Strategies for Older Suburbs Roundtable
Topic: Diversify Your Revenue Sources
Guest Speaker: Donna Harris, Heritage Consulting Inc.
When: Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Time: Breakfast at 9:00 am; Program from 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Where: Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
190 N. Independence Mall West, 8th Floor
Philadelphia, PA
www.dvrpc.org/directions
RSVP: Karen P. Cilurso, Senior Regional Planner, Kpcilurso@dvrpc.org
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, forty planners converged on Frankford Hall in Fishtown for APAPASE’s November Happy Hour. Practicing planners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors and planning students mingled over half-liter steins of beer and pretzels at Stephen Starr’s Bavarian biergarten-inspired restaurant. While the happy hour officially lasted from 5:30 to 7:30pm, a dozen or so people stayed to enjoy the outdoor firepit in the restaurant’s interior courtyard.
Join APAPASE for a happy hour on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 from 5:30-7:30 PM at Frankford Hall. This happy hour is open to all: emerging professionals, emerged professionals, and friends. Please register here so we know how large of an area to reserve. Food and drink are on your own, however, there will be specials:
½ liter drafts: $5
1 liter drafts: $10.
Any ½ liter and a pretzel: $6.
Any ½ liter and any sausage: $8.
If you buy a burger, you can get a ½ liter to go with it for $3 more.
Mega jobs posting this week! Check out multiple jobs from top-shelf orgs like the William Penn Foundation and Next American City.
1) Research Analyst – U3 Ventures – Philadelphia
2) Creative Director – Next American City – Philadelphia
3) International Editor – Next American City – Philadelphia
4) Audience Engagement Editor – Next American City – Philadelphia
5) Community Development Program Assistant – Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) – Newark, NJ
6) Manager of Public Spaces & Streetscapes – Center City District – Philadelphia
7) Statistical Analyst – PA Health Care Cost Containment Council – Harrisburg, PA
8) Position Coordinator – Businesses United for Conservation (Sustainable Business Network) – Philadelphia
9) Director, Protecting Watersheds – William Penn Foundation – Philadelphia
10) Director, Research and Analytics – William Penn Foundation – Philadelphia
11) Director, Closing the Achievement Gap – William Penn Foundation – Philadelphia
12) Director, Creative Communities – William Penn Foundation – Philadelphia
13) Transportation Planner/Engineer – Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – Philadelphia
14) Executive Director – Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA
15) Community Organizer/EPIC Coordinator – United Communities SE Philadelphia – Philadelphia
16) Camden Internship – New Jersey Conservation Foundation – Camden, NJ
Full descriptions after the jump!
The Philadelphia Water Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Community Design Collaborative invites design professionals to enter Infill Philadelphia: Soak it Up!—an interdisciplinary design competition promoting the creative, innovative use of green stormwater infrastructure in Philadelphia and other cities.
The design competition challenges interdisciplinary teams to develop new models for green stormwater infrastructure, focusing on one of three sites in Philadelphia:
The design competition is part of a larger design initiative exploring how green stormwater infrastructure can revitalize urban neighborhoods.
Green stormwater infrastructure is crucial to the implementation of Green City, Clean Waters, the City’s innovative, sustainable 25-year plan to protect and enhance local waterways primarily through the use of green stormwater infrastructure.
The competition is open to professional designers. Competition teams must include at least one licensed architect, one licensed landscape architect, and one licensed civil engineer. One of the required team members must practice in the Philadelphia region.
While the competition sites have a Philly focus, the insights gained through the design competition will apply to other cities seeking to retrofit green stormwater infrastructure into an existing urban fabric. Design professionals from around the country are encouraged to participate!
Nine finalists will be selected to present at an awards event at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on March 7, 2013. A jury will select one winning design for each of the three sites. The three winning competition teams will receive a cash prize of $10,000.
Registration Deadline: Friday, November 30, 2012.
Submission Deadline: January 22, 2013.
PHS Tree Tenders hard at work
Join the Plant One Million Team! PHS’s Tree Tenders® program offers hands-on tree care training for residents of the five-county Philadelphia region. The training will cover tree biology, identification, planting, proper care and working within your community. Form a Tree Tenders group in your community by attending with 2 neighbors. Tree Tenders groups are eligible for street trees for their communities and are invited to follow-up educational opportunities!
There are two classes to choose from starting this January!
The Erie Eleven
Eleven planners from the Southeast section decided to carpool to the APAPA conference in Erie, PA between October 14 and 16, 2012. We arranged to meet at the West Conshohocken Park and Ride lot at 6:30 am on Sunday morning. We loaded our belonging into the 15-passenger rental van, and headed out on the road. Although it was still dark out, the mood was jovial and the conversation flowed as people got to know each other.
