For those diehard Greenadelphia fans who’ve noticed a lack of posts recently… worry not. It’s the holidays and such. We’ll be back and roaring in the new year.
So the Green Plan phase one is complete!
There has been little media coverage of the Green Plan, and zero reports of the recent community input phase of the project, so I thought I’d try and grab a couple of report backs and post them hear. You know, for the children.
Actually this is for posterity and google searches where folks want to know what happened at these meetings (which were held in different neighborhoods to get direct feedback about green space and planning needs).
Read the report backs after the break!
I attended the Center City meeting b/c that is my hood. I thought they did a pretty decent job of facilitating a discussion of green space in Center City and have to give kudos for the public input element of the process.
Here is what some other folks have to say:
Last evening I attended the South Philly GreenPlan meeting and volunteered as one of two Vietnamese language interpreters.
The outreach for these meetings has been extensive, though none had been consciously focused on the Vietnamese in South Philly. After speaking with Kate Lapszynski, (Fairmount Park Commission) and Maitreyi Roy (Pennsylvania Horticultural Society), I felt very supported in my outreach efforts to get Vietnamese to the meeting (1 community leader attended). Perhaps people on this listserve know of other communities that are not at the table?
Of important note: follow up “kits” will soon be available for organizers who want to conduct smaller versions of this GreenPlan meeting in their communities. I plan to conduct at least one of these smaller meetings for more Vietnamese leaders and felt encouraged by the response of the GreenPlan staff.
Finally, I wholeheartedly agree with Kathy’s feeling (email below) that we need to get city folk at the table to hear and share their input on this important plan—especially those who are typically underrepresented. For more information about the “kits,” contact Maitreyi Roy:
Maitreyi Roy
Director, Philadelphia Green Program
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
100 North 20th Street 5th Floor
Philadelphia PA 19103
mroy@pennhort.org-Khiet
Khiet Luong
Watershed/EAC Programs Associate————
Jerry Silberman
I attended the meeting for South Philadelphia, tonight, Kathy’s description is accurate of the events, which have the same format. NTI provides facilitators for neighborhood discussions, which then had brief feedback to the whole group. Some common themes emerged that I suspect will be common for the entire city.
Jerry
Kathy Detwiler wrote:
Hi! Yes, we went to the meeting at the New Covenant Campus; about 60 people joined us.
We sat in groups by neighborhood or by choice of city-wide interest. Our group was the East Falls/ Lower Mount Airy/Bluebell Hill group (there were three others; Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, and the City-wide); there were three of us in our group. We saw a video, listened to Eva and Bob discuss the 15-year plan to create open space via NTI, PHS and others, then got down to the business of articulating the problems of the parks in our areas.
We brainstormed for a short while, then developed suggestions for how to fix our problems, then spent a few minutes dreaming big dreams for Philadelphia. It was very invigorating to have a voice on a subject for which I have a passionate concern, I met some very committed and interesting people from PHS who inspired me to continue with my dreams to form a collective for urban farming.
Pass the word; everyone is welcome at every meeting; our voices are being heard; we can create our future!!!
Kathy Detwiler
