Green Is in the Air

With spring looming, everyone is talking about the environment.

by J.F. Pirro

Ten days into the new year, Quentin Carroll, an 11-year-old ice hockey player, found himself 100 yards from a triple shooting inside Simons Recreation Center in West Oak Lane. The sixth-grader dropped his equipment, then ran out the door into his mother's waiting arms. She'd arrived to pick him up after practice.

Green principal: Julie Stapleton Carroll's environmentally themed Wissahickon Charter School hosted a youth forum for GreenPlan Philadelphia last week. : Michael T. Regan (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

It's no wonder, then, that Quentin was among 100 students citywide recruited for an afterschool youth summit Feb. 22 at Wissahickon Charter School where his mom, Julie Stapleton Carroll, is principal. There, a common thread resonated: the need to include security and cleanliness in the forthcoming GreenPlan Philadelphia, the city's evolving blueprint for sustainable open space that combines the efforts of 14 city agencies and 11 partner organizations toward making Philadelphia a more green-conscious society.

"If we had a safer city, we'd spend time on other things [than violence]," Quentin says. "We're just kids, but we do have a say. We can actually change things with this GreenPlan."

A fifth and final invitation-only forum, like the aforementioned youth summit, calls on the corporate community — banks, utilities, universities and foundations, in particular — March 5 at next week's Philadelphia Flower Show. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), the show's host, whose own urban greening program — Philadelphia Green (PG) — dates to 1974, is spearheading the civic engagement in GreenPlan, which included 12 neighborhood meetings last fall.

Also, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Philadelphia Parks Alliance, PHS will conduct another greening gathering, a Mayoral Candidates Forum on open space, neighborhood parks and neighborhood revitalization, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. March 5 in the auditorium of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Michael Nutter, Chaka Fattah and Tom Knox were confirmed participants at press time.

"We want to raise awareness and give candidates a chance to show their support," says Maitreyi Roy, director of Philadelphia Green. "People vote on these issues."

Poll results of 204 Philadelphia businesses and 604 city residents conducted last year by Lancaster's Terry Madonna Opinion Research for Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future indicated the environment is a crucial mayoral election issue. Ninety-two percent said environmental and infrastructure improvements are essential to the area's economic competitiveness and growth. Eighty-five percent said they'd be more likely to vote for a mayoral candidate who prioritized the city's environment and its sewer, water and transportation infrastructures. The poll was conducted on behalf of citizens' groups working on the Next Great City initiative.

PG released results of a study — "Public Investment Strategies: How They Matter for Neighborhoods in Philadelphia" (2006) — that proved property values can increase as much as 25 percent when nearby property is cleaned and greened. The study was authored by Dr. Susan Wachter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia's Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC, composed of landscape architects, regional planners and urban design consultants, will draft GreenPlan Philadelphia during the coming year, continually returning it for public inspection and input as it's drafted. By September, it'll be presented to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and the City Planning Commission will be asked to adopt it. Implementation would follow.

The city received a $200,000 DCNR grant agreement in 2005, and has applied for another $125,000, according to Eva Gladstein, director of Mayor John Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The city has contributed $338,000 to GreenPlan. The William Penn Foundation added $78,000.

"I've never worked with something that's generated as much collective and universal excitement inside and outside of the city," she says. "That energy keeps feeding on itself and generating new energy. Part of the plan is figuring out how to keep it going."

Roy says a comprehensive open-space plan has also become protocol for securing state and federal grants for improvements. Working in isolation is not an option.

"We'd always get asked, 'Why can't the things you've been doing be done by city government?'" she says. "My answer: Today, there's no one shot in the arm to address complex issues. We must all work in partnership."

Wissahickon Charter — a K-8 school of 415 students in a converted former radio manufacturing plant off Roosevelt Boulevard where Germantown, East Falls and Nicetown meet — knows that. Organized on an environmental theme, last week's fourth forum had the perfect setting.

Students from eight schools gathered around rectangular cafeteria tables, but figuratively, their discussions were roundtable debates led by trained facilitators. Each table of 10 students adopted a tree species identity. Quentin Carroll, for example, was a maple; others were sycamores or birches.

On enlarged color-copied city maps, students marked where they live and go to school, then brainstormed lists of problems, solutions and future wishes as the city greens. Quentin's three problems: drive-by shootings and murders; drugs; and uncleanliness. His solutions: Confront drug dealers like his father, Keith Carroll, recently did with a town watch vigil outside a known drug house on East Tulpehocken Street in Germantown; adopt stricter litter laws; and hire and better train physically bigger police officers.

The goal with the wish list was to dream big — and the kids did: They envisioned an island, a "Dorney Park" (like in Allentown). Quentin asked for more Rocky statues and a water fountain that squirts fruit punch. Adults have asked for bike trails, dog parks, public toilets and wildlife sanctuaries.

Alexandra Clark, an eighth-grader at Wissahickon Charter, says her group suggested rooftop gardens and fences to stop litter from clogging water pipes.

"Everyone had his thinking cap on," adds Ashley Spraggins, a sixth-grader at the host school.

The afternoon's activism left an already-determined Quentin Carroll believing in change — even in Philadelphia.

"We can have a good society and a good future," he says. "If we're prepared, it'll all go much smoother."

(j_pirro@citypaper.net)

Monday's mayoral forum is open to the public, but requires advance registration. RSVP by March 1 to Joe Soprani at 215-988-8788. Overflow seating will be available via simulcast. To make online GreenPlan suggestions, visit www.greenplanphiladelphia.com. For more information on PHS or the flower show, visit www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org.