Next Great City Philadelphia

Transcription

By creating cleaner,
safer, and healthier
neighborhoods,
Philadelphia can become
the next great city.
www.nextg reatcity.org
Next Great City
Philadelphia
N E X T G R E AT C I T Y P H I L A D E L P H I A
ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE COALITION INCLUDE:
» 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania
» Action Alliance of Senior Citizens of Greater Philadelphia
» AFL-CIO, Philadelphia Council
» AFSCME District Council 47
» AFSCME District Council Local 2187
» American Institute of Architects, Philadelphia Chapter
» American Lung Association of Pennsylvania
» Audubon Pennsylvania
» Bella Vista United Civic Association
» Building Industry Association of Philadelphia
» Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church
» Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
» Clean Air Council
» Clean Water Action
» Committee of Seventy
» Concerned Block Captains of West and Southwest Philadelphia
» Congreso de Latinos Unidos
» Delaware Valley Green Building Council
» Design Advocacy Group of Philadelphia
» East Falls Tree Tenders
» Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation
» Free Schuylkill River Park
» Greater Bustleton Civic League Inc
» Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition
» Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia
» Institute for the Study of Civic Values
» Logan Square Neighborhood Association
» NAACP Philadelphia
» Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront (NABR)
» Neighborhood Interfaith Movement
» Neighborhood Networks
» Neighborhoods Now (formerly Philadelphia Neighborhood
The Next Great City Coalition calls for the next
Mayor and City Council of Philadelphia To Take
the Actions Recommended in this Report to
Improve the Neighborhood Environment.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Development Collaborative)
» New Kensington Community Development Corporation
» The Partnership CDC
» Passyunk Square Civic Association
» PennEnvironment
» Pennsylvania Environmental Council
» Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
» Pennsylvania Interfaith Climate Change Campaign
» Pennsylvania Parent Teacher Association
» PenTrans
» Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH)
» Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations
» Philadelphia Corporation for Aging
» Philadelphia Parks Alliance
» PhillyCarShare
» Philly For Change
» Project NEAT (the Neighborhood Environmental Action Team)
» Queen Village Neighbors Association
» Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia
» Residents of Shawmont Valley Association
» Right to Know Committee
» Roxborough Greenspace Project
» Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
» Sierra Club Southeastern Pennsylvania Group
» Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB)
» Society for Ecological Restoration
» Society Hill Civic Association
» Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia
» SustainUS Philadelphia
» University City Green Inc
» Wallace Roberts & Todd
» Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians
» Women’s Community Revitalization Project
» Women’s Health & Environmental Network
» Young Involved Philadelphia
2
Action» Improve Transit Stops
Make bus and trolley stops clean and safe.
10
Action» Stop Sewer Backups and Flooding
Fix sewers that cause property damage and endanger health.
12
Action» Create Public Riverfronts
Guarantee public access for recreation on riverfronts.
14
Action» Replant Neighborhood Trees
Plant 23,000 shade trees to replace trees the city cut down in the past five years.
16
Action» Adopt Modern Zoning
Modernize Philadelphia’s 40-year-old zoning code.
18
Action» Reduce Asthma Caused by Soot from City Trucks
Install modern pollution control devices on older city diesel trucks.
20
Action» Clean and Green Vacant Lots
Continue to transform vacant lots into green community assets.
22
Action» Maintain Healthy Parks
Appoint qualified leadership, generate new funding, and create
public and private partnerships to improve parks.
24
Action» Expand and Improve Recycling Citywide
Expand weekly single-sort recycling service to all and save millions of tax dollars.
26
Action» Use Clean Energy and Construct Energy-Efficient Buildings
Buy or generate clean, local energy and build healthy,
energy-efficient city and school-district facilities.
28
To the next mayor of Philadelphia
30
We gratefully acknowledge the William Penn Foundation for
funding Next Great City Philadelphia (January 2007).
Next Great City | 1
survey results
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Philadelphia is on its way
to becoming the country’s
Next Great City.
Terry Madonna Opinion Research Group polled 600
Philadelphia residents and 200 city business owners
in February and March 2006, asking what actions
would improve their neighborhood environments and
help make Philadelphia a competitive city. More than
Philadelphia’s downtown has seen the strongest
nine of every ten Philadelphia residents and business
owners declared that Philadelphia must fix its sewer,
retail, tourism, and residential growth in a half
century. Housing markets that were stagnant are now
City residents and business owners strongly believe that
the city must improve Philadelphia’s infrastructure and
environment in order to prosper.
Business leaders and residents believe the city
should commit to improving air, water, and land
infrastructure to encourage future economic growth.
water, and transportation infrastructures in order to
prosper. Almost nine in ten residents and business
owners stated that Philadelphia must clean up its
moving again, and for the first time in decades the number
of Philadelphia building permits has exceeded that of some
of its suburban neighbors. Neighborhood blight, which had
environment to become a competitive city that attracts
residents and businesses.
The majority of Philadelphians polled approve of
increasing city funding so the city can address many
advanced unchecked for decades, is on the run. More than
3,000 lots have been cleaned and greened, and 100,000
features of the neighborhood environment, including
improving air quality, updating the water and sewer
systems, modernizing zoning regulations, expanding
abandoned cars have been removed.
the city’s recycling program, improving parks, and
helping reduce energy use.
HOWEVER, Philadelphia cannot become a great city
by fighting blight and strengthening its downtown
alone. For Philadelphia to become a great city, all
Why? Because these are key features of a successful
The city’s neighborhood focus over the last eight
In forming these recommendations, we were guided by
years was blight removal. The city tore down vacant
the following criteria. Each of the recommended actions
neighborhood and because the majority of the
houses, removed dangerous trees, and hauled away
can be completed within the new mayor’s term. Each
Philadelphians surveyed had firsthand experience
abandoned cars that threatened the quality of life in
is within the city’s authority. Each is affordable—
with problems created by a faulty infrastructure and
a poor environment.
our neighborhoods. These limited but powerful actions,
either revenue neutral or able to be funded through
of the city’s neighborhoods must be clean, safe,
taken together, created new hope and momentum in
an identified source that can cover key costs. Each of
and healthy places to live and work and must be
our neighborhoods.
these actions will create positive changes that people
served by an effective city government.
Over the next four years, the mayor and City
Which view comes
closest to your own?
Business Owners
Some people believe that
making a commitment
to improving the city’s air,
water, land, and physical
infrastructure will cost too
much and make it harder
to attract jobs, people, and
investment. Others believe
committing to improving
the city’s air, water, land,
and infrastructure
will encourage future
economic growth.
Residents
Will encourage growth
77%
5% | Don't know
3% | Neither
4% | Both
11% | Will cost too much
will be able to see and feel in their own neighborhoods.
Council should continue to move the city forward
by implementing small but important actions to
Building up and improving our neighborhoods
revitalize our neighborhoods. Ten such steps, which
must be key priorities of the new mayor and City
are immediate, doable, and powerful, are outlined in
Council. In the 1990’s, the city focused on improving
this report. These agenda items have broad community
its downtown. Adding good lighting and trees, making
support and will make important improvements
transit stops and sidewalks clean and safe, and creating
to our neighborhoods. At the same time, the new
new destinations has successfully transformed Center
administration must continue to work on the critical
City into a vibrant, energetic community that people
enjoy visiting, working in, and living in.
issues of the city’s high crime rate, inadequate student
performance, and low job growth. By fixing what is
And each of these ten actions was identified through
months of discussion with hundreds of residents,
businesses, and community and nonprofit leaders
across the city.
By adopting the Next Great City agenda, the new
mayor, working with City Council, will make every
neighborhood better, maintain and improve the city’s
infrastructure and assets, and attract new investment,
jobs, and people.
42%
35%
29%
21%
43%
of residents had stayed
of residents had someone
of residents and 25%
of residents had a basement
of residents and 59%
away from a public park in
in their home with asthma
of businesses had an
flood after a rainstorm, and
of businesses had trouble
the previous year because
or a respiratory disease.
abandoned property in their
31% of businesses suffered
keeping up with increasing
neighborhood catch fire or
property damage from
energy costs in the
become a source of crime
flooding in the previous year.
previous year.
of safety concerns.
in the previous year.
broken in our neighborhoods and providing predictable
and reliable government services to residents and
businesses, the new mayor and City Council will
make our neighborhoods better for every resident and
business and build momentum for future change.
2 | Next Great City: Executive Summary
Next Great City: Executive Summary | 3
W
To implement these recommendations, the new mayor and City Council
should form a task force from all relevant city departments to coordinate
ACTION » Expand and
Improve Recycling Citywide
efforts between departments, bringing diverse agency experience,information,
resources,and collaboration to the same table to implement these changes.
The new administration should also launch a clear, persuasive educational
ACTION » Improve
Transit Stops
The new mayor and City Council should
ACTION » Stop Sewer
Backups and Flooding
The new mayor and City Council should reduce
bottles, cans, and paper that presently litter our streets
and crowd our landfills. Philadelphia can reduce litter
and save $17 million in landfill and incineration fees
a year with an effective citywide recycling program,
ACTION »
Adopt Modern Zoning
ACTION » Create
Public Riverfronts
The new mayor and City Council should step
modernize Philadelphia’s zoning code to encourage
up efforts to turn vacant lots into clean and
The new mayor and City Council should ensure
appropriate development that will help our
green community assets. Philadelphia is a national
that the Schuylkill and Delaware waterfronts are
neighborhoods prosper. Philadelphia’s 40-year-old
leader in removing blight because of its clean and
open to the public, reconnect them with bordering
zoning code is outdated, difficult to understand, and
green vacant lot program. Yet the city has cleaned
neighborhoods, and create new recreational
impossible to enforce. A modernized zoning code
only 10% of its abandoned lots to date. Transforming
opportunities along the waterfront. We have a small
should be adopted that will support the efforts of
blighted and garbage-strewn lots into pleasant and
window of opportunity, before residential and casino
neighborhoods to attract development that advances
useful places for neighbors to gather, garden, or play
development accelerates, to create a dynamic public
their vision for their communities; protects community-
has been proven to be a successful way of improving
waterfront with access for boating, fishing, trails, and
owned parks and gardens; creates incentives for
neighborhoods. We should continue and speed up the
property damage and health risks for homes
parks. By rezoning the waterfront for new development
healthy, energy-efficient building practices; and
and businesses by making needed sewer repairs
and requesting rights of way from existing owners,
encourages well-planned retail and housing
safe shelters, lighting, and signs. Transit stops
and upgrades. One in three businesses and one in five
we can create an exciting public greenway along the
development around transit hubs on underutilized
are a part of the critical infrastructure needed to keep
homes in Philadelphia experienced flooding or sewage
water’s edge. Red flags at strategic locations will notify
industrial land to increase residents’ access to jobs
back-up into their properties after a rainstorm during
the past year. Built in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
unsafe and unacceptable. The city currently contracts
our sewers are unable to handle stormwater that
with a national advertising firm to place and maintain
runs off from paved surfaces during rainstorms, so
transit-stop shelters. By the simple act of upgrading
wastewater ends up backing up into homes or flowing
and enforcing the terms of the contract, as New York
untreated into our rivers. We should fix and increase
City and Boston have done in recent years, the city
the capacity of sewers in neighborhoods where flooding
can dramatically improve the mobility of residents,
or sewage backflow are common. We can fund these
schoolchildren, and workers and revitalize a critical
efforts by replacing the current stormwater fee formula
element of our neighborhoods—without cost.
with a fairer and more accurate one based upon the
Additionally, by taking part in an “Adopt-a-Stop”
actual stormwater burden each property places on the
program, community groups and businesses
sewer system.
can help keep transit stops safe and clean.
