Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Locust Street Connection

This is an outrage.
So a legally-mandated bridge crossing that has been in the works for three years and was designed with a lot of community involvement (I should know, I voted on the design myself) is being held up by a bunch of idiots who remained willfully ignorant. They are complaining that it will (a) destroy "mature shade trees" and (b) destroy their belovèd dog park.
I don't call trees planted in 1980 "mature shade trees". And, while the current dog park will be out of action for a little over a year, a decent alternative will be provided. Look at the site plan! And furthermore, after construction, the dog park will reopen bigger and better than ever. It's a win-win for everybody.
So shame on you, Fitler Square dog owners who couldn't be bothered to inform themselves for 156.5 weeks that their park would be temporarily modified for a legally-mandated bridge project. And especially shame on you, Damon Roberts, City Council also-ran, for demonstrating that you are incompetent for the job: it is a Councilman's job to know what public projects are happening in their district, and the fact you are filing suit demonstrates that you did not. You have lost my vote now and forevermore.
I can only hope that whichever judge this asinine case goes in front of laughs it out of court. This is a suit they cannot win. This will only cause a delay--and a delay means a wastage of public funds. Thank you for wasting our tax money, Damon Roberts. You truly do not deserve an elected position of any kind.

Tell the Friends of the Schuylkill River Park to call Damon Roberts out here.
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2 comments:

  1. Stephen SmithJune 30, 2011 at 12:29 AM

    My question is, why is it going to take over a year to landscape a park and install a prefab footbridge over train tracks? On a similar note, it seems ridiculous that such a project would necessitate three years of planning and 20 community meetings. Unless there's something more to it that I'm missing?

    - Stephen Smith, http://marketurbanism.com

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  2. Steve StofkaJune 30, 2011 at 9:39 AM

    The meetings were all held three years ago. I can only assume that the time difference was putting together funding.

    A project just across the river, an access project the University of Pennsylvania did right before a major reconstruction of the South Street Bridge, also took a fair amount of time to build, despite it also being a prefab bridge (over the NEC), and a park the University's putting in has also been in construction for about a year now.

    I can only guess that this says something about Philadelphia's notoriously inefficient labor market.

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