Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Better Philadelphia (and a "Better" South Jersey)





I did something very dumb. I entered a student design competition in addition to all of the other obligations I have. It was due the same time as most of my midterms. It was rough.


It was also too interesting to resist. The 2015 Better Philadelphia Design Challenge – in honor of the city's great planner of the 20th century, Ed Bacon – asked students to consider how the Philadelphia and (optionally) Camden Waterfronts could be redeveloped alongside Petty Island, which is a beautiful piece of land in the Delaware River between the two cities. As with any competition, time was extremely limited and just a day after submitting, there are numerous tiny thing I would like to change. Due to constrained space, I had to scrap including some more ideas I had about housing and a neat idea about providing space for people in need of temporary shelter (e.g. domestic violence victims, other individuals involved with social work, etc.). All that being said, I'm proud of it, and my group mates and I should be pleased with how well it came out. 


UPDATE: I realize I probably should not post the project until judging is completed. I will put it back up in December. I remember that we are supposed to remain anonymous to the judges, and if for some reason any happened to read this, we might be DQ'd. If you'd like to view it (and you're not one of the judges :p) please message me!



UPDATE 2 (March 13, 2015): Not a winner. I probably focused too much on Camden, when they explicitly said "Camden should not be a major part of your presentation  – I just love that place too much! Anyway, please go ahead and check out my team's final poster below.  



Note: To view the text and smaller graphics, it's probably best to download the file and then zoom in as needed. The project had to be 80" x 40"!


Higher quality download available here: http://imgur.com/PsCcSuo


Highlights:

  • Daylighting (digging up and making into an active waterway) the currently paved over Aramingo Canal (formerly Gunner's Run) in the Kensington/Port Richmond neighborhoods of Philly. This would be a beautiful public space, a driver of economic investment, and a bulwark against future water level rises.
  • A pedestrian/cycling bridge between Petty Island and Philadelphia, thus connecting Camden to Philly. It would also be able to open by swivel to allow for shipping channel access (although almost all shipping ends south of Petty Island). Smaller boats can pass by on the east of the island, without needing the bridge to open. Increased ferry service between interesting points on the Camden and Philly waterfronts will also be added to improve connectivity.
  • ResIndustrial Development.  One idea that PhiliAdelphés shares with great planners like Bacon and Jane Jacobs is that industry need not be a boogeyman – we believe residential and light industry can cohabitate with proper design. Imagine a bar where guests watch the  Conrail shipments move in and out, or mid-rise lofts where workers need only take an elevator and a few steps to get to work. 
  • In Camden, ResIndustrial uses will be dedicated to attracting late-night industries and shops, including all-night cafes, publishing, shipping logistics, bakeries and the like. This will ensure “eyes on the street” and informal security at all hours of the day. The signicant state aid programs in place in NJ could attract these businesses to the city.
  •  Interpretive Digital signage will be installed on the Philadelphia waterfront at quarter mile intervals. Signs will be equipped with altered reality technology. Signs are equipped with a camera that reads real world activity and translates it into historic footage of various eras, depicting the activity that took place on the waterfront and on Petty Island.
  • Install piezoelectric plates (which generate electrical energy by collecting kinetic energy) under I-95 as it undergoes repairs. In Philadelphia, just a 1 km stretch of piezoelectric plates in the project area under I-95 will provide daily power to over 1,200 homes.
  • All new and renewed developments in the project area will be tied into district-wide energy and grey & storm water management systems.  
  • Inspired by Leni Lenape longhouse architecture and the Petty Island designs of architect Louis Sullivan, the Museum for a Changing World is not only a monument to the past and a united future, but is also a time-based public art piece. The museum stairs, which borrow from the grandeur of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, run up to the riverfront and are labeled with a year and historic event in the region's history. As water levels rise and we watch events disappear, It will serve as a reminder that all things and people are in flux and interconnected.

  • As we expect the land area of Petty Island to shrink over time due to rising water levels, the rest of the island is devoted to transient uses like camping, hiking, and a farm demonstrating sustainable agricultural and urban gardening techniques.
 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Camden Past and Present

It's been a bit, but I've been pretty busy with grad school. For my urban redevelopment course work I have the opportunity to right about Camden fairly often. Here is my first paper, which I believe a pretty useful way of understanding the city's history. Because of length constraints (which I still went over) some things got glazed over, so feel free to contact me if you want me to elaborate on any points I make. Most definitely not a peer reviewed paper, so please any minor grammatical junk. Without further ado:


Camden City is a microcosm of the growth and decline patterns that characterized urban centers in the 21st century.  Though several cities in the region and the nation followed a similar pattern of decline, the historic, geographic, and economic circumstances of each community vary. This paper will explore the circumstances unique to Camden and analyze how they contributed to the city’s locational advantage, industrial boom, and subsequent struggles in population and housing in the last half of the century. This three-part historical framework will be used to understand the city’s spatial form. Together, spatial and historical analyses will inform a concluding discussion of Camden City’s opportunities and challenges in redevelopment.

