[UC] Fwd: [phillyneighborhoods] Public Conversations on Re-Envisioning Vacant Land in Philadelphia

[FRByers]

Hi, All,

     This looks like an interesting series of sessions that include several 
neighbors.  Topics include discussions of the Mill Creek area of West Phila. 
and the Schuylkill area.

                                   Fran

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Dear Friend, You are invited to participate in a series of Public Conversations on Re-Envisioning Vacant Land in Philadelphia, organized by the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with the City Parks Association of Philadelphia. This is part of the "community visioning" phase of City Parks' international design competition for the reuse of vacant land in the city, the design phases of which will kick off at the end of the summer. The series announcement/invitation/schedule is attached (and pasted below). Please feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends. Thanks very much. We hope you will join us for these important conversations about Philadelphia's future. Sincerely, Domenic Vitiello, MCP, PhD Urban Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania 130 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk Philadelphia, PA 19104-6209 215-898-7799 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ! SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT: The Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania and The City Parks Association of Philadelphia Invite you to a Series of PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS: Re-Imagining Vacant Land in Philadelphia This series of public conversations explores the challenges and opportunities of remaking vacant land in Philadelphia. To date, neighbors, planners, and civic institutions have applied useful strategies for taking care of vacant lots in the short-term, developing community gardens, side yards, and vacant land management plans. This series aims to take debates and discussions about vacant land to another level, posing a variety of deep ecological, historical, and planning and policy questions. What are the underlying causes of vacancy? How has the reuse of vacant land affected the city's natural resources? Ultimately, how can a finer understanding of Philadelphia's environment help shape ! new approaches to planning and sustainable development? For the City Parks Association, this series forms part of a broader "community visioning" process that will inform an international design competition funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and intended to generate new ideas for the reuse of vacant land in Philadelphia. For the Urban Studies Program, these public conversations are an integral part of the curriculum in courses ranging from landscape design to urban history to economic policy. The series is part of the New Civil Society project, a collaborative initiative of Urban Studies, The Reinvestment Fund, and the Social Impact of the Arts Project that applies research, education, and public dialogue to study civic participation and inform community planning and investment. Initial sessions in the series examine the broad economic, historical, and policy contexts for re-imagining vacant land and natural resources. Subsequent events explore issues of vacancy, land us! e, and ecology in a wide variety of Philadelphia neighborhoods, from the brownfields of Southwest Philadelphia and the Lower Northeast, to community gardens of Mill Creek and Kensington, to conservation efforts in Upper Roxborough. At the end of the semester, students from Urban Studies and City Planning courses will present their semester projects on vacant land and community development, looking forward to the design phases of the City Parks competition. All sessions are free and open to the public. Most events are in Stiteler Hall at 208 S. 37th Street or in Houston Hall at 3417 Spruce Street. RSVP is required only for the March 30 bus tour. Refreshments will be served at all other events. For more information and directions, contact the Urban Studies Program at 215-898-6948 or log on to www.sas.upenn.edu/urban For information on the City Parks Association and its competition, go to www.cityparksphila.org SCHEDULE of EVENTS: Banking on the Future: Th! e Econom ics of Vacant Land Policy Thursday, February 3 6:00pm The Forum, Stiteler Hall Vacant land presents both problems and economic opportunities for Philadelphia. In the first event of the series, Jeremy Nowak, President and CEO of The Reinvestment Fund, will moderate a discussion with John Carpenter of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; real estate developer Bob Rosenthal of Westrum Development; Philip Wallis, director of the Keystone Conservation Trust; as well as City and State policy makers. Panelists will explore challenges and prospects for remaking vacant land, with the specific goal of informing the City of Philadelphia's development of a land bank, a key tool for coordinating neighborhood transformations. This event will take place within the context of Jeremy Nowak and Ira Goldstein's Urban Studies and City Planning class, Information, Public Policy, and the Redevelopment of the City. Historic Opportunities: Remaking Philadelphia's Environment, 1854-2054 Thursday, February 10 12:00pm Golkin Room, Houston Hall The City Parks Association's international design competition presents a historic opportunity for Philadelphia. Transforming the city's vast supply of vacant land is a task on par with the creation of Fairmount Park in the nineteenth century. The choices we make today will affect the life of our neighborhoods and our region for decades to come. In this session, landscape historian Elizabeth Milroy of Wesleyan University will share her work on Fairmount Park and the City Parks