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August 7, 2009
Construction to start on riverfront greenway
This was the headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer. You can read the article at the following link:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090807_Construction_to_start_on_riverfront_greenway.html
DRCC Chair/CEO on Comcast Local Edition
Robert A. Borski, Jr., the Chair & CEO of DRCC, taped a 5 minute segment for Comcast
Local Edition.
In case you missed it, or would like to view it again, please click on the link below to watch this informative video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zkhOzvy2pk
Summer, 2009
DRCC Summer Newsletter
It is a pleasure for us to be able to post a copy of our first ever edition of the DRCC Newsletter. Please click on the link below to read the articles.
Click here - 2009 DRCC Summer Newsletter
December 3, 2009
Happy Trails to the Riverfront
Northeast Times
By Tom Waring
As visitors planned to take the first steps on a newly opened trail at Pennypack on the Delaware park, members of the Delaware River City Corporation wanted them to know the significance of the grand opening.
"People haven’t been on this property for a hundred years," said Bob Borski, a former congressman who serves as chairman of the DRCC.
Pennypack on the Delaware is a 65-acre park located along the Delaware River near Rhawn Street, behind the prison complex and the Riverview Home for the Aged. It opened in 1999 and is home to soccer and ball fields, a picnic pavilion and benches, a gazebo, fishing pier and pedestrian trail.
On a rainy Sept. 28, officials held a fence-cutting ceremony to extend the trail by two-thirds
of a mile through a natural meadow and past a tidal wetland.
On a bitterly cold Nov. 22, Mayor Michael Nutter and U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-13th dist.) were on hand as the extended blacktop trail was opened for the first time to walkers, joggers, bicyclists and roller skaters.
There’s also an observation platform for bird-watchers and others who want to enjoy the scenery and plans for interpretive signage. The state provided funding for the project.
A group made the trek to the mouth of Pennypack Creek as a soccer game was being played on a nearby field.
"This is the beginning," said Sarah Thorp, executive director of the DRCC.
Thorp explained that the city and federal governments have provided funding for a bridge to be built over the creek, with the trail running for another two and a half miles to Pleasant Hill Park near Linden Avenue.
The trail will have to take a short westward detour to get past the water department treatment plant.
The bridge and trail remain in the design phase, with construction expected in about a year.
Nutter, a Wynnefield resident who acknowledged knowing little about the North Delaware Avenue waterfront until running for mayor last year, was impressed with the park and trail and wants to bring more of the same to the rest of Philadelphia’s rivers.
"It is a model for what we’re trying to do," he said.
Michael DiBerardinis, a Fishtown resident and secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said the park is good for the environment and recreation enthusiasts.
In the future, he expects parks along the river to help attract residential and commercial uses.
DiBerardinis travels throughout Pennsylvania, and said the state is willing to fund the city’s forward-looking efforts along the river.
"Philadelphia gets it," he said.
While private developers are sitting on four large parcels of land along the North Delaware Avenue waterfront, the non-profit DRCC has been making things happen for the last four years.
The agency, in tandem with the Fairmount Park Commission, is developing an 11-mile system of recreational trails, parks and open space stretching from Pulaski Park in Port Richmond to the Glen Foerd on the Delaware mansion in Torresdale. The ground was formerly home to industrial uses.
One of the centerpieces of the development will be Lardner’s Point Park, which will sit on four and a half acres at the base of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
The state is helping to fund the park, which will include a fishing pier, picnicking, passive recreational activities and a river overlook. It will connect with a bike trail along two miles of a former Conrail freight line. Construction should begin in mid-2009.
"There’s a lot more to come," said Mark Focht, executive director of the Fairmount Park Commission.
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