Camden is a 10 square mile settlement situated on the shore of the Delaware River.  Two smaller bodies of water, the Cooper River and Newton Creek, segment Downtown Camden from its East Camden and Fairview neighborhoods, respectively.  Camden and its surrounding settlements have low elevation which rarely comes to a steep grade. This combination of factors allowed for easy transportation and trade by foot, horse, ferry, and (eventually, to the city’s advantage) train.

The city was also aided geographically by its location opposite the river of Philadelphia, which was established in 1682 and grew rapidly as a population and trade hub for the young United States. Although the settlements that would merge to become Camden City pre-date Philadelphia’s founding -- the Dutch West India Company’s Fort Nassau was completed in 1620 -- they were smaller family settlements by separated by stretches of forest. The first plats were not laid until just before the American Revolution, and even then the city was composed of three disconnected villages that did not begin to filter together until the city’s incorporation in 1828. In the city’s first census in 1840, the population was a mere 3,371. By the following census in 1850, Camden had been selected as the Seat of Camden County, the origin of the Camden & Amboy Line (one of the country’s first rail lines, and the first to connect the thriving Philadelphia and New York City Markets), and numerous manufacturing facilities. The city’s population grew by the greatest percentage in its history, nearly tripling to 9,479 residents. 

Shortly thereafter, the Camden and Atlantic Raildroad was completed and construction began on behalf of the Camden Horse Railroad Company (CHRC), which established the region’s first trolley line. The former was the first connection from Philadelphia to what would become the booming tourist destination of Atlantic City. Camden benefited from the increased ferry traffic from Philadelphia tourists (there was no bridge or tunnel to Philadelphia at that point) and in return helped to create the region’s tradition of “going down the shore.” The latter, the CHRC, electrified at the turn of the century, leading to enhanced coverage and speed on its lines.  

Camden’s rapid rise in transportation accessibility and its location on the Philadelphia-New York trade route attracted intensive business and industry in a very short period. According to the City’s own published history, Camden housed 80 manufacturers in 1860 and in just ten years this number had grown by more than 50% to 125. One of the companies established in that period was the Campbell Soup Company, the current Fortune 500 Company that invented condensed soup. Just after Campbell Soup made a major expansion in 1894, two other major companies were established in Camden. The first, the Victor Talking Machine Company (established in 1900) was a pioneer in audio recording technology. After its merger with the Radio Corporation of America, RCA Victor was the largest recording company in the United States for most of the twentieth century. Also established in 1900 was the New York Ship Building (NYSB) Corporation, which prospered during World Wars I & II. At its peak, NYSB was the most productive ship building entity in the United States and employed over 30,000 people. More than anything, industry -- and these three companies in particular -- defined Camden, NJ.  The city’s largest absolute gain in population, a growth of nearly 22,000 people, occurred from 1910 to 1920 as a result of rapid industrial expansion. This growth brought diversity to the city’s neighborhoods, which formed into ethnic enclaves of German, British, Irish, Italian, Polish, African American, Jewish, and later, Puerto Rican descent. The city’s diversity and entrepreneurial spirit further contributed to Camden’s culture, where the first fried panzarotti became a New Jersey delicacy and the first drive-in movie theatre thrilled American audiences. 

Ironically, the same forces that made Camden an economic powerhouse would also become largely responsible for its decline. After World War II, the NYSB’s importance waned; in 1967 it ceased operations entirely. Facing competition from other recording companies, RCA Victor also closed its Camden branch in the 1960s and, in search of lower prices and less oversight, moved operations to Juárez, Mexico in 1970. Upwardly mobile white working class families either had secured white collar positions or had been sold on the suburban dream. An increasing share of industrial jobs had become occupied by historically poor African American and Puerto Rican families who were then disproportionately affected by factory closures. Frustrations over job loss were compounded by the Civil Rights Movement’s focus on systemically racist policies like FHA redlining and the segregation of public facilities, which reinforced African American poverty. Racial tensions boiled over into race riots in 1971 and fires, looting, and an adversarial police-civilian relationship left Camden scarred. Even deeper poverty resulted and left the city’s population susceptible to drug epidemics and corresponding cartel violence. Population has declined gradually each decade from its 1950 peak at 124,555 to its current 77,344. Greater than a third of residents live below poverty level. In the past five years, Camden has repeatedly been declared both the nation’s most violent, and the most impoverished, city. The situation could not have deteriorated much further.

