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News Stream: Shellfish Motives

Aug 29, 2011

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Elliptio complanta freshwater mussel (Photo: Partnership for the Delaware Estuary)

Bivalves are everywhere: Here's a roundup of some recent articles on the local oyster and mussel population:

A report on mussels in the Delaware River near Philadelphia from Grid magazine:

"There's a lot more mussel work to be done out in the Delaware. In 2010, the research team found a species previously thought to be locally extinct, the Tidewater Mucket. The last comprehensive survey for Delaware River mussels was performed in 1919, and, as Thomas pointed out, the recent surveys have only looked in relatively shallow water. There's no telling what mussel beds sit in the channel."

One article on oyster reef restoration efforts in the Delaware Bay from the News of Cumberland County:

"This year, the task force is trying to promote awareness about oyster restoration after raising $200,000, said Jennifer Adkins, executive director of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. According to Adkins, oysters in the Delaware Bay have been hit hard with diseases and are being affected.

'Ultimately, our goals for oyster restoration are to get the oyster populations back to their historic levels. We’d love to see where the populations are high again and be more self-sustaining,' she said."

And a second article on oysters from CommunityPub.com:

"Sea captains employed by the Delaware Bay Oyster Restoration Task Force are currently wrapping up efforts to replenish oyster reefs off Delaware and New Jersey. According to past experience, these efforts will boost the economies of local bayshore communities by approximately $5 million over the coming years. In addition, oyster restoration also results in cleaner water and better fish habitat."

Save the Date: September 10 Is Coast Day

Aug 26, 2011

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Photo: Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

~~Hurricane Irene~~ Coast Day is coming! Come on out to Philadelphia's waterfronts on Saturday, September 10 for 2011 Pennsylvania Coast Day, a series of events on the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Paddle Penn's Landing in a kayak or swan boat, take a tour of the tall ship Kalmar Nyckel, watch dragon boat races and enjoy the interactive displays and children's activities near the RiverLink Ferry Terminal at Penn's Landing from 11:00-4:00. You can also take a free shuttle to the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center and get a discounted admission to the Independence Seaport Museum.

Not that we're the cruise director of Coast Day or anything, but we would suggest a September 10 itinerary of a morning at the Philly Fun Fishing Fest on the Schuylkill before hitting the Delaware for Coast Day events and activities.

This Place Is BMPing: PA DEP Southeast Regional Office

Aug 25, 2011

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Each week, we profile a BMP—short for Best Management Practices—to demonstrate how local businesses, organizations and neighbors are helping to keep our streams and rivers clean by managing stormwater on their property.

Photo: PA DEP

It's not unexpected that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection would have a BMP or two at its regional headquarters—it's kind of like seeing a garage next to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s house, or pink flamingos on John Waters' lawn. That's just what they do. But the stormwater management at PA DEP's office in Norristown (upstream from Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River) is a little bit unusual. Sure, part of the building features a fairly typical green roof (688 square feet, and accessible to employees on the second floor), but it also sports a 5,000-gallon cistern that resembles a tiki hut. The indoor cistern stores runoff from the impervious portion of the roof; the water is filtered and used to flush toilets and water indoor plants. When the cistern approaches its storage capacity during heavy rainfall, water is diverted from the tank.

Learn more about this stormwater BMP project, find it on a map and view
photos at the Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative project page.

2011: An Open Space Odyssey

Aug 24, 2011

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Image: University City District

It's time to play Name That Public Space: The stretch of Market Street between 30th Street Station and the former Post Office building is about to be transformed from a parking lane into a 40-foot-wide sidewalk by Labor Day. Future phases of the project include tree planting, food kiosks, and tables and chairs with umbrellas (see rendering above). While this all sounds great, the University City District is trying to figure out what to call the new site. Go here to learn more about the project and submit your suggestion to UCD by September 30; the winner gets bragging rights and a $500 Amtrak gift certificate.

And while we're on the topic of open public spaces, PlanPhilly has an article about the pedestrian plazas we mentioned last week in the MOTU post:

"Essentially, Stober said, the city is looking for community groups to come up with a plan to put down some sort of barrier—like boulders—between pedestrians and traffic, as well as things like planters to enliven the space. Applicants will also have to provide for maintenance of their plazas, as well as general liability insurance—so they'll need to be incorporated to bid for a slot.