ACTION » Clean and
Green Vacant Lots
river users when water quality is harmful.
according to a city controller’s report. Residents could
profit, too; under a successful, incentive-based pilot
project in two neighborhoods, 90% of residents
stops by contracting for biweekly maintenance,
condition of too many bus and trolley stops is simply
recycle it for a profit. There is a viable market for the
in efforts to improve Philadelphia neighborhoods.
upgrade the condition and safety of our transit
our economy and neighborhoods functioning. Yet the
garbage off the streets and out of landfills and
campaign to recruit residents, community groups, and businesses as partners
Fixable Problems ... Common-sense Solutions
The Next Great City Initiative recommends these nearterm, achievable actions to provide renewed energy and
strength to our neighborhoods and city
The new mayor and City Council should get
and recreation.
implementation of this popular program.
recycled and were awarded local store “dollars.”
ACTION » Use Clean
Energy and Construct
Energy-Efficient Buildings
The new mayor and City Council should create
jobs, save money and energy, and ready the city to
provide disaster services by requiring at least 5%
of city energy to be obtained from clean, local
sources and new city and school-district buildings
to meet national energy-efficiency standards.
The city and school district spend $50 million on
ACTION »
Maintain Healthy Parks
energy each year, yet most of this money flows out
local energy, the city will create new jobs, increase
of the city and out of the country. By using clean,
ACTION » Replant
Neighborhood Trees
ACTION » Reduce Asthma
Caused by Soot from City Trucks
improve our parks. Many of Philadelphia’s parks are
its independence from foreign oil, and ensure that
in unacceptable condition. To create clean, safe, healthy
emergency systems have backup power to provide
parks, the city should appoint park leadership through
critical services in a disaster. Similarly, by building
The new mayor and City Council should replant
The new mayor and City Council should act to
an open process, dedicate funds earned in the park for
new facilities to national energy-efficiency standards,
neighborhood shade trees to replace trees
reduce asthma and improve public health by
park improvements, and involve community leaders in
the city will save money and energy and create
the city has cut down since 2001. The city has
attaching pollution filters to older city trucks
efforts to coordinate resources between the two
opportunities for workers to be trained in cutting-
successfully removed 23,000 problem trees but has
that spew dirty exhaust into our neighborhoods.
park systems.
edge building practices.
barely begun to plant healthy replacements. Trees
One in three Philadelphia households has a member
provide invaluable services to our neighborhoods by
with asthma, and the city’s older diesel vehicles are
cleaning the air, decreasing flooding, reducing energy
a significant part of the problem. By attaching readily
costs by shading and cooling, and beautifying our
available filters on these trucks, the city can be part
streets. Within the next mayor’s term, 23,000 new
of a clean-air asthma solution.
trees should be planted in Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Philadelphia should build on all that it has learned from Center City’s successful
revival and apply it to our neighborhoods. The practical and powerful actions
recommended in this report will make every neighborhood a better place to live
and help attract families and businesses back to the city.
Launch a Citywide Educational Campaign to
Share Neighborhood Improvement Opportunities
with Residents and Businesses
When Philadelphians have the knowledge and resources to
make their neighborhoods better, great things will happen. A
citywide education campaign that provides information on practical
steps that adults and children can take to improve their
neighborhood environments is essential to making Philadelphia the
next great city. For example, trees reduce flooding, improve the air
we breathe, and reduce heat-related deaths. Yet many
Philadelphians are concerned that trees may cost them time and
money by falling on their houses, ripping up sidewalks, or dropping
leaves or seeds onto their front steps. When they understand the
benefits trees bring and which species work best in urban settings,
residents will become partners in planting and caring for trees.
Similarly, Philadelphians hate litter and waste. Yet in the past they
considered it so hard to recycle that few did so. By improving the
recycling program and providing the facts to residents—that
Create a Multi-agency Task Force to Improve Neighborhood Services and Systems
recycling saves millions of city dollars that should be spent in
By forming an effective, multi-agency task
force to facilitate the coordination of city
Over the last decade, it has often been observed by
Inspections, Office of Housing and Neighborhood
mayors and residents alike that city agencies tend to
Preservation, Department of Commerce, Department
work in silos, fulfilling their missions independently. Yet
of Public Property, Department of Public Health, and
services in neighborhoods, the city can
the challenges identified in this report do not fall within
other relevant agencies into a single task force that
efficiently implement key actions to improve
a single department’s job responsibilities. To solve these
will create a unified implementation strategy. Then,
challenges, all relevant agencies should meet regularly
at regularly scheduled meetings, an accountable task
to define priorities, share information, coordinate
force can decide upon a course of action to improve
services, and track results.
neighborhood services and systems and achieve the
the neighborhood environment—and produce
measurable results.
priority changes outlined. Only with unified goals and
The city’s Managing Director’s Office should bring
an interconnected approach can the new administration
together the Department of Streets, Water Department,
ensure that every neighborhood in Philadelphia
Fairmount Park Commission, Department of Recreation,
becomes a great neighborhood in which to live
Planning Commission, Department of Licenses and
and work.
neighborhoods, reduces waste and litter on their streets, and can
even make them money—the city will dramatically increase
recycling participation. Residents who recycle will be more likely to
recycle at work, and children who understand its benefits will
continue to recycle throughout their lives.
Philadelphia’s residents and businesses are key to the city’s longterm success. Through the education of citizens comes their
awareness of a problem, their action to solve it, and their ownership
of the solution and its positive effects. Using a variety of multimedia
educational materials in schools, community meetings, and forums,
the mayor can reach out to residents and businesses in every
neighborhood. Working together with the School District of
Philadelphia’s teachers and administrators, community-center staff,
business leaders, media personalities, block captains, and others,
the city and the Next Great City Coalition can provide all residents
with at least one convincing reason why they should become active
partners in improving their neighborhoods.
By creating cleaner, safer, and healthier neighborhoods,
Philadelphia can become the next great city!
The Next Great City Coalition calls for the next Mayor
and City Council of Philadelphia To Take these Actions
to Improve the Neighborhood Environment.
Expand and Improve
Recycling Citywide
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS
ISSUE »
Recycling rates are lowest of
any major city.
ACTION »
Saves $17 million a year, which can
be spent improving neighborhoods.
Strengthens local businesses by
providing gift “dollars” for their stores.
COST »
ISSUE »
Residents do not have access or
views of the rivers from many points
along its shore.
Transit stops across the city are in
unsafe and unacceptable condition.
Few have shelters or are regularly
maintained.
ACTION »
Rezone riverfronts and obtain rights
of way to preserve public waterfronts.
Raise red flags when river is unsafe
for use.
Upgrade and enforce contract
with national advertising company
responsible for placing shelters and
maintaining stops.
COST »
None.
Create Public
Riverfronts
ISSUE »
ACTION »
COST »
Minimal. City can rezone and request
right of way with existing staff. Minimal
cost to raise flags.
Clean and Green
Vacant Lots
ISSUE »
your home
your business
ISSUE »
None. Will create profit of $17 million.
Improve
Transit Stops
your street
Maintain Healthy Parks
City has successfully cleaned 10% of
vacant lots to date. More work remains.
ACTION »
Continue and expand nationally
respected program.
COST »
None. $3 million is allocated in the
capital budget for FY 2005–2006 and
should be continued through 2011.
ISSUE »
One in four city homes and one in
three business properties flooded or
had raw sewage back up after a
rainstorm in previous year.
Parks need better oversight,
new sources of money, and better
coordination with nonprofit and
private stakeholders.
ACTION »
Update the Fairmount Park
Commission’s commissioner
appointment process, increase
coordination with nonprofit and
private stakeholders, and allow
money generated in parks to be
used for park improvements.
ACTION »
Fix and increase capacity of sewers
in neighborhoods where flooding or
sewage backflow are common.
COST »
Repairs funded by fairer and more
accurate stormwater fees for
businesses.
COST »
ISSUE »
None.
Use Clean Energy and
Construct Energy-Efficient
Buildings
Adopt Modern
Zoning
Forty-year-old zoning code fails to
protect neighborhood character and
community parks and gardens and
does not offer incentives for good
building practices.
ISSUE »
ACTION »
Rewrite zoning text with extensive
community input.
ACTION »
COST »
$500,000 cost for zoning rewrite can
be raised from less than one-fifth of
1% of city’s real-estate transfer fees
and from local foundations.
Convert 5% of city energy use to clean,
local energy. Build city facilities to LEED
silver standards.
COST »
No cost for building to LEED silver
standards. $165,000 to convert 5%
of city energy to clean, local energy,
which is less than 1% of city’s annual
energy costs.
Replant Neighborhood
Trees
ISSUE »
8 | Next Great City
Stop Sewer Backups
and Flooding
City cut down 23,000 problem trees
and did not replace them.
ACTION »
Replant 23,000 shade trees.
