Pier 11 survey: Pier 11, located at Race Street and Columbus Boulevard, is in the first stages of redesign, and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation is looking for the public’s input. Pier 11 was identified in the Civic Vision for the Central Delaware as an early action where the city could add a new park in the short term. Mayor Nutter announced his intention for it to become a public space at the launch of the Action Plan for the Central Delaware in June 2008. After receiving funding from the William Penn Foundation and DRWC, the Pier 11 design process is underway and led by internationally known firm James Corner Field Operations. You can provide your feedback to the project by completing the survey here: www.delawareriverwaterfrontcorp.com/pier11. You can also learn more about the project by dropping by 106 N 2nd Street on First Friday (this Friday, October 2, 2009) from 5pm to 8pm to meet the design team and receive information about how you can become involved in the design process.

The Coalition for Philadelphia’s Riverfronts (CPR), a new organization comprised of riverfront, neighborhood, environmental and other stakeholders group, is holding a launch rally on the banks of the Schuylkill River adjacent to the Art Museum. CPR is working to create greenways on all of our city’s riverfronts, with a scenic walking, biking, skating and blading trail that is connected to neighborhoods and follows the edges of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. This is an important, multifaceted issue because greenways along our riverfronts not only make our rivers healthier by managing stormwater and filtering pollutants, they also provide public spaces that increase property value in adjacent neighborhoods, improve public health through new recreational opportunities, and bring riverfront access to neighborhoods underserved for greenspace. Acting Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger and Sustainability Director Katherine Gajewski are expected to speak. Please come out to support this important effort. RSVP to this event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?ei...4130639&ref=mf.

"The current plan has an interim facility opening within ten months, with 1,700 slot machines."

Can we just call it a "TEMP" Slots Parlor. More asphalt to beautify the river front!

Side note - a 2nd World Series Trophy will be seen from the 47th floor of Two Liberty 6 weeks from today...Cole will be just fine. :)

^^ Maybe the state passing table games (or soon to be passing? this state budget business has long ago lost me as to where things are ending up) will make it graduate to a the larger, non-temp, versions sooner than later?

Once can hope eh?

Don't worry the Sugarhouse will generate boatloads of money and the whole plan will be built.

That seems like a curse and a blessing!

Here's to hoping that it provides the promised amenities in my lifetime.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...BC_report.html


So is this good or bad for us long term? I mean, heck, Comcast owning NBC would be like Comcast owning Disney, but probably bigger in a way. But NBC is so entrenched in NYC that I almost feel like Comcast would be pulled up there alla Verizon...


yes, no, maybe so?

^^^ I would pray it brings them down here, but being close via train/car would probably mean everyone stays where they are =(

Though, if anything, I'd venture to guess a significant satellite presence builds up in our fair town... that is IF any of this happens.

Considering the high office vacancy rates and overall (comparatively) low price per square foot prices of Philadelphia, you could only assume that NBC would migrate at least some of its operations here. I mean, if the Comcast Center is your sandbox, why relocate somewhere else where you'd be paying significantly higher rates and lose your flagship, landmark building? This of course uses the assumption that Comcast/NBC would want to consolidate some of its resources.

In terms of the labor market, BlackRock doesn't seem all that worried about relocating part of its workforce. It appears to be more of a financial decision at this point.

NBC is getting pounded by competition from all sides...I would be VERY surprised if Comcast wants anything to do with them. I think GE linked a rumor to the media and like usual, they ran with it.

Most of what I've read has Comcast considering a stake, maybe even a majority stake, in NBC, not buying it outright, which would seem to imply that they wouldn't be moving much in the way of staff. As for NBC getting hammered, this is true, but the flagship network isn't the whole company, they also own or have stakes in several cable networks, own a giant film studio, have international networks, are a partner in Hulu etc. etc. Overall there are parts of the company that Comcast would probably find very appealing.

Is it me, or does this just sound like an incredibly lengthy process. I mean, it seems like I've been following the Peer 11 development for over a year now, how many press conferences have there been already? And now they're talking about May 2010 for the final public presentation....not even to mention breaking ground. Maybe I'm being impatient, but this thing is really dragging...

Any kind of public project is like that. There are studies after studies, then design work, then hearings, then redesign work, and we're not even at the permit stage yet.

It's a joke.

