Thank Goodness Thursday: Philadelphia’s Population Growth

Posted on March 14, 2013 by maneto | Tagged: Citywide Vision, Demographics, Philadelphia2035, Thank Goodness Thursdays

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its population estimates for 2012 and it shows Philadelphia gaining population for the 6th consecutive year. In 2012, Philadelphia gained 9,040 people for a total population of 1,547,607. Thank goodness! This means that since the 2010 census, it’s estimated that we’ve gained over 21,000 residents. This makes us the second fastest growing county in the region!

As a part of our city’s comprehensive plan, Philadelphia2035, we estimated that the city’s population would grow by 100,000 between 2010 and 2035. Since the 2010 decennial census, Philadelphia has made great strides in achieving this goal.

Now, as the Planning Commission, we would love to have good planing and our first comprehensive plan in 50 years take all the credit, but we know that Philadelphia’s growth can be attributed to a lot of factors from national demographic trends, to economics, to our city’s “good bones”, and just to how creative, entrepreneurial, and strong Philadelphians can be.

But where do we think these new Philadelphians are living? Are there particular neighborhoods that are growing? Until the next decennial census we won’t know the answer for sure, but we’ve looked at new construction building permits for the past year to provide a visual snapshot of where our many thousands of new-found residents are creating demand for new and more housing options. The map below represents 4,853 permits for new construction alone. When you add in alterations and additions, this number soars to some 55,000 permits!

Our 100th Post! A Thank Goodness Thursday Double Dip

Posted on December 6, 2012 by maneto | Tagged: Central District, Thank Goodness Thursdays, Transportation

A little less than 4 months ago, we jumped boldly into the blogosphere, and lo and behold, here we are at Post #100. It’s been an instructive and occasionally dicey ride, and it’s given us a new found appreciation for those that generate constant content in this rapid-fire age. We know we haven’t always kept up, but that’s due in part to the fact that we’re telling you about stuff, but also DOING a lot of stuff. These days, it seems, that one can make a living 140 characters at a time, and that’s great, we suppose, but we enjoy our unique perch in a place where we are often in the planning trenches* ourselves, and then crawling out to tell you about it.

(*Trenches are, generally speaking, a poor planning concept, as they pull life off of the street and present stormwater management hazards. We use them in metaphor only).

Anyway, our loyal readers know that thursdays are often a time when we cheer those planning snafus that never happened or applaud those planning triumphs that contribute daily to the wondrous-ness of our great city. Today’s primary topic is THIS PUPPY:

Behold: the 1960 wishlist for highways. We see some familiar faces (the Schuylkill, I-95, 676), but holy cow look at what’s going on in North Philly!

I mean, wow people. We’ve talked about unfortunate highway concepts before, but this handy little graphic allows us to the see big, catastrophic 1960 picture. READ MORE

Thanksgiving Edition of Thank Goodness Thursday…

Posted on November 21, 2012 by maneto | Tagged: Just Because, Thank Goodness Thursdays

The weather should be just dandy for a parade tomorrow morning.

How convenient that our occasional segment on projects, policy-makers, and other plannerly things that we’re thankful for lines up with the holiday that’s all about giving thanks! Since we can’t be here tomorrow – well, we could be, but we’re thinking of eating a lot instead – we thought we’d take a break from the intense activity and discussion around zoning and planning in recent weeks. For Thanksgiving, we are offering a Top 10 list of things for which we and all Philadelphians can be thankful (with a focus on the built environment, obviously).

10) We’re thankful that Philadelphia is growing again. Our population is growing, and there are cranes in the sky. From the windows of our office alone, we can see the steady progress on underground infrastructure to support the new Dilworth Plaza, pile drivers getting started at 1900 Arch, colorful panels going up on the walls of the Goldtex building in Callowhill, and construction crews up and down North Broad (the State Office Building conversion, the new PA Ballet HQ, Morgan Hall at Temple University). Some of these enviable views will disappear as the Family Court climbs just outside our window, but that’s cool too, cause it leads us to our next point:

9) We’re thankful that stakeholders are aligning to make the Parkway more complete. No, the Family Court building next to our office is not along the Parkway, but it is providing new space for a Parkway institution that can enter a new phase of its life. We don’t know yet exactly what it might be – we’d lean towards hotel if we were betting folk – but whatever it is, a new use at 1801 Vine will help bring added vibrancy to an increasingly grand boulevard that only a year ago was much less grand. The Barnes, Sister Cities, a major streetscape overhaul, the Rodin rehab, the Mormon Temple, and now a forthcoming plan for additional improvements…one of our signature spaces is looking real good these days!

8) We’re thankful that DRWC & company are making real progress on the Central Delaware Waterfront. It seems forever ago that Mayor Nutter replaced the Penns Landing Corporation with DRWC, and we think part of that is because they’ve been so gosh darn busy. They’ve carried the Civic Vision for the waterfront into a full-fledged masterplan. They’re working on getting a zoning overlay finalized. And just yesterday, our own PCPC commissioners recommended approval for both a rezoning of a major parcel at Washington Avenue AND bills that allow the construction of the Penn Street portion of the waterfront trail…starting this winter! Oh, and they’re working on the SECOND phase of Washington Avenue Green. Yeah, this stuff is slow, and never enough for those who want a world class waterfront overnight, but we’ve made remarkable progress in just a few years.

