Citizens, Last night, PaRC held a public meeting. PaRC is the new brand for the merged park and recreation commission. (it was filmed and may appear on the public affairs channel???)
PaRC has "retained" Penn Praxis to study empty parcels around the city. (The cost to taxpayers was not disclosed.) It appears, the Philadelphia Horticultural Society will be the new advocate for establishing BIDS across the city and privatizing parks/urban gardens. It will take a bit of study before this plan becomes clear to you. Here is some of the background preparation you will need to put all of this together. Wharton study: http://gislab.wharton.upenn.edu/silus/Papers/GreeningStudy.pdf Penn gazette: http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0705/0705gaz11.html What is known: Last night, PaRC announced the search for 500 acres of vacant parcels in Philadelphia! The marketing spin is that all Philadelphians will have a park or GARDEN within a 10 minute walk. (Sounds great, does it not?) In an off the cuff remark, Commissioner DiBerdinis also mentioned developing poorly utilized park and recreation land! The revenue enhancing commissioner (missed his name) gave no details about the meaning of "revenue enhancement." Analysis: Thinking Philadelphians may believe that "revenue enhancement" by PaRC means that large sections of poorly utilized Fairmount park will be sold to developers wishing to maximize profits with large projects that receive tax payer subsidized tax abatements. It seems to me, the new 500 acres of neighborhood parkland is cleverly being promoted initially, as an advance PR ploy. Questions: Will the new parks be offered only if a neighborhood has a BID (private and unaccountable) to maintain the new urban garden? Is a destitute city making a wise investment in huge expansions of publicly funded gardens? Of course, that would be a ridiculous priority now! Or is it a smokescreen for citywide BIDS? Is this wharton study and the new neighborhood garden system being attached to BID proposals (or privatization of government), so that communities will be receiving a privatization offer "they can not refuse?" Do Philadelphians want Fairmount park and its watershed to be sold off to a few developers? Do we want public parks for future generations traded for private BID controlled land? Will the public retain rights to assembly and other rights on BID controlled land, or lose them like we have lost our right to participate in redesigning Clark Park? This is deep, Glenn PS: The Commissioner responded to my public statement about Clark Park with a publiclly recorded promise to investigate the Clark park Partnership. We had a brief exchange and he publicly promised to investigate the Friends of Clark Park as well. He stated that the city is dependent on the "Friends groups" network for appropriate neighborhood processes. I'm hopeful, he seems professional. http://www.ucreview.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=73&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=2002&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2320&hn=ucreview&he=.com ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
