Philly Planning Panel Discussion at Harvard

**Jayfar** · 12-01-2011, 06:27 PM

Philadelphia goes to Harvard | Philly | 12/01/2011

All the stars aligned yesterday for the event, titled “The Philadelphia Story: Planning. Politics. Reality.” Despite the early morning confrontation with Occupy Philadelphia, Nutter and Greenberger made it to Cambridge for the two-hour conversation at the design school’s Gund Hall. They were joined by PennPraxis’ Harris Steinberg, who has been a strong, independent voice for urban design, and the Water Department’s Glen Abrams, an architect of its innovative stormwater management strategy.

**Bleeper** · 12-01-2011, 07:19 PM

The sour economy has dampened development but what exactly is Nutter + Greenberger being lauded for? If I were mayor and looked out my city hall window everyday at Market East I would be embarrassed and ashamed to make any presentation on planning + development. Development has basically come to a standstill in this city under his watch.

The development that is happening "Philly Live" and Sugarhouse are abominations. You have Horshamesque softball fields in the middle of the Ben Franklin Parkway. The Loft District +The Delaware Riverfront is the posterchild of post de-industrialization and they are building a friggin straight Parking Garage directly across from a $1B Convention Center. Sheesh!

**BarryG** · 12-01-2011, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by Bleeper

The sour economy has dampened development but what exactly is Nutter + Greenberger being lauded for? If I were mayor and looked out my city hall window everyday at Market East I would be embarrassed and ashamed to make any presentation on planning + development. Development has basically come to a standstill in this city under his watch.

The development that is happening "Philly Live" and Sugarhouse are abominations. You have Horshamesque softball fields in the middle of the Ben Franklin Parkway. The Loft District +The Delaware Riverfront is the posterchild of post de-industrialization and they are building a friggin straight Parking Garage directly across from a $1B Convention Center. Sheesh!

Well we got new bike lanes.

**phillyaggie** · 12-01-2011, 08:48 PM

and 3 new hotels.

**gren** · 12-02-2011, 12:11 AM

That's no mere garage. That's a 540 Car Public Self-Park Garage.

At least it will have ground level retail and has no Broad St. frontage.

**lewblum** · 12-02-2011, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by Bleeper

Development has basically come to a standstill in this city under his watch.

Neighborhoods in and around Center City continue to boom with small-scale construction. I'd even wager that we're building homes at a faster pace than the burbs.
Granted, city gov't has nothing to do with this.

**gren** · 12-02-2011, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by lewblum

Neighborhoods in and around Center City continue to boom with small-scale construction. I'd even wager that we're building homes at a faster pace than the burbs.
Granted, city gov't has nothing to do with this.

Much of the development needs ZBA approval and Nutter made changes there.

**Fishtown Phan** · 12-02-2011, 08:43 AM

Plus the apartments at 22nd and chestnut, 21st and market and everything on North Broad.

**Insoluble** · 12-02-2011, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Bleeper

If I were mayor...

I would shoot myself.

**MarketStEl** · 12-03-2011, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by lewblum

Neighborhoods in and around Center City continue to boom with small-scale construction. I'd even wager that we're building homes at a faster pace than the burbs.
Granted, city gov't has nothing to do with this.

Four words: "Ten-year tax abatement."

And you really should check out that stormwater management strategy the Water Department is pushing. It really is innovative and a departure from the traditional approach that relies solely on engineering. Its architect (who sings Tenor I in PGMC and is the partner of its artistic director) was also at that Harvard conference.

**billy ross** · 12-03-2011, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Bleeper

The sour economy has dampened development but what exactly is Nutter + Greenberger being lauded for? If I were mayor and looked out my city hall window everyday at Market East I would be embarrassed and ashamed to make any presentation on planning + development. Development has basically come to a standstill in this city under his watch.

The development that is happening "Philly Live" and Sugarhouse are abominations. You have Horshamesque softball fields in the middle of the Ben Franklin Parkway. The Loft District +The Delaware Riverfront is the posterchild of post de-industrialization and they are building a friggin straight Parking Garage directly across from a $1B Convention Center. Sheesh!

And for an opposing point of view:

What New Apartment Projects Tell Us About the State of Center City | The Philly Post

Who is correct?

