Nutter administration calls for 'more park' on Ben Franklin Parkway

THE BEN FRANKLIN Parkway, already on a hot streak, will see even more updates by the time Mayor Nutter leaves office.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation on Monday will release a plan called "More Park, Less Way: An Action Plan to Increase Urban Vibrancy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway." An agency spokesman said Tuesday that the title is suggestive of what the public can expect to be unveiled.

"We heard from many in the community and specifically those neighborhoods that are adjacent to the Parkway," spokesman Patrick Morgan said. "They would like it to be more accessible, a little greener, and have more amenities and be more a part of the community itself."

Morgan said the time frame for implementing the plan is also much shorter than most strategies for shaping a landscape as well-known as the Parkway, which also has seen the Barnes Foundation museum and Sister Cities Park open in the past year.

"[It] is within the Nutter administration. What can we do in the next 3 1/2 years?" he said. "What are some quick actions, building on the work done by the public and private partnerships already?"

Four public hearings last July were the building blocks for the plan, developed with help from PennPraxis, the applied-research arm of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

- Brian X. McCrone