“Planned improvements include landscape and pathway updates, new children’s playground equipment, the addition of adult fitness equipment and restoration of the park’s monuments and statues.” | Photo: Brad Larrison, for NewsWorks
- NewsWorks provides details of the $1 million in improvements planned for Germantown’s Vernon Park. Four month’s from now the Friends of Vernon Park says the public space will have better landscaping and pathways, more lighting, restored statutes, as well as various fitness opportunities for adults and children alike.
- For architecture critic Inga Saffron, Darrell Clarke’s vision for the formal consolidation of the city government’s planning, housing, and development machinery into one cabinet-level department is a solution in search of a dilemma. Responses to the proposed restructuring have been tepid, even among supporters of the Council president’s usual style of development politics. This “half-baked mishmash of proposals,” says The Inquirer columnist, ignores what ought to be our collective focus: the increase in funding to the Planning Commission and L&I.
- Naked Philly considers the state of residential development by Temple University, as student housing projects continually rise on formerly vacant parcels. The Stephen Klein Wellness Center at 21st & Cecil B Moore Avenue, a $17.8 million Project HOME facility that opened back in December, tells us something of how far market demand has radiated outwards from the center of the North Broad campus.
- Take a look at this interactive map of Greater Philadelphia’s poorly-maintained transportation infrastructure prepared by the global information system company Esri for the Philadelphia Business Journal. Pennsylvania’s rate of structurally deficient bridges (23%) is the nation’s highest.
About the author
Stephen Currall recently received his BA in history from Arcadia University. Before beginning doctoral studies, he is pursuing his interest in local history, specifically just how Philadelphians engage their vibrant past. Besides skimming through 18th century letters, Steve is also interested in music and travel.
