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October 1 , 2008

Happy Trails on the expanded Pennypack
Northeast Times 
By Tom Waring

Former congressman Bob Borski, now chairman of the Delaware River City Corp., is eager to see the trail extended at Pennypack on the Delaware park.
On an otherwise miserable Sunday weather-wise, Borski, Fairmount Park Commission executive director Mark Focht and others took part in a fence-cutting ceremony to mark the beginning of the trail extension.
"Mr. Focht, tear down that fence," Borski said, sounding like former President Ronald Reagan ordering Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
The 65-acre park is located along the Delaware River, near Rhawn Street and adjacent to the Riverview Home and prisons.
It opened in 1999 and is used by walkers, joggers, bicyclists, roller skaters, fishermen, picnickers, bird watchers and soccer and softball players.
The asphalt walking trail will be extended by a half-mile. It will proceed through a natural meadow, pass a tidal wetland and end at the mouth of the Pennypack Creek.
"We’re opening up a great asset," Borski said.
The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is funding the extension, which should be complete sometime in November.
"It’s a really exciting project for us," said Sarah Thorp, executive director of the DRCC.
Focht, who succeeded Borski’s wife Karen as executive director of the park commission, said the area is beautiful and will be enhanced by graphic images and information about the wetland.
"This will bring more of an environmental focus to the park," he said.
Ultimately, the trail will be extended another two-plus miles to Linden Avenue. It will have to weave around the police and fire academies and a water treatment plant. A bridge will be built to cross Pennypack Creek.
The Delaware River City Corp. is a non-profit organization founded in 2004. It is developing an 11-mile system of recreational trails, parks and open space stretching from Allegheny Avenue in Port Richmond to the Poquessing Creek in Torresdale.
The development will include Lardner’s Point Park on a four-a-and-half-acre piece of ground at the base of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge. The corporation has raised about $1 million toward the $1.5 million cost.
"I-95 took the river away from us. Our mission is to bring the river back to the people of the Northeast," said Borski, who retired from the House of Representatives in 2002 after 20 years. 
In addition, the DRCC plans to meet with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to discuss what it plans to do with St. Vincent’s Home, a care facility for adolescent girls that will close early next year.
The DRCC’s hope is that its initiatives will spur private developers to convert vacant land into residential, business and industrial uses. Right now, those developers are sitting on their properties in a soft real estate market.
There are proposed development sites at Rhawn Street, Princeton Avenue, Magee Avenue and Orthodox Street. An ownership dispute is delaying any movement on the Rhawn Street property.

July 3, 2008

Plans for River Revitalization are Flowing
Northeast Times
By Jon Campisi

For some time now, the Delaware River City Corporation has been working on a plan to revitalize the waterfront along the Delaware River from the Far Northeast south to Port Richmond. The 2-year-old non-profit organization’s work thus far has mainly consisted of vision planning and fund-seeking, all the while hopping through bureaucratic hurdles that are part of dealing with multiple jurisdictional boundaries.

It’s been a tough road, but there finally appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, as evidenced by the recent visit by dignitaries from abroad who were so impressed with what they’ve heard that they had to see things with their own eyes. "Their sole purpose for coming to Philadelphia was to look at this project in the Northeast," Sarah Thorp, Delaware River City Corporation’s executive director, said during an interview last week in her Bridesburg office.
The project Thorp refers to is an 11-mile "greenway" trail, consisting of multi-use paths and recreational parks, that DRCC is developing for the stretch between Pulaski Park in Port Richmond and the Poquessing Creek in Torresdale.

The dignitaries were a delegation consisting of some 30 business people, investors and elected officials from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who wanted to check out the area to get some ideas for a similar project they are looking to develop on a 400-acre site along the Rio de la Plata.
The Buenos Aires site is owned by the Techint Group, a consortium of local businesses that plans to create a new community with residential, commercial and recreational space.
On June 13, the representatives met with Mayor Michael Nutter, toured the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and visited various points along the North Delaware River that the DRCC is working to improve. The group had visited a few sites in New York prior to the Philadelphia visit, but Thorp said she had it on good authority that the delegation was most impressed by the potential it saw along the Delaware.
"They wanted to see how we got to the point where we are right now," Thorp said, noting that the project planned for Argentina is similar in scope to that of the DRCC’s, namely, that both are trying to revitalize old industrial sites.