Camden’s three-part history as transit hub, industrial boom town, and symbol of urban decay, have shaped the city’s urban form. The region’s first plats were developed as detached single family households more reminiscent of suburban manors. These homes were sited relatively close to churches and early post-colonial industries including mills and tanneries. As the first post office and railroads entered the city, development intensified slightly and a downtown began to form in the classic pattern of row homes with the occasional first floor business below. The streetcar diffused the city, creating long mixed-use commercial corridors surrounded on either side by single- and multi-family row home developments. Massive industries entering downtown Camden filled in the waterfront (leaving little public access) and created a need to build up rather than out, as law offices, financial institutions, and new firms demanded space near existing industry. Industrialization was so profound that it necessitated constructing entirely new parts of the city. Land was acquired from Haddon Township and in 1918 construction began on Yorkship Village, the nation’s first government-planned community. Now known as Fairview, Yorkship Village’s design was based on the Garden City model cities popularized in England earlier in the century. As a result, Fairview is an enclave of single-family detached homes in a sea of two- to three-story row homes and mixed-use corridors. After World War I there was little need to develop additional housing and almost all of Camden’s 22,906 buildings were constructed by the end of World War II. The average age of housing is well over 75 years and the city now faces gradual deterioration; approximately 15% of the city’s buildings are already abandoned.

Despite the city’s desperate state, comprehensive attempts at redevelopment were virtually absent until the turn of the 21st century. The 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia was the impetus Governor Christine Todd Whitman needed to clear Admiral Wilson Boulevard of undesirable land uses that included strip clubs, liquor stores, and dilapidated hotels. Inspired by the success of the Baltimore Harbor, initial redevelopment focused on large-scale waterfront projects. In just ten years, the waterfront had added its four largest attraction: the Blockbuster-Sony Music Entertainment Center (now the Susquehanna Bank Center), Campbell’s Baseball Field, the New Jersey State Aquarium (now the Adventure Aquairum), and the U.S.S. New Jersey. Waterfront redevelopment has not galvanized investment as quickly as investors hoped and the strategy has been criticized for focusing too heavily on mega-projects and not enough on reinvesting in the city’s residents. 

Future investment must first focus on solving residents’ immediate safety and housing concerns. Data suggest that a new, larger police force may be lowering violent crime and reducing drug cartel activity. However, it is too early to tell whether this trend, if accurate, will continue. Housing restoration is another critical concern to be addressed. The redevelopment of RCA’s Nipper Building into the Victor Apartments has been a success story, and similar, historically sensitive, affordable redevelopment must be prioritized. The best property redevelopment will also be transit-oriented. Camden remains a regional transit hub despite its struggles, and development should be bolstered by the River Line, which acts as a street car when in the city, and PATCO, which is one of only six rail lines nationwide that runs 24 hours a day. 

In  order for any of this redevelopment to truly benefit current residents, the city must focus on employment and restructuring its economic base. This decade has seen the emergence of an “Eds and Meds” strategy of economic development based on the Cooper and Lourdes health systems and engagement with Rutgers-Camden and Rowan Universities. This strategy has proven successful in cities like Pittsburgh and Baltimore, but academics have voiced concerns that these industries, too, are at the end of their growth cycle. In order to diversify its economy and avoid its mid-twentieth century blunders the city and its redevelopment corporations will have to use the state’s new economic development incentives to their fullest potential. Camden must constantly recall its history, so that it might not perpetuate the same mistakes as before, but instead inform the city’s next age of progress.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Gentrification: What's in a Word (in Camden)?

Though I advocate for responsible planning across the region, I enjoy writing about Camden the most. Frankly, it's because I like Camden more than any other place. My family has a couple hundred years of history in Camden and it's where I'm going to focus my career. My wife and I want to live there and we plan to buy a house there within the next few years. That's where our story begins.

About a month ago my wife and I were looking at houses we liked, fantasizing about fixing them up and adding -- you guessed it -- chicken coops and bee hives, when she asked a question capable of deflating any urbanist: "Aren't we basically just gentrifying the neighborhood by moving in?" That's a very good question.

