Quote:
Originally Posted by jsbrook
I don't want to start a battle over this issue, and we're pretty off-topic anyway. But I'm not sure why you think Blumenfeld and Procida's Divine Lorraine project was not planned well before these "lightpost" plans were finalized (and perhaps before they were envisioned). Eric has long talked about revitalizing North Broad. He first took steps some time ago -- around 2006 -- when renovating 640 N. Broad, the building that holds Vetri. And he had bought the Divine Lorraine by 2012. I have not heard any other developers praise the lightposts as a draw for them.
South Broad was once similarly disinvested, and it was transformed because Avenue of the Arts organization spent money on new sidewalks, brick crosswalks, planters, and much cheaper pedestrian-scale streetlights. The sidewalks on parts of North Broad have been reduced to gravel. Trash and abandoned cars pile up in vacant lots. The light posts were designed to be "art." Even if someone (inexplicably to me) thinks they look good, that money could have been spent on much more practical initiatives that would have done much more to make the streetscape cleaner, better lit, and nearer to reasonably attractive.
I'm also not sure how this was a transportation project. It was managed by Philadelphia's Department of Commerce and Streets in conjunction with Avenue of the Arts North and also involved (poorly executed and funded) landscaping and greening.
I'll move on from this now...
|
the funding was mostly state and federal. The city rarely provides the bulk of the funding for these types of projects and 611 is a state road so PennDOT is the lead agency for improvements. If I'm not mistaken, PennDot actually bid the project. As I said, regardless of what anyone thinks you can't just redirect capital transportation/streetscape funds to remove abandoned cars or graffiti- doesn't work like that. So at the end of the day there would be a project like this or no project at all- it's not about choosing between this and launching a street cleaning service for Broad Street. Lots of areas of Philly could use street cleaning, nothing special about North Broad in that regard. It's a separate issue that has no bearing on whether or not the lights were installed.