So are they buying out the Sheinhardt Wig Company?

I don't think Comcast will move to New York. Comcast will stay in Philly...NBC will continue to run out of New York.

Comcast is doing this because they need more programming to offer....to get more of an upper hand on Verizon.

NBC exes and tv types would break out in a collective body rash if they were moved out of NYC to Philly.Perhaps some minor tweaking but you arent going to see Brian Leonard anchoring from the Comcast Center . I can hear the jackals on CNBC now joking about being moved to Philly. Brain Roberts is very bullish on Philly and nothing would surprise me but Id put the chances of any NBC personnel moving to Philly at less than 1%.

Skimming todays report it looks like:

Comcast will buy 51% of NBC Universal for $9-$12 B. Total market value of NBC Universal about $35B

NBC Universal includes NBC,USA,Bravo,Universal amusement parks in LA,Orlando,Tokyo. 4,000 movie library.

Comcast stock lost 7% on the news yesterday. Investors obviously not liking Comcasts decision.

The president of NBC News is a Philly native and Temple grad. I'd expect increased NBC presence in Philly, but not necessarily a huge movement of personnel down I-95. Like cubanChris said, the proximity of the two cities makes it virtually unnecessary for either side to move it's base.

If anything Philly will get the better end of this one. Likely moves: Chris Mathews and Jim Cramer are the most likely to move down if any, they are both Philly guys.

No on Cramer
 

There is no way Cramer will be coming to philly. Cramer is a market guy. A dumb one at that. His show is on CNBC which follows the markets ALL DAY from 930-4...Where are AMEX,NYSE,NADAQ,NYMEX? They are in NYC where they will stay for a very long time, along with Jim Cramer.

NBC owns a ton of space at 30 Rock and has millions and millions invested in studios there. I doubt they'd pick up and move here.

Remember, the Comcast deal also has to get pas the feds once the parties involved reach an agreement

No TD
 

I suppose its a good thing TD Financial Group decided not to move a US headquarters in the ACC.

After all this hoopla I would be surprised if they even still have a customer base. Poor IT work on their part. Feel bad for their customers.

I wouldn't be shocked if they moved some programming here.

ABC is moving production of "All My Children" out of New York to Los Angeles to save money.

Are there production studios in Comcast's building?

Meanwhile, on the Parkway:

from here: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/busin...unveiling.html

Sat, Oct. 3, 2009


Barnes prepares for an unveiling

By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic

Nine years after the Barnes Foundation stunned the art world with a high-risk proposal to escape its litigious Merion neighbors by moving its renowned collection of Impressionist art to Philadelphia, it is getting ready to reveal its most closely guarded secret: what its new home will look like.

Foundation officials are scheduled to appear before the Philadelphia Art Commission at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to seek conceptual approval for a new, larger gallery and classroom building on the Parkway between 20th and 21st Streets, the former site of the Youth Study Center.

The presentation to the commission, which has jurisdiction over the Parkway's appearance, is largely seen as a formality after years of pitched court battles with opponents of the relocation. Several key city officials already have reviewed the architectural design by the New York office of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and the commission is widely expected to sign off on the general massing and site plan.

The Wednesday hearing will effectively be a public coming-out for the long-awaited $200 million project.

In advance of the hearing, foundation officials submitted a packet of documents yesterday containing the site plan and various architectural drawings so commission members can have time to review the details. Ordinarily, such documents are also available to the public. But in an unusual move, Barnes officials asked the commission to consider the plans "proprietary" and withhold them from public scrutiny until Wednesday. A city solicitor approved the request.

Derek Gillman, the Barnes director, said the public would learn the details at the commission meeting, to be held in the city's public meeting room at 1515 Arch St.

"They'll learn what the site looks like, what the plan looks like, what the volume looks like, and how you go in and out of the site," he explained. "We'll see details of the amazing landscape."

Because the Barnes seeks only conceptual approval from the commission, it isn't obligated to make a full architectural presentation at this point.

"Of course, we think it is a wonderful building," Gillman said.

Still, the hearing could answer several important questions about the foundation's plans for its new Philadelphia operation. People in art and architectural circles have been especially keen to know how the designers would resolve the challenging problem of re-creating the Barnes' distinctive gallery experience in a modern building in an urban setting.