For one, there's a sort of Sorites paradox going on. At what point do you call it gentrification when wealthier, whiter families start moving into an area and less wealthy families start moving out? One family? Twenty? Or should we measure it not demographically, but by increases in outside investment or increases in property values/taxes? These finance-based definitions are better, but still missing something. The best definition of gentrification I know is borrowed from professor Linda Bates at Portland State University: the difference between gentrification and revitalization is displacement.

Camden is definitely making an attempt at revitalization. The City is aggressively pursuing investment but in many cases, as noted in the LKB, the opportunities feel targeted at helping outsiders come in (think the Sixers deal or the recently announced graduate housing near the Cooper/Rowan Med School), rather than tackling the many challenges residents already face. I like/hate to think about how many small businesses could be started along Federal St or Haddon Ave with $82 million.* Regardless, its essentially good that the new Economic Development Act has reduced barriers to outside investment. The city faces serious infrastructural challenges, and it doesn't have the resources to address them alone. There is the opportunity for genuine revitalization.

So have these efforts led to displacement? No, not yet, anyway. Not even after twenty years of waterfront development. Assuming the announced projects do begin to increase property values, the city is still FAR from gentrifying. Demographically, Camden is 48% African American, 47% Hispanic or Latino, 3% White and about 1% Vietnamese (cool history there). From 2000 to 2010, the city experienced a net population loss of about 2,000. Those leaving were almost exclusively either White or Asian. Even if 25,000 White, upper-middle class folks moved into the city tomorrow, enough to restore the city to its population circa 1970, availability of land and vacant housing (16% vacancy, compared to 5% nationally) could absorb demand without physical displacement. I realize this is an unfair scenario because it's not an entire city, but neighborhoods like Cooper or the Waterfront, that gentrify. However, the point is illustrative of just how big a demographic shift would have to occur before pulling out the "g" word.

So, if you're like me and have the luxury of worrying about if living where you want to live is "ethical," fear not. You're not (yet) a part of gentrifying Camden.

Postscript thoughts:
It is precisely because gentrification isn't currently happening, that now is the perfect time to ensure that it will not happen. New economic development should focus on neighborhood revitalization throughout the city with opportunity for local groups to demand Community Benefits Agreements. Conditional rent controls should be put in place that allow tenants to adjust gradually to increased rates. We should offer protections to current home owners, bolster local home buyer programs, and offer Individual Development Accounts (governments funds that match earned income on the condition that savings are applied to buying a home, furthering personal education, starting a business, etc.). If I were a resident, I would feel much better about these big economic dev. projects knowing they won't eventually lead to booting me out of my house.

________

*For the curious, national average start up costs for small businesses are $30,000. That would result in a ludicrous 2,733 new businesses.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Move Forward or Stay in Place (part 2)


Or Move Forward?

 The coming Clayville Generating Station 1, in Vineland has been described as "integral to the future of the Vineland Municipal Utilities." But is it? Are any of these planned natural gas plants integral to our future? Government bodies pushing for natural gas facilities argue from the standpoint of energy security, but this is based on false assumptions that the energy we generate in NJ is the only energy we can use. Our utilities buy from a centralized grid and then distribute it to us. If my undergrad notes are correct, electricity attenuates to uselessness by the time it has traveled about 400 miles. That gives us a BIG area from which to draw electricity. In an excellent article covering the Oyster Creek and B.L. England plants, Braden Campbell of the Press of Atlantic City points out that only rarely (the worst parts of this winter's severe cold snap, for example) did BL England operate at full capacity. We don't need all that excess production for 95% of the year.

That being said, we will at some point need to add to our state's energy capacity. Since it probably won't be of the phased-out nuclear variety, we have a few choices. The clear sweetheart of the moment is Natural Gas. In the last post I mentioned a number of plants that are either in their final planning stages or already under construction. Yes. Natural gas is cheap. But that's because no one seems to be worrying about those pesky little externalities. Externalities like the disposal of the toxic chemical slurry that is fracking waste water. Currently the solution is to throw it into open air pits with a plastic barrier the only thing standing between waste and groundwater. Activists have passed local ordinances in a number of NJ towns banning fracking waste (full disclosure: I was part of a college group that proposed one of these ordinances) and even gotten fracking waste bans through both arms of the state legislature. Then Christie vetoed the bill. There's a bit of cognitive dissonance going on there.*

The rush to build these natural gas plants is even more puzzling given the advances our state is making in renewable energies. The U.S. Department of Energy began accepting the nation's first bids for offshore wind in February and the first three developers of NJ offshore wind were awarded a combined $47 million in early May. Along with a couple of sites in RI, VA, and OR, NJ is pioneering energy technology that with current technology could unlock more than 4,000 gigawatts of renewable energy nationally. In addition to our wind advantage, NJ is way ahead when it comes to solar. We are second only to the behemoth that is California in number of solar installations statewide. What's more, a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) suggests solar and wind prices will continue to plummet and that they will be cost competitive with natural gas by 2025. That's good news for a state that took the pains to invest in renewables early. The missing link in all of this is large-scale renewable energy storage, but the first commercial companies are making a go (and with plenty of money to be made, that field will be in a good state by 2025, for sure).