Thorp is particularly pleased to note that the North Delaware project is finally moving closer to fruition, with four aspects of construction set to begin in 2009.

The first item on the agenda is the extension of a trail within the Pennypack Park on the Delaware, a park that will combine both active and passive recreation. Currently, only half of the park is open to the public. The existing trail will be extended by three quarters of a mile. Construction should begin within a month and is expected to take six to eight weeks to complete.

The second smaller project in the foreseeable future is the construction of a three-mile section of trail connecting Pleasant Hill Park in Torresdale to Pennypack Park on the Delaware in Holmesburg. The trail will be multi-use, ideal for both foot and bike traffic, and will measure 12-feet wide. The trail will most likely be constructed of asphalt, since using pervious materials, while preferable from an environmental standpoint, could hamper already flood-inducing conditions there; much of the trail will be built within a floodplain. But not to worry: "It is going through pretty natural areas that have pretty good stormwater filtration as it is," Thorp said.

The third project on the horizon is known as the Kensington and Tacony Trail, a two-mile-long trailway — which is in the final design phase — that will stretch from Longshore Avenue in Tacony to Bridge Street in Wissinoming.

The last project within the overall Greenway undertaking that will be built in 2009 will be the construction of a brand new, 4.5-acre recreation space at Lardner’s Point Park, located between Tacony and Wissinoming. Thorp said a significant amount of wetlands — around 1,200 feet worth — will be incorporated into the park project; the shoreline there is currently quite rocky, she said. It will also incorporate restrooms, picnic tables and other amenities.

In Thorp’s view, the entire undertaking is aimed at making Philadelphians, especially Northeast residents, more aware of the natural spaces surrounding them. "It’s all about the public having better public spaces in Philadelphia, that once you revitalize former industrial land ... people will want to live there, or people will want to have their businesses there," she said. "But they don’t want to live next to a vacant brownfield that’s environmentally contaminated." Because some of the areas along the North Delaware were once home to contaminant-producing industries, Thorp said a big part of the riverfront’s revitalization includes remediation work.

One spot in particular, a section of Pennypack Park on the Delaware, was once home to an unofficial city landfill, Thorp said. But the landfill has since been capped and is safe to walk on.
Part of the goal of the tour for the Argentina representatives, Thorp said, was to "show this delegation that you could take a place that’s abandoned and bad and turn it into" a thriving public space.

Those from Argentina seem to be onboard in concept, Thorp said, since they too aim to redevelop an area that was home to various industrial uses during the past 50 years but has since been eyed as a spot that could benefit the public at large. While a private company bought the 400 acres in Argentina, Thorp said investors are working closely with the government, since, in the end, the project will consist of public use. Thorp said her only hope is that it won’t take the group from Argentina "ten years of planning like it did for us," and she would like to think reviewing the DRCC’s project gave them some ideas by which to move faster toward their ultimate goal. "They’re really in the very early planning stages," Thorp said. "This trip to the U.S. was to really be able to envision what’s possible. In order to see what’s possible for the future, it really helps to look at projects that are young at the planning stages and in construction."

According to Thorp, the DRCC works under an annual administrative budget of $100,000. Thorp is one of three workers. The others are a part-time secretary who reports to the 11-member board of directors and an independent consultant who puts in full-time hours.

Funding for the DRCC comes from the federal, state and local governments, as well as other sources such as private foundations and oil spill mitigation. Construction projects using federal money, which is funneled through the city, go to the lowest bidder, while projects using state money are more flexible on the bidding process, Thorp said. Funding, while a big part of the DRCC’s task, is not all that the non-profit has to contend with. The group also has its work cut out in the area of obtaining rights-of-way and coordinating with local property owners, since much of the trailway to be built snakes through private properties. "It’s not just about money, it’s about extensive coordination with the local neighborhoods, all the local businesses along here and the stakeholders," she said.