The sequence of the Barnes' Merion galleries and the arrangement for hanging the artwork have long been considered nearly as important as the artwork itself. They reflect the theories that the patent-medicine mogul Albert Barnes developed in the 1920s as he amassed the world's greatest assemblage of works by Cezanne, Matisse, and Renoir.

Barnes considered the "hang," as museum experts call it, so fundamental that he stipulated in his will establishing his foundation that the artwork could never be reorganized or moved. The foundation's battles with its Merion neighbors and the resulting financial insolvency caused the Barnes to reassess that clause.

When foundation officials petitioned Montgomery County Orphans Court in 2004 to break Barnes' will and move the collection to Philadelphia, they did, however, promise to replicate the Merion building's floor plan and the hanging scheme. As part of their plan, they also proposed to create a much larger museum building, with a gallery for special exhibitions, a cafe, bookstore, and auditorium.

Because the new Parkway building will be such a prominent cultural addition to Philadelphia, the Barnes has arranged for Williams and Tsien to present their design on Thursday to an invited group of about 350 local officials.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.

I feel like they've been dangling the carrot on this design for long enough. Can't wait til Wednesday!

[QUOTE=bucks native;4487874]Are there production studios in Comcast's building?


Yes, there are. But they are minimal. I suppose they could build a few out.

I doubt this deal goes through.

Does anybody know what's going up at Front and Palmer?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_lx0hh_qeHX0/Ss...lats%20005.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lx0hh_qeHX0/Ss...lats%20006.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_lx0hh_qeHX0/Ss...lats%20007.JPG

^ I think that's a new school or something like that.

Front & Palmer News
 

THE BUILDING OF A NEW
KENSINGTON HIGH SCHOOL OF ARTS
Front Street at Palmer Philadelphia Pa.
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/fishtown...partynews.html

LOVE South
 

http://media.philly.com/images/20091...q_pfdr04-b.JPG

BONNIE WELLER / Inquirer Staff Photographer

By their own sweat, skateboarders have transformed FDR Park into a course of national renown. Above, Carlos Baiza runs one of the bowls. At left, Andy Knopf lays the bed for a downhill run under I-95. Barred from LOVE Park, skateboarders have adopted FDR as their own. They are raising money to build a new park adjacent to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

here: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/63465952.html

Untapped niche

By Alan J. Heavens
Inquirer Real Estate Writer

It was a brilliantly sunny Friday in late September, and developer Carl Dranoff was doing what he does best:

Park himself in the middle of a construction site - hard hat tightly fitted to his head, surrounded by 170 men and women representing nearly every building trade - to oversee every detail of his latest project.

"We set trends in rentals and have good benchmarks," he shouted over the noise of a cement mixer. "There's a whole new universe of decisions and experiences in building from the ground up."

This particular location was 777 South Broad, a $70 million mid-rise (five stories) that will include 146 one- and two-bedroom rental units.

The project, the start of Dranoff's effort to push the border of Center City farther south, sits less than a quarter-mile from Dranoff's 31-story, $130 million Symphony House condo tower.

Rents will range from $1,900 for one bedroom to $2,600 for two. The largest two-bedroom units, at the corners with the best views, will go for $3,800 a month. Currently, the average rent in the region is $1,361, up 6 percent from 2008, according to the apartment search engine Rental.com.

"The rental market is still strong on the landlord's side," said John Featherman, who focuses on Center City apartments for Prudential Fox & Roach. "Many renters today are people who had to relocate to Philadelphia and couldn't sell their houses."

The high-end renters that Prudential Fox & Roach associate broker Suzin Kline handles are primarily transfers - corporate executives, that is - who either rent for a year to get the lay of the land or simply do not want the hassle of owning.

"They demand services and look for places full of people to make their lives easier," Kline said.

Because the focus for almost a decade was on for-sale condos, the Center City market remains shy of long-term high-end rentals.

There is about a seven-month supply of condos now and demand remains strong, Center City District president Paul Levy said, but that market's recovery is six months to a year away.

"So rental is all that is happening now," Levy said.

This is the economic climate in which the 61-year-old Dranoff, a Northeast Philadelphia native, sincerely expects to add to his list of successes, which include Center City's Locust on the Park, the Victor in Camden, and Manayunk's Venice Lofts.