So again, I ask, why the rush to build natural gas plants? That missing capacity is not missed dearly. In just a few short years we'll be ready to truly move forward with our energy infrastructure, rather than burden South Jersey with gas plants that won't be cost competitive in two decades.

*Note about natural gas plants: Not all plants run on gas extracted through fracking. The BL England would have been one example, allegedly. Still, there's that silly GHG emission thing to worry about. Also, NJ, to my knowledge, does not have a good store of natural gas. The ban would prevent externalities from big gas states like PA from being dumped in New (probably South) Jersey.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Little Things

I want to take a moment to point out one of the little things I love about South Jersey. It's so little most of us have probably missed it. Right on the corner of Cuthbert and Park Boulevards near Cooper River Park is a piece of public art that is far more urbanist than the roads that surround it.




It inspires me every time I pass it and reinforces that Collingswood and the rest of the Haddon Ave municipalities are the type of development South Jersey should be working toward. Let's heed the words of Omar Bradley (a distinguished military man with little in terms of transportation experience -- who seemed to have sensed the lack of common sense in our patterns of development) and send South Jersey in the right direction!

Edit: Fixed some of my crummy spelling.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Move Forward, or Stay in Place? (Part I)

New Jersey is in the position to decide what sort of future it needs. We can move forward and fully embrace renewable energy, or we can stagnate (or continue to degrade, depending on your outlook) and embrace the Natural Gas craze.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station

More than half of New Jersey's electricity is derived from Nuclear power. Despite our relatively small land area, we generate the 10th most nuclear electricity of any state. NJ got this way because it adopted nuclear early. Very early. Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, the oldest nuclear power station in the country, was built in Ocean County in 1969. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues operating permits of 40 years with the option to renew an additional 20 years if the plant is up to snuff. Oyster Creek got a renewal, but will ultimately close by 2019 regardless. The other three units, all in Salem county, were commissioned in the mid 70's and fin
ished by the mid 80's. As in the case of Oyster Creek, even if they get the renewal, the plants may not go another twenty years. So over the course of the next ten years, there's a good chance we will see a dramatic shift in the way South Jersey, and therefore the state, produces energy.

There is a chance that we will add more nuclear. But its a slim chance. All of the operational nuclear facilities in our country were licensed by 1979. More than thirty years passed before, in February, The US Department of Energy announced it would help to finance two new nuclear reactors nationwide. Two. You can hardly call that a regeneration of the Nation's nuclear stock. So it's unlikely that South Jersey will see all, if any, of its plants replaced.


Let's Just Stay in Place...

The (Non-Gaseous) BL England Power Plant
If that's the case, we can either pursue renewable energies, or we can pursue fossil fuels. Many of our officials on both the municipal and state scales have made it clear where they stand. Earlier this year, South Jersey Industries, aided by strong pressure from the Christie administration, tried to force through a proposal that would have seen a 22 mile, 24 in. diameter pipeline run straight through the Pinelands (the anger I felt at this proposition was partially the impetus I needed to begin writing this blog). The plan would have seen the end of a coal-fired plant -- win -- only to see it converted into a natural gas facility -- loss. Fortunately, it failed, for reasons justified by Pinelands Commission Chair Mark Lobhauer described here. However, in case a loophole is found allowing reapplication through the Pinelands Commission, or a similar situation arises, Christie has replaced two gubenatorially-elected members, and Cumberland County another, with commissioners who will tow the line.

And lets not forget this isn't even the only natural gas facility proposed or under development. When the West Deptford energy station opens late this summer, it will add 700 MW of natural gas, and new plants in Newark and Woodbridge will do similar. Additionally, after some courtroom drama, C&H Industrial Services, Inc has been awarded the right to construct the Clayville generating station (powered by, you guessed it, natural gas). Why the rush to build these facilities?

Phew. I write a lot. I'll continue this post as a part II.

Friday, May 23, 2014

The Many Reasons to Bike in South Jersey

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been bike commuting to my job in Camden for the past two months. In that time, cycling has metamorphosed from something I did out of obligation to cut carbon emissions to something I truly enjoy. But there are many more reasons to bike in South Jersey than simply forging a new hobby. I've listed a few below, but the list is not inclusive by any means. Feel free to add your own in the comments below!