COST »
$8 million, which can be raised by
increasing developers’ tree deposits,
applying stormwater fees and airquality fines, and using NTI funds.
your water
your bus stop
your government
your energy
Inefficient energy use and foreign oil
dependence waste money and energy,
do not ensure power for critical services
during disasters, and contribute little to
the local economy.
your school
your neighborhood
Reduce Asthma Caused by
Soot from City Trucks
ISSUE »
One in three households has a
member with asthma, and soot
from city’s older diesel vehicles is
a significant part of the problem.
ACTION »
Install pollution filters on city’s older
diesel trucks.
COST »
None. $1.2 million Sunoco settlement
will cover costs for next four years.
Air-quality fines and federal CMAQ
dollars can supplement.
Next Great City
|
9
throughout the country that don’t have such a comprehensive system. Yet its buses and
trolleys are underutilized by neighborhood residents. People say they worry about their
safety. Stops are not near commercial/retail areas or housing developments but instead
are sometimes located in front of abandoned lots. Residents are also unsure about how
to use the system, since signs—often faded—are posted on random poles, which makes
them hard to find and see. Additional shelters in neighborhoods will improve quality of
life and help increase ridership.”
Beverly Coleman
Program Director, NeighborhoodsNow
(formerly Philadelphia Neighborhood Development Collaborative)
ACTION » Improve Transit Stops
“Philadelphia’s transit system is one of the city’s greatest assets and is admired by cities
ACTION »
IMPROVE TRANSIT STOPS
Poorly maintained stops harm communities and reduce
Make bus and trolley stops clean
BENEFITS
and safe.
ridership. Safety is the number one quality Americans look for in a transit
stop.1 Residents and workers are much more likely to ride buses and trolleys
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Increases mobility, removes
Increases transit ridership
Improves mobility for
an eyesore, and decreases
and improves air quality.
workers; residents save
crime at stops. Decreases
over $9,000/yr. (per car)
This form of shelter contract is commonplace for
The city should negotiate and enforce more
automobile air pollution linked
by not owning cars;
if transit stops appear to be safe. Further, research on crime confirms what
American cities because it gives city governments
effective shelter contracts to ensure that every
to asthma and
creates attractive sites
these riders instinctively know—that fewer crimes occur at clean, well-lit,
a cost-free way to ensure that shelters are safe
neighborhood has access to clean and safe bus and
other illness.
for redevelopment.
and clean. In fact, most cities, including Philadelphia,
trolley shelters. Boston and New York have recently
actually generate revenue through shelter maintenance
demanded and received a far better agreement with
contracts. Under the current contract, the city is
their outdoor-advertising firm. By raising its expectations
guaranteed a minimum of $260,000 per year from
and shopping around, New York City signed a contract
shelter advertising.
that will provide the city with $1 billion in exchange for
2
well-maintained stops. Signage and transit schedules at stops also make
riders feel safer because they know where they are and when the next bus
3
or trolley will arrive.
Philadelphia can ensure that bus and trolley
riding buses and trolleys altogether out of concerns
stops have clean and safe shelters without
for safety. All neighborhood stops deserve clean,
spending a penny. Like many cities across the
well-lit, safe waiting areas for residents and workers.
country, Philadelphia contracts with a private company
to maintain its bus and trolley shelters. The city, not
Philadelphia needs to contract with a company
SEPTA, is responsible for maintaining its 12,000 transit
that will upgrade stops and provide regular
stops.4 Philadelphia’s Department of Public Property
maintenance, as well as to hold the contractor
contracts with a national outdoor-advertising firm that
accountable for performance. Over the past decade,
sells shelter advertising space to cover maintenance
Philadelphia has contracted with a number of different
costs and generate revenue.
national advertising firms to place new shelters and
clean and maintain its 270 existing shelters in return
The city’s contracts with advertising firms have not
for exclusive advertising rights. In its current contract,
served the city well to date. The majority of stops are
the company commits to cleaning shelters twice a week
poorly lit and inadequately maintained. Consequently,
and to fixing broken shelters within 24 hours.5
COST
None
the right to sell advertising space for the next 20 years.
Yet Philadelphia does not have any formal method
The deal includes placing more than 3,000 new bus
of checking the company’s performance, nor does it
shelters, 330 newsstands, and 20 public toilets. And
impose an obligation on the company to add shelters
local manufacturers will be used to build these new
Philadelphia should also create an Adopt-a-Stop
Philadelphia offers extraordinary public-transit access,
in a fair and equitable manner. Because advertising
neighborhood assets, creating over 100 new jobs.7
Program for stops without shelters. Across the
connecting every neighborhood to the rest of the
companies want to place shelters in neighborhoods
Boston has signed a ten-year contract that will provide
country, community groups, corporations, and others
city and region. Transit in any neighborhood is only an
where they believe they can generate the most
shelters at 80% of its stops—putting an end to waiting
are forming partnerships to keep stops well cared for
asset, however, if the place where riders enter and leave
outside in the wind and rain for many.
through Adopt-a-Stop programs. The individuals or
the train is well maintained and safe. Through a smart
organizations are typically rewarded not only with clean,
contract with an advertising firm and an Adopt-a-Stop
safe stops in their neighborhoods, but also with free
program, Philadelphians can wait for and board transit
transit passes or tickets. Those who adopt a stop take
in comfort and safety.
advertising revenue, low- to moderate-income
neighborhoods are underserved in terms of bus
shelters, even where ridership is high. This may be
Philadelphia’s current contract is due to end in June
good for the company’s profit margin, but it is the
2007 but may be extended to the end of the year. With
wrong way to determine where bus shelters are
over 600,000 bus and trolley rides taken by children
most needed by the citizens of Philadelphia.
and adults each day,8 Philadelphia owes its transit riders
or community organizations have adopted stops in other
(as well as thousands of potential new riders) a better
cities, litter is reduced by up to 80%.10
many Philadelphia residents view neighborhood
There are some 12,000 transit stops in
transit stops as unsafe and will only take transit during
Philadelphia. Only 272 of these stops have
daytime hours. Some residents have decided to avoid
bus shelters. While not all transit stops have
sufficient sidewalk space to accommodate
9
responsibility for picking up litter, reporting repair needs,
and emptying trash cans. When residents, businesses,
shelter contract that will distribute new shelters fairly
and ensure that existing shelters are well maintained,
display up-to-date route maps and schedules, and are
safe at all hours.
a shelter,6 a great many do.
10 | Next Great City
Next Great City | 11
impervious surface would be fairer and more
Fair and Accurate Stormwater Fees
Based upon Impervious Surface
accurate because the cost would be borne by
Commercial, industrial, and institutional
the user on the basis of demand placed on
the sewer system. And the business owner is
customers should pay for their fair share
of sewer service based on their use of the
system. Charging a fee for stormwater services
provided with a strong incentive to add trees
based on water use alone is unfair and inaccurate.
and greenspace to absorb stormwater on site”
If 20,000 gallons of water fall on a one-acre paved
parking lot without landscaping or water service,
Howard Neukrug
Director, Office of Watersheds
Philadelphia Water Department
over 19,000 gallons will have to be treated by
the sewer system because the lot has no ability to
absorb rainwater. Yet the owner of the parking lot
doesn’t pay a stormwater fee. As a result, those
with water service end up paying to treat this
owner’s stormwater runoff. That is not fair.
ACTION »
STOP SEWER BACKUPS & FLOODING
Fix sewers that cause property damage and endanger health.
In the previous year alone, one out of five
The city should work through its substantial backlog
Philadelphia should provide incentives to existing
Philadelphia residents surveyed said that their
of high-priority sewer repairs, starting with those
property owners to control stormwater with natural
basement flooded and one in three Philadelphia
parts of the city where citizens suffer repeated
and structural solutions. Philadelphia set strict rules
businesses experienced flood damage to their
damage to their health or property from sewage
in January 2006 to ensure that new development will
BENEFITS
Philadelphia should join over 400 other cities
and towns that charge a user fee for stormwater
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
management that is based wholly or in part on
Protects property from water
Improves water quality;
Reduces property damage
impervious area.13 Philadelphia should also offer
damage and public-health
reduces public-health
due to flooding. Avoids
credits and incentives to property owners who take
risk; encourages investment
risks from molds and
Environmental Protection
in neighborhoods.
sewage in homes.
Agency consent order for
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Creates self-sustaining
stormwater utility.
effective actions to minimize their property’s
contribution to our stormwater problem.
Much of the work for such a program has already
been done. A study in the 1990’s analyzed the
property. Built in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
backflows. While home plumbing problems may cause
not burden our overwhelmed sewer system. But that is
feasibility of a stormwater fee based on impervious
the city’s combined sewers are unable to handle both
individual incidents of flooding or sewage backflow,
only one part of the solution. The city should provide
surface. One year into the new administration,
wastewater and the millions of gallons of stormwater
when whole blocks and neighborhoods are flooded
incentives for existing owners to reduce impervious
that run off paved surfaces into storm drains after rain
during the same event, the problem lies with the city’s
surfaces and add plants and trees to absorb runoff.
water and sewer rates. The next mayor and City
Council can change the stormwater fee structure
and snow. As a result, wastewater ends up backing up
sewer system. The Philadelphia Water Department
And the city should lead by example. The city holds
into homes or flowing untreated into our rivers.
should actively invite complaints from affected residents
vast tracts of land, either temporarily (as vacant lots) or
Stormwater can overwhelm Philadelphia’s combined
sewer system in minutes. When the sewer pipes cannot
and businesses and map this data. When this data
permanently (as protected parkland), that can showcase
indicates a problem affecting multiple properties in the
good stormwater features, such as rain gardens, rain
same area, an inspection should be conducted. Where
barrels, landscaped medians, and street trees. These
hold any more water, streets and properties flood.
an inspection shows city responsibility for flooding or
break up paved surfaces and take pressure off of the
Sewage and water already within the system back
sewage backflow, the city should quickly and effectively
storm drainage system. These natural solutions can be
up and into the nearest available outlet, whether that
repair the sewer lines and add backflow devices to
as effective as conventional structural improvements in
be a remodeled basement or a warehouse space.
prevent sewer contents from backing up into homes in
reducing the volume of wastewater. They also provide
Philadelphia residents tell horror stories of finding
the future. A quick-turnaround maintenance and repair
quality-of-life improvements that you don’t get from a
human feces and toilet paper in their basements.
program that is responsive to citizen complaints will
big underground pipe—making neighborhoods prettier,
And besides flooding our homes and streets, polluted
allow for timely responses and put an end to harmful
creating pleasant areas for gathering or recreation, and
stormwater runs into our rivers. Stormwater—filled with
and unnecessary flooding and sewer incidents.
improving air quality.
raw sewage, litter, oil, bacteria, and other pollutants—
spews into neighborhood streams and rivers through
Every Philadelphia neighborhood must be able to rely
180 combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharge points.11
on a functioning, effective sewer system that will prevent
properties from unnecessary damage.