He is banking on amenities: "green" features; "hospitality suites" for tenants' out-of-town visitors; commercial washers and dryers on every floor to supplement the units in each apartment; a gigantic "sky" deck with two commercial-size grills and a hot tub; a ground-floor pub; and soundproofing so hefty your next-door neighbor will never hear you play your baby grand.

This time, there's a lot more than just Dranoff's expertise and vision riding on the project; Dranoff Properties Inc. is the largest investor in 777 South Broad.

"We had to place much more equity into this project than we had planned," Dranoff said. "When we got ready to start, the financial market had changed, and it was as tough for us to get loans as for homeowners and commercial projects."

By contrast, his $65 million Left Bank in University City, completed in the late 1990s, was financed primarily by the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust.

New York-based developer Don Monti, who focuses on revitalizing downtowns in cities smaller than Philadelphia, said banks today "want to see lots of skin in the game at your end."

In today's marketplace, "lenders want 50 percent or more of a developer's equity in a project - no matter how good the project is," said Monti, president of Renaissance Downtowns.

Still, he said, "there's no place to park your money today and expect to get much more than a 1.5 percent to 2 percent return. Building rental might be a patient approach."

Many experts, including Monti, are predicting that downtown locations will continue postrecession growth trends once the economy reverses course. They believe there is plenty of room for a mix of sale and rental units.

"Long-term, I think [the rental market] is strong, particularly for young professionals, as opposed to affluent retirees, who prefer to own," said economist Kevin Gillen, vice president at Philadelphia's Econsult.

"Short-term, the outlook is weaker, as the first-time home buyer tax credit is motivating some renters to become owners, and the slumping economy limits both the desire and ability of the remaining renters to seek out luxury units," he said.

Jeffrey Otteau, of the Otteau Valuation Group in New Brunswick, said the dynamics of the next housing cycle - including skyrocketing energy costs, sustainability, and declining income - will favor downtown housing.

"There will be increasing demand for rental," Otteau said, helped by tighter credit that will force people to buy houses later in life and remain in them longer.

As with almost all Dranoff's previous efforts, 777's location concerns Center City's "square-centric" real estate industry (as in: If it isn't on or within walking distance to Rittenhouse Square, forget it).

"Of course," Dranoff said. "We do push the envelope into new locations, but they are calculated risks. We're not going to another planet. We're creating a new anchor project and expect everything in between to fill in."

So far, 500 prospective renters have filled out forms on the building's Web site, he said. The leasing office is set to open in November, with the first move-ins scheduled for March.

While assigning it the role of a "marketing plus," Dranoff said he believed the "green" or sustainable quality of 777 South Broad was becoming as important to his target market as "being seven minutes from everywhere."

Whether "green" becomes a factor depends on how it is deployed, Gillen said.

"If it means a weatherized exterior, more efficient mechanical systems, and generally lower energy bills, then prospective renters are more likely to respond to such practical incentives in challenging economic times such as these.

"If you want green to generate green dollars," he added, "you'd better make sure green puts some dollars in your prospects' pockets."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/busin...ped_niche.html

Barnes
 

http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...r_parkway.html



Wraps come off Barnes' plan for parkway

By Inga Saffron

INQUIRER ARCHITECTURE CRITIC

The Barnes Founation's new Philadelphia home will be a gracious, golden-hued temple - modern in style, yet almost classical in its repose - set in a tree-shrouded enclave on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, according to documents that officials submitted to the Philadelphia Art Commission on Friday, but were made public only today.

Acting on the instructions of the city Law Department, the art commission took the wraps off the Barnes’ 17-page presentation, which is scheduled to be reviewed at the commission’s Wednesday morning meeting.

When the Barnes submitted the renderings and site plan on Friday, it argued that the images of the new museum were “proprietary” and should not be released until the commission meets at 9:30 a.m. But after the city received several requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the law department concluded that the public had the right to review the documents before the commission convened.

While the pictures themselves don’t completely explain the logic that underpins the design, created by the New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, they do give viewers a good sense of what the Barnes’ new home will look like and how it will fit in with the parkway’s other cultural buildings.

It’s very clear, for instance, that the galleries containing the Barnes’ famous collection of Impressionist art will face the parkway. A separate L-shaped structure wrap around those galleries, completing a U shape. The middle section is topped by a long glass cap that extends well beyond those two structures, toward 21st Street and the neighboring Rodin Museum.