In return, the city will paint the plazas green to distinguish them for the surrounding street and will also tap into $400,000 in Streets and Commerce department operating funds that have been made budgeted for the project. Money can be used to buy maintenance equipment or furniture and other amenities."

2011 Philly Fun Fishing Fest: The Video

Aug 23, 2011

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Click here for more info on the fishing fest. Be sure to register before September 6.

Toronto's Water Treatment Park

Aug 23, 2011

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News Stream

Image: WATERFRONToronto

Think you know what a water treatment plant looks like? Sherbourne Common, a nearly completed treatment plant on Toronto's waterfront, is housed beneath a public park featuring dramatic concrete and light sculptures, an ice-skating rink, water channels and nearly 200 new trees. A blog post from the Dirt puts it best:

"In a marvel of thoughtful design and engineering, the new 3.6-acre, $30 million park commissioned by Waterfront Toronto and designed by a team led by landscape architecture firm Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg uses ultraviolet light to clean polluted water coming in from Lake Ontario. Given not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) obstacles in cities are only expected to persist in the near term, these types of hybrid park-infrastructure projects make great sense, particularly given few communities can afford to build expensive, single-use 'dumb' infrastructure. Many communities may jump at the chance for a beautiful park that does so much more. IMBY please?"

Check out an extensive image gallery of renderings and actual photos of Sherbourne Common; a picture of one of the sites' water channels and bioinfiltration beds after the jump.

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The Big News: Venice Island

Aug 18, 2011

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Rendering of completed Venice Island project

Beginning next week, Manayunk's Venice Island—a strip of land situated between the Manayunk Canal and the Schuylkill River—will undergo a $46 million makeover that includes the construction of an underground storage basin, a new performing arts center, a children's play area and a new parking lot. This project is so big we've created our own blog category for it, as well as a web page with more details and updates as construction progresses. The underground basin will have the capacity to store four million gallons of water in an effort to protect and improve the health of the Schuylkill River. And, as reported in today's NewsWorks article, Venice Island's other new amenities will benefit the site as well:

"For decades, the Venice Island rec center was the site of community programs, summer swimming and nearly year-round athletics. A city photo from 1960 shows a tidy waterfront playground tucked between then-working railroad tracks and the Schuylkill, a lifetime away from the forbidding, overgrown place Venice Island became in recent years.

In its new incarnation, the hockey rink and 3,200 square-foot playground area at Venice Island will be replaced one-for-one. The pool is being scrapped in favor of a spray ground area, and the basketball courts will be enlarged slightly to make them NCAA-regulation sized.

The performing arts center will also serve as a home base for the Parks and Recreation Department's Young Performers Theater Camp, which currently operates out of rented space at the Annenberg Center, [PWD's Joanne] Dahme said.

'This is a tight little island, so we're trying to squeeze as much as we can on here,' she said."

Another rendering of the site after the jump.

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Hello, MOTU

Aug 17, 2011

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News Stream

40th Street Bridge, to be completed in December 2012

The Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities—otherwise known as MOTU—is now blogging; check out the blog here for the latest insight and information. On what, exactly, you ask? Simply put, MOTU was created by Mayor Nutter to coordinate the efforts of city agencies (Water Department, Streets Department, Parks and Recreation, etc.) and make sure plans are made and things get done, whether it's the maintenance of a bike lane, subway line or airport runway. The projects MOTU oversees run the gamut from LED traffic lights and recycling initiatives to the airport expansion and the construction of a new 40th Street Bridge (pictured above).

The latest news from MOTU is the Pedestrian Plaza Program, modeled after successful initiatives in New York and San Francisco, and the city is taking suggestions on where to place them:

"Pedestrian Plazas provide the public the chance to sit and enjoy the city’s vibrant street life. This program will make our streets safer for pedestrians and drivers alike by converting underutilized street segments into public space. Working with community organizations, the City will paint over underutilized street segments and allow the community to install benches, tables, chairs, bike parking and some limited landscaping, turning excess roadway into Pedestrian Plazas."

Be sure to check out the official MOTU site as well for more information on the department's projects and mission.