Aside from the riverfront development project, the DRCC also works on land acquisition, fund-raising for future projects such as the trailway undertaking, developing signage and implementing educational programs. "There are so many things that we are eventually going to be doing," she said. "The projects are so long-term that you have to think far in the future. We just chip away at the iceberg everyday. There’s tons of stuff going on and it’s really exciting."

Thorp, an Iowa native who spent 10 years in the Navy before relocating to Philadelphia to attend graduate school, said the city desperately needs to improve its riverfront aesthetics and accessibility. This project, along with improvements slated for the waterfront along the central Delaware, should help to paint Philadelphia as a more pedestrian, and public-friendly city.
"Philadelphia really needs it, really needs it," she said.

June 20, 2008

Delegation from Argentina views plans, progress along North Delaware Riverfront

About 30 businesspersons, investors, and elected officials from Buenos Aires, Argentina found common ground with brethren from Philadelphia on June 13, when they toured parts of the Delaware Riverfront to find similar solutions for a project at home. The delegation, which boasted two mayors, a state senator, and the Secretary for Environmental Affairs, was welcomed by Mayor Nutter at City Hall before a bus tour of the city’s diverse waterfront, including stops at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and key points along the North Delaware River.

One of the companies of the Techint Group, a consortium of businesses based in Buenos Aires, owns a 400-acre site along the Rio de la Plata, where it plans to create a new community with residential, commercial and recreational space.  While researching the project, they found similarities with work being done in both Staten Island, New York, and in Northeast Philadelphia. They were most especially impressed by the world- class design for the North Delaware Riverfront Greenway being undertaken here.

The Delaware River City Corporation (DRCC), a non-profit group that is developing an eleven-mile greenway trail from Pulaski Park in Port Richmond to the Poquessing Creek in Torresdale, arranged the tour.

“Our goal has always been to reconnect the Delaware River with the residents who live in the neighborhoods of this city, and our friends from Argentina have the same goal for their project,” said former U.S. Rep. Robert A. Borski Jr., chairman of the DRCC.

Nutter, who is a major proponent of riverfront redevelopment, praised the visit as “a unique opportunity to see some of the challenges we face.”  He cited both Borski’s longstanding commitment to revitalizing the riverfront corridor, and the hard work of DRCC Executive Director Sarah M. Thorp.

The delegation appeared to be most impressed by what they saw at Pennypack Park on the Delaware, the scenic open space at the river’s edge located east of the intersection of State Road and Rhawn Street in Holmesburg.

“This is perhaps the best example we currently have of what this greenway trail is going to accomplish,” Borski said.  “We’re bringing the great Delaware River back to the citizens of Philadelphia.”

The existing trail in the park will be extended one mile this fall to the mouth of the Pennypack Creek, said Thorp.  At the same time, the final design for an additional two-mile stretch across the creek into nearby Pleasant Hill Park is expected.

“We’re starting to see the fruits of our labor,” Thorp said.  “More than that, the people of Northeast Philadelphia are going to see the tangible results of our work, and that’s very exciting to us.”

On the day of the visit, the delegation saw local residents sitting by the river’s edge, some fishing, others simply enjoying the view or working on their tans.

In addition to remarks by Borski and Nutter, the visitors heard from Peter Longstreth, president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., who delivered his remarks in Spanish.

Longstreth detailed PIDC’s ongoing plans for the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which contains a number of new developments including headquarters for the clothing retailer Urban Outfitters.

Thorp and DRCC Capital Program Director Paul Lonie gave a presentation on the plans and progress along the North Delaware Riverfront.  They were assisted by Steve Mullin, senior vice president and principal of Econsult Corp., who spoke of the positive economic impact in revitalizing the North Delaware riverfront with a recreational trail.

“There is tremendous synergy here between what we’re doing here on the North Delaware River, and what the people of Buenos Aires want to do,” said Thorp.  “There’s no question this was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and compare notes.”