Read tomorrow's Inquirer for more on the Barnes' plans for the Parkway.

Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.

I don't know what I think yet...

at least it has a green roof.


I kinda feel like I wish it was closer to the parkway. It seems set back too far.

It's a little too plain for my tastes, would've liked something a little more architecturally interesting. But I like all the landscaping elements, seems like a plus for the Parkway, overall.

Wow, thought I'd have to wait til wednesday!

I like it, although I agree it does seem a bit removed from the parkway... what with the plan for pedestrian focus of everything these days.

Look forward to more images being released another year from now haha.

Williams Tsien not being my favorite architects, I'll believe it when I see it...

Thumbs up for the Barnes
 

I think Philadelphia lost much classical architecture, this design seems to represent a forgotten style to some extent. It is very Philadelphian, not gaudy, not showy. The wooded surroundings of the museum I imagine will be a unique space for the city. Even though more modern architecture excites me, this design has a beautiful simplicity to it.

I agree with the posters who say it is too far removed from the street. I also find the prominent surface parking lot incredibly offensive. In addition, it seems like all the service aspects of the building line the perimeter facing every street but the Parkway. Bottom line, I think, is that this design is too suburban: flat slab in a park-like setting girdled by driveways and parking.

Showy, Gehry-esque starchitect stuff is crap, but this seems a bit too the opposite extreme - not so much understated as plain, generic, placeless. Just another missed opportunity, like the Kimmel Center.

I am not impressed at all.

Having said that, it's better than nothing: it beats a parking lot or the Youth Study Center.

I was expecting to be underwhelmed, but I am aghast at the sheer lack of integrity and intelligence it takes to propose that tepid slab of "golden-hued" architectural fæces. (and yes, in honor of the faux-classical logic underpinning it deserves the full latin spelling when describing exactly what this is)

I tend to agree with many of Inga's positions and therefore usually find myself in her camp. But if she fails to see the blatant shortcomings of this design I can't not call her on it. Everything she rightly criticizes the "slot-barns" for this museum is guilty of. Not only guilty of, but in a building and a location that are exponentially more prominent and important.

I am ok with understated. With reserved. With subtle.

But this building is none of those things. It's a pathetically timid attempt at avoiding controversy and minimizing costs. The designs were proprietary for one reason only. They wished to avoid the public spotlight as much as possible and get the design approved by a city so desperate for this museum it would approve anything. The Barnes went out of its way to not create more opposition to the move and to minimize construction costs.

And it shows. Which leads me to say something I haven't said in nine years:

Leave it in Merion.

The Barnes Foundation is a school located within a 12-acre arboretum that is integral to the building and exhibition concept. When Henri Matisse visited from France in 1933 to install his "Dance" mural, commissioned for three lunettes of Cret’s main gallery, he described the ensemble of architecture, art and gardens as “the only sane place” for aesthetic experience that he had seen in America.

THIS might explain the extensive landscaping and building placement within it rather than in front of it.

Minus the wrap-around, it looks like the original:

http://media.philly.com/images/20091...arnes06z-g.JPG

Bright Side
 

Hey let's stay focused on the bright side. If the picture thing doesn't work out we can always put the troubled kids back in there. The new building looks about the same as the old YSC. (P.S. sorry to be so negative but it's how I get when I'm feeling let down)

Well, given the context of the Parkway a deep setback from it is necessary, but if you make the space that setback causes a parking lot (is it?) then isn't the parklike setting of the piece caused by the setback overwhelmed by the lot? I know they need parking, but let's face it, surface parking is one of the biggest scourges of the BFP as it is and the destroyer of Eakins Oval. Understatement here is a necessity (given the classically understated Rodin Museum and Franklin Institute it'll be relating with, and possibly eventually the somewhat overstated Safdie Central Library expansion it'll be contrasting with) but understatement without implementing a wise parking plan leads to generica.

With the addition of the Barnes to the Parkway, isn't it about time the city helped make the Parkway more pedestrian friendly by closing the outer traffic lanes and making them grand walkways like the Mall in DC or in Paris? This simple inexpensive change would help transform the Parkway into a true pedestian's paradise.

Well said but I think closing the inner lanes would be a better idea. See elsewhere why.

