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zparks t1_jbyy587 wrote

Reply to comment by PassyunkHoagie in Phila Parks & Rec installing “barriers” along Kelly Drive right now 👏🏼 by PettyAndretti

Understanding the shoe string budget that PP&R deals with (especially when it comes to funding non rec center parks, ie most of East and West Fairmount), consider being grateful.

Even moreso, be grateful for whoever at PP&R was creative enough to shoe string this literal shoe string semi-solution together.

Please do not put concrete barriers with advertising on the drive. For real?

Are people going to drive their cars through these chains?*

Finally, back to the budget… It cannot be understated the degree to which Philly is a city fighting endemic poverty, and the PP&R budget is almost 99% focused on rec center programs that feed kids and attempt to keep kids off streets and doing well in school and in life. It is not funded well enough to make a priority of Azalea Garden strolls and Kelly Drive exercise.

Seems to me this is exactly how we should want the city to prioritize spending.

That said, maybe Streets Dept is responsible for the barriers. I know less about the mechanics here.

Anyways, I don’t know how to solve the larger issues, and there’s certainly plenty of wasted money and stupidity in city government.

But this is not an example of that.

*Edit: I can tell people think, yes, people will drive though the chains. I’m not so sure. When lots of people park on the grass in that section, it’s not because they are all the type of people who would commit an obvious act of vandalism to park on grass that looks dubious to park on; it’s that a larger number of people probably will park dubiously if someone else has done it first. Will some asshole rip the chain down and park on the grass? Undoubtedly. Will mom, dad, and the kids follow suit when they realize they need to drive over a broken chain to do so…?

Edit 2: Permanent barriers are not the solution. That grass should be considered as an opportunity for festival and other use. This is a world class and historically important regatta course. Is it hypocritical to let boat trailers park on the grass? No! Hosting world class regattas is exactly the type of thing we should want Fairmount Park and Parks & Rec and Philadelphia to be known for. The grass can survive occasional mixed use. The grass can’t survive weekly parking. We can handle the nuance folks!

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douglas_in_philly t1_jbz7ixj wrote

I don’t disagree with you that poverty—of the generational variety—is endemic in Philadelphia, and I don’t disagree that the city should be spending money to try to address it, but at the same time, there are other things that benefit those of us who have chosen to live here and are not in poverty, ourselves, and we do deserve to “have nice things,” too, so to speak.

I’m only pointing out that—in my opinion—it’s not necessarily a zero sum game, so to speak. The city can prioritize funding programs to help the cities poor, but can also try to make intelligent decisions to preserve the things that attract people who aren’t poor to live here. It’s our tax money, in large part, that is helping to pay for these programs for the poor. If there aren’t good things for the non-poor, we won’t live here, and there goes a lot of the money.

I’m not sure how much money we spent for these new barriers, and their installation, but I’m going to guess that it was a surprisingly sizable amount. But if they get destroyed within a month, I view it as a waste of money. I would prefer the city spend a little bit more- even if it means taking a chunk away from some rec center—to protect Fairmount Park.

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zparks t1_jbz8sqn wrote

I agree with you about “should.”

Lamentably, I’m giving you insight into how it actually is, or how it might be. I know it’s easy to blow me off as someone who thinks they know how it works, and, that’s partially true since admittedly I am not a PP&R budget expert, but that in itself not sufficient reason to blow me off entirely. I worked closely enough with PP&R to stand by what I said. For whatever it’s worth, my comment is an attempt to add some factual nuance to the conversation, not an attempt to muddy waters with more opinion.

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douglas_in_philly t1_jbzb9dh wrote

Gotcha. I’m no expert. Just stating my opinion. I appreciate you sharing yours, and your insight. 🙂

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PassyunkHoagie t1_jbzdpxz wrote

What I see here is an unimaginative band-aid solution.

If this was a privately funded volunteer effort, I would be extremely grateful that someone took their own time and money to resolve an issue. But, we’re talking about a taxpayer funded city department. It’s great that someone within that department felt that this problem should be resolved but that doesn’t mean the chosen resolution is beyond reproach.

As far as concrete barriers go, we already have some of those on Kelly Drive, most notably along the Grandstand stretch near the John B. Kelly statue. Adding additional barriers would obviously be more expensive than running some rope along the road but by offering universities, companies, and community organizations the opportunity to “sponsor” stretches of the barrier you can offset a good chunk of the cost while also combating the graffiti that easily accessible concrete invariably attracts. What that would look like is a bigger question but luckily we have a wonderful Mural Arts program in the city that can handle the creative portion of the process. I’m fairly certain a good chunk of the new murals being painted are in-part sponsored by corporations and individuals.

My point with all this isn’t to say that we need to browbeat city departments every time they try to do something. There are clearly a million issues to tackle and a limited budget to do so. But, that doesn’t mean we have to avoid voicing dissatisfaction when a solution comes up very short of the target. Looking at that rope “fence” I can’t help but feel that it’s an ineffective solve that will not serve as much of a deterrent and will:

At best, require very regular maintenance and repair

Or

At worst, be broken quickly and forgotten about.

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