June 18, 2008

Northeast as a template: South American reps look to Pennypack on the Delaware
BY John Loftus; Assistant Editor
NewsGleaner Publications

Argentine public officials and investors who want to develop land around the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires for recreation and other uses came to Northeast Philadelphia last week to look over the Pennypack on the Delaware Park. Their stop in the Northeast was one of several in the city.Mario Ferdkin, a government assessor, said there is an interest in developing land near water treatment plants outside the Argentine capital. He said the group, which included two mayors and other elected officials as well as investors, visited Staten Island and Long Island, N.Y., to see how former waste-disposal sites had been reclaimed for other uses. The Rio de la Plata is an estuary of the Parana and Uruguay rivers between Argentina and Uruguay The group of 30 Argentines visited several sites in Philadelphia on Friday to learned about the city's efforts to use former industrial properties for recreation, said Sarah M. Thorp, executive director of the Delaware River City Corporation. The group was diverse, she said, consisting of investors, government officials, architects and planners.

Thorp said a representative for an Argentine investor group had learned about the DRCC on the Internet, contacted her about three weeks ago and made inquiries about DRCC, which has been working on developing a system of parks and trails along the Delaware's banks in the northern part of the city.

Pennypack on the Delaware is a good example. It's a breezy stretch of green along the river and behind the prisons. It's been city property for a long time, Thorp said, but it essentially was vacant land that was being used as a dump. DRCC cleaned up the dump, put the debris nearby in a capped landfill and also created some wet-lands, she said.

What DRCC has been doing is similar to what the Argentines are considering for Buenos Aires.
"The city's development was similar to ours," Thorp said. There had been many industries located along the Rio de la Plata, she said, just as there had been along the Delaware, she said. "As industry leaves, the land becomes vacant, and the city needs to develop new plans," Thorp said.
Thorp said the group was investigating how to use parkland and recreational space to stimulate their local economy. "When you build places on the river, you draw people who want to live there and you draw investors," she said. "They have landfills just like we have landfills. We have to figure out how to deal with these places that don't look so pretty."

Some of the people who were using the park Friday afternoon when the bus carrying the Argentines pulled up said they liked the park's quiet and that apparently not a lot of people know about it. Certainly, Pennypack on the Delaware isn't easy to find. The entrance, marked by a small sign, is off State Road below Rhawn.

Thorp said nobody should be worried. "I don't think that park is going to get crowded. She wants people to know it's there. "Our mission is to restore the connections between the neighborhoods and the riverfront," she said.

Disclaimer for the above NewsGleaner article:
DRCC would like to clarify that the reporter misunderstood the statement by Sarah Thorp, our Executive Director, in that their organization did not develop Pennypack on the Delaware. The construction of this park was completed at the direction of Councilwoman Joan Krajewski several years before the formation of the DRCC nonprofit organization.

July 18, 2008

Porteños tour the Delaware
By Kellie Patrick Gates
For PlanPhilly

Quilmes City Mayor Francisco Gutierrez walked beside the Delaware River on a new trail that skirts a capped-off, former landfill.

The fresh air, the soccer and baseball fields and the man fishing from the bank all seemed to be hopeful signs for his city, which lies along the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.

Guiterrez and about 30 other representatives from government agencies, planners and community activists from his region visited here last week to see Philadelphia's still-developing answer to a problem that their region also faces. They, too, want to reclaim waterfront land - often former industrial sites laced with pollutants - and reconnect their cities to their river.

"Many cities abandoned the river because the water was contaminated," Gutierrez said through interpreter Elizabeth Caruso. The public wants the river back, he said. "Cities need open places," he said.

But now, just as in Philadelphia, their neighborhoods are cut off from a natural resource that could provide space for recreation - and an economic boost through residential and economic development.

Reconnecting to the wide expanse of Rio de la Plata - the Silver River - is "central" to Quilmes' future, Gutierrez said. And "The project here in Philadelphia, along the entire coast of the river's edge - the idea is very similar to ours. We will use your experience."