Association, framing present opportunities within their historical context. Historian Adam Levine of the Philadelphia Water Department will examine the ecological causes of vacancy and discuss plans for the future of the region's watersheds. This event will take place within the context of Urban Studies Program co-dire! ctor Mark Stern's Urban Studies and History course, The Urb! an Crisi s. Ecologies of Revitalization: Mill Creek, West Philadelphia Wednesday, February 23 4:00pm The Forum, Stiteler Hall The Mill Creek watershed of West Philadelphia is best known for its sinking homes, tragic cave-ins, and pioneering community gardens. With its long history of confronting disinvestment and environmental instability, Mill Creek offers a rich case study in neighborhood and ecological revitalization. Landscape architect Michael Nairn will moderate this session, as part of his Urban Studies and City Planning class, The Public Environment of Cities. Maitreyi Roy, director of the Philadelphia Green Program, will chart the evolution and current state of planning, policy, and management strategies for vacant land in Philadelphia. Loreen Bowles of the Philadelphia Water Department will explore past, present, and future initiatives in the communities along Mill Creek. From Brownfi! elds to Greenfields: Diversity along the Schuylkill River Tuesday, March 1 3:00pm Room TBA Vacant land means different things in different places. The Schuylkill River runs through neighborhoods with a great diversity of land use and environmental challenges and opportunities, from Roxborough to Grays Ferry and Southwest Philadelphia. This panel will include architect Jamie Wyper of the Roxborough Greenspace Alliance; Omar Blaik, head of the University of Pennsylvania's Real Estate Services and board member of the Schuylkill River Development Corporation; brownfields policy manager Jon Edelstein of the Philadelphia Department of Commerce; and a representative from the Fairmount Park Commission. Students from Domenic Vitiello's Urban Studies and History course, The City, and Michael Nairn's class, The Public Environment of Cities, will join the panel and the public in a discussion of topics ranging from historic and o! pen space preservation to recreational infrastructure, commerc! ial d evelopment, pollution, and environmental remediation. Culture and Agriculture: The Art and Business of Transforming Vacant Land *BUS TOUR* of Eastern North Philadelphia and Kensington Wednesday, March 30 2:00-5:00pm ***RSVP is required. Call Urban Studies: 215-898-6948. The bus leaves from Penn.*** In North Philadelphia and Kensington, remaking vacant land is both an art and a business. The Public Conversation Series will take to the road on a bus tour to the Village of Arts and Humanities, the Norris Square Neighborhood Project's Las Parcelas gardens, and GreensGrow Farm, a model community-supported agriculture initiative. Participants will explore the varied ways people and community organizations approach vacant land as a resource for investing in education, nutrition, local economies, and public space. Temple University landscape architect Baldev Lamba will lead the tour in collaboration with Ma! rk Stern's Urban Studies and Fine Arts class, Urban Community and the Arts, and Michael Nairn's class, The Public Environment of Cities. Building a River City: The Economics of Amenity on the North Delaware Riverfront Thursday, April 14 2:00pm Room TBA The City Planning Commission and Pennsylvania Environmental Council have promoted the North Delaware Riverfront as a place to remake Philadelphia's older industrial landscapes... and real estate developers are responding! A panel including Pennsylvania Environmental Council Vice President Patrick Starr; economist Stephen Mullin of Econsult Corporation; real estate developer Charles Kamps of Transactionable Property Solutions; Wharton School of Business Professor Susan Wachter; as well as a representative of a community based organization will discuss planning, economic, and ecological issues surrounding development plans for Center City, the River Wards, an! d Northeast Philadelphia. Eugenie Birch, chair of the Unive! rsity of Pennsylvania's Department of City and Regional Planning, will moderate the event in the context of her class, Inner City Revitalization. Views from the Future: Students' Visions for Philadelphia Wednesday, April 20 4:30pm Room TBA Student projects afford opportunities to develop fresh, innovative ideas for the future of cities. This event will bring together students from a variety of Urban Studies and City Planning classes to present their research, designs, and policy proposals for Philadelphia and its neighborhoods. A panel including Deenah Loeb, co-chair of the City Parks Association, Fels School of Government Professor John Kromer, and other landscape planners, policy makers, and faculty will join the students in a discussion of vacant land and community revitalization. __________________________________   Reposted by Christine Harrity, MHS Program Director Community Service Jobs Institute for the Study of Civic Values 1218 Chestnut Street, Suite 702 Philadelphia, Pa 19107 215-238-1434 (telephone) 215-238-0530 (fax) You can find us on the web at www.phillyneighborhoods.com "Give us the ballot and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens." Martin Luther King, Lincoln Memorial, May 17th, 1957 "There is enough in the world for everyone to have plenty to live on happily at peace and still get along with their neighbors." --Harry S. Truman "W! hen the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children with the fierce urgency of now." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phillyneighborhoods/   To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

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