There was a quick stop for coffee at a rest-stop on I-476, as well as another quick stop at the Snow Shoe rest-stop along I-80. The Snow Shoe rest-stop is in the Pennsylvania Wilds. The PA Wilds is a strategic effort by a multitude of organizations to grow the nature and heritage tourism industry in 12 ½ rural counties in the northern-central portion of Pennsylvania. The goal is to create jobs, diversify local economies, and improve quality of life while inspiring a stewardship ethic in residents and visitors.
By midday, we had made it to Clarion, Pennsylvania. We decided to pull off the highway and eat lunch. Faced with a plethora of fast food options, we chose Eat’nPark, which advertised that its salad bar included 10% local produce.
We arrived in Erie at approximately 2:30pm–eight hours after we started our journey on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Our first stop was checking in at the Sheraton Erie Bayfront Hotel, a 200-room hotel that is the area’s first waterfront hotel. The northern side of the hotel offered views of Presque Isle, while the southern side offered views of the marina and downtown Erie. The hotel was connected via a skybridge to the Bayfront Convention Center.
Due to our long journey, we had missed the first session of the conference, but we got there in time for the second session. On Sunday evening, there was a reception at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center. While enjoying hors d’oeuvres, we were able to view the interactive exhibits about Presque Isle’s unique ecosystem. Although it was already fairly dark when we arrived, many planners made the trip up the observation tower to see the view of Lake Erie. There was also a good view of the parking lot, which included many stormwater management features.
On Monday, we attended educational sessions at the conference, including a keynote by Tony Hiss, author of The Experience of Place and In Motion. On Monday evening, we enjoyed dinner on our own in downtown Erie. We ended up at a restaurant called Pufferbelly, which is in a converted fire station. Several planners enjoyed a game of Monopoly in the hotel lobby after dinner.
On Tuesday, there were additional educational sessions, as well as the Awards Luncheon. Multiple members of our van won raffle baskets as part of a fundraiser for the Pitkin and Spaulding Scholarship Funds. At 2:30pm, we headed back to our van for the trip back to Philadelphia. The weather was bright and sunny, allowing us to marvel at the fall foliage in the Allegheny Mountains. We stopped at the Twilight Diner in Loganton, PA for dinner.
Overall, the trip was a lot of fun and very cost-effective (only $39.14 per person, after a $300 subsidy from the APAPASE chapter). We got to know each other better and learned a great deal as well.
APAPA is proud to announce that through the generosity of Jerry S. Walls, FAICP, a new professional development award is available. Applications are being accepted through November 30. The Jerry S. Walls, FAICP Planning Professional Development Award encourages the pursuit of professional development, and one scholarship in the amount of $2,000.00 will be awarded this year to a Pennsylvania applicant who:
A variety of training or coursework is eligible under the guidelines, so if you’ve been putting off classes to brush-up on your GIS skills or wondering how to pay for an APA Planners Training Service workshop – this is your opportunity! Details on the application process are available for download after the jump. Requirements include a resume and a narrative explaining what the funding would be used for and how you fit the guidelines. Recommendations and supporting documents are optional.
Come join a panel of nationally renowned housing experts Chris Leinberger, John McIlwain, and Robert Bowman discuss the future of housing and how it relates to Smart Growth. The event American Dream or American Nightmare: Housing after the Great Recession will be held on November 8, 2012 from 8am to 11:30 am at PECO, Energy Hall 2301 Market Street in Philadelphia.
Generation of Americans in the 20th century moved out of cities, seeking more land, space, and privacy. Since the second world war, every prior downturn was followed by a swift uptick and resumption of growth, satisfying our social norms of “success” and fueling our primary source of savings. Are we experiencing a long pause from this virtuous cycle or the beginning of a “new normal?”
To register or sponsor the event:
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=lfsiqshab&oeidk=a07e6ge7nlyfa8cb91e
Once again, a local area has been named one of the “Great Places in America” by APA – Chestnut Hill was named a Great Neighborhood. APA’s flagship program celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning. Places are selected annually and represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow. APA Great Places offer better choices for where and how people work and live. They are enjoyable, safe, and desirable. They are places where people want to be — not only to visit, but to live and work every day. America’s truly great streets, neighborhoods and public spaces are defined by many criteria, including architectural features, accessibility, functionality, and community involvement.
In his 1975 report to the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, well-respected preservationist Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., of Pittsburgh wrote, “Without question, Chestnut Hill remains one of the most beautiful residential areas in the United States.” It was not only important to save the neighborhood’s architecture, he said, “but the landscaping. Rarely does one see such a fine collection of great trees and shrubs.”The neighborhood’s landscaping, known as “The Wissahickon Style,” has been emulated throughout the country. Following the topography of the land to shape the neighborhood, this style of landscaping relies on the use of native plants, Wissahickon schist and fieldstone, and other materials of the Wissahickon Gorge, which formed the neighborhood’s southwestern boundary and encompasses today’s 1,400-acre Wissahickon Valley Park.
Link: http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2012/
