The initial idea was for the park to duplicate the simple staircases you have along Walnut Street - because the City is getting the grant through federal TEA21 funds, it has to be ADA accessible- no stairs, and slopes at no more than 4% grade. So, forget as ornate as paris, suddenly we're dealing with everything gold plated- thats why you have millions spent on 500 foot long ramps from market and chestnut with little to nothing left for landscaping.

There's a pre-existing section of Schuylkill River park south of Locust Street. The neighbors have been using the crossing for years and years.
Why build a $300,000 bridge when you can just put in a $30,000 set of crossing gates?

They're not going to take out the Fairmount Dam -
First it's on the world engineering register as the longest dam in the world when it was built,


Second, but more importantly you have a massive investment in competetitive crew and Boathouse Row- without the dam, the Schuylkill would no longer be navigible- it might be neat to see the waterfalls just below the Wissahickon,

Third, the water intakes for Belmont and Queen Lane depend on the impounded waters behind the dam for storage, and those two intakes supply about 1/3 of Philly's water. There are historic droughts when little or no water goes over the Fairmount Dam, but the main thing is that the lake behind the Fairmount Dam lets sediment drop out and give the water a chance to settle and clear.

Hal

Hal:
Thanks for the information. I hadn't realized the historic nature of the dam or that the impoundment was necessary for the crew area (I wrongly assumed the river levels would be high enough to allow for the regattas, etc.

Also, didn't know where the Belmont and Queen Lane water comes from. I ride past the Belmont Avenue reservoirs every day and hadn't realized that it was water pumped up from the Schuylkill.

Well, without the fairmount dam, you might still have a crew program on the lower schuylkill- but it would be harder because of dealing with tides,
dealing with the current, and dealing with boat traffic.

One big the problem is that the Schuylkill River is tidal and it's surprisingly large - 4- 6 feet - before the dam, the tide ebbed and flowed all the way up to the rocks East Falls, perhaps Wissahickon. Without the dam the boathouses would be high and dry-

There's some neat old sketches and soundings of the area when the locks were still in use and mule drawn canal boats full of coal were towed down the path that's now the West River Drive bicycle path.

http://www.racc.edu/Library/canal/Reaches/reach01.html

The area south of Fairmount isn't nice for rowing- the bulkheads on both sides really reflect any wake back and forth - you get really wierd waves out of nowhere - not a good thing for a varsity 8 with less than 4 inches of freeboard.



Well, sometimes I think it's better not to know about where the water comes from- there are so many sewer plants upstream from the Wissahickon, I've been told you can see the creek rise when the superbowl stops for the halftime show.

Hal

plus you've got to keep the sharks out! how about some of the other dams further up?

the only unforeseen benefit is that you can ride your bike down them.

By the city, do you mean the city government?

Actually, the current city government is pushing harder than many of us would like to see. They want to move ahead with one of two designs that IMHO or IMNSHO are attrocious and don't fit the guidelines developed by communities and the desgin community (along with the University of Pennsylvania and the Inquirer).

The sad part is that there is still no masterplan for the whole central riverfront area. Instead we just get projects plopped down as if they could exist alone. During the Simon discussions, I was struck by the fact that one developer would say that they did not have to consider the effects of other development in their planning - thus traffic studies for Delaware Avenue didn't take into effect the cumulative effect of Dockside, Simon, World Trade Center complex, etc. That's the problem with not having an area wide masterplan.

A number of the neighborhood organizations got Wallace Roberts Todd (the planners for Baltimore's Inner Harbor and San Antonio's RiverWalk) to do a basic plan for the area. The project was funded by Alliance for Better Neighborhoods. Unfortunately, after a little press on the day of the unveiling, it seems to have disappeared. I'd love to see details posted somewhere on the web but can find them.

Anyway, be glad that nothing is being built. Perhaps we can keep the Great Plaza and the river park - with a few changes to upgrade it as a good urban experience.

Hey, came across one of the draft plans for the tidal schuylkill plan which
misplaces the Fairmount Dam -



Whatidentified as 'Fairmount dam' is actually the Girard Avenue Bridge -

The otherwise nice though out "Tidal Schuylkill River Master Plan" was done for the Schuylkill River Development Corp - however, it's not available online - there are some clips from the report online
that are tempemental about loading

http://www.asla.org/awards/2003/imag..._schuykill.jpg

But you probably have to stop down at Bartram's Garden and ask around, or call the SRDC office to get a copy-

the back of the brocure list the office as Schuylkill River Development Corporation, 215-985-9393

Hal

Well, I'm not sure who the genius is, but they also labeled the University Avenue bridge incorrectly. The Paul Cret designed bridge is the next one upstream followed by I-76. They accidentally circled the Gray's Ferry Bridge (where the eponymous ferry operated back in the day).

A Ferris Wheel? I'm down for that bad boy!

My idea to help Philadelphia, won't happen in a million years but here goes. The third world-like section of Philadelphia which borders Penn + Drexel known as Mantua gets completely leveled. Penn + Drexel get the demilitarized zone they desperately need, now heres the big picture; Temple, Lasalle,St.Joseph's , Philadalphia Univ, and Philadelphia Comm College all re-locate their campuses in this area joining U. Penn , Univ Of The Sciences, and Drexel.

You would now be talking about a true University City not seen anywhere else on this planet. You kill two birds with one stone. A ghetto along with all it's drugs, crime + low tax base vanishes. What takes it's place is a new, young,vibrant intellectual community for the ages. It would be a plan that would take decades to accomplish but would be well worth it for the future of the city.

Sorry but the people who turned Mantua into a hell hole are told to look for a new city to live in, tough break.

Instead of St.Joes expanding and buying out Episcopal academy's campus, let Episcopal bypass their plans tp build a 100 Million campus in Newtown Square and instead buy out St.Joe's campus, therefore letting St.Joes escape from no mans land at 54th + cardinal and into the heart of the city. Same with temple + lasalle, convert their campuses into high tech high schools and start investing in a newer, bigger University City. A section of the city that would put Philadelphia on the world map.

mantua? it's always been a crappy neighborhood.
and you could probably barely fit one of temple's big buildings in the neighborhood, let alone the entire university plus a few more.