PennPraxis and the civic associations of the central Delaware riverfront would like to invite you to the public presentation of An Action Plan for the Central Delaware. Since the completion of the Civic Vision last November, PennPraxis has worked with the central Delaware riverfront civic associations to develop a series of recommendations for leaders to use to implement the civic vision. Together, they have produced An Action Plan for the Central Delaware, with ten steps over the next ten years to allow Philadelphia to realize a truly world-class riverfront.

Andy Altman, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, is expected to attend, and Mayor Michael Nutter has been invited as well.

Register for this event: www.planphilly.com/registration

When: Thursday, June 26, 2006

Where: Independence Seaport Museum, Penn's Landing (free parking is available courtesy of the Penn's Landing Corporation)

As of today, over 900 people have registered for the "presentation of a civic vision for the central Delaware riverfront" Wednesday at the Convention Center.

The presentation comes at a pivotal point: after a year of an amazing design process, detailed charmingly and fascinatingly by Matt Blanchard here, and just as the city gets ready to welcome an exciting new mayor.

That mayor, Michael Nutter, spoke starkly during the primary of the need for Philadelphia to finally re-embrace large-scale civic planning. He said he intended to "re-establish the Planning Commission as the nation’s preeminent city planning agency," and used the sort of sweeping and inspiring language that marks Penn Praxis's plan.

"We plan in order to protect our future as well as our past."
-- Michael Nutter

The whole process of developing the plan to be presented Wednesday for our shared waterfront has been inspiring: resolutely participatory, and fueled by immense local as well as national talent. It is a good model for the future as we move into the exciting time of a new administration that has been laden with so much hope and expectation that it can reverse the things that had seemed to fatally plague our city, the things we no longer want to accept: underperforming schools, inadequate transit, isolated and economically suffering neighborhoods, and unharnessed development.

The last, unharnessed development, is a good place to start. As our new mayor said:

"Recent Mayors of Philadelphia have pursued unrelated transactions rather than followed a plan. We no longer need to chase growth; now we need to guide it."
-- Michael Nutter

These are words Philadelphia needs to hear, and to which the government needs to be held. They are at the heart of the fight over the waterfront.

We should all go Wednesday and join in a celebration of the civic life of our city: civic participation and civic vision. You can register here. Go and stand in the old Philadelphia (the Convention Center) and see the new Philadelphia (an ambitious and democratically planned waterfront) made visible.

And we should seek not only to advocate for the Penn Praxis plan, which is in many ways OUR plan, but we should seek to continue the inspiring process of participation and collaboration that they sparked and apply it to the other areas where we want change.