Parking

Gary Jastzrab presented the themes and ideas for Philadelphia2035 after Mayor Nutter finished speaking. Philadelphia2035 is a comprehensive plan for that the city hopes to put into place by the year 2035. The comprehensive plan has three main themes: thrive, connect to the region and world and renew valuable resources by adding trees, providing better access to parks and recreation and preserving treasured resources. You can probably see how the plans of Green2015 tie into Philadelphia2035's latter theme.

After the short video Abundance, which was a montage of our city's parks and concrete wastelands, complete with a rather cloying voiceover, Harris Steinberg took the podium to present the plan for Green2015, accompanied by a visually impressive slideshow.

The Green2015 action plan has identified five areas of the city where residents are without access to the park space: parts of North Philly, parts of West Philly, the area of South Philly around Broad Street and Snyder Avenue, West and East Oak Lane, and parts of the Lower Northeast.

They've identified about 4,000 acres of spaces that can be transformed in green and open space, including concrete school yards, most of which serve as parking lots, asphalt covered recreation centers. Slides depicted how these areas could be made into green spaces. For instance, a concrete school yard could get a nice tree canopy, community gardens and storm water meadows, which could be incorporated into the education of students, and a running track open for students and area residents.

So far, about 205 acres of land have been turned into parks or other green spaces or have been identified as being ripe for transformation. Some of those acres we've covered in Parking already: Julian Abele Park and Washington Avenue Green. Potential projects include a greening of Dilworth Plaza and the Navy Yard, extending the Schuylkill River Trail and Shoemaker's Green, a park supported by the University of Pennsylvania.

Steinberg concluded his presentation extending the park plan beyond 2015, by showing a slide of an interconnected pedestrian and bike trail that wides it way through the city on streets, vacant rail lines and the rivers. The vision had Market Street serving as a cross-city connector, with trails stretching underneath the El, the Amtrak line adorned with orchards and trails and the area up by Franklin Mills mall turned into a green oasis. It was enough to make a person faint.

Upcoming Events in Parks:
Support Your Parks:

• Pennsport Parks' Holiday Open House Tour – take a self guided tour through several beautiful homes in the Pennsport neighborhood. Proceeds from the tour benefit Friends of Dickinson Square Park and Friends of Jefferson Square Park. Start at the Parsons building in Dickinson Square (map). Sunday, 12/12, 12 p.m. $20. Advanced registration recommended, but you can buy tickets the day of. Wear comfy shoes.

Get Involved:

• Dickinson Square Park (map) Clean-Up. Saturdays, 9:00 a.m.

Farmer's Markets:

• Rittenhouse Square (map). Tuesdays, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
• Clark Park (map). Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
• Fitler Square (map). Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

If you know of anything exciting happening in your local park in the near future, please e-mail amy@phillyist.com!