1) Unadulterated Happiness Chemicals
Biking has accomplished something a car never did: it has made me enjoy my trip to work. It has even made me enjoy my work more, in general. Like most people, I have trouble building exercise into my normal routine, and bike commuting has been an ideal solution. Exercise can help to reduce cortisol levels (that chemical that causes stress in your body) and can release endorphins, contributing to happiness overall. Those are some good drugs, but part of my happiness comes just from getting out of the climate controlled shell of the car and hearing the birds chirp.


2) Realize the Little Things
In Jan Gehl's Cities for People, Gehl frequently employs the idea of the city at eye-level. Human observation is most acute with regard to the things ahead of you, at about eye level, as you walk 2.5 - 3 mph. As mph increases, the accuracy of observations decreases. Gehl finds that the upper range of pedestrian-level awareness of surroundings is about 12 mph (bike commuters average 10 - 12 mph). After that, the town begins to look sort of like a giant blur. In the more observant state, you begin to notice things about the built environment you never would have before. You certainly notice how neglected the roads are, as every pothole threatens to destroy your rims. The enormous leap in quality of life between depressed and wealthy areas is starkly apparent, especially when the difference is punctuated by the bumps you feel as you cross a set of railroad tracks. At 12 or so mph, you're going fast enough to outrun anyone who might cause you trouble, but not so fast that someone can't offer you drugs or other questionable services as you ride by. It's hard to ignore the distress of others when there isn't a big hunk of metal between you and them. I believe if more people were to bike, if people had to confront our cities difficulties first hand, at a human pace, things would begin to change. Quickly.



3) Discover Your Home
Because riding on something the likes of Route 70 or Route 130 is simply terrifying, cyclists often ride on county roads and older state routes that have seen declining usage since 50+ mph roads became the premiere way to travel. I've biked from Camden to Atlantic City on the Black Horse Pike, where you can see history occurring in different segments on a road designed in the late 1700's. County Road 551 (better known as Broadway in Camden, Gloucester City, and further south), is a  time travel device, through which one can see Camden before and after disinvestment (the similarity between Gloucester City today and pictures of Camden fifty years ago is eerie).

Riding on these roads every day makes you curious about their history. Who is Delsea Drive named after? Turns out it's not who, but what route. While it was under construction, a Woodbury Times reporter nicknamed Route 47 "Delsea," because it began at the DELaware River and ended at the SEA shore. What about the White Horse Pike (Route 30)? I try to ride an entire route whenever I can, from beginning to end, to see where it goes. But I can't seem to find the end of Route 30. I know it goes across the Ben Franklin Bridge, but what then? Turns out I could ride straight from Atlantic City to see all of my friends in Portland, Oregon because US Route 30 extends all the way from the Jersey Shore to Astoria, Oregon. Cycling invites you into the strange world of random coincidences and bizarre local history – and what a wonderful world it is!


4) Gain Perspective on Time
Riding on the local roads also puts you alongside cars that have to move slower. You often find them rushing ahead of you only to catch up at the next red light... and the next... and the next. In the end, they make it home 5, at max 10, minutes earlier than you do. In exchange for those 5 minutes, drivers experience additional stress and aggression. I know this, because I get the same way when I drive 40 mph only to see the lowly biker catch up to me again and again. Does 5 minutes really justify carbon emissions, raised stress levels, a missed opportunity to exercise, and an inability to fully perceive the world? I don't feel it does.


5) Accepting Your Mortality
Okay, this is actually a terrible part about cycling in South Jersey. People frequently zoom by at at least 40 mph, passing within only a few inches of my unprotected frame. Never, for the love of Jane Jacobs, ride on Haddonfield-Berlin road. One of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

On the upside, I now empathize with every other cyclist and pedestrian who has been given a raw deal in our region and in our country. I actively demand bike lanes while before I offered only passive support. Our economy is supposedly built upon freedom of choice and opportunity, and yet the choice to walk or ride a bike is scarcely a choice at all here. When you experience first hand how dangerous riding is in South Jersey, you'll become a fierce advocate too.


Sunday, May 11, 2014

Planning Idea: The Tao of Planning in Camden, NJ

I am excited to say that I work in Camden, NJ. I bike commute down either Haddon Ave. or Federal St. every day and despite the tremendous circumstances the people there have to deal with, all the unoccupied buildings and crumbling infrastructure, the main streets still feel more lively and inviting to me than the surrounding suburbs ever have. Camden is the main reason I returned to New Jersey to study urban planning at Rutgers. Camden has all it needs to become a safe, supportive community.

