Schuylkill River Trail Extension (Philadelphia, Franklin: credit, how much, house)

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

How are you going to run it under that freeway?

Or next to it?

The road sits atop the west-side embankment.

The city needs to improve the appearance of the west side of the river between South Street + Art Museum. Its a disaster. Embarrassing.Eyesore.

You have ghetto palms growing out from under the expressway out into the river. 70 years of crud on the retaining walls. Grafitti on the retaining walls. Its ridiculous

They should clean that west side up. Upgrade bigtime with some lighting. Walnut + Chestnut Street Bridges themselves clad the instutution green metal frame with masonry. South St to Art Museum is only a mile stretch very doable but this city seems to have a huge blindspot to improve upon quality of life opportunities.


That stretch could look like Paris but it looks more like Norristown.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by rainrock

The city needs to improve the appearance of the west side of the river between South Street + Art Museum. Its a disaster. Embarrassing.Eyesore.

You have ghetto palms growing out from under the expressway out into the river. 70 years of crud on the retaining walls. Grafitti on the retaining walls. Its ridiculous

They should clean that west side up. Upgrade bigtime with some lighting. Walnut + Chestnut Street Bridges themselves clad the instutution green metal frame with masonry. South St to Art Museum is only a mile stretch very doable but this city seems to have a huge blindspot to improve upon quality of life opportunities.


That stretch could look like Paris but it looks more like Norristown.

Agreed that the west bank embankment could look better, but you had mentioned the trail specifically, so I responded accordingly.

As for cladding the highway bridges in stone, I'd say there are more important fish to fry when it comes to Schuylkill improvements. That's PennDOT, not the city, anyway. Ditto that embankment, since it's a state highway that runs atop it.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

That's PennDOT, not the city, anyway. Ditto that embankment, since it's a state highway that runs atop it.

Im sure if the city asked Penndot how can we improve this mess of a riverfront Penndot would be amiable.

Its your city you have to take charge. Too lazy to just say, not our property , not our problem.


That riverfront section in SF, Boston,Seattle,Chicago would be immaculate it would be world class. In Philadelhia its a neglected disaster.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Im sure if the city asked Penndot how can we improve this mess of a riverfront Penndot would be amiable.

Its your city you have to take charge. Too lazy to just say, not our property , not our problem.


That riverfront section in SF, Boston,Seattle,Chicago would be immaculate it would be world class. In Philadelhia its a neglected disaster.

For years I would hear on the news that the city was complaining to PennDot about neglected roads in the city. It doesn't move PennDot. If a stretch of road bothers you, call PennDot & complain to them, if it's their road.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by rainrock

Im sure if the city asked Penndot how can we improve this mess of a riverfront Penndot would be amiable.

Its your city you have to take charge. Too lazy to just say, not our property , not our problem.


That riverfront section in SF, Boston,Seattle,Chicago would be immaculate it would be world class. In Philadelhia its a neglected disaster.

That's an overstatement - we didn't have to do much improving of the river above Center City since we protected its watershed in order to protect the (pre-1854) city's water supply.

The east bank of the Schuylkill is in good shape now, and were I to prioritize something, I'd work on burying the CSX tracks that still cut off the Schuylkill Banks park from the neighborhoods to its east. But that's an enormous expense, and I'm willing to live with the two signalized grade crossings. Cleaning up the west side embankment would be more cost-effective, but turning it into an actual companion park would be even costlier than burying the railroad tracks.

Now, we could maybe do as the mayor of Paris did and turn the freeway into an urban beach. We'd have to figure out some sort of alternate route for Schuylkill Expressway traffic, though. I would be willing to demolish part of Schuylkill Avenue to make this happen. Figuring out where to put the traffic, or replace a few severed access or circulation points (e.g., east side of 30th Street Station) would be a bit of a challenge.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by rainrock

That riverfront section in SF, Boston,Seattle,Chicago would be immaculate it would be world class. In Philadelhia its a neglected disaster.

Seattle's and San Francisco's waterfronts aren't linear parks, really.

Seattle is currently throwing a few billion dollars down a hole into which it plans to put an elevated freeway viaduct that separates the waterfront from the downtown, though.

Our analogue to this is the cap planned for I-95 on the Delaware riverfront. Which, by the way, also still looks like a working riverfront in places but is actually pretty attractive at Center City now.

[chessimprov]

What to beautify is always questionable, as many others could say well that same money could've been used to hire more staff for our school district, for instance.

The upgrades being made to the Parkway and Love Park, I'm not sure if they are really necessary as they both seemed fine to me beforehand.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by chessimprov

What to beautify is always questionable, as many others could say well that same money could've been used to hire more staff for our school district, for instance.

The upgrades being made to the Parkway and Love Park, I'm not sure if they are really necessary as they both seemed fine to me beforehand.

After the Pope's visit in 2015, which took a real visible hit on Love Park, it seemed like the only maintenance was trash removal which was spotty because so many homeless people hung out there. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing the
the "saucer building" totally restored.

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by chessimprov

What to beautify is always questionable, as many others could say well that same money could've been used to hire more staff for our school district, for instance.

The upgrades being made to the Parkway and Love Park, I'm not sure if they are really necessary as they both seemed fine to me beforehand.

Im sure this is not the popular opinion but investing a couple million dollars in upgrades in Center City is a better investment than putting millions of dollars into a troubled public school system.

Investing in Center City, making Center City world class can change th future of Philadephia. You will see immediate tangible improvement and benefits. Im not so sure the same can be said about making a difference in the trouble Philadelphia School District. Could be money down the drain there.

[pman]

Originally Posted by kyb01

After the Pope's visit in 2015, which took a real visible hit on Love Park, it seemed like the only maintenance was trash removal which was spotty because so many homeless people hung out there. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing the
the "saucer building" totally restored.

Love park was the roof of a garage and that roof was leaking so it needed to be ripped up. The parkway changes have made being a pedestrian less dangerous, the biggest improvements are a result of work on 676 underneath