7) We’re thankful for momentum on that other waterfront, too. Oh yeah, the Schuylkill! We’ve got the boardwalk under construction, a beautiful new connection from trail to neighborhood park, a skate park just getting started by the Art Museum, planning underway for Bartram’s mile, and a master plan for the Lower Schuylkill inching closer to adoption.

6) We’re thankful that people love us back. Have you read this piece in Salon? We challenge you not to well up with pride.

5) We’re thankful that companies seem to be loving us back, too: First Round Capital, Bentley, Fiberlink…we’ve had some serious attraction and retention successes in 2012. Everyone knows we have a long way to go to make Philadelphia supremely attractive to companies, particularly from a tax perspective, but we’re getting there.

4) We’re thankful for Civic Design Review: this significant update in the new code is off to a great start, and we’re looking forward to regular meetings in 2013.

3) We’re thankful for your input and participation: 2012 has shattered our previous records on pretty much all fronts related to civic participation. We’ve graduated more than 150 people from the Citizens Planning Institute, made over 1300 facebook friends, developed loyal (and talkative) Twitter followings (on two accounts!), heard from 800 or so of you via text message, and we’ve launched this blog. Educating people about how planning and development work is very important. Hearing local opinion about planning and development is very important. Getting everyone to talk to everyone else is very important. We hope to keep expanding the conversation in the years to come.

2) We’re thankful that so many people care…a lot: We’d be the first to admit guiding the orderly growth of a major metropolis is complicated. Very. Trying to improve established systems is even more so. Whether it’s going to a meeting in your neighborhood to learn about a development proposal, or following the legislative agenda of City Council as we all seek to advance a zoning code that works for everyone, it’s encouraging to see how strongly people feel. It doesn’t matter where you stand on a given policy issue or regulatory mechanism; the important thing is that you care. We promise you that not every city’s populace would get excited or riled up about things like building setbacks, parking requirements, meeting notification, zoning overlays. Stay wonky, Philadelphia.

1) Last but certainly not least, we’re thankful that Philadelphia’s food scene continues to be off the chain. This is not strictly a matter of urban planning, we know. We can’t take credit for it, nor can we claim to understand how it keeps getting better. What we do understand is that Thanksgiving is all about food, and so we feel it only appropriate to raise a glass to an arena in which Philly almost always wows the crowd. We hope that those celebrating tomorrow can do so with some beer or spirits brewed within city limits, cause there’s lots of both

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wonky (Day After) Wednesday/Thank Goodness Thursday Double Feature: CIVIC DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE members announced

Posted on October 25, 2012 by maneto | Tagged: Get in The Zone, Making It Happen, PCPC Biznass, Thank Goodness Thursdays, Wonky Wednesdays, Zoning

Today marks another step in the enactment and institutionalization of Philadelphia’s new zoning code with the announcement of six of the seven committee members for Civic Design Review. It’s wonky, as are most of the things we like to talk about, because this group is tasked with assessing the impacts projects have on the public realm. But it’s also a ‘thank goodness’ moment because we’ve been waiting for a standardized way to address these issues in the development review process, and the new code came up with CDR as a way to codify the way these discussions will proceed. CDR establishes a predictable way for developers, design professionals, and the public to engage on issues of walkability, street activity, connectivity, and other sometimes-hard-to-grasp-and-quantify features of a person’s physical experience in the public space of the city.

Technically, Civic Design Review (CDR) went into effect on August 22nd along with the rest of the zoning code, but as some of you may remember, CDR is only triggered in certain circumstances, when projects are of a certain size as compared to the affected properties around them. There are three tiers for CDR, outlined in great detail in 14-300, the chapter of the zoning code that deals with administration and procedures. There’s a chart of the three triggers, and a handy diagram detailing what constitutes an ‘affected property’ in CDR cases. We’d copy them here for you, but they really don’t make great visuals, so we encourage the curious to check them out on their own time.

A full press release discussing the CDR committee members is available on the city’s wordpress blog. Why only 6 of 7 announced, you may ask? Well, the 7th seat is intentionally left open for a representative of the local RCO. Whenever a project triggers CDR, a local RCO with boundaries that include the parcel in question are asked to appoint someone to sit on the CDR committee to provide the local perspective. In cases where multiple RCO’s include the area of a CDR project, the RCOs are still to decide on a single representative to sit on the committee. In cases where a decision can’t be reached or a local RCO does not exist, the district council person for that area is the designated appointee.

We’re excited to announce this step, one of many coming online slowly but surely to make the zoning code’s procedures the reality of how we do business in Philadelphia. We’re also excited to say that we’ve received the first submission of a project that triggers CDR review, so this group will get their feet wet very soon! Stay tuned, and leave questions in the comment section.

Thank Goodness? Thursdays: The United Nations

Posted on October 11, 2012 by maneto | Tagged: Thank Goodness Thursdays, West Park District

On Thank Goodness Thursdays, we like to revisit previous plans and projects and consider just how lucky Philadelphia is that they did or didn’t happen. This week we have a little twist.

Here in Philadelphia we’re constantly evaluating our city in comparison to our big, bad neighbor to the northeast – New York City. We hear it all the time: “Why can’t we be more like New York? They have 10 Apple stores, zero crime, Super Bowl rings, Kardashians, and the United Nations.”

Well we say let them have it. There are so many things that make us awesome that NYC can’t claim – intimate rowhouse blocks, a great (inexpensive) beer scene, Mark Wahlberg movies, John’s Roast Pork, Forbidden Drive, etc, etc. And the U.N.? Ha! We don’t need the U.N. — even though we almost had it. “What’s that you say?”

Yup. Almost had this.