Since you too have successfully walked that tightrope of public-private
partnerships, Frank, one kind word from you is of more worth than 100
flattering words from anyone else.
-- Tony West
Wow, that's great. Congratulations!
Frank
On Jun 16, 2008, at 04:54 PM, Anthony West wrote:
The sun was shining extra-hard on Clark Park on a late-spring
Saturday, jun 14.
That’s when the park inaugurated a spanking-new basketball court, a
$100,000+ capital improvement, while scooping up a promise of
$450,000 more to rebuild the beloved but battered North Park (Park
A). Those nearly half a million dollars will be the largest single
infusion of public monies into Clark Park’s infrastructure since the
1960s.
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting, Mayor Michael Nutter hailed the
partnership that has been striving to improve the park ever since a
2001 Revitalization Master Plan was adopted by the Recreation Dept.
“This is the kind of teamwork we need to bring about positive changes
for Philadelphia,” he said.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell echoed the Mayor’s thoughts. “The
community must be united,” she admonished a crowd of 100 pumped-up
park users. “If it unites, it can win and it can turn itself around.”
Nutter, who grew up at 54^th & Larchwood, said for him, “the park”
was always Malcolm X Park. But Clark Park has always been important,
not only to University City, but to all West Philadelphia, he went
on. Parks and recreation have emerged as a priority in his
administration’s first big budget moves, compared to the previous 16
years, during which Mayors Ed Rendell and John Street put green space
on the City’s back burner.
That’s terribly important for what may be the 9-acre flagship of
Rec’s 75 “community parks”. A study has discovered more than 1,600
persons may be using Clark Park, on an ordinary day in the peak
season. At any given hour, 200 or more may be relaxing, in a dozen
different ways, on its fields and plazas, and under the shade of its
cherished trees. That’s more citizens than are serviced by most Rec
Centers, despite their buildings and their staffs. Yet the park's
maintenance budget is inadequate and its capital budget is zero.
That will change, if the Clark Park partnership has any say in the
matter.
This partnership is chaired by the venerable nonprofit Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society. Clark Park is just one piece of PHS’s Parks
Revitalization Project, which has been showering some Rec parks with
five-digit grant money to learn how to power their transformation.
Every park in West Philadelphia close to us is part of the same
neighborhood PRP campaign. These different parks do talk with each
other and work with each other now.
For Friends of Clark Park, PRP’s main job is to carry out
improvements on the 2001 renewal plan as fast as resources can be found.
Nutter chose our oasis in which to announce a $1 million grant from
the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources to six
community parks in Philadelphia, of which Clark Park is one. Its
share – $225,000 – will be matched by the City of Philadelphia.
DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis, a Fishtowner who once ran Clark
Park under Rendell as Rec Commissioner, noted, as he handed Nutter
the check, that teamwork at the State level was delivering for
Philadelphia. He praised the communications between the Governor, the
Mayor and the park’s State legislators Sen. Anthony Williams and Rep.
James Roebuck. “Philadelphia has strong advocates now in Harrisburg,”
he said.
Together, they will fund almost one-half the cost of restoring the
North Park (Park A) if we’re lucky. The renewal plan estimated North
Park capital improvements at $1.16 million. Seven years later, an
estimate of $1.5-$3.0 million seems more truthful.
In the Middle Park (Park B) between Chester and Kingsessing Aves.,
$300,000 worth of modernized playgrounds have now been installed side
by side each other since the renewal plan went through. The South
Park (Park C) between Kingsessing and Woodland Aves. has also enjoyed
some improvements.
The North Park hasn’t seen any investment yet, beyond a bench or two.
Its paths lie in ruins, it is filled with swamps and ponds after
heavy rains and snows, its 50-year-old lamps keep blinking out, and
one-third of its turf has been trampled by heavy use and strangled by
jealous tree roots.
University City resident Howard Neukrug, who is director of
watersheds for the Water Dept., introduced the cutting-edge
subterranean stormwater system that underlies the new court. It
diverts runoff from 43^rd Street into the subsoil, away from the Mill
Creek storm drain, to restore the water table instead. It will also
help prevent the release of raw sewage into the Schuylkill R. during
storms.
Joan Reilly, a director of PHS’ Philadelphia Green program (and wife
of DeBerardinis), spoke eloquently about its long-term vision of
renewed vitality for urban parks. “When we began this project many
years ago, parks were generally in poor shape and many people were
afraid even to go into them,” she recalled. “We saw what could happen
if the City and State, universities and communities worked together.”
Williams, who grew up in West Philadelphia, played basketball in
Clark Park as a youth. So he well remembers its sorry condition in
earlier years. Today, after seven years of work by the Clark Park
partnership, he commented, “The transformation is just amazing!” He
vowed there would be much more to come. As he sits on the
Appropriations Committee and the Environmental Resources & Energy
Committee, there is reason to hope.
In addition to PHS, the partnership consists of Councilwoman Jannie
Blackwell’s Office, Friends of Clark Park, the Recreation Dept.,
University City District, UC Green, University of the Sciences in
Philadelphia and the Water Dept.
-- Tony West
----
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the
list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see
<http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
