PhillyBlog - Philadelphia - View Single Post - End the obnoxious appropriation of sidewalks by developers!

lbphilly · #16 (**permalink**) 04-01-2008, 06:18 PM

Forwarded by the Design Advocacy Group. Apologies if this duplicates something in another thread. The deadline for sending photos of egregious sidewalk hogs is past, but it's possible that they make take some anyhow.

Quote:

Dear DAG Member
The Committee on Streets and Services of the Council of the City of
Philadelphia will hold a Public Hearing Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 1:00 PM,
in Room 400, City Hall, to hear testimony on the following item:

080088 Resolution authorizing the Committee on Streets and Services to hold
public hearings to investigate sidewalk closures during construction projects
and examine ways to improve pedestrian access to these sidewalks by requiring
protected walkways around construction sites.

DAG intends to testify or submit testimony on this important issue that has
been a focus for us.
We seek case studies from you -- particularly photographs of inappropriate
sidewalk and street closures. Alan Greenberger and I are providing
documentation of the following sites:

1. 21st and Market (Murano)
2. Architect's Building (17th and Sansom) 3. 18th and Sansom (Rittenhouse) 4.
5th and Market 5. 1352 South Street

Here is what you can do to help: Especially powerful are images of people
walking in the street because of the sidewalk closure, unclear signs, and
disruptions caused by loading or excessive contractor parking. Images that
show people at risk will be most telling. Would you please provide no more
than four photographs not to exceed about 400kb each and a short description
of the problem including the address and name of the project if known? We are
also looking for those irritating "spur of the moment" sidewalk blockages
that maintenance contractors seem to think they can do with no permits so
keep your cell phone cameras ready. Additionally we are looking for
situations where blockage occurs on opposite sides of a street within the
same block or nearby blocks. This would be very powerful in making our case.
Also if anyone is in New York or other cities in the next few days where
there are more obviously appropriate provisions for sidewalk continuity such
as heavy enclosed sidewalk protection structures, etc. -- having
documentation of this would be very helpful.

Please send emails with photos to info@claflenassociates.com -- subject line:
DAG Testimony. Try to send as soon as possible but not later than Monday
March 31, 2008 at 6:00pm We will assume that the photo should be credited to
the sender of the email unless advised otherwise.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely,

George L. Claflen, Jr.
Vice-chair for projects