ACTION » Stop Sewer Back-ups and Flooding
“For businesses, stormwater fees based on
there will be a scheduled opportunity for updating
COST
Critical repairs and improvements to the sewer system can be funded in part through a fair and
and rates to reflect the burden placed on sewers
accurate stormwater fee. Today, every business with water service is charged a stormwater fee
to finance upgrades to the sewer system. These fees are based upon water usage. By joining our
peer cities in basing stormwater fees upon the amount of a property’s impervious surface, the city
and use the fees to fairly finance upgrades needed
by the sewer system. Seizing this opportunity will
make every neighborhood a better place to live.
can better determine the burden each property places on the sewer system.
Cities with stormwater fee structures based
on runoff include the following:
96% of stormwater that falls
on an impervious surface in
Philadelphia—roads, rooftops,
parking lots, and sidewalks—
enters the sewer system. This is
more than five times the amount
that runs off of woodlands and
meadows.12
Residents and business owners
polled in 2006 ranked these
as two of the top five changes
needed to improve the livability
of the city: “reduce the amount
of sewage and other pollution
entering our rivers” and “fix the
city’s water and sewer system to
stop leaks and water main breaks.”
Austin, Texas
Boulder, Colorado
Charlotte, North Carolina
Cincinnati, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Denver, Colorado
Flagstaff, Arizona
Los Angeles, California
Louisville, Kentucky
Miami, Florida
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Raleigh, North Carolina
Salt Lake City, Utah
Seattle, Washington
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tampa, Florida
be cut up into fenced parcels that bar residents and
visitors from the river. Philadelphia’s riverfronts
need to continue to support industrial, retail and
residential uses while at the same time offering access,
waterfront views and recreational opportunities to
the public.
ACTION » Create Public Riverfronts
If we don’t move now the waterfront will once again
ACTION »
CREATE PUBLIC RIVERFRONTS
BENEFITS
Guarantee public access for recreation on riverfronts.
Philadelphia has an extraordinary opportunity to create a public
waterfront along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers that will
strengthen river neighborhoods; provide miles of trails, parks,
boardwalks, and wetlands for residents and visitors to enjoy; and
at the same time improve water quality. The city’s rivers served for
To create vibrant, active greenways along its two
The city should rezone riverfronts to require
major rivers, the city should take three immediate,
public access and to reserve waterfront land
high-impact actions. First, it should enact new zoning
for public use. The city should rezone the Delaware
regulations for the riverfronts that require developers to
and Schuylkill waterfronts to require developers to set
locate construction farther back from the water’s edge
their buildings at least 100 feet back from the water’s
and preserve public access.
edge and preserve that land for public use. While
the Philadelphia Planning Commission has created
over a century as a leading location for industry, but manufacturing use
has declined in past decades. Miles of strategically located land—700
acres on the North Delaware Riverfront alone—sit blighted, vacant, or
Second, it should approach existing owners about
guidelines for land use along the waterfront, the city
donating legal rights of way across riverfront land.
should adopt a mandatory requirement stating that
Several owners of industrial properties already have
all developers must reserve a public waterfront.
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
River neighborhoods and
Improves water quality and
Increases neighborhood
whole city strengthened by
increases support for water-
and riverfront attractiveness.
public waterfronts.
quality protection.
Creates new public amenities.
COST
The cost to rezone the waterfront, request easement donations, and raise red flags is minimal.
underused. By taking advantage of this moment of change, the city can
offered to do so. Third, the city should monitor the rivers’
create greenways, continuous green bands of land along the water’s
water quality and quickly raise a red flag and notify the
Approach riverfront owners to request a legal
public when water quality could be harmful to users.
right of way to the waterfront and land for the
water quality in rivers and streams by raising a
found that putting up well-lit red flags at strategic points
Minimal costs are associated with each of these steps,
proposed greenway. The city should contact each
red flag. As recreational opportunities along the rivers
along the most used and populated areas of the rivers
and each would help Philadelphia create new waterfront
owner of riverfront property and request the donation
increase, the city must also continue to improve water
can stop unsafe river use and raise public awareness
destinations, revitalize surrounding neighborhoods, and
of a legal right of way across his or her land at the
quality and create a clear, effective notification system
about the need to protect river quality.14 This system will
waterfront. After reading the Pennsylvania Environmental
to let river users know when water quality is unsafe.
build upon the Water Department’s current notifications,
Council’s exciting and detailed plan for creating a
Raising a red flag at popular spots along the rivers has
which are posted on its website.
edge, which would open up portions of the rivers to residents for the
first time in more than a century.
provide economic benefits to the city as a whole.
Raise awareness and notify river users of unsafe
connected green corridor along the Delaware, and
proven to be a cost-effective way to notify river users
after seeing the Schuylkill River Park (Schuylkill Banks),
that raw sewage has entered the water and that users
a living example of a greenway, owners will see the
may be exposed to viruses, bacteria, and toxic
benefits of having their properties become part of a
substances.
Other cities, including Pittsburgh and Boston, have
public waterfront.
Trees RAISE the value of nearby houses, LIMIT stormwater
flooding, REDUCE heat related deaths, and can LOWER
skyrocketing asthma rates.
BENEFITS
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Lowers energy costs, reduces
Reduces energy use; lowers
Trees increase neighborhood
ACTION »
flooding, filters asthma-
air/water pollution from
attractiveness, make stores
REPLANT NEIGHBORHOOD TREES
causing air pollutants, and
excess electricity generation;
more profitable, and lower
beautifies neighborhoods.
reduces pollution entering
energy costs.
ACTION » Replant Neighborhood Trees
Trees provide billions of dollars in value to Philadelphians.
waterways; improves
air quality.
Plant 23,000 shade trees to replace trees the city cut down in the past five years.
The city has removed 23,000 dead or dangerous trees from
Cities such as Los Angeles are adding up to a million
neighborhoods since 2001.15 The city promised to remove the
trees because trees present a shrewd investment,
blighting effect of these problem trees and replace them with
offering a $2.80 return on each dollar spent in energy
An average Philadelphia street tree costs
2. Increase Fairmount Park Commission’s per
4. Double capital budget funding: Currently,
savings, pollution reduction, stormwater management,
approximately $360 to plant. Cutting out the tree
tree deposit for developers from $300 to $600
$300,000 in the city’s capital budget provides the
and increased property values.
box space in the sidewalk is the most costly part
and discourage removal of existing trees: The
primary funding for tree planting and maintenance.
of the process. Because tree boxes have already
Fairmount Park Commission requires developers
This amount has stayed at this low level without
to submit a deposit of $300 for each tree they are
growth for years and is left constant under the FY
healthy trees. However, this second step was not begun.
18
COST
22
Trees Reduce Asthma: Trees absorb unhealthy air
been cut for the trees that must be replanted,
Trees offer valuable services to neighborhoods. Trees
Philadelphia has fewer street trees than its peer
pollutants that can cause symptoms in the one out
$8 million should be adequate to hire trained
required to plant on their property. The deposit is
2007–2012 Capital Program Budget.25 At $360 a
can reduce asthma by absorbing pollutants that would
cities. Based upon the best data available, Philadelphia
of three Philadelphia households with a member who
contractors and work with the city’s 2,000 trained
returned if the developer plants the trees. As it often
tree, this amount allows the commission to plant
otherwise enter children’s lungs, reduce flooding after
lost 200,000 street trees from 1976 to 2004. We
has asthma.
volunteer tree tenders to replace the trees. There
costs more than $300 to plant a tree, the existing
under 850 trees annually.26 The amount should
a storm by soaking up rainwater, and decrease the
have half the number of street trees as Baltimore and
are several solid sources of funding that we can
deposit amount offers no incentive to go through with
be doubled.
risk of heat-related deaths by bringing down home
one third as many as Chicago.
identify to finance the replanting.
the planting. The fee should be increased to $600
16
23
Trees Reduce Flooding and Clean Our Water: Each
temperatures. In addition, tree-lined streets are more
tree can soak up almost 2,000 gallons of rainwater
attractive to current residents and new homebuyers.
1. Use Neighborhood Transformation Initiative
developer’s required total, and the developer should
absorb stormwater runoff and provide a natural, cost-
Funding: NTI allocated $30 million for street tree
receive a stormwater fee credit for each tree or
effective stormwater solution. Thousands of new trees
shrub planted.
should be planted in areas prone to flooding using
each year and clean it naturally.
Minneapolis
198,633
184
Trees Increase Retail Profitability: Studies show
removal and pruning in general operating funds.24
Baltimore
300,000
150
that people prefer to shop on tree-lined streets and
Just one third of this amount would be sufficient to
will spend more time and money at these stores.
fund new tree planting and the associated operating
3. Apply air-quality fines to tree planting and
costs over the next four years.
maintenance: Philadelphia has applied air-quality
20
stormwater fee revenue.
Milwaukee
200,000
143
Chicago
500,000
132
Trees Reduce Energy Costs and Lower
fines to fund tree plantings. For example, an air-quality
91
Heat-Related Deaths: Trees can cut a household’s
fine against Conrail was used to finance the planting
energy bill by up to 25% each year and prevent
of 500 trees in the Port Richmond neighborhood. The
homes from heating up to dangerous levels in
direct connection between trees and air quality makes
the summer.
this a positive use for future fines.
Washington, D.C. 100,000
21
NYC
500,000
88
Philadelphia
140,000
59
Source: Philadelphia Urban Forests Effect Model Project
5. Utilize stormwater fees to plant trees: Trees
Street Trees
per Mile
The city should plant a tree to replace each tree it cut
down by 2011.
per tree, existing trees should be counted towards a
Number of
Street Trees
19
17
ACTION » Adopt Modern Zoning
The next mayor and City Council should overhaul Philadelphia’s
outdated zoning code to ensure that new development will preserve
the unique features of city neighborhoods while helping them grow
and prosper. Zoning shapes our cities. Our zoning code determines what
can be built on every parcel of land—from a giant billboard to a skyscraper.