So as I bike, I often find myself day dreaming about simple solutions that might benefit the city, Atlantic City, or some other wonderful South Jersey community. So this begins what will be a series of the random, imperfect planning ideas I hope to test and develop through my education.


The Tao of Planning

This first idea is more a way of viewing urban issues generally than it is a specific fix for any one in particular. In college I had a concentration in Philosophy and Religion, which exposed me to Taoism and its principal text, the Tao Te Ching. The main tenants of Taoism include the Tao and Wu Wei.

Tao is the universe, the beginning of the universe, and the flow of the universe all at once.

Wu Wei translates literally to "without intentional action." It is about going with the flow of the universe, which allows free agents to commit "action without action." This is not to say that you stand around and do nothing. Only that you do not fight against the Tao.

So how can we apply these abstract ideas to planning? Chapter 78 of the Tao Te Ching describes it perfectly:

Nothing in the world under the sky is softer and weaker than water.

As for attacking something hard and strong, nothing is better than water.
It is because nothing can change it.
The weak beats the strong.
The soft beats the hard.
Everyone in the world under the sky knows them.
No one does them.
That's why the sage says, "Those who accept the filth of the country are called the master of the state.
"Those who accept the bad omen of the country are called the king of the world under the sky."
Right words sound contradictory.

Essentially, when confronted with a bad omen, accept it. When confronted with filth, accept it. Whatever is ailing your community, or "state," is occurring because a system of causes is flowing along that, in combination, leads to the ailment. Accepting this does not mean doing nothing, however. Instead, act like water. Move with the flow and eventually you can erode mountainous problems. For attacking something hard and strong, nothing is better than water.

Still abstract? Let's look at an example.

Example:

I was recently reading about assemblyman Angel  Fuentes, who represents Camden in the New Jersey state assembly. I was struck by his record on graffiti removal, which Latinwhoswho.net describes as a "crusade" and "which included the establishment of an anti-graffiti task force, the implementation of an anti-graffiti curriculum in local schools, and a related hotline."

Compare this to Brazil's Law 706/07, which legalized street art (including graffiti) across the country beginning in 2009, so long as the artist received consent from the property owner. Simple as that. Now, I don't want to repeat the extensive work that's already been done on the subject, but take a moment to look into the explosive grafite movement that began in Brazil.

In case you haven't seen it in a while, Camden still has plenty of graffiti. Plenty, despite all the oversight and hotlines. And because graffiti has been so heavily targeted, no street artist dares to risk taking the time to paint detailed, intricate work. Instead, we get an abundance of hastily made tags that make battered neighborhoods look worse. Because of the region we live in, there should be beautiful street art all over. The Greater Philadelphia area has some of the best street art in the world. Period. Here's a simple anecdote to prove it: a friend of mine took an opportunity through the Rowan University Geography Department a couple of years ago to travel to Brazil for the summer. While there they had the opportunity to meet a world-famous street artist from Rio at his studio. The coffee table books at his studio were about Philadelphia street art. When my friend said she was from Philly, the artist began bombarding her with questions about the city's murals.

In a different world, Camden could be the world's largest canvas for a brilliant street art movement. The City could hold world invitationals, allowing artists to express themselves on abandoned and city-owned buildings, or even entirely abandoned blocks. There could be graffiti competitions that draw festival-sized crowds. It could even affect property values, as people begin to demand homes adorned with gorgeous murals and mosaics.

This is the Tao of Planning. It is public policy aikido. Flow with and then redirect the problem until it works to your benefit.



Tuesday, May 6, 2014

If You're So Smart, Define "South Jersey"

The blog is called South Jersey planner, so let's begin with a classic philosophical exercise: Define the term.

What do we mean by "South Jersey?" There are a number of ways that people and governments define regions, so we'll review a few here and see if it can help us find a definition.

We'll start with the Metropolitan Statistical Area, or MSA. This type of region is defined by the US Office of Management and Budget and used primarily by the Census Bureau to classify the population clusters around cities. MSAs like the Philadelphia MSA are made up of counties and include core South Jersey counties like Camden, Gloucester, Burlington, and Salem. However, this would leave out decidedly south and in-New Jersey counties like Cumberland (Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton MSA) and Atlantic (Atlantic City-Hammonton MSA), but would include out-of-Jersey counties like Cecil, MD and New Castle, DE. MSAs give us an inkling, but what about border counties like Mercer or Ocean?

