PHILADELPHIA | The Development Thread VIII - Page 160

We Got Five · #**3181** Posted: **Jul 15, 2011, 12:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammersklavier View Post
Fortune 500s are nice to have but frankly can be a drag if you bend yourselves backwards too much for them.

IMO what the city needs to be doing better is fostering entrepreneurship. That's the corporate culture here, but the tax code does a poor job of retaining jobs grown in our top-notch economic incubators (like the Science Center). Courting (bribing) Cigna to stay would be good for jobs numbers in the short term but not the long term...what's good for jobs numbers in the long term is a reduction of our way-too-high business taxes with an enaction of land value property taxation to counter the immediate loss in revenue.

Aaaaaaanyway, UBS is moving out of Conn. back to Lower Manhattan because they've discovered it's damn near impossible to recruit in the suburbs anymore. How long do you think it'll take until Cigna realizes this too?

I agree with you, except that's not the case now and has never been the case here in Philadelphia.

hammersklavier · #**3182** Posted: **Jul 15, 2011, 4:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by giantSwan

Absolutely 100% agree. The best economic development at this point is fixing the tax code and making the city beautiful and livable. Ed Glaeser, the famous Harvard economist, continually stresses the importance of a livable city as a catalyst for economic development.

Ed Glaeser is dumb as fuck when he asserts that Jacobs is wrong while at the same time not realizing his most successful claims are perfectly in accord with Jacobs', but that's another story...

Business taxation in Philadelphia penalizes growth rather than incentivizes it. Everyone on all sides of the political spectrum understands this...we need politicans who can actually get it done. One good thing about the current Council election cycle is that it will still entail a net decrease in machine candidates...and it's been the machine that's kept taxes too high.

EastSideHBG · #**3183** Posted: **Jul 17, 2011, 1:35 PM**

Posted on Sun, Jul. 17, 2011

At 30th St. Station, a plan for gateway to city

By Paul Nussbaum
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Amtrak is getting ready to create a master plan for 30th Street Station, hoping to make the neoclassical landmark a more welcoming gateway to both West Philadelphia and Center City.

The 78-year-old train station serves more than seven million Amtrak, SEPTA, and NJ Transit passengers a year, but it's isolated by a river, two expressways, a cordon of busy streets, and a wasteland of parking lots.

For pedestrians, the area around the station is "about as inhospitable as the surface of another planet," said Bob Francis, vice president for university facilities at Drexel University.

Many changes are already in the works.

Drexel, intent on filling the void between its campus and the station, last month spent $21.8 million for 3.6 acres of parking lots on the western doorstep of the station for future university housing, academic buildings, or commercial space.

And on the south side of the station, construction crews for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are building a 55-foot-wide pedestrian plaza with lights and granite benches as the foundation of a Station Square aimed at transforming that block-long desert into an oasis. The plaza will be mirrored by another one across Market Street, in front of the old 30th Street Post Office building, which now houses the IRS.

Amtrak is working with PennDot, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, city officials, SEPTA, and other groups as it prepares to draw up the master plan. The agency is still waiting on funding to proceed, and the plan could take a year or more to complete.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/lo...mpid=124488459

omp835 · #**3184** Posted: **Jul 17, 2011, 5:27 PM**

Quote:

Now when you come in from New York or some place to visit the Art Museum and you come out on the 29th Street side of the station, you can see the museum, but you can't get there very easily," Greenberger said.

You can walk there very easily via the schuykil river trail.

Pennsgrant · #**3185** Posted: **Jul 17, 2011, 8:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by omp835

You can walk there very easily via the schuykil river trail.

Signs/Directions would be helpful. A visitor at 30th Street could walk to the Art Museum/ Franklin Institute in 15 minutes if they:

1. Were Given Directions/ Signs pointing them to that direction.
2.They were marketed to tell them how awesome those museums were.

Yesterday I was struck just how badly Philadelphia lacked in common sense. Coming N on 95 near the airport there is abolutely no information of any kind.

No signs directing you to the Stadiums, Museums,Zoo,parks,Historical attractions,Universities.Nothing. There was 1 Sign that said (I-95 Central Philadelphia) and 1 sign that said (I-76 Valley Forge).

That was it. For maybe your casual tourist traveling between Dc + NYC there are no helpful signs saying hey We have a ton of cool stuff in this city to check out.

hammersklavier · #**3186** Posted: **Jul 18, 2011, 3:10 AM**

Um, those are control signs you are talking about.

