radioboy.us

It’s 1972. Gas is 35 cents a gallon. The Penn Central is falling apart and is going to go bankrupt in just 4 short years. The Center City Commuter Tunnel is still 9 years from opening. Inner-city transit is something for poor people.

The Delaware waterfront, once one of the world’s major manufacturing hubs, now looks like something out of Fallout: Philadelphia.

When you consider this, it’s easy to see why 95 seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. Create an artery to bring people into the city and have it close to the gentrifying Society Hill.

It’s also easy to see why 95 in its current form doesn’t work in 2012. For the first time in almost a century, we want to be on the waterfront, because it’s not being choked by manufacturing smoke, factories, and warehouses.

And so, there are almost yearly cries. “Just demolish 95!” Ah, if only it were that easy, right?

The current timeline calls for a plan by 2020, to be built in 2040. It needs to last until at least 2090. And that’s difficult, since we just proved that we couldn’t even predict 2012 in 1980. The entire track record of building things in the area of Society Hill is pretty awful. 95. New Market. Society Hill Towers. Independence National Grass Lot Collection. The Mint. Most of the east Market office buildings. Endless brick and concrete plazas.

I don’t know what the solution for 95 is. I don’t think it’s demolition, because I’m fairly certain NIMBY’s in Society Hill wouldn’t be too excited to have industrial traffic bound for the ports on the local roads adjacent to their neighborhood. But, that’s about where my opinion on the matter ends.

But when I point out that 95 looked good at the time-when gas was cheap and transit was in shambles and the waterfront was a wasteland-I get accused of not wanting to better the city. Not true.

I want to see a great Delaware Waterfront. I also want to see one that isn’t choked off by growing demand for travel space by the people coming to see that great waterfront (“Use transit!” sounds great, but there will always be people who need or want to drive).

Most importantly, I want to see something get done. I’m not going to claim to know what that is, because there are people smarter than me who can see much more than I can. But I do know that any plan is going to be opposed and fought tooth and nail, because that’s the MO in Philadelphia. Whether that fighting comes from politicians, or NIMBYs, or developers, there will be fighting, and the whole thing could easily be tied up in red tape forever. And a 95 that never gets touched and is crumbling to the ground in 2070 will make things worse for everyone, and be even harder to improve.

I want to see a great Delaware Waterfront, I want to see the transportation needs of the city be met, I want to see something future-proof, and most of all, I want to see it actually happen.