Zoning also determines how difficult or easy it is to add an addition to a home
and even whether a home is legal under the zoning code—or whether, like
every row home in the entire city, it is classified as a non-conforming use
that the code expressly seeks to phase out over time.
ACTION »
ADOPT MODERN ZONING
BENEFITS
Modernize Philadelphia’s 40-year-old zoning code.
Communities need a zoning code that enforces
We also need a zoning code that will protect
We need a modern zoning code that provides
By modernizing the code, the new mayor
their community plans and provides clear,
community-owned pocket parks, gardens,
incentives for high-performing buildings such
and City Council can create zoning that is
predictable rules for what can be built on
and playgrounds from development pressures.
as the Philadelphia School of the Future and the
predictable and consistently enforced. This
every parcel. Communities throughout the city
Philadelphia’s zoning code does not include zoning
Comcast Building. Today we know that all buildings
will limit the need for variances and subjective
are creating detailed community plans in order to
protection for parks and open spaces that are not
are not alike—some buildings perform better than
evaluations that change over time. Philadelphia
influence future development, yet the city does not
state or city owned. Instead, community land is
others. We want to encourage new buildings to use
needs to begin a public process through which the
update zoning to reflect these communities’ visions.
zoned residential, commercial, or industrial—
less energy so they won’t burden the local electrical
people of Philadelphia can modernize their zoning
As a result, the 624-page, 40-year-old zoning
whatever the surrounding land is zoned. By giving
grid and less pavement so they won’t cause flooding
code and decide what is best for their communities
document fails to reflect what communities want.
these neighborhood assets their own open-space
on neighboring properties. In an age of rising energy
and the city as a whole.
By allowing residents to take part in modernizing the
zoning designation, the city can protect them
costs and increased pollution caused by energy
code, the city can involve them firsthand in shaping
from inappropriate development.
usage, it is essential that Philadelphia build smart,
high-performing, energy-efficient buildings. And of
their neighborhoods and defining what development
is appropriate, rather than residents having to rush
We need a modern zoning code that
course the city needs a zoning code that requires
to oppose inappropriate projects, such as the
will encourage active housing and retail
developers to reserve a public waterfront, as
controversial Barnes Tower in Spring Garden.
development near transit hubs. Back in the
previously discussed.
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Preserves neighborhood
Protects neighborhood
Creates clear, predictable
character; protects
environment. Incentivizes
rules for development.
neighborhood investment.
energy efficient building,
Encourages investment in
Understandable code provides
active mixed-use
Philadelphia neighborhoods.
predictable rules. Community
development around transit,
plans will be enforced.
and protects community
green spaces.
COST
Older cities across the country, including Chicago and Milwaukee, have overhauled zoning in the
last decade and added similar provisions. In Chicago, the process of rewriting the zoning code cost
approximately $500,000. The city can cover this cost with existing funds. In fact, just one fifth of
1% of real-estate transfer taxes for 200627 would cover the cost of rewriting the code. In addition,
local foundations whose missions support good planning and design as ways to create better
neighborhoods can be counted on to work in partnership with the city.
1960’s, we thought it was important to separate
housing and retail from transit stops. Today, we
know better. By grouping housing, stores, and jobs
near transit hubs, we take cars off the road, allow
the 40% of Philadelphians without cars to get to
work or do errands conveniently, and create a
dynamic hub of activity in each neighborhood.
»
»
180
premature
deaths at a cost of
$990 million;
»
days of work at a cost
of $2.5 million in
wages;
280 nonfatal heart
attacks at a cost of
$23 million;
20,000 missed
»
»
180 respiratoryand cardiovascularrelated hospital
admissions at a cost
of $2.9 million.36
2,300
asthma
attacks at a cost of
$96,000; and
BENEFITS
ACTION »
REDUCE ASTHMA CAUSED BY SOOT FROM
CITY TRUCKS
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Improves neighborhood air
Improves air quality by
Reduces asthma-related
quality. Lowers asthma
reducing toxins and
absenteeism in schools and at
symptoms, heart attacks,
particulate matter.
work and reduces emergency
cancer, and premature deaths.
hospital admissions.
Install modern pollution-control devices on older city diesel trucks.
In order to improve the city and make each
Given that Philadelphia was named one of
neighborhood a better place to live, the city of
America’s Asthma Capitals and ranked in 2006 as
Philadelphia should install pollution-control devices
the third worst place to live in the country if you
on its older trucks. Philadelphia’s older, dirty diesel
have asthma, the need for change is urgent.31
trucks rumble through our neighborhoods every day,
Philadelphia cannot afford to replace all its aging diesel
spewing black soot, pollutants, and close to 40 toxins
vehicles immediately. However, the city can remove
that have been proven to increase asthma attacks,
a significant percentage of soot (scientists call this
risk to Philadelphia city
cancer, and heart disease.28 Children and low-income
particulate matter) in neighborhoods by installing a
residents and costs the city’s
African American Philadelphians are particularly at risk.29
small pollution-control device on older city vehicles.32
In 2004, the United States
Environmental Protection
Agency found that diesel vehicle
trucks are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in
Adding pollution-control devices will protect residents
many communities.30
as well as bus and truck drivers and riders, who are
exposed to up to four times more toxic diesel exhaust
costs each year.
COST
Philadelphia has a member with asthma.
Asthma is the leading cause of missed school
The filter devices cost about $5,000 each and should not need to be replaced before the majority of
days and the hospitalization of children.34
affected vehicles would be retired.37 A national settlement with Sunoco resulted in $1.2 million to
be used by the city to install these diesel filters—a substantial start that will cover the installation
pollution poses a serious health
economy millions in health-care
The American Lung Association has found that diesel
» One out of every three households in
» Scientists have found that children who live
close to a busy road are 50% more likely to
costs for about 240 of the most polluting vehicles. In addition, the city already has money in its
budget to update its trash trucks to newer, clean diesel models.
have asthma than those who live farther from
local traffic.
The city can seek additional funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is funding
» Asthma symptoms also increase
in children who live near truck traffic.35
diesel retrofit efforts across the country. Federal transportation funding under the federal
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), administered in this region by
the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), should also be explored.
than someone standing beside the diesel bus or truck.33
By installing a simple device on the tailpipes of older
diesel city vehicles or by adding a modern muffler with
pollution control, the city can slash dangerous emissions
and keep residents healthier.
ACTION » Reduce Asthma Caused by Soot from City Trucks
In 1999, pollution from diesel trucks and buses in the city caused the following:
ACTION » Clean and Green Vacant Lots
“Cleaning and greening vacant lots is a dynamic practical way
to transform the city by using its most precious resource — land.
With leadership from the city and the active involvement of
residents and organizations, this program helps to create safer
and healthier communities by replacing blight with vibrant
parks and greenspaces.”
Bob Grossmann
Associate Director
Philadelphia Green Program
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
ACTION »
CLEAN AND GREEN VACANT LOTS
BENEFITS
Continue to transform vacant lots into green community assets.
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Removes blight, reduces
Removes blight and absorbs
Raises property values by
crime, and creates safe,
stormwater.
up to 30% and protects and
attractive neighborhood
No Philadelphian should have to live near blight. This is particularly
Greening vacant lots is a high-impact and relatively
The results? More attractive communities where
true today, when Philadelphia has a proven, internationally recognized
low-cost method of providing residents with a
crime was lowered, blight was removed, and
program to remove blight from abandoned properties. With funding
blight-free environment. In 2000, Philadelphia had
encourages investment.
spaces.
neighborhoods were uplifted.
COST
more vacant lots than any major city in the country.
39
from the city, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green
With nearly 60,000 vacant properties in the city, every
The city should continue and expand this essential
Program has transformed 3,000 abandoned lots into clean and green spaces
Philadelphia resident had a direct relationship to blight
program to clean and green vacant lots and to maintain
Greening is supported in FY 2005-2006 by a $3 million allocation. We urge that the city continue to
and abandonment. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
greened lots regularly so they do not again become
prioritize this budget item and to maintain it through 2011.
and its Philadelphia Green program began an experiment
havens for illegal dumping and crime.
over the past five years.38 This interim land-management program has also
succeeded in moving crime, fires, unsanitary conditions, and drugs from
to see what the effects would be if both private and
those neighborhood properties. The greening program, which has been
public lots were cleaned and greened—the junk
supported by the city with a $3 million annual budget line, should be
removed and grass and trees planted.
extended for the next four years because it has the power to dramatically
improve neighborhoods.
Over the past six years, nearly four million square feet
of land—an area larger than 90 football fields—have
been cleaned and greened. Currently, ten community groups
oversee the maintenance of this vacant land in ten
neighborhoods across Philadelphia.
out of ten residents regularly use city parks. In addition, 40% of polled
residents helped maintain parks in the last five years by planting trees
and flowers or cleaning park areas. In 2005 alone, volunteers contributed
over 214,000 hours to preserving and improving our parks.43 The bad
news, however, is that almost half of Philadelphians polled had stayed
away from a park in the previous year because they feared for their
children’s safety or their own.44
ACTION » Maintain Healthy Parks
Philadelphia residents value their parks. Poll results show that six
ACTION »
MAINTAIN HEALTHY PARKS
BENEFITS
Appoint qualified leadership, generate new funding, and create public and private partnerships to improve parks.
Parks are important to the health and vibrancy of neighborhoods.
The city should adopt legislation to place a
The city should engage key city government partners
The parks in Philadelphia are currently in two systems, the Fairmount Park
referendum before Philadelphia’s citizens41 to
as well, such as the Philadelphia Police Department.
amend Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter so that
Given the significant number of violent incidents that
commissioners are appointed fairly and openly, with
occurred last summer in or near a park or recreation
parks have been neglected in recent decades and today are in unacceptable
clear roles and responsibilities, selection criteria,
center, friends-of-park groups, the police, the Recreation
condition. Keeping our parks well maintained, safe, and attractive will take
staggered terms (so all commissioners do not
Department, and the Fairmount Park Commission should
complete their terms at the same time), and term
work jointly to increase safety in and around our parks.
