for Frank DiCicco's council seat, Vern Anastasio, gives his opinion about the current condition of city planning and the zoning:

Unfortunately, those in City Hall are not prepared to manage our growth because we lack the planning and the tools to harness this incredible momentum and ensure things fit together properly.

We have voter perception of impropriety as it relates to variances and large development. We have a system where developers, politicians and untrained staffers pretend to be urban planners.

Yikes. Ok, so if we assume the situation is only half as bad as Anastasio says it is (which is a safe assumption considering his political aspirations and the tendency of such types to... exagerrate just a smidge), then we can agree that urban planning and zoning are in trouble.

But, as if to second that notion, this commentary by planning advocate and Ed Bacon protégé, Greg Heller, also writes about the weakness of the City Planning Commission and the lack of importance granted to it by the city's elected leaders:

Several years ago, the Planning Commission created its North Delaware Waterfront Plan. But the mayor and Council never threw their weight behind it. Without a mandate, the commission will continue making plans without results, while the city develops as sub-par, disconnected projects.

I've met Greg a number of times, the first time was when I was (look out, full disclosure coming) the Deputy Director of Policy for the Katz for Mayor Campaign. Considering how much play issues and policy got in that campaign, never has there been a more superfluous position. Anyway, Greg came to me and convinced me to get Sam to make an issue out of the skateboard ban at Love Park, arguing that it was the skateboarders that made Love Park into the vibrant, useful and world famous public space that it had become. In short, Greg knows his stuff about planning and is very passionate about the subject so when he says, "We need a zoning code and map, master plans and a community process that allow developers flexibility, but also ensure a stronger, coordinated final product," I tend to think that it's a pretty urgent problem.

But we're ok for now, right? Surely there are other issues that we need to take care of before we worry about hiring a few more guys that can draw cool pictures of streetscapes. I mean, besides a few condo towers going up along the waterfront and two casinos, there couldn't be that much new development under consideration, right?

Wrong. Phillyskyline.com went and compiled all of the completed, under construction, in preparation, proposed and delayed new residential projects right here (via A Smoke Filled Room). After you scroll through the FIFTY-FIVE projects on that page, take a look at the commercial, conversion residential, cultural, and transit projects. Clearly, not all of these will be built, but if even half of them are, it could transform the entire face of the city. If we acknowledge that urban planning is important and that urban planning in Philadelphia isn't happening as much as it should be, then it's downright scary to think that these projects may be going up in a random, haphazard manner that could result in the loss of open space, the walkability of the neighborhoods, access to the waterfront and community cohesion.

So after a good night's sleep, I figured the planning issue would fade away and I could go back to concentrating on how we can get vigilante superheroes to move in and fight crime. But no, instead, I open up today's Inquirer and see that casinos could put over 4 gazillion new cars on neighborhood streets and that residents of those neighborhoods seem to have only the op-ed page of the paper to express their concerns and ideas on how to do deal with it.

Apparently, everyone with a few bucks to burn can hire "traffic consultants" to prove their point that casinos [will/will not] increase traffic:

To address that impact [of increased traffic], each of the five applicants for a gambling license in the city has retained a prominent traffic consultant to press its case and has made resolving the traffic issues a priority.

Even casino opponents are hiring traffic consultants. Yesterday, a union released its own traffic study, conducted by Brooklyn-based Brian Ketcham Engineering P.C., about the impact of the $350 million TrumpStreet Casino & Entertainment Complex on East Falls and Nicetown.

Maybe I should hire one of these traffic consultants to explain why it takes me 45 minutes to go a half block from my parking space on South Street to end of the block where I turn to get the heck off South Street.

Finally, Bruce Schimmel let's loose with his cannon in today's City Paper on the development on 13th Street between Catherine and Fitzwater. He relates his experience at a recent community meeting in South Philadelphia where it seems that your everyday Philadelphians are starting to fancy themselves as the next Daniel Burnham or Ed Bacon:

Many of the neighbors, architects and urban planners grunted in anger. Many said that Philadelphia's urban landscape has become hostage to politicos. And with zoning reform, there'll be more unsustainable housing, and more instant slums.

Schimmel paints a pretty bleak picture of a city which invented city planning and is now falling behind.

The last time Philly revised its building rules in the early 1960s, oil was cheap and suburbia represented the ideal. But today, while cities like Chicago and Boston pass laws to ensure green and sustainable development, Philly has done almost nothing. We still build homes that gobble energy, and develop neighborhoods that depend on cars. New 30-story condos leave neighborhoods in shadows, while traffic jams our streets.

So, here I am, watching all of these pieces move and slide past one another, connecting the dots, looking for patterns and wondering whose name will be etched on that little red ball that will tell me who we can hold responsible for fixing this problem. Schimmel's answer is not surprising:

But in fact, only Philadelphia's mayor has the real power to reform our approach to development. And that's something the current crop of mayoral wannabes must understand if they expect to get elected.

Governing is about priorities. Where do strengthened city planning and zoning code reform fall in the long list of priorities? Ahead of reducing crime? Ahead of education or the environment? Is it even possible to put these issues on the same list as discrete entities are they all so interrelated that they must be given equal weight? Feel free to chime in.