For my part, I'm always annoyed that neither Philadelphia nor Baltimore seem to get intermediate control sign status along 95. In MD the control is New York, when both cities really should be up there...

But agreed that Philly really should be putting up some highway signage directing people to major attractions, and which exits to get off at to see them.

For instance:

PHILADELPHIA ATTRACTIONS
University City
University of Penna.
Major Universities
Art Museum
Fairmount Park
Rittenhouse Square...I-76

Independence Mall
Old City
Sports Complex
Penn's Landing
Northern Liberties...I-95

billboards placed along the approaches into the city along 76, 95, the A.C. Expwy. NJ 55, and the Turnpikes.

Phil_North · #**3187** Posted: **Jul 18, 2011, 4:49 PM**

One thing that would help is if I-95 were continuous through Philadelphia. Remember, someone driving along 95 from NY - DC or vice versa normally doesn't even cut through PA. If the connection between the PA Turnpike and 95 ever gets built, creating a continuous I-95 (via the PA-NJ Turnpike connector), then Philly will always be just on the outside of the corridor. If the connection were built, then a driver who simply "stays on 95" would be taken directly though Philadelphia when traveling and would use the NJ Turnpike or 295 to go around the city as with 495 around Wilmington in DE.

Imagine signs on the NJ Turnpike for drivers heading south and approaching Exit 6 with the right lanes pointing towards "I-95 South to Philadelphia, PHL" and the left lanes "NJ Turnpike to Southern New Jersey, Delaware". Some drivers may simply drive through Philly just to see it and not fear getting lost since they're still "on 95".

pwp · #**3188** Posted: **Jul 18, 2011, 5:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

And on the south side of the station, construction crews for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation are building a 55-foot-wide pedestrian plaza with lights and granite benches as the foundation of a Station Square aimed at transforming that block-long desert into an oasis.

I haven't heard much of this project in a while. Is Station Square still a-go? Furthermore, is it under construction as the article suggestions??

phillyaggie · #**3189** Posted: **Jul 18, 2011, 8:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Amtrak is working with PennDot, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, city officials, SEPTA, and other groups as it prepares to draw up the master plan. The agency is still waiting on funding to proceed, and the plan could take a year or more to complete.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/lo...mpid=124488459

From the article above, this detail irritates the heck out of me:

Quote:

The master plan will examine ways for subway and trolley riders to make a better connection to 30th Street Station. A winding underground tunnel that once connected the station to adjacent stops on the Market-Frankford subway and the surface-subway trolley lines was closed three decades ago after a passenger was assaulted in the passageway. The entrance of the tunnel in 30th Street Station is now covered by a bar and restaurant.

Subway passengers now use a stairway or an elevator to get to street level and cross 30th Street and the station's inner road to reach the station.

SEPTA and city officials have little interest in reopening the tunnel or digging a new one. Instead, they said, they'd like to improve the aboveground trek.

SEPTA doesn't mind blowing money in redoing the City Hall station and the top of it (Dilworth Plaza), but when it comes to you know, actually providing seamless multimodal passenger access, they get butthurt.

I wonder what the passenger boardings numbers are for passengers transferring from Amtrak or Regional Rails to the MFL at the 30th St Station. I tell you, that is not the most user-friendly transfer. One of the first times when I visited Philly as a tourist, spending a weekend after a work visit to D.C. and came up north via Amtrak, I expected to have sheltered connection to the MFL considering it too has a station at 30th St. That was too much to ask, apparently. That evening it was pouring cats and dogs and I wasn't about to lug my bags outside in rain and figure out where the MFL station entrance is...which is poorly marked as such. So I ended up taking a taxi, even though I was going not too far from 2nd and Market and would have rather taken the MFL line.

that's just one very personal anecdote.

What a stupid reason to shut down a tunnel...someone got assaulted in there decades ago so let's not fix it up, let's just shut it down. Nice!

I hope they at least provide COVERED access to the MFL station even if it is above ground... that way your passengers who likely are carrying a lot of luggage coming from another city via Amtrak, might not get wet and actually be able to use your service.

\gets off soap box.

phillyaggie · #**3190** Posted: **Jul 18, 2011, 9:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pennsgrant

Signs/Directions would be helpful. A visitor at 30th Street could walk to the Art Museum/ Franklin Institute in 15 minutes if they:

1. Were Given Directions/ Signs pointing them to that direction.
2.They were marketed to tell them how awesome those museums were.

Yesterday I was struck just how badly Philadelphia lacked in common sense. Coming N on 95 near the airport there is abolutely no information of any kind.

