The City of Philadelphia is bringing some big improvements to North American Street with the help of a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, better known as a TIGER grant.

To get input from residents in neighborhoods along American Street, we’re holding two open houses as a follow up to the two events held in July. We’ll be providing more information about this $15 million project, which targets the two-mile stretch of American Street between Girard Avenue and Indiana Avenue.

The next open house events will be held in mid-November:

Tuesday, November 15:

Front & Palmer
1750 N. Front St., from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Thursday, November 17:

Pan American Academy Charter School (Cafeteria)

2830 N. American St., from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Light refreshments will be provided, and we will have team members there who can answer any questions for Spanish speakers.
In addition to Philadelphia Water, the Streets Department and the Commerce Department will be working on proposed improvements that include:

• Removing the unused trolley tracks and installing landscaped green infrastructure that will manage water from storms and protect local waterways

• Additional landscaping and street amenities, such as trash receptacles and lighting

• Wider, accessible sidewalks

• Access to business properties

• Improved traffic flow for all users

• Shorter crossing distances for pedestrians

• New bicycle lanes
Construction on this work is expected to begin in January 2018.

We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming open house events!

Please share this post or the flyer below with your neighbors:

The map above shows the current plans proposed for the Lawncrest area (click for larger image). Click here to see a detail of the green tools proposed for the Lawncrest Recreation Center. Credit: Philadelphia Water.

Nearly 100 Northeast residents came out to a community meeting last week to get updates on what will likely be one of the biggest combined Green City, Clean Waters projects planned since the program began in 2011.

Held with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the Lawncrest Recreation Center Advisory Council and the Tookany-Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, the March 7 meeting was organized by Philadelphia Water and focused on green stormwater improvements being designed for Lawncrest Rec and the surrounding area.

With over 80 green stormwater tools spread across the rec center and local streets, the proposed improvements will provide new landscaping and green space while vastly enhancing the area’s ability to manage the rain that falls on local roofs, streets and other hard surfaces during storms.

While this complex series of projects is still taking shape, the current designs would allow those green tools to manage about 978,000 gallons of water every time we get an inch of precipitation. In Philly, that kind of storm happens about 65 times per year—meaning the Lawncrest Green City, Clean Waters projects could keep as much as 63.5 million gallons of stormwater out of our sewers and streams annually when completed.

That’s like attaching 50-gallon rain barrels to the downspouts of 1.3 million homes. (!!!)

Yorktown, a small residential neighborhood in North Philadelphia just south of Temple University (and once home to Gospel and Rock and Roll legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe!) will soon have one mile of bike lanes, two bus shelters, wider pedestrian islands, new ADA ramps and over 25 specially designed stormwater planters that will manage rainfall from the surrounding street. These upgrades are part of a project called Yorktown Green and Complete Streets, which emerged out of the planning process for Yorktown 2015, a five year action plan led by the Yorktown CDC.

PWD heard through this extensive planning process (over 260 residents participated!) that residents were particularly concerned with the maintenance of their unique, historic public spaces—a series of urban courtyard’s and cul-de-sac’s—and wanted to make them greener. Looking to invest in projects that not only manage stormwater but also improve the quality of life, PWD developed a project that would repair ADA ramps and install stormwater planters along 13th and 12th Streets. When the project proved too expensive to build, PWD began looking for grant opportunities to make the project more affordable.

In 2014, PWD expanded the project, committing to installing both bus shelters and extending bike lanes, and applied to both the Pennsylvania Departments of Transportation and of Community and Economic Development for funding from the Multimodal Trust Fund. Yorktown Green and Complete Streets was one of 86 winners awarded money from the $84 million dollar fund and received over $800,000 for the project.

With the additional funding, the Yorktown Green and Complete Streets project is slated to break ground sometime in summer/fall 2015. To learn more, check out Flying Kite’s recent article about the project.

And check out Sister Rosetta Tharpe! Sometimes called the “Godmother of Rock and Roll,” she sang gospel music accompanied by an electric guitar and influenced artists such as Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley. An historical marker notes her Yorktown residence at 11th and Master streets. 

We thought her song "Didn't It Rain" was most fitting for story!  

This rendering shows what private investment might do to help manage stormwater. Image: WRT.

Earlier this month, NatLab published Creating Clean Water Cash Flows, an in-depth report chock full of ideas for financing green infrastructure that features the Philadelphia Water Department.  As more and more cities invest in green stormwater infrastructure, financing these investments is fast becoming a hot topic. In a previous blog post, we discussed a spike in interest in private funding for new green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) tools. Now the 87 page report provides an in-depth analysis of ways to engage the private sector in green infrastructure investments.

The NatLab consortium including the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy and the investment firm EKO Asset Management Partners, collaborated with the Philadelphia Water Department on the report given the city’s status as a national leader in implementing green stormwater infrastructure. Although the recommendations focus on Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters plan, the information will be useful for cities across the country.

Engaging the private sector is critical for the successful implementation of Green City, Clean Waters. According to our Water Commissioner, Howard Neukrug, “Leveraging public-private partnerships can help transform and green our City water systems in a brilliantly cost-effective way.” Read the NatLab report to learn more about the innovative ideas Philadelphia is piloting to finance these investments.

NextCity also covered the report here.