They are in planning/initial stages of completely revamping the parkway, including traffic patterns, bike lanes, traffic calming (in front of the Art Museum steps), landscaping & other stuff...

I'm fuzzy on the details and just how much is being done... I know the Rodin Museum's current landscaping project is a semi-related portion of said project. Part of me wants to say they are adding in some cafe/food options further down the parkway to complement the CCD's newish cafe at the base of the parkway.

Like I said though, I'm recalling what only I remember (or think i remember). Probably more details buried somewhere in Philly Dev VII :)

The Parkway definetly needs an upgrade. I have on a couple of walks realized that it's impossible to reach the Art Museum from the West side of the Parkway and had to backtrack to Logan Circle. Plus, not to be mean or anything, but it's an outdoor homless shelter in the summer.

Having said that, it's still pretty good for what it is now. It provides a unique vista that even NY can't really replecate.

I agree. To me, it's a wasted opportunity. This may be the last time in our lives that a major, world class, cultural museum will be built in the city--projects like this should inspire, should be talked about, should create discussion and controversy, should attract international attention...

I don't think this design will do any of those things...it looks suburban and completely uninspired. I know these architects were faced with certain limitations, but this is as bland and suburban a design as i could imagine.

Is that a parking lot directly bordering the parkway? I'm confused, is there any reason physically that this parking facility cannot be underground?

I wonder if they were withholding the design from public scrutiny to avoid any debate. Sadly, again, this is an example of our city (not city's fault) with an opportunity to take things to another level, but falling tragically short.

Extension of the R8?
 

A bid to restore rail service to Newtown

By Paul Nussbaum

Inquirer Staff Writer

All that remains of Newtown's commuter rail stop is a faded sign, by a rusted stretch of track at Penn and Lincoln Streets, proclaiming the name of the Bucks County borough.

But when Jon Frey stands where the old station used to be, he imagines a railroad reborn, with SEPTA trains once again traveling the R-8 line to Fox Chase and on into Center City.

To try to make that vision a reality, Frey has launched a campaign to restore service to Newtown, renewing an old debate about costs and ridership and pitting one pro-environment faction (rail commuters) against another (rails-to-trails advocates).

The debate also divides along county lines: In traffic-snarled Bucks County, which has grown rapidly along the corridor, residents and officials support it, while in Montgomery County, with less growth and more rail options, there is plenty of opposition.

SEPTA "temporarily" suspended service on the 15-mile Newtown branch in early 1983, because of low ridership, labor issues, and poor maintenance of the diesel trains that operated on the unelectrified line.

In the ensuing 26 years, trees have sprouted between the tracks, bridges have collapsed, and housing developments have grown up along the corridor. In June, Montgomery County, which leased two miles of the dormant line from SEPTA for $1 and sold the old rails for $200,000, turned that section into Pennypack Trail, a bike-and-pedestrian path along the edge of Lorimer Park.

But SEPTA has not relinquished the rail right-of-way, which gives Frey hope.

"It's not a question of feasibility, it's a question of necessity," said Frey, 35, an information-technology consultant from Southampton. "People will say it's a lot of money, but it's a long-term investment. There's a tremendous amount of traffic and pollution you would be taking out of the picture."

He and a small group of supporters have started handing out cards at SEPTA stations, lobbying officials, attending meetings, and they've launched a sophisticated Web site (www.r8newtown.com), complete with an on-line petition for proponents to sign.

SEPTA says it has no plans to restore service to Newtown in the near future because of costs and ridership. Until last year, restoration of the service remained on the books as one of SEPTA's long-range plans, but it is not in the current plan.

Other rail expansion proposals, such as a line to Quakertown or to Reading, are considered higher priorities, said Byron Comati, SEPTA's director of strategic planning and analysis.

Charles Martin, chairman of the Bucks County commissioners and one of the county's two representatives on the SEPTA board, said he would like to see service restored to the line he used to ride, but he is not holding his breath.

"Somewhere in the future, some bright person is going to come up with a way to operate a vehicle on that line, but it seems like it's not feasible now," Martin said. "Knowing the economics of running SEPTA and the available funds, to add any significant service is going to be a really, really difficult thing to do."

"Am I in favor of it? Absolutely. Is this the time to pursue it. No."

