It would be wrong for Penn to interfere with waterfront development.
However, it is normal for PennPraxis and many other private entities to
facilitate waterfront development. In fact, no waterfront planning ever
takes place without public-private partnerships, because both port and
development economies necessarily operate at a public-private interface.
agreed, joe. and while it's questionable enough for penn to interfere,
as a private entity, with the waterfront development, with businesses
along 40th street, or with the kimmel center re-do, it's even more
questionable for penn to interfere with decision-making about city
budgets. especially when penn does not offer concomitant expertise on
how taxpaying voters can hold penn agencies (and their creations)
accountable.
example: penn praxis on 40th street
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/40th/
As for Friends of 40th Street's "Planning Principles", read more
carefully, Ray.
UNACCOUNTABLE
the praxis-delivered principles for 40th street run counter to the
proposed hotel. principles like:
" small-scale retail
The Principles give give "a mix of uses, such as residential living
above small-scale retail", as one example of how development might
proceed. They don't say development must be restricted to this model.
" values of the community
"...so that street life reflects the values of the community." This
neighborhood, with its high rate of visitors, doesn't have a value set
that is opposed to visiting out-of-towners on its sidewalk, does it?
" commerce and culture reflecting the surrounding
neighborhood
which neighborhood contains several large universities and hospitals
that attract out-of-town visitors
" reduced energy consumption
Campus Inn claims to be designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating, with
green roof and all
" continued consultation, communication, dialogue and
promotion
Fo40St holds regular monthly meetings. Meetings, not websites, are the
trenches of communication.
NON-TRANSPARENT
the meeting minutes of the praxis-created friends disappear from
the website in oct 2007, and never mention the hotel (the story of the
hotel broke publicly in the uc review oct 2007). and yet it is the
friends of 40th street who are held responsible for 'communication.'
(by whom?)
So go to a meeting. Or call them and ask them to update their website.
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
Your argument against PennPraxis follows exactly the same logic as that
of the guy who is angry that the Police never come when you call 911,
even though, in his case, he never bothers to call them in the first
place, because he already knows they won't come anyway.
He might be right about the Police, and you might be right about
PennPraxis. But your prejudice cannot function as evidence of its own
rightness. You actually have to try to use a system, before you can cite
"evidence" that system won't work for you.
-- Tony West
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