The tour was led by the Delaware River City Corporation - a non-profit organization that is developing the North Delaware Riverfront Greenway Trail. The trail, now under construction, will eventually run eight miles from Pulaski Park to Glen Foerd. The idea is to help revitalize Northeast Philadelphia by reconnecting it to the river. Plans call for a multi-use trail, and also residential and retail space.

Guiterrez and the rest of the group walked along the river at Pennypack Park. They toured the Navy Yard, where they saw how buildings that were part of the Navy's large Philadelphia presence until the 1990s base closings were being restored and reused by businesses as diverse as ship-building company Aker and clothing retailer Urban Outfitters.

They also drove through the Packer Park residential development, built on land contaminated by a nearby refinery, after a vapor-barrier was put under three feet of clean soil to keep the fumes away from residents.

"You can't grow vegetables here, but you can live here in a safe neighborhood," said Paul Lonie, the DRCC's Capital Program Director who once worked for Westrum Development.

"These houses sold for $200,000 when they were built. Now they sell for $400,000."

Ernesto Mario Rona, personal director for the Techint Group - a consortium of companies based in Buenos Aires - helped organize the tour.  One of the Techint companies owns 400 acres along Rio de la Plata, where it hopes to create, essentially, a new city with many homes, commercial space, a university, a convention center, hotels and public green space with a trail near the river.

After doing some internet research, Techint discovered that Philadelphia and New York, were in various stages of work on similar issues, and the tour was arranged, Rona said. The day prior to coming to Philadelphia, the group visited the former Fresh Kills landfill, in Staten Island. New York has begun a 20-year project aimed at transforming Fresh Kills into public park space and reclaimed wetlands.

Rona said the visit was beneficial. "It is difficult to imagine how to change the things we want to change looking at the place," he said. "It is better to come to places where this is already taking place, to show it can be done."

Rona said the land his company owns has never been developed, but it is bordered by problem areas.  "Behind our land is a landfill," he said. "The landfill is closed, but we have to find a way to fix it. There's no bad smell now, but things can be done to improve the safety." There is also an adjacent canal - essentially a sewer, Rona said - that is highly polluted. And a smaller river that leads into the Rio de la Plata also must be cleaned up.

For the project to happen, many levels of government and governmental agencies must work together, he said. Community support is essential, and, like here, riverfront development is highly regulated. "We need permits," Rona said. They hope to begin work sometime next year.

Technit CFO Eduardo A. Russo said the initial investment, to be shared by his company and two cities, a province, and the nation, would total several hundred million dollars. After that, it is hoped that other companies would invest and develop the new city, which would take between seven and 10 years to complete, he said.

The biggest obstacle, Mayor Gutierrez said, "is the same everywhere in the world - money."

Tour-goer Marcela Adriani is president of a non-governmental agency called The Mothers of the Towers. She said the project has residents' support.

"We've been working on this for nine years," she said through translator Caruso.

Her group takes its name from the apartment towers that are 500 meters from the landfill that is behind the riverfront property where development is proposed - between it and the neighborhoods.

"Our children had problems because of this (landfill), and we got them to close the landfill," she said. There was a huge fire in the landfill in 1999, and afterward, tower residents discovered many children living in the towers had leukemia. The World Health Organization told the Mothers that the normal incidence of leukemia is 1 in 10,0000 people. Twelve thousand residents live in the towers, Adriani said, and 22 children had leukemia.  The landfill was closed in 2004, and since then, Adriani said, there have been no new cases.

"We want them to develop the whole waterfront, preserving the areas of public access for paths - walking paths and bike paths, similar to what you have here." Adriani said. "We want the project to go forward, to revitalize the whole area," she said, adding that her group would watch carefully to make sure environmental issues were handled properly.

January 3, 2008

Bridesburg Waterfront: Ready for Change

Star Staff Writer
By Brian Rademaekers

Right now, it is a little hard to imagine the Bridesburg waterfront at the end of Orthodox Street as a lush oasis for weary migratory birds and frazzled city dwellers seeking respite.