Fellow Bucks County Commissioner James Cawley said after meeting with Frey that he was "very intrigued" by the prospect of restoring the service.

"I think you would see a big spike in ridership" because of population growth in the Newtown area, Cawley said, who said he was talking to SEPTA and regional planners about restoring the service.

For more than a century, trains ran from Newtown south to Philadelphia. As part of the Reading Railroad's system, the line was never electrified, so passengers had to switch from a diesel train to an electric train at Fox Chase to finish their hour-long trip to Reading Terminal.

SEPTA inherited the operation of the line in 1981 and tried to run the trains as far as Fox Chase with subway operators. Beset by labor problems, balky diesel engines, low ridership, and a fatal crash, SEPTA ended service in January 1983.

Since then, there have been periodic efforts in Bucks County to revive the line.

The residents there see restored Newtown train service as an antidote to traffic congestion.

But the Montgomery County towns along the line have had no such growth, and the residents there like the open space that has replaced the trains. And, with easy access to the neighboring R-2/Warminster and R-3/West Trenton rail lines, the Montco commuters do not need more train service.

"It's a very worthwhile project," said Matthew Mitchell, of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers.

"But unless you get the support of Montgomery County, it's not going to go anywhere, regardless of how much the riders want it."

"People want nothing back there," said Leo Bagley, director of transportation planning for Montgomery County. He said neighbors made that clear in reaction to a proposal to introduce "bus rapid transit" along the route.

"I would not like to see a railroad there," said Jenkintown lawyer Richard Stern, who is president of the Tall Trees Homeowners Association in Huntingdon Valley, where some homes abut the rail line. "I would adamantly oppose it. . . . To disrupt this gorgeous trail would be very upsetting to me and the residents of my community."

Montgomery County planners are moving ahead with plans to extend the rail-trail south to Philadelphia and north to Byberry Road.

Frey said his pro-rail group's initial goal was to get another study of ridership and cost projections.

In its long-range plan for many years, SEPTA had listed the cost of electrifying and restoring service to Newtown at $32 million. But that estimate was "stale," said SEPTA's chief financial officer, Richard Burnfield.

He declined to estimate what an updated price tag might be, but he noted that the current 3.2-mile extension of the R-3 line from Elwyn to Wawa in Delaware County is expected to cost $80 million to $100 million.

He said studies done as recently as 2006 did not find enough new ridership to justify restoration of service. Proposed extensions to Quakertown or Reading "have more traction . . . by comparison, this one is a little stumpy."

Frey said he and the Newtown advocates would not let SEPTA's disinterest deter them.

"We're just trying to build local support now. There is a lot of misinformation causing politicians to not believe it can be done," he said. "We are trying to show them it can."

Citizens' group to boost Phila. riverfronts

By Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writer

Seeking clout in unity, the newly formed Coalition for Philadelphia's Riverfronts is an alliance of more than three dozen civic, neighborhood, governmental, faith-based, and business groups dedicated to revitalizing the city's waterfront areas through the creation of a comprehensive rivers' edge greenway.

"Riverfront groups generally have advocated for a local portion or a section" of the rivers, said coalition coordinator Rachel Vassar. What distinguishes the coalition, she said, is that it brings together diverse constituencies, from South Philadelphia's Passyunk Square Civic Association to Port Richmond's Friends of Pulaski Park. From the Jewish service organization Moishe House to the Philadelphia Anglers' Club.

The idea, she said, is to speak with "one voice for a citywide policy," grounded in the belief that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

At a 5 p.m. gathering today at Schuylkill Banks Plaza next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, representatives of the coalition plan to call on City Council and the City Planning Commission to adopt ordinances and regulations requiring that land along the Schuylkill and the Delaware River be reserved for a green swath that will contain trails for hiking, jogging, rowing, kayaking, bicycle commuting, and other recreational uses.

Besides contributing to the public's health by providing space for vigorous physical exercise, a unified greenway will improve water quality because "a good vegetated buffer can help filter pollutants," the organizers say.

The coalition, funded by a William Penn Foundation grant of about $25,000, envisions turning abandoned factory areas into parkland and connecting communities that otherwise have stood apart.

"When the coalition succeeds in its mission," the group said in a prepared statement, citizens in Bridesburg, Tacony, Holmesburg, and Fishtown, "who never thought of themselves as part of one whole" will work together.

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