Some choice quotes:

"In the fall, Chicago developer John Buck Co. announced plans to build a 34-story apartment building at 21st and Chestnut—the city’s first official high-rise construction since the Comcast building opened in June 2008. That news came on the heels of several other apartment projects that have been announced or gotten under way in recent months, including the conversion into apartments of the old AAA building at 21st and Market, a new 14-story building at 1900 Arch Street, the renovation of the Robert Morris Building at 17th and Arch, and the rehabbing of 1201 Chestnut Street."

'“Center City right now is really feeding off of itself, and I only see that increasing in the future,” he says. That is, more residents leads to more restaurants and retail, which leads to more workers who need places to live, which leads to more residents, which leads to even more restaurants and retail, which leads to more residents.

The current city building wave differs from the last one, which came in the Bush years, in one significant way: Back then, many of the projects were condos aimed at empty nesters moving into town from the ’burbs. The new projects, in contrast, are rental units largely geared toward young professionals. “Center City, in our view, is the most attractive place to live in the region,”'

Nutter is enhancing the QOL of life and the desirability of living in Philly. This is helping people with choices to decide that they want to live in Philly. It's a good plan.

**lewblum** · 12-03-2011, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Four words: "Ten-year tax abatement."

And you really should check out that stormwater management strategy the Water Department is pushing. It really is innovative and a departure from the traditional approach that relies solely on engineering. Its architect (who sings Tenor I in PGMC and is the partner of its artistic director) was also at that Harvard conference.

Nutter administration is not responsible for the tax abatement.
As much as I love what they're doing, I can't say that the PWD is necessarily encouraging development through their regulations. They may even be increasing construction costs for larger developments.

Nevertheless, I'll give Nutter props for enhancing govt's image as progressive and forward-thinking - Green City/Clean Waters program, Greenworks Plan, bike lanes, transparency, appointing smart people.
But it's hard to say that this is the primary driver for certain neighborhoods blowing up right now.

**billy ross** · 12-03-2011, 05:41 PM

It started before Nutter. People love to hammer Street, and I'm no apologist for him, but he did some things right. I would have preferred Katz, but the explosion of Center City's resurgence into "the neighborhoods" of late makes me wonder whether Street realized what a monster he was unleashing with his neighborhood-oriented, quality of life-focused approach.

The fact that Nutter has been super-focused on quality of life, even if it meant maintaining city services through nuisance tax and fee increases, in my opinion has caused Philly to be a much higher quality of life place. What happened to the grafitti? Today at the opening of the new tot lot in East Falls I congratulated Mark Focht for getting so many nice initiatives done.

In short, certain neighborhoods stayed dumpy because they were unappealing. Now all knds of new trees are being
planted, rehaabs and new construction are happening, other things have changed, and people feel they WANT to live there now. There is a real sense of momentum now, despite the national malaise.

Originally Posted by lewblum

Nutter administration is not responsible for the tax abatement.
As much as I love what they're doing, I can't say that the PWD is necessarily encouraging development through their regulations. They may even be increasing construction costs for larger developments.

Nevertheless, I'll give Nutter props for enhancing govt's image as progressive and forward-thinking - Green City/Clean Waters program, Greenworks Plan, bike lanes, transparency, appointing smart people.
But it's hard to say that this is the primary driver for certain neighborhoods blowing up right now.

**kidphilly** · 12-03-2011, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by billy ross

And for an opposing point of view:

What New Apartment Projects Tell Us About the State of Center City | The Philly Post

Who is correct?

Some choice quotes:

"In the fall, Chicago developer John Buck Co. announced plans to build a 34-story apartment building at 21st and Chestnut—the city’s first official high-rise construction since the Comcast building opened in June 2008. That news came on the heels of several other apartment projects that have been announced or gotten under way in recent months, including the conversion into apartments of the old AAA building at 21st and Market, a new 14-story building at 1900 Arch Street, the renovation of the Robert Morris Building at 17th and Arch, and the rehabbing of 1201 Chestnut Street."

'“Center City right now is really feeding off of itself, and I only see that increasing in the future,” he says. That is, more residents leads to more restaurants and retail, which leads to more workers who need places to live, which leads to more residents, which leads to even more restaurants and retail, which leads to more residents.

The current city building wave differs from the last one, which came in the Bush years, in one significant way: Back then, many of the projects were condos aimed at empty nesters moving into town from the ’burbs. The new projects, in contrast, are rental units largely geared toward young professionals. “Center City, in our view, is the most attractive place to live in the region,”'

Nutter is enhancing the QOL of life and the desirability of living in Philly. This is helping people with choices to decide that they want to live in Philly. It's a good plan.

Now to just bring more jobs and fix city wage tax