Commission and the Department of Recreation. Unfortunately, many city
strong, experienced leadership and adequate funding.
limits. The Board of Judges’ secretive process
should be eliminated. In its place, a nominating
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Creates more vibrant parks,
Parks provide the city’s
Raises value of nearby
decreases neighborhood
largest green spaces; they
homes; attracts new
crime, brings neighbors
clean air, absorb stormwater,
residents; creates new
together, and improves health
and connect city residents to
neighborhood assets.
by providing places for play
nature.
and exercise.
COST
None. It will cost the City nothing to implement these reforms to park leadership and funding.
Partnerships with citizens, nonprofits, and the private
panel comprised primarily of private and nonprofit
sector are key to revitalizing park assets. The city’s
In order to maintain our neighborhood and
The outdated and undemocratic commissioner
representatives should propose qualified candidates
infrastructure must be strengthened to enable it to
regional parks, the city should take the
selection process should be eliminated and
to the mayor for appointment.
reach out to, collaborate with, and harness the power
Funds generated within the parks over the last century
following actions:
replaced with an open, modern appointment
of potential partners.
have gone into the general city fund for general use
»
Replace the secretive process of selecting
Fairmount Park commissioners with a modern,
»
Create the infrastructure to form coordinated
public-private partnerships to improve parks.
To provide the park system with much-needed
instead. By authorizing earned income generated within
the parks to be used for park purposes, the city can
has appointed Fairmount Park commissioners
To achieve the shared goal of safe, clean, attractive
additional revenue and a strong incentive to be
encourage the park to be entrepreneurial and innovative
through an undemocratic process. The judges
parks, the city should take advantage of the wealth of
entrepreneurial, the city should authorize all new
in finding needed funding.
Form effective private-public partnerships to
interview the candidates behind closed doors and
information, people, and resources that exists outside
money earned from activities and events in the
improve parks.
announce the winners. There are no qualifications
of the Department of Recreation and the Fairmount
parks to be used for park purposes, supplementing
open process.
»
process based upon clear criteria. Since 1867,
the Board of Judges of the Court of Common Pleas
the candidates must meet and no selection criteria
Park Commission. The city should bring key community
revenues from the city budget. In 1870, when the
Authorize Fairmount Park to retain 100% of all
the Board of Judges must follow. As a result, there
stakeholders to the table so they can inform these two
state created the Fairmount Park Commission, the
income earned from activities on parkland to
is no public input and no ability for the public to
agencies’ ongoing efforts to better coordinate and share
legislature granted it the right to earn money from rent,
provide additional resources while maintaining
ensure that individuals with the necessary vision,
functions. The city also should revise city policies and
licenses, fees, and activities and to reserve that money
the city’s annual appropriation.
skills, and experience are appointed.
regulations to make it easier for nonprofit groups to
for park purposes.42 Money made in the parks was
collaborate and find resources to support the seasonal
intended to stay in the parks. Yet this policy was not
maintenance workers needed to clean up parks.
followed.
40
from garbage into new products at a lower cost and with less energy than if the
manufacturer had bought new materials.
If every household in Philadelphia recycled at least one newspaper
and two 16-oz. beverage containers each day, the city would cut
costly waste-disposal bills in half. Each 1% improvement in the
recycling diversion rate saves the city over $500,000 a year.54 Millions in
savings could be reinvested in neighborhoods.
ACTION »
EXPAND AND IMPROVE RECYCLING CITYWIDE
Expand weekly single-sort recycling service to all and save millions of tax dollars.
Each year, Philadelphia is throwing tax dollars in the garbage that
Through this pilot program, every household receives
could be spent on neighborhood services such as schools, police,
a large recycling container that members can fill with
and parks. Philadelphia can save up to $17 million a year by recycling
37.5% of residential waste.45 Every ton of garbage the city recycles saves $54
46
in landfill and incinerator costs. Every ton of garbage recycled earns the
city $19.17 from a local, for-profit recycling facility. Philadelphians throw
out about 800,000 tons of trash a year. The city controller found that, by
Why Recycle?
water bottles, soda cans, magazines, cardboard boxes,
Recycling reduces litter. Litter on neighborhood
glass jars, and newspapers and wheel to the curb on
sidewalks and streets decreases substantially
recycling days. Each container has a bar code that
when weekly curbside recycling is offered and large,
identifies the household that owns it. When the
sturdy containers are provided. Residents are more
mechanical arm on the city’s recycling truck lifts
motivated to put all glass, cans, and paper into a
each container, it weighs it and gives that household
single bin, and this sturdy container replaces flimsy
credit for having recycled that amount. For every ten
increasing Philadelphia’s recycling rates to ones comparable to those in
pounds recycled, the household receives $5 worth
peer cities such as Los Angeles, the city would save $17 million a year.47
of RecycleBank Dollars to use at local stores, with
garbage bags, which routinely split open, littering
sidewalks and streets with their contents.50
BENEFITS
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
The $17 million saved each
Reuses materials, reduces
Saves city $17 million
year can be spent improving
waste and incineration, and
annually; creates jobs;
neighborhoods. Recycling
lowers greenhouse gases
provides residents with up to
reduces litter and strengthens
from landfill. Recycled
400 “dollars” a year to spend
local businesses by providing
products require a third less
at local merchants.
gift “dollars” to their stores.
energy to produce than new.
ACTION » Expand and Improve Recycling Citywide
What is recycling? Recycling is a process that transforms useful materials
COST
There are no significant upfront costs for expanding the recycling program demonstration. The city
has already committed to replacing its aged garbage truck fleet with recycling compactor trucks
that carry twice as much. Staffing levels will remain the same. Savings of $17 million annually can
be realized.
a limit of $400 per year.
Recycling trucks with mechanical hoisting arms
will lower worker injuries while maintaining
A 2005–2006 neighborhood pilot program showed
Philadelphia’s recycling rate of 5% is the second
Given the proven success of an improved recycling
that Philadelphians will recycle if provided with
worst of any large city in the country.48 Yet in 2005,
program in two neighborhoods, it is time for Philadelphia
current staffing levels. One in five city trash-collection
these incentives: single-sort containers into which
when the city partnered with a private company named
to offer convenient and reliable recycling service
workers is on disability leave at any one time due to on-
Recycling creates jobs in a growing sector.
Recycling saves energy and trees. In 2004, paper
Philadelphia will create new jobs by pushing up its
recycling in Pennsylvania saved over 7.5 million trees.
they can throw newspapers, cans, and bottles;
RecycleBank to provide weekly curbside recycling pickup
citywide, service that includes public education and
the-job injuries.51 Lifting thousands of pounds of garbage
weekly curbside pickup; and local store “dollars.”
for 2,500 residents in Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane
outreach, large single-sort containers, and local store
is hard on the human body. By using recycling trucks
recycling rate. When the state of Pennsylvania made
Out of this paper, new products were produced using
neighborhoods, that rate significantly increased.
“dollars” as incentives.
with mechanical arms to hoist up recyclable materials,
a concerted effort to raise recycling rates, it created
up to 95% less energy and saving the equivalent of
workers can do their jobs while remaining injury free.
an industry that, as of 2003, employed over 80,000
611 million gallons of gas.53
During the first year of this program, 90% of
workers in 3,000 recycling businesses. This recycling
households in Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane
and reuse industry generated $18 billion in sales, $3
recycled. The amount of trash recycled rose 300%
billion in payroll, and $30 million in taxes in 2003.52
in Chestnut Hill and 400% in West Oak Lane.49
COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC
Creates jobs, increases city’s
Improves air quality; lowers
Creates jobs; enlarges market
ability to serve residents in
use of foreign oil; increases
for clean, local energy; trains
times of disaster, and lowers
use of clean, local energy.
workforce in state-of-art
asthma-causing pollution.
practices; reduces economic
losses in disasters; and
stabilizes city and schooldistrict budgets by reducing
foreign oil dependence.
COST
ACTION »
The cost for the city to replace 5% of its energy with clean, local power would be only $165,000,
USE CLEAN ENERGY & CONSTRUCT ENERGY–EFFICIENT BUILDINGS
about three-fourths of 1% of the city’s annual energy bill.64 Costs associated with generating clean
power on site are too dependent on the type of site to allow for accurate estimates. As an example,
however, in 2004 the Philadelphia Social Security Administration building added solar panels that
Buy or generate clean, local energy and build healthy, energy-efficient city and school-district facilities.
generate sufficient power to run its water heaters, at a cost of $58,000.65 The costs of building city
facilities to LEED silver standards would be offset by energy and water savings. Therefore, there
BUY CLEAN, LOCAL ENERGY
Philadelphia should begin to buy or generate energy
from clean, local sources to create new jobs and to gain
the capacity to provide critical services during disasters.
The city of Philadelphia spent nearly 30 million taxpayer
dollars on energy in FY 2005.55 Most of that money left the
local economy and flowed out of the country. By buying or
generating a minimum of 5% of its energy (and preferably
Pennsylvania’s prominence as a clean, local energy
Being able to supply backup power to support
consumer already benefits Philadelphia. One of the world’s
communications and emergency services such as medical,
leading wind turbine manufacturers chose to put its
fire, and police is key. Pennsylvania recently added solar
headquarters in the city, and 14 companies that install solar
panels to the governor’s house that turn sunlight into
photovoltaic (PV) panels work in the region.57 Philadelphia’s
electricity. This system can power communications during
commitment to clean, local energy will similarly spur
times of disaster. Chicago has installed a solar-power backup
new investment and create new technology jobs in wind,
supply for its 911 communications facility, and New York City
methane, and solar power manufacturing, construction,
has added solar panels to keep its Central Park police station
and operations.
functioning at all times.58 Philadelphia should take similar
more) from local, clean sources such as wind, solar, or
methane, the city can lower its dependence on foreign oil,
create new jobs in alternative-energy industries, and deliver
emergency-response services during disasters.