Driving east from Richmond Street, Bridesburg's tight-knit, row home fabric quickly fades into a "no-mans land" that includes a fenced-in field of overgrown brush, a repair depot for banged up Yellowbird Buses, and a gargantuan trash heap used by the city.

Once you get past all of that, Orthodox Street dead-ends into a muddy lot of gravel, the Delaware River barely visible through a chain link fence.

This grim scene, however, is one of the few along the city's Delaware River waterfront where real change is just around the corner.

The site - 67 acres of neglected, weed-choked land that stretches from Richmond Street straight out to the waterfront -  is best known locally as the Philly Coke site.

Its moniker is a reference not to bubbly, sugary beverages, but the massive coal byproduct processing plant that operated there from 1927 until 1982.

The complex was demolished in the mid-1980s, and the land has sat vacant since.
But recently, the Westrum Development Corporation has been moving forward with plans that will see the space transformed not only into a new community, but also a waterfront nature preserve and park.

Westrum's project will contain about 900 residences, ranging from apartments and condominiums to town homes. The river's edge, though, is to be set aside as a combined park and refuge for migratory birds that use the waterway as a flight path.

Late last month, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council received a $74,900 grant to begin work on environmental remediation of river's banks. That could be a daunting task as much of the waterfront along the property is either sealed in concrete or steeply eroded.

Despite those conditions and a level of soil contamination from the decades of industry, PEC has high hopes for reclaiming the shoreline.

The money, which was awarded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Delaware Estuary Watershed grants program, will be used for early design purposes.

In all, the regional non-profit will tackle 15 acres along the river. At the core of the project are 2,000 feet of what is known as "inter-tidal shoreline," or flat marsh areas that are temporarily exposed by falling tides. Such areas are not common along the Delaware, especially in industrial areas like Philadelphia, where much of the shoreline has been filled to accommodate piers and docks.

And while freshwater tidal marshes are hard to find, they are also essential to a wide variety of migratory birds and fish, such as shad and Atlantic sturgeon, which leave the sea to reproduce in the Delaware's waters.

Patrick Starr, vice president of PEC, described the Delaware's tidal marshes as one of the "most endangered" habitats in the state during a June exploration of the site, and said their preservation is important.

"Freshwater tidal marshes along the Delaware River's urban areas have been filled in, or piers have been constructed to accommodate large industrial, commercial and residential land use complexes," Starr said in a Dec. 20 news release. "This ecological restoration project not only improves wildlife habitat, it also provides amenities for the residents of Bridesburg, and contributes to the overall health and vitality of the Delaware Estuary."

The riverfront nature preserve will eventually be linked to a larger project that will see Delaware Avenue extended as a scenic boulevard starting at Pulaski Park.

That project is being funded by a $30-million federal transportation grant, and is part of a larger project being coordinated by the Delaware River City Corporation.

The non-profit DRCC was formed to oversee the creation of an eight-mile "green way" along the river that reconnects the Northeast's neighborhoods to river for recreation.

At the Philly Coke site, DRCC, Westrum, and PEC have all collaborated to come up with the park and natural area. Mariann Dempsey, secretary to the board of DRCC, said her group's plans include a bike path that cuts between the Westrum homes and the river. "An alternate foot trail will complement the bike path and lead down to the river for people who want to take a closer look," explained Dempsey, who said the design plans for the park are still in early stages.

Paul Lonie, project manager for Westrum development, said he believes allowing public access to the river will increase the value not only of all 900 units, but also the rest of Bridesburg. He expects the first phase of development and the riverfront trail to be built by the spring of 2009. "Everyone should benefit from this," said Lonie. "Adding access to the river is something that adds value to this whole community."

He said plans also include a parking lot near the park to allow access for seniors. "It's like Kelly Drive. People don't necessarily have a frontage on the water, but they can go there and easily use the paths and enjoy the river," Lonie said, referring to the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River. "That feature makes the whole area around it a better place for everyone who lives nearby." ïï

Reporter Brian Rademaekers can be reached at 215-354-3039 or brademaekers@phillynews.com