Navy Yard

As Americans, we believe it's vital for the Pentagon to reduce its operations to cut the deficit and keep our federal taxes down. As Philadelphians, we hope the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard isn't one of the operations the Pentagon reduces. Every so many years, our Navy Yard survives another cliffhanger. As recently as 1983, then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger confirmed that it was on a Pentagon hit list and had been "recommended for extinction for a very long time. " The other shoe never dropped, and the Navy Yard continues to function as it has since it was established in 1801.

As sponsor and principal author of the City's Air Pollution Code, which I caused to be enacted in 1969 against great opposition, and even today is considered one of the nation's finest municipal laws relating to air quality, I deeply resent the idiotic nonsense contained in your Sept. 19 editorial. "Talking Trash" clamors for that giant mass-burn incinerator, the so- called trash-to-steam plant at the Navy Yard. Let's look at the facts. The Ogden Martin trash-to-steam plant would handle only one-third of the city's trash, not 70 percent as claimed, and it would create a hazardous ash residue of 750 tons per day for the city to landfill.

It's nail-biting time at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - again. Three years after then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger suggested the Navy Yard might be closed to cut costs, a blue-ribbon federal panel that has been pondering the fate of military installations across the country is to issue recommendations tomorrow on which ones should be closed. While Navy Yard advocates predictably feel the Philadelphia facility will be spared, at least two dozen installations are expected to be on the list of the Defense Secretary's Commission on Base Closure and Realignment.

Gov. Rendell today canceled plans to move the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market to the Navy Yard, saying it would cost too much and block expansion of seaport operations. He said the market, run by an association of 35 small businesses, and its 1,100 jobs are important to the city. He pledged to help the market get the new facilities it needs. The news caught produce-market officials off-guard. "I feel like I've been hit by a sledgehammer," said James P. Storey Jr., president of the association that runs the bustling terminal in South Philadelphia.

The 1984 movie The Philadelphia Experiment dealt with the purported transfer of a battleship from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard into another dimension during World War II. Now two decades after that screening, we see an undisputed transition of that Navy Yard into a new state of existence, one that will significantly impact the city, and perhaps even the nation. It is rare for a major American city to have an opportunity to recreate such a large portion of its land. But after the base closed in 1996, ending an employment run that produced 60,000 jobs at its peak during World War II, the question became: What next?

Uncle Sam is finally really shipping out of the Navy Yard. It looks as though the remaining shipbuilding jobs there are up the creek. Gov. Ridge can make the difference. He seems to be leaning toward steering $96 million into a pot of $167 million in government aid to modify the facility so as to attract a German shipbuilding firm. It makes sense. There's talk of reviving Philadelphia as the shipbuilding center it had been since the Revolution. Don't bet on it. The city and region mostly have to find opportunities outside heavy manufacturing, in which there are few economic advantages here.

The House yesterday defeated a last-minute surprise attempt to kill the overhaul of the USS Kennedy aircraft carrier at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, after an angry scene on the floor that involved two senior members of the Pennsylvania delegation. The 295-91 vote rejected an attempt by Rep. Dan Burton (R., Ind.) to kill the $405 million, two-year project that area lawmakers have deemed critical to the Navy Yard's future. The administration favors a less extensive, less costly overhaul of the conventionally powered 24-year-old carrier, both for budgetary reasons and because of its long-term preference to move to a nuclear-powered fleet.

A new practice facility at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center might keep the Eagles' workdays happy, but it will do nothing to move the football team any closer solving its stadium issues, according to Mayor Rendell. The Eagles and the city are negotiating to move the team's offices and training facilities to the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, probably within two years. Team owner Jeffrey Lurie has said repeatedly part of the problem with Veterans Stadium is the poor physical conditions the team must deal with daily.

At the base of Broad Street in South Philadelphia lies a prime parcel of land the size of Center City. It is ready to reawaken. Once, 60,000 workers toiled there. But the Philadelphia Navy Base has been largely vacant since the government walked away in 1991. The city has been wrestling with what to do with the land ever since. Last week, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. unveiled an ambitious master plan to fuel a $2 billion transformation of the 1,200-acre base into a mixed-use development where people could work, live and play.

Kvaerner ASA, the troubled Anglo-Norwegian conglomerate, apparently is not in any rush to sell its shipyards. Kvaerner is transforming the former Philadelphia Naval Yard into a commercial yard. Kvaerner announced last month that it would quit shipbuilding as part of a major corporate overhaul. It intended to reveal its strategy for disposing of the yards at an annual shareholders meeting yesterday. But following the meeting, both the strategy and the fate of those yards remained uncertain.