BUILD TO LEED STANDARDS
steps to back up its critical emergency services with a
Buying and generating clean, local energy increases
emergency preparedness. Hurricane Katrina made it clear
reliable source of power so that no neighborhood will be
left to struggle on its own in a disaster.
that every city must be fully prepared to provide emergency
Buying and generating clean, local energy creates
is an economic development policy. Over the past four years,
Pennsylvania grew its clean energy purchases from 5%
to 20% of its energy needs. Through consumer purchases,
state funding initiatives, and other incentives and
requirements favoring renewable energy, the state
created over 3,500 new jobs and $2.5 billion in
increased earnings.
would be no long-term additional costs for building city facilities to LEED silver standards.66
Philadelphia should build energy-efficient, healthy
city and school-district facilities. All new facilities
that the city and the School District of Philadelphia
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Dallas have all
By building to LEED silver standards, the city will also
build60 should achieve the silver rating of the U.S.
adopted LEED silver standards; their new city
provide training to the city’s workforce in state-of-the-art
Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and
buildings cut air pollution and limit their burden on sewer
construction practices that the private market is already
Environmental Design (LEED) standards. In FY 2005, the
systems by reducing their need for electricity derived
adopting. Private efforts can already be seen at One
city and school district together spent over $50 million
from fossil fuels and coal (which pollute the air) and by
Crescent Drive, which has succeeded in achieving LEED
on energy.61 With energy prices rising dramatically, it is
reusing water from sinks for flushing the toilets, among
platinum status, and the Comcast Building, which is
essential that new city facilities, whether they are offices,
many other improvements. LEED’s flexible point system
in pursuit of a gold rating. Zoning incentives for private
libraries, police stations, or fire stations, be built to use
allows architects and builders to take the approach that
buildings (recommended in the zoning section) will
energy as efficiently as possible.
will work best for a specific location.
encourage others in the private sector to build healthy,
energy-efficient buildings as well. Healthier buildings
services during times of crisis. When disaster strikes,
new jobs. A commitment to buy or generate clean energy
New advances in technology and construction
Locally, some buildings are already following LEED
have been shown to increase worker and student
techniques have dramatically changed how buildings
standards. The new Department of Environmental
performance and dramatically reduce absenteeism.62
energy use to clean, local energy will remove
are designed and built. Fifteen states and 50 cities, as
Protection headquarters in Norristown will use 35% less
millions of pounds of hazardous pollutants
well as the federal government, require new buildings
energy and 58% less water than a conventional building
from our air that increase asthma and heart
to meet LEED standards. To achieve LEED silver
of the same size. The Philadelphia School of the Future
disease symptoms as well as respiratory
will realize similar savings.
in June 2006, must take immediate steps to improve its
certification, a facility must earn a certain number of
ability to deliver critical services in a disaster situation.
infections in children. By switching 5% of its
points for healthy design and efficient water and energy
widespread power failure often results. Lights go out.
Converting 5% of the city government’s
Medical equipment does not work. Neither do the electric
pumps that deliver safe drinking water and help treat
wastewater and sewage. The city of Philadelphia, as the
Emergency Preparedness Review Committee Report advised
ACTION » Use Clean Energy & Construct Efficient Buildings
BENEFITS
energy use to clean, local energy, the city
56
can remove these hazardous pollutants from
use. Points can be earned for increasing the use of
natural light; reducing the use of energy, water, and
toxic materials; and other state-of-the-art practices
the air each year:
that benefit the neighborhood environment.
» 30,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides
» 90,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide
» 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system for new construction assigns up
to 69 points for green building features such as water efficiency, renewable energy use, recycled materials,
and natural light. There are four levels of LEED. Certified is the lowest level; above them are silver, gold,
and platinum. Cities across the country have adopted the silver standard, which requires scores between
33 and 38 points.63
59
SOURCE NOTES
to the next
mayor of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia will be America’s next great city. To get there,
1
we must fix what is broken in our neighborhoods and provide
efficient and effective government services in order to make
every neighborhood a good place to live and work.
In 1990, Philadelphia was so weighed down by blight and abandonment that
2
the final curtain seemed to have fallen on the city. That was an illusion. Four
mayoral terms later, Philadelphia is readying itself for its second act. We have
a dynamic, attractive downtown that is a national success story, and we have
removed the worst signs of blight from our neighborhoods. We have the
opportunity and the ability to lift up our city and make every neighborhood
Vogel and Pettinari.
4
Telephone interview with Christopher Zearfoss,
director of transportation programs at the
Philadelphia Planning Commission (July 31, 2006).
5
7
Shelters are approximately five feet deep by ten
feet wide. The city requires at least a two-foot
setback from the road to ensure that buses and
trucks do not hit the shelter roof. This means that
sidewalks should be at least five feet deep to allow
for shelters.
16 Estimates for 1976 are derived from the Fairmount
Park Commission’s annual reports. The 2004 study
was an unreleased analysis by a consultant hired
by the city of Philadelphia with funding from the
U.S. Forest Service Northeast Research Station.
Technology advances and differing data collection
methods make it impossible to know with statistical
certainty whether we have actually lost half of our
trees in the past 20 years.
SEPTA ridership data for FY 2005 shows bus
ridership totaling 558,000 daily unlinked trips and
trolley ridership at 62,200 daily unlinked trips. An
unlinked trip is a single ride. If a rider takes the
trolley and then transfers to another trolley or bus,
that counts as two unlinked trips.
17 Milwaukee has 200,000 street trees spread over
1,400 street miles. Data provided by Patrice
Carroll, project director of Pennsylvania’s
TreeVitalize Program. Boston and other cities
without tree inventories were not included in the
chart.
King County Metro in Seattle, Washington, provides
free monthly passes to hundreds of individuals,
each of whom keeps his or her neighborhood stop
clean and empties the trash regularly. “Toolkit for
the Assessment of Bus Stop Accessibility and
Safety,” Easter Seals Project Action,
http://projectaction.easterseals.com/site/
DocServer/06BSTK_Complete_Toolkit.pdf?docID=2
1443, downloaded on August 4, 2006.
18 Los Angeles launched a program to add one million
trees. Hyman and Merl, “L.A. to Be Remade in the
Shade,” Los Angeles Times (October 1, 2006);
Blaine Harden, “Tree-Planting Drive Seeks to Bring
a New Urban Cool, Lower Energy Costs Touted as
Benefit,” Washington Post (September 4, 2006),
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/09/03/AR2006090300926.html.
of thousands of trees to replace what has been cut down in the past five years,
8
and order the installation of pollution controls on older city buses and trucks
to clean up the air that currently makes us the third worst place to live with
asthma in the country.67
9
next great city.
Sincerely,
The Next Great City Coalition
14 Vernon Clark, “A Devilish Water Hole,” Philadelphia
Inquirer (August 11, 2006).
Winnie Hu, “Deal Is Reached to Put Toilets on City
Streets,” New York Times (September 22, 2005).
that have value rather than paying to bury or burn them. Direct the replanting
down the road toward its rightful position as this nation’s
13 Grant Hoag, “Developing Equitable Stormwater
Fees: What Do Customers Perceive as ‘Fair’?
Setting Rates That Reflect the Cost of Providing
Service,” Stormwater Magazine (January/February
2004), http://www.forester.net/sw_0401_
developing.html.
6
efficiency, adopting reliable, clean, local energy sources, and recycling items
Work with us as this city’s mayor to move Philadelphia
12 From undisturbed land, 8 inches of the 45 inches
of rain that Philadelphia normally gets in a year
runs off, while 12 inches is infiltrated to baseflow
and 25 inches are evapotranspired. With paved
land, 43 inches of the rain become runoff and 2
inches are evaporated. “Pennsylvania Stormwater
Best Management Practices Manual,” final draft
(2006).
15 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: A Vision
Becomes a Reality, Progress Report 2004,”
http://www.phila.gov/nti/reports/
NTIreport2004.pdf.
neighborhoods into new assets. Lead our transition to innovative solutions
and practices that reduce wasted energy and taxpayer dollars by improving
11 A Combined Sewer Overflow is a pipe that
discharges an untreated combination of storm
water and household waste into rivers and streams
when a sewer’s capacity is exceeded during
storms.
The contract with CBS Outdoor covers the
maintenance of all bus shelters in Philadelphia
outside of the Center City Business District, where
shelters have no commercial advertising.
essential infrastructure, from our overwhelmed sewer system to our obsolete
zoning code. Help us to turn abandoned land along our rivers and in our
Mary Vogel and James Pettinari, “Personal Safety
and Transit: Paths, Environments, Stops, and
Stations,” Center for Transportation Studies (April
2002), http://www.cts.umn.edu/pdf/CTS-02-051.pdf ; Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, “Hot Spots of
Bus Stop Crime: The Importance of Environmental
Attributes,” Journal of the American Planning
Association (1999).
3
healthy, safe, and attractive.
Please work with us as mayor of Philadelphia to update and modernize
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, “Retrofit of Urban
Corridors: Land Use Policies and Design Guidelines
for Transit Friendly Environment,” Berkeley: UCTC
No. 180 (1993). This echoed a 1992 nationwide
survey finding that only 17% of respondents
considered buses to be the safest mode of
transportation. Ball and Mierzeiewski, “Transit Use
Factors,” Center for Transportation Research,
University of Florida (1992).
10 Tri-Met, the regional transit provider in Portland,
Oregon, compensates its 800 Adopt-a-Stop
participants with ten bus tickets each per month.
Under the program, litter at these stops has been
reduced by 80%. Joel Volinski and Lisa E. Tucker,
“Safer Stops for Vulnerable Customers,” State of
Florida Department of Transportation (2003).
19 E. Gregory McPherson et al., “City of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, Municipal Tree Resource Analysis,”
Center for Urban Forest Research (June 2005).
20 A recent Wharton research study found that a street
tree within 50 feet of a house raises that house’s
value up to 9%. Customer preference studies have
also shown that visitors and local customers are likely
to spend 12% more in stores on tree-lined streets
that at those on streets without trees. Wachter and
Gillen, “Public Investment Strategies: How They
Matter for Neighborhoods in Philadelphia—
Identification and Analysis,” The Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania (April 2006).
21 John E. Cutler, “Reclaiming Trees,” Urban Land
(November/December 2005), http://
www.cfr.washington.edu/research.envmind/
Policy/ULI_Trees.pdf.
22 This is the cost of the contractor’s work. In
addition, the Fairmount Park Commission must
manage the contract, inspect sites, and maintain
the trees.
23 Established in 1993, Tree Tenders is a
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society program
that offers training in how to plant and
care for trees in an urban environment. See
http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org/
phlgreen/treetenders.html.
24 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative General
Operating Funds, http://www.phila.gov/
nti/budget.htm.
25 “City of Philadelphia: The FY 2007–2012 Capital
Program.”
26 The Fairmount Park Commission also receives
private donations of $500 per park tree through its
“Gifts for All Seasons,” as well as other grant
funding. These funds permit FPC to plant 100
additional trees per year.