No signs directing you to the Stadiums, Museums,Zoo,parks,Historical attractions,Universities.Nothing. There was 1 Sign that said (I-95 Central Philadelphia) and 1 sign that said (I-76 Valley Forge).

That was it. For maybe your casual tourist traveling between Dc + NYC there are no helpful signs saying hey We have a ton of cool stuff in this city to check out.

That's something a lot of other cities do a great job of. In Texas, cultural attractions have highway signage using brown signs with white letters...can't miss.

Forget about cultural signs. Some wayfinding signs pointing the way from the city to the airport are so old and worn out, if you're not used to driving on all those on/off ramps, you can easily miss those signs and get lost. The signs usually have reflectors so that during rain or fog they can be easily seen...the signs in Philly must be sooo old that they've lost much of that reflector coating in the white paint against the green background and perhaps some of that white paint is chipping off too to the extent that you can barely make out some signs.

Guess that's PennDOT's work, or lack there of.

jn00 · #**3191** Posted: **Jul 19, 2011, 3:42 PM**

is formally under construction right now. They have torn up the concrete on both sides of Market Street and appear to be grading it to put down grass or something like that. I have not seen plans for the revamp. It sounds like there is another phase of the project which is currently unfunded.

on a separate but related note, does anyone know about the narrowing of the Walnut Street bridge area w/ trees, new lighting, etc? I think that this is also funded and was supposed to start this summer. Nakedphilly had an article about it a while back, but I'm not sure of the source.

EastSideHBG · #**3192** Posted: **Jul 19, 2011, 10:34 PM**

Posted on Tue, Jul. 19, 2011

Northern Liberties market to open as a Super Fresh

By Maria Panaritis
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The long-awaited supermarket for Philadelphia's Northern Liberties neighborhood, in limbo since the December bankruptcy filing of Pathmark parent company A&P, now appears to be a go.

Help-wanted signs appeared Tuesday morning on the glass storefronts of the two-story structure at the corner of Second Street and Girard Avenue, where developer Bart Blatstein built a $30 million shopping center to house a second-floor Pathmark supermarket.

The signs say that the company is hiring for positions for a Super Fresh there, said local shop owner Darrell O'Connor, who noticed the signs from his store, Doc's Gourmet Café and Soup Bar, which faces the hulking, empty building on Girard.

Super Fresh is a sister chain to Pathmark, also owned by Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. "Come join the Superfresh TEAM," one sign reads. "Opportunities available for friendly individuals with a passion for customer service. Apply now at www.superfreshfood.com.";

The developer and the supermarket corporation have declined to comment about the site since July 8, when A&P informed the New York bankruptcy judge overseeing its reorganization that it planned to retain its lease for the Northern Liberties site.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...#ixzz1SaqktGLj
Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else

PHL10 · #**3193** Posted: **Jul 20, 2011, 5:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillyaggie

SEPTA doesn't mind blowing money in redoing the City Hall station and the top of it (Dilworth Plaza), but when it comes to you know, actually providing seamless multimodal passenger access, they get butthurt.

I travel to DC on Amtrak a handful of times a year. In DC, the Metro connection at Union Station is well marked and seamless – you stay inside the building between systems. Coming home, I’m always dismayed as I leave 30th Street station, dodge a bunch of taxis and avoid getting hit by cars going through the red light at 31st (?) street to get to a shed that looks like a fruit stand to take a dingy elevator or filthy stairs to the crypt that houses the El.

It would be easy to fix with a little vision but as you alluded, “vision” and “Philadelphia” don’t dance very often.

hammersklavier · #**3194** Posted: **Jul 20, 2011, 7:20 PM**

Part of the poor integration comes from the way 30th Street Station was built. The subway line was built with a slope along the 2900 block of Market because it's coming up from its tunnel under the river, and to make things worse it has to run under the NEC platforms. There used to be a connection, but it was closed off and that pub in the station now uses it as a storeroom.

In Boston, the T seamlessly integrates into South Station* (and North Station?); in New York, the subway seamlessly integrates into Grand Central and Penn Station; in D.C., the Metro seamlessly integrates into Union Station...but it seems seamless integration wasn't high on Philadelphia's priority list when the El's western extension (that is, the tunnel from 22nd to 45th) was designed and executed during the New Deal. And with the way the infrastructure is now laid out, providing a seamless integration is exceptionally difficult.

The lack of a seamless integration, however, is a major reason why the 30th Street area needs to be much denser and more pedestrian-friendly.
__________
* Just the train station, not the bus station.

jhdiesel · #**3195** Posted: **Jul 21, 2011, 3:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

Part of the poor integration comes from the way 30th Street Station was built. The subway line was built with a slope along the 2900 block of Market because it's coming up from its tunnel under the river, and to make things worse it has to run under the NEC platforms.

I don't know what exactly the relative elevations are, but it also looks like there are Amtrak train tracks right smack between 30th St Station and the fare control level of the subway station. If you nose around the subway station, you can see (what appears to be) the entrance from the old connection tunnel coming up from below. So I guess you had to go 2+ floors down from Bridgewaters, walk through the tunnel, go back up stairs to fare control, and back down again to the trains. Seems like a nightmare, esp if you consider luggage, wheelchairs, etc.

I think a covered street-level connection would be a better solution (ie close 30th St to auto traffic between JFK and Market).

wanderer34 · #**3196** Posted: **Jul 21, 2011, 10:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jes44

Posted last night by Joseph DiStefano

Drexel moves east in $22 million campus expansion deal

Drexel University has spent $21.8 million to buy 3.6 acres on the north side of the 3000 block of John F. Kennedy Boulevard, between the school's West Philadelphia campus and 30th Street Station.

The purchase of the land from a group of California investors, currently operated as the Five Star asphalt parking lot, will allow Drexel to add academic classroom and research, and commerical office, retail and residential developments with "24 hour" uses at the school's eastern end, helping link the campus to Center City, university president John Fry told me.

Fry says he's begun approaching developers, including Brandywine Realty Trust, which built the neighboring Cira office tower in the mid-2000s, about possible projects. Drexel trustees are drafting a master plan for the campus that would include the site. He credited former trustee chairman George Ross with the previous purchase of the nearby Evening Bulletin building south of the Five Star purchase. Fry also said he's talking to Amtrak about possible expansion over the nearby train yards.

Drexel is the latest West Philly institution to expand toward Center City. See previous plans by Penn and CHOP.
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 6:23 PM Permalink | 23 comments

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...#ixzz1QaqSnXlf
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I always felt that east of the railroad viaduct, it should be more private business interests that should invest in that land, while the west portion should be more Drexel University. Hopefully, DU invests in high rise (30 stories) on their end, while the eastern end can be a part of the Powelton Air Rights project which will increase office space in this city, similar to what should've been w/ the Cira Centre 2, with Penn as the partner. I can only hope DU and the city does something smart with the land, and maybe, hopefully, Phila can build anotehr signature tower where the Goodwin building is located (a supertall at 4k feet???!!!

THAT WOULD BE SWEET!!!!!!

)

GarCastle · #**3197** Posted: **Jul 22, 2011, 1:40 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jn00

Station Square is formally under construction right now.

Actually this has been U/C for a couple weeks now. At this point they have some 3'x3' and not sure how deep holes dug inside the northern fenced off area. Not sure what they are doing, but it makes me curious.

Keep in mind they just re-crete'd all this stuff a year or two back LOL, and now they are tearing it up, must be Union work heh.

hammersklavier · #**3198** Posted: **Jul 22, 2011, 7:31 PM**

Apparently they're also rebuilding the elevated structure the 2900 block of Market sits on. An elevated structure which, by the way, extends over the south end of the NEC's platforms.

apetrella802 · #**3199** Posted: **Jul 24, 2011, 12:32 AM**

official groundbreaking is set for Sept 17th, 2011

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/philadelphia/

McBane · #**3200** Posted: **Jul 25, 2011, 1:31 PM**

I'm sorry but what kind of city has a subway and train station next to each other without a direct pedestrian connection? Not a world class city, I'll tell you that much. Could you imagine NY doing something so dumb? But oh wait, we're not NY so we should just set our standards so much lower, right? It's so completely asinine.

Walked by 15th and JFK yesterday. What a crying shame. That area, with its countless plazas and windswept empty streets is in desperate need of residential, hotel, or a commercial building. A courthouse will not add activity and will not fill up the empty plazas with regular people. Nope, instead we get more delinquents for Love Park, et al. Have you ever walked by Broad and Arch in the morning (Municipal court and the probation and parole offices)?

It's a real shame because that location's proximity to Love Park, City Hall, 676, Convention Center, RTM, CBD, Suburban station, Rittenhouse Sq, Ave of the Arts, etc. would have been so perfect for a hotel, office building, or condos.

So negative this morning! Must be the heat??