Reshaping The City

Wed., July 29, 5 p.m. reception, $15-$20; 6:30-8 p.m. panel discussion, free; Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-299-1000, ansp.org, americancity.org.

by Holly Otterbein

[ think tank ]

When I ask Harris Steinberg, executive director of PennPraxis, if Philly will be the greenest American city by 2015, he laughs.

"2015?" he asks. "I don't know about that. But it's a goal worth striving for — it will push us in the right directions, and it will put pressure on important things like improving our transportation systems."

Steinberg's especially interested in that last bit. He, along with urban thinkers from around the country and world, will meet next week at PennPraxis' headquarters to discuss creating a rail line around Philly. Following the three-day event, they'll discuss with the public how other cities have revamped their transportation systems successfully. "There are things that Europe, Asia and places in the U.S. are doing that we can parrot. Like the New York ARC Project that broke ground recently — it's a new tunnel underneath the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, and it required a lot of collaboration between states," says Steinberg. "Even if we can't mimic that, we can at least learn how they galvanized the political will to allocate resources to it. That's often the hardest part."

Wed., July 29, 5 p.m. reception, $15-$20; 6:30-8 p.m. panel discussion, free; Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, 215-299-1000, ansp.org, americancity.org.