27 The following are the Philadelphia real-estate
transfer fees from 2004 to 2006:
FY 2006 = $234,498,704
FY 2005 = $192,266,000
FY 2004 = $141,345,440.92
The 2004 number is from the Supplement to the
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The FY
2005 figure is from the FY 2007 Five-Year
Financial Plan, and the FY 2006 unaudited number
is from a Department of Revenue comparative.
28 “Smoke Out: Three Measures for Cleaning up
Diesel Air Pollution in New York City,” Natural
Resources Defense Council (2005),
http://www.nrdc.org/air/transportation/psmoke.asp.
29 Shapiro and Stout, “Childhood Asthma in the United
States: Urban Issues,” Pediatric Pulmonology
(December 2001, 47–55); Lang and Polansky,
“Patterns of Asthma Mortality in Philadelphia from
1969 to 1991,” New England Journal of Medicine
(December 8, 1994, 1542–46).
30 Sandy Bauers, “Diesel Becoming Greener and
Cleaner,” Philadelphia Inquirer (October 11, 2006).
31 2006 Asthma Rankings by the Asthma and Allergy
Foundation of America, www.allergycapitals.com.
32 In 1995, diesel vehicles emitted more than half of
the particulate pollution breathed by pedestrians as
they strolled along Madison Avenue, even though
diesel buses and trucks were a small fraction of
New York City traffic. 52.8% of the particulate
matter measured on Madison Avenue in the mid1990’s was attributable to diesels. NYS DEC, “New
York State Implementation Plan: Inhalable
Particulate (PM10)” (September 1995, 11).
33 California Air Resources Board Study (January
2001), cited in “Philadelphia Diesel Difference,
Health Information,” http://www.cleanair.org/
dieseldifference/healthinfo/index.html.
34 PhillyHealthInfo.org Spotlight on Asthma,
http://www.phillyhealthinfo.org/index.php/general/
spotlight_on_asthma, downloaded on October 11,
2006.
35 Rob McConnell, Kiros Berhane, Ling Yao, Michael
Jerrett, Fred Lurmann, Frank Gilliland, Nino Kunzli,
Jim Gauderman, Ed Avol, Duncan Thomas, and
John Peters, “Traffic, Susceptibility and Childhood
Asthma,” Environmental Health Perspectives (May
2006).
36 “Philadelphia Particulate Matter Analysis,” prepared
by U.S. EPA Region III. Presented to the
Philadelphia Diesel Difference Working Group on
August 24, 2004, http://www.cleanair.org/
dieseldifference/healthinfo/pmphillyreport.htm.
37 Costs are based upon average prices according to
various sources, with specific reliance on a pilot
program of the New York City Transit Authority to
retrofit its buses in 2001.
38 “Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: A Vision
Becomes a Reality, Progress Report 2004”,
http://www.phila.gov/nti/reports/NTIreport2004.pdf.
39 Michael A. Pagano and Ann O’M. Bowman, “Vacant
Land in Cities: An Urban Resource,” The Brookings
Institution (December 2000).
40 The commission is made up of ten commissioners
who are volunteer citizens and serve five-year
terms and six commissioners who are ex-officio
members and includes designees of the mayor; the
president of City Council; the commissioners of the
city’s Departments of Public Property, Recreation,
and Water; the chief engineer of the Water
Department; and the surveyor of the Department of
Streets. The Board of Judges from the city’s Court
of Common Pleas selects the citizen volunteers.
41 For over 20 years, advocates and leaders alike
have demanded a modern leadership structure for
the Fairmount Park Commission. In 1983 the
Fairmount Park Commission adopted a master plan
recommending that specific criteria be adopted to
guide the process of selecting commissioners,
including relevant expertise and willingness to
advocate for our parks. Some 20 years later, an
intensive study of the commission resulted in a
report entitled “A Bridge to the Future: Fairmount
Park Strategic Plan.” The report found that
“Fairmount Park currently lacks the organizational
structure, resources, incentives, and philosophical
approach to reach its full revenue-generating
potential, creating a more financially sustainable
operations… [W]ith no published criteria or
appointment process for the Commissioners,
stakeholders perceive a lack of representation and
accountability… roles and responsibilities are not
well defined between the Commission, the Mayor,
and the Managing Director’s Office, which reduces
accountability and ownership.”
42 “All rents, licenses, charges and fees, all fines,
proceeds of all sales, except of lands purchased,
and profits of whatsoever kind, to be collected,
received or howsoever realized, shall be paid into
the City Treasury as a fund to be exclusively
appropriated by Councils for park purposes, under
the direction of said Commission: Provided, that
monies or properties given or bequeathed to the
Park Commissioners upon specified trusts shall be
received and receded by their Treasurer, and held
and applied in accordance with the trust specified.”
Section 16485 of Title 53 of Purden’s Pennsylvania
Statutes, annotated.
43 Philadelphia Parks Alliance Newsletter (Summer
2006) estimates the value of hours volunteered by
citizens associated with Philadelphia Green and the
Fairmount Park Commission.
44 Terry Madonna Opinion Research, “Physical
Philadelphia Survey” (April 2006).
45 Review of Recycling Program, Office
of the Controller (May 2005),
http://www.recyclenowphila.org/downloads/
Philadelphia%20City%20Controller’s%20Report%20May%202005.pdf.
46 Sandy Bauers, “Philadelphia Greens up Its Act,”
Philadelphia Inquirer (June 5, 2006).
47 “Municipal Recycling Survey,” Waste Age (February
13, 2006).
48 City of Philadelphia, “Mayor’s Report on City
Services, July 1, 2004–June 30, 2005, Fiscal Year
2005,” http://www.phila.gov/reports/pdfs/
FY05MayorsReportHR.pdf. The city disposed of
785,125 tons of trash in FY 2005 and recycled
41,023 tons, for a recycling rate of 5.2%.
49 Tom Avril, “Recycling Could Save $17 Million,
Controller Says,” Philadelphia Inquirer (August 10,
2005).
50 Reams, Geaghan, and Gendron, “The Link between
Recycling and Litter: A Field Study,” Environment
and Behavior (1996, 92–110).
51 Maurice Sampson, Speech delivered to the
Philadelphia Urban Sustainability Forum (March 16,
2006).
52 Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center press
release (July 2005), http://www.parmc.org/news.
53 U.S. EPA, Municipal Solid Waste, FAQ about
Recycling and Waste Management,
www.epa.gov/garbage/faq.htm; PA DEP brochure,
“Recycling Means Economic and Environmental
Benefits for Pennsylvania.”
54 Review of Recycling Program, Office of the
Controller (May 2005).
55 Energy Expenditures, General Fund accounts (FY
2005):
Electricity $17.2 million
Natural gas $9.2 million
Purchased steam $2.0 million
Fuel oil $0.5 million
56 “Clean Energy: Today’s Reality, Tomorrow’s
Opportunity,” The Reinvestment Fund (2006),
http://www.trfund.com/resource/downloads/
TRF%20Energy-final.pdf.
57 Ibid.
58 “Energy Security and Emergency Preparedness:
How Clean Energy Can Deliver More Reliable
Power for Critical Infrastructure and Emergency
Response Missions. An Overview for Federal, State,
and Local Officials,” Clean Energy Group (October
2005), http://www.cleanenergystates.org/library/
Reports/CEG_Clean_Energy_Security_Oct05.pdf.
60 Builds should be defined as any new building that the
city constructs, owns, finances 50% or more of, or
manages.
61 The city of Philadelphia’s energy costs from General
Fund accounts (FY 2005) are $28.9 million, based
upon figures provided by Kent R. Miller, executive
director of the Philadelphia Municipal Energy Office.
The most recently reported energy costs for the School
District of Philadelphia are $30 million, based on the
School District of Philadelphia’s Energy Office website,
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/facilities/
dept_energy/default.htm.
62 Toyota built a LEED-certified building in order to save
on energy costs but found that the new building—
which offered natural lighting, electricity-generating
rooftop solar panels, and water recycling—also caused
employee absenteeism to fall 14% and productivity to
increase. Case studies from the U.S. Green Building
Council show increases in employee productivity of as
much as 16%. Roger Vincent, “The Greening of Work,”
Los Angeles Times (August 27, 2006).
63 Cities that have adopted the LEED silver standard or
higher include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas
City, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco.
64 Cost based upon Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
Renewable Energy Cost Analysis.
65 The system will save $5,000 per year, resulting in a
15-year payback, and will offer a reduction in fossil-fuel
use equivalent to 42,000 barrels of oil and 37,000
cubic feet of natural gas, http://www.eere.energy.gov/
femp/services/yhtp/energy_projects_detail.cfm/id=8.
66 A report called “A National Review of Green Schools:
Costs, Benefits, and Implications for Massachusetts”
analyzed 30 green school buildings across the nation
and found that green schools cost only 1.5 to 2.5%
more than conventional buildings to construct and
saved ten times that much. “A National Review of
Green Schools: Costs, Benefits, and Implications for
Massachusetts, a Report for the Massachusetts
Technology Collaborative” (December 2005).
NEXT GREAT CITY PHILADELPHIA
www.nextgreatcity.org
Author»
Karen L. Black, May 8 Consulting
Research Associate» Keith Argue, Temple University
Design»
Maskar Design, Philadelphia
Photos»
City skyline, pg. 2: Mark Adams
Children on swing, pg. 5; Vernon Park, pg. 23;
Nicetown Park, pg. 24: Courtesy Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society
67 2006 Asthma Rankings by the Asthma and Allergy
Foundation of America, www.allergycapitals.com.
Tug of war, cover; Socity Hill rowhomes, pg. 5:
Jupiter Images
Children on bikes, cover; Family hiking,
cover: Getty Images
59 Pounds of pollutants derived from the U.S. EPA
Power Profiler Page, assuming 5% of
Philadelphia’s total annual electricity use is
10,684,491 kWh, http://www.epa.gov/
cleanenergy/powpro/screen1.html.
All other images: R Bradley Maule
Managing Editor»
John Hanger, President and CEO,
Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
Editor»
Christine Knapp, Eastern Pennsylvania
Outreach Coordinator, Citizens for
Pennsylvania’s Future
Copyeditor»
Janet Benton, Benton Editorial

Next Great City Philadelphia

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