Educating Rina

It's almost a parody of public participation.

by Bruce Schimmel

City Hall is charging forward with plans for street furniture, and it's surprising how little is known about what we'll be seeing, sitting in and tossing trash at for the next 20 years.

The unknowns: how much the redecorating will cost, whether the financing is viable, what hundreds of the new transit shelters, bike racks and trash bins will even look like.

What is certain is that all this new street furniture will be paid for by advertising on them. Little ads, big ads and very likely hundreds of e-billboards that blink a new scene every six seconds.

The city's targeting companies that build street furniture for cities, which will then sell the ads and (hopefully) kick back some cash. Spearheading the project is Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler, who declined to speculate about what the companies would offer.

"It'll be interesting to see what the dollars come back at," said Cutler. Though in a post-crash world, "it'll be nowhere near what it was several years ago."

On the question of what new furniture will look like, Cutler was pointedly agnostic. "Far be [it from] me to make that decision in advance of having the community involved."

Now, that may sound like the public will have a substantial say. But when you look into the details, Cutler's answer is, um, diplomatic.

Cutler's assignment isn't easy. She's under the gun from Michael Nutter to get the furniture on the street and revenue flowing as quickly as possible. So going too public could slow things down.

And here's where I disagree: This should be very public.

Last fall, when she announced that a request for proposal (RFP) would be issued, I wrote that the public and local designers are being wrongly cut out of the process ("Decorating in the Dark," Nov. 12, 2009). Several groups, including the Design Advocacy Group and Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), subsequently echoed my concerns, writing Cutler to ask for design excellence, "advertising restraint" and a "Philadelphia look."

Cutler declined to meet them personally, though some of their ideas did get into the final RFP. Originally slated for December, the RFP came out in late March. The delay seems only to have tightened the timeline, further limiting public participation. Vendors must come up with cash-flow projections and designs for transit shelters, bike racks and trash bins by early May.

Yes, in about a month. Sure, big transit/ad giants like Titan, JCDecaux, Clear Channel, Cemusa and CBS Outdoor are in the business of designing city furniture. But it's doubtful they can do anything really good that fast. Yet when asked if the public could get a peek at the top five entries before a final decision, Cutler decided to limit public comment to after a winner is selected.

That ain't right. Philly's good at charrettes — from the South Street Bridge to picking the winner of the President's House. This after-the-fact comment is almost a parody of public participation.

Undaunted, however, Drexel University is inviting the general public for a charrette to help design the transit shelters. Drexel's Department of Architecture + Interiors' third annual design charrette (April 9-12, drexel.edu/charrette) is dedicated to Urban Connection, complete with an April 9, 6 p.m. panel on Urban Transportation and Street Furniture in Philadelphia.

Cutler told me she won't be there. And that's a shame. Because Cutler is an approachable, likable and educable public servant. But she needs to get out a bit more about this. She should at least see and hear first-hand what the public wants before making decisions we'll have to live with for decades.

(bruce@schimmel.com)