Forwarded from an email to Design Advocacy Group members:


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 (Design Advocacy Group) 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 i...@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
--
Christopher Jurek
Webmaster
Design Advocacy Groupwww.designadvocacy.org
dagwebmas...@gmail.com

Doesn't construction in tall buildings require some kind of sidewalk closure? Isn't it better to err on the side of pedestrian safety? Or is the argument that the contractors are taking up too much space?

but but NYC did it so we HAVE to do it too..

Who cares about safety.

Look at NYC!

They are so safe!

Nothing every falls over and smashes apartment buildings and kills people up there.

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Regarding the Murano, I have to say that the continued closure down to one lane (not just the sidewalk but half of 21st Street) seems at this point unjustifiable. The major construction is done and they have a parking garage to stow their pickup trucks in.

So free 21st Street!

Unless you have a fear of the Murano toppling over or the glass panels popping off, all the exterior work on the Murano is done.

21st Street should have been reopened by now.


And the Architect's building is complete stupidity. That could have been erected to keep the sidewalk open. Now the pedestrians ignore the "TURN BACK AND GO BACK TO CHESTNUT" sign and they just cut in front of the cars on 17th... which I bet the drivers in their CARS just love.


Wouldn't you love to be stuck in your car next to 17th and Sansom?

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Buh-bye.

What? No Board Street Between Arch and Race? Oh that right, no one walks there...

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If you can't take the Politics forum...Don't spam the other forums with your political threads.

How about the west side of 13th between Walnut and Sansom. Not only is the sidewalk closed, but they have a huge dumpster in the street taking up more than a lane of parking. Its a tight squeeze for two lanes of cars to get by....assuming no Peds are walking around.

we need to ban all construction! this is unacceptable!

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

Um, no. You just need to put up scaffolding that allows pedestrians to safely use the sidewalk underneath. Clearly, there are times, that for safety, sidewalks are closed so that material isn't falling on people....but some of these sites close the sidewalk for extended periods of time even after major work is done and they have moved to the interior of the building. This is when it is a problem, as people refuse to cross and use the other side and insist on walking into the street.

I never feel safe walking under scaffolding. Like the scaffolding around the Masonic Temple...Just all kinds of scary...

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If you can't take the Politics forum...Don't spam the other forums with your political threads.