Parks And Recreation

10:30 p.m. CHANNEL 10 Megan Mullally guest-stars as Ron's (Nick Offerman, her real-life spouse, right) ex-wife, Tammy, who runs the library. Leslie (Amy Poehler) is distressed to find out Tammy's department is trying to take over her lot.

The city's aging parks and recreation facilities are going to get a lot more attention starting this spring. Thanks to a $2.6 million increase in the department's budget, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis plans to hire 63 full-time people, most of them in skilled trades and maintenance. It's the first such expansion in as long as any one in the department - which receives less funding than parks do in most big cities - can remember. "Parks have never gotten anything close to this in recent history," DiBerardinis said.

SODA TAXES, 3-1-1 call centers, budget woes and City Council political battles. No, we're not talking about life in Philly's City Hall, but in the government of fictional Pawnee, Ind., featured on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation. " The show follows the travails of the ever-positive Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), a middle manager in the parks department and a newly elected councilwoman, as she strives to improve her town. Like any great comedy, the show has colorful characters, sharp dialogue and the occasional well-timed pratfall, but what really makes "Parks and Recreation" clever - especially from the perspective of a city government and politics reporter - is how closely the story lines hew to the policy and political issues of the day and how effectively they mine comic absurdity from those topics.

Newtown Township's Department of Parks and Recreation sponsored its first karate tournament May 16. More than 65 karate enthusiasts from 6 years old to adults and from throughout the area participated.

. The county Department of Parks and Recreation held its 14th annual Kite Day Sunday at Core Creek Park in Middletown Township. About 75 kite fanciers demonstrated the breadth of the hobby. Among them were Scott Spencer and John Smith, with a kite almost as broad as a rainbow.

IN JULY, on a sunny afternoon, a crowd convened at the Mander Recreation Center in Strawberry Mansion to listen as Mayor Nutter announced the members of his new Commission on Parks and Recreation. As he named his nine "guardians of the city's treasures," he urged them to swiftly pursue his ambitious vision: to creating the nation's premier parks and recreation system. And that's precisely what we've set out to do. In November 2008, after years of debate, Philadelphia voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Home Rule Charter that transferred the powers and duties of the Fairmount Park Commission to a newly merged Department of Parks and Recreation and reconstituted the Fairmount Park Commission as the Commission on Parks and Recreation.

Philadelphia's parks are poised for change. They have new potential they haven't had for decades. But for this potential to actually be achieved requires another step. And this one is quite simple. Last fall, the city's voters overwhelmingly supported a charter amendment to reform the park and recreation system. It called for merging the two departments, placing direct accountability for their management and revitalization on the mayor and the appointment of a new parks and rec commission to be selected for the first time in a transparent and public process.

The city's aging parks and recreation facilities are going to get a lot more attention starting this spring. Thanks to a $2.6 million increase in the department's budget, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis plans to hire 63 full-time people, most of them in skilled trades and maintenance. It's the first such expansion in as long as any one in the department - which receives less funding than parks do in most big cities - can remember. "Parks have never gotten anything close to this in recent history," DiBerardinis said.

The phone number for Eatalia, a Fishtown restaurant, is incorrect in today's "Table Talk" column. It's 215-423-6911. An item in Tuesday's "SideShow" misstated the dates of some politicians' appearances on NBC's Parks and Recreation . Sens. John McCain, Barbara Boxer, and Olympia Snowe appeared on the Sept. 27 season opener. Vice President Biden is scheduled for a future episode. A story Tuesday incorrectly reported the age of Keith Anderson, 25, who was fatally shot early Sunday in Philadelphia.

SODA TAXES, 3-1-1 call centers, budget woes and City Council political battles. No, we're not talking about life in Philly's City Hall, but in the government of fictional Pawnee, Ind., featured on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation. " The show follows the travails of the ever-positive Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), a middle manager in the parks department and a newly elected councilwoman, as she strives to improve her town. Like any great comedy, the show has colorful characters, sharp dialogue and the occasional well-timed pratfall, but what really makes "Parks and Recreation" clever - especially from the perspective of a city government and politics reporter - is how closely the story lines hew to the policy and political issues of the day and how effectively they mine comic absurdity from those topics.

When Roger Wing showed up with a chainsaw at Port Richmond's leafy Campbell Square in late September, the locals despaired. There goes another tree. But no, Wing was not there to cut down one of the 128 remaining trees in the 2.2-acre square so strikingly tucked in by three soaring copper-topped churches (the Irish one, the Polish one, and the German one, as they're known). Wing, an internationally celebrated ice sculptor (Poland, Finland), locally revered wood carver (Trenton Avenue, Shadfest)

The lush garden and water fountain at Louis I. Kahn Memorial Park at 11th and Pine Streets offer a respite from the bustle of Philadelphia's Washington Square West neighborhood. But a look inside on a recent morning at the park showed a different sight. Three empty Rolling Rock pony bottles and a wine bottle were lined up neatly under a bench on the park's east side, and a half-eaten sandwich and open bag of cereal lay about its 11th Street entrance. Behind a fence, visitors sometimes set up sleeping quarters and leave behind their drug paraphernalia, evidence of the park's late-night populace - drug users and a growing number of the city's homeless who call it home at night.

DAN GERINGER'S article "New Prey-Ground" (Sept. 25) raises some real and fair issues about Kensington's McPherson Square Park. I would like to add a ray of hope to the story. The Fairmount Park Conservancy believes that parks can be catalysts for positive change in our city - and that better parks make our individual lives healthier, our neighborhoods safer and our region more competitive. In fact, studies show that when a park is enhanced, crime and violence rates decrease, property values increase and the health of residents who live near the park is improved.

At Dickinson Square Park Thursday, a child skittered down a slide on the new playground, people lounged on park benches, and dogs strolled with their owners. No one seemed to have heard the news that Traffic Court Judge Robert Mulgrew and Lorraine DiSