One City, River's View

This is how a renaissance happens. It's a chance that comes once a century.

by Bruce Schimmel

A funny thing happens when you look at Philadelphia from the middle of the Delaware River. The city is silent, serene; it seems at peace. Neighborhood lines don't matter, nor do political districts. Divisions disappear, and the city is seen as a whole.

Recently, my view of Philly changed radically, on a boat ride up the Delaware with Captain Lucky.

Yes, there actually is a Captain Lucky, whose eponymous double-decker boat is docked at Callowhill. The New Kensington Community Development Corp. invited city planners, community activists and some ordinary folks for a two-hour trip into the past and a journey into a future.

It is a bright future, I think, for the Delaware riverfront. Because citizens have demanded something better than condos, chain stores and casinos. In the 30 years that I've sniffed the political winds, I have never seen so many heavies jump back so far.

In the last few weeks, politicos like Councilman Frank DiCicco, Mayor John Street and even state Sen. Vince Fumo have loosened their grip on the waterfront. Weekly, the prospect of casinos despoiling the shore grows dimmer. The state recently conceded zoning power to the city, and a citywide coalition has just taken the Gaming Control Board to court.

Riverfront development is essentially on hold. So for now, we have a golden moment. And in this interim, Harris Steinberg, who heads a new riverfront planning commission, is inviting everyone to a great public conversation — the likes of which we haven't seen for decades. As Steinberg puts it, we've got a chance "to work together to design the people's waterfront."

Along the shore are lots of old docks, some just pilings. From them, people are fishing again. In the last 30 years, the Clean Water Act has actually cleaned the Delaware. Now a sensitive species like striped bass thrive in the waters next to Philly. Even the delicate shad that spawn in spring are running again.

We glide by a massive and now dark PECO generating station. Some on board think the old building would make impressive condos. Much better, they say, than mega-towers along the shore. A couple of urban planners also imagine that light industry, even retail, would work. If only people could get over, under or through I-95 — which now essentially cuts off the city from the river.

Between grimy industrial sites are patches of marsh. Imagine wetlands being washed again by all the creeks that once flowed from the city to the river. It's an elegant solution to the storm-water deluges that now overflow our sewers.

"It's beautiful," says Captain Lucky of the shoreline he's piloted for 15 years. The Captain imagines a future of mixed-use, echoing the urban planners on board. And echoing, too, what I've heard from many ordinary citizens at waterfront rescue meetings. People want residential buildings, mixed with retail and some industry — separated by stretches of pristine shore.

Asked at one waterfront meeting, "What would you like to see on the waterfront?" people posted hundreds of suggestions on a wall. Notes that read: "A connected greenway, along the entire waterfront." "More parks and trails." "Keep the history, including the old industrial buildings." "Something like the Chelsea Piers in New York City." "A tunnel for I-95." "More ferries across the river." And one of my favorites, "A hot Latin club and restaurant."

What I didn't see were requests for more automobiles and higher high-rises. And nobody wanted a casino.

This is a watershed moment for waterfront planning, as a recent Daily News editorial put it. Philadelphia has a chance to renew itself that comes perhaps once a century. A chance to create a great public space, a public commons for all its people.

This is how a renaissance happens: When ordinary people bulldoze political heavies. When visionaries are heard in the halls of power. When restoring the ecology and economy become one and the same.

When Philadelphia is viewed from its great natural resource, the Delaware River, solutions will happen that will make this city whole.

Bring your dreams to the conversation at www.planphilly.com.

(bruce@schimmel.com)