Sticking with the idea of regional government, perhaps Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) can give us a better inkling of what constitutes South Jersey. MPOs are mandated under national transportation legislation for urban areas with populations greater than 50,000 and help to coordinate transportation projects that affect multiple states, counties, and municipalities. So surely, the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization is responsible for planning the region we know as South Jersey? Well, only if that's Salem, Cumberland, Cape May, and Atlantic. Camden, Gloucester, Burlington and, what – Mercer? – are part of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC). But wait! The DVRPC, which plans for Greater Philly, doesn't include those crazy Maryland and Delaware counties that the Greater Philly MSA did! Hmmm... let's try something else.

Sports teams, maybe? Most Flyers and Eagles fans are aware down to the exit number how far north they can go before they're in hostile territory. There's the intuitive idea that you can map out South Jersey vis a vis North by fandom, but big data took it to the next level. Facebook's Data Science Team took the sports team "likes" from over 35 million users and then coupled it with users' geolocation services to break down fandom to a county level. I'm partial to the argument that the parts of New Jersey who like the Eagles are truly South Jersey. However, I am aware that the northern parts of Mercer County are fairly evenly split between Giants and Eagles and southern Ocean County is solidly green. Still, pretty close.

Along the same lines, but less based upon my sports biases, is the research conducted by the fine people at AT&T Labs. They teamed up with MIT and IBM to analyze anonymized call data between callers and recipients. They looked at calls between counties and then normalized it to find the most general regional trends.  Surprise, surprise, New Jersey showed a clear north-south split (also, carefully note the absence of "Central Jersey" in this or the Facebook study. The belief that it doesn't exist is a unifying bond between North and South Jersey).

So after all that, we still have a fuzzy idea of what South Jersey really is. And that's how we'll use it here. Region's like ours kind of exist (at least more than "Central Jersey"), but only to the extent that we reinforce them. There's a good chance that New Castle County, Delaware is more like South Jersey than parts of northern Ocean County. Sorry, that's just the way it is. So based on all of the above, here are the counties I'll do my best to cover:

South Jersey:
Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic, Cape May

South Jerseyish:
Ocean, Mercer, Southwest Monmouth

Not really South Jersey, but we might talk about them:
Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and eastern Lancaster, Berks, and Lehigh (PA)
New Castle (DE)
Cecil (MD)


Phew! Glad I could clear that up!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Obligatory Introductory Remarks

Hello All,

Welcome to South Jersey Planning! After returning to my home state a few months ago, I was inspired by a bunch of Greater Philly planning and community development blogs/websites (shout outs to ThisOldCity.com, PlanPhilly.com, FlyingKiteMedia.com, Stephen Danley's Local Knowledge Blog - http://danley.rutgers.edu/news/, and many, many more).

After months of searching, I haven't found a blog that covers South Jersey regionally in a planning context – one that discusses the difficulties facing Bridgeton's school system, attempts to send gas pipelines straight through the Pinelands, community development strategies for Atlantic City, and "says nice things" about Camden – all in one place. SJ Planner represents my attempt at just that.

A few disclaimers regarding what this blog is and is not:

1. This blog IS NOT a daily news feed. I've tried blogging in the past and made it a goal to write every single day. The only result was burnout after a couple of months and an abandoned journal-style blog. If I write when I am impassioned, which is often, I'm sure it will be enough!

2. This blog IS NOT a one man show.  I would like to feature other voices from the region and from the networks I form working here. There are wonderful people doing wonderful work here and they deserve an outlet.

3. This blog IS an attempt at learning. I am just beginning my graduate education as a planner and, to be blunt, I feel I know very little. Research indicates that forming long-term knowledge and expertise can be fostered by synthesizing knowledge into a new form. I have chosen to blog my new forms. As I learn more about transit policy and analysis, housing, and economic development, I believe the opinions expressed here will grow more informed and more cogent.

4. And as a corollary,  this blog IS a forum for informed debate. I am not infallible and I reserve the right to alter my opinions, and the fervency with which I defend them, as I see fit. I have no trouble admitting when I am wrong and this is an essential part of learning (see #3). In fact, if you spot a hole in an argument, you're obliged to tell me.

5. This IS a forum for expressing new ideas. I have lots of ideas, most of them half-baked and not given enough consideration. Others are fundamentally flawed. At their heart, however, are my genuine hopes and aspirations for our fine South Jersey. I've traveled internationally, and I've visited almost every state in the U.S., and there's nowhere I would rather engage, explore, advocate, and dwell. Okay, I love Perú just as much, but lets focus on one blog for now.

If these points resonate with you, please join me!


Best,
Lew