TIME TO PROTECT OUR RIVERFRONT

THE ACTION PLAN for the Central Delaware unveiled on June 26 by PennPraxis proposes visionary yet realistic steps for transforming the city's eastern waterfront.

Philadelphia Green, the urban revitalization program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, embraces the plan and will work in concert with its public and private partners to achieve the goal of reuniting the river and the city.

This water/land connection has historic roots for the Horticultural Society.

That organization was founded in 1827, in a

municipal climate that recognized the need to protect the water supplied by the Schuylkill from disease and pollution by acquiring and nurturing its surrounding green space, which would become Fairmount Park a few decades later.

Philadelphia is again in a period when the protection of its river, this time the Delaware, is vital to the city's environmental, social and economic future.

Since the 17th century, the Delaware was "the people's river," a source of commerce and leisure. But for many generations, residents have been denied access to the riverfront, first by the industry that occupied it, then by the blight left behind.

Now there is a possibility that much of the waterfront could be blocked by private development.

We have a brief moment in time to create a balanced waterfront, allowing for thoughtful design and development and quality open spaces that will improve the health of the river and enrich the lives of all residents.

Philadelphia Green seeks to work with key stakeholders and bring our expertise and experience with building partnerships, our technical skills in landscape design and urban horticulture and our understanding of maintenance and sustainability to support the realization of the Central Delaware vision.

As part of the Central Delaware Advisory Council, an early-action committee for open-space projects will be formed to reconnect residents and the river. Goals to be achieved over the next year include waterfront cleanups and the formation of stewardship groups, master plans for the two existing parks - Pulaski and Penn Treaty, the blazing of a bike path along a portion of the river, the greening of connector streets from neighborhoods to the riverbanks and programs such as boat tours of the Central Delaware and a shad fest in New Kensington.

Longer-term projects that Philadelphia Green will work to achieve include wetlands restoration, the revitalization of land on piers to the north and south and near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into open public landscapes and the creation of a grand 21st-century civic park at a prominent location along the waterfront.

NONE OF THESE plans preclude the Delaware's historic role as a working river with a vital port.

Other parts of the waterfront contain only the vestiges of its manufacturing past, however, and those sections can be re-naturalized much the way Germany and France took back their riverfronts from former industrial sites and gave them new roles in the rebirth of their cities.

To join the league of world-class cities, Philadelphia must support the Central Delaware vision.

Great urban landscapes include great riverfronts and parks, which in turn attract business investment and become travel destinations.

They also help keep students who attend our universities right here in a city that offers exciting recreation and a high quality of life.

The Horticultural Society strongly encourages the city, its government, City Council, developers and civic leaders to adopt the Action Plan for the Central Delaware. *

J. Blaine Bonham Jr. is executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Maitreyi Roy and Joan Reilly are senior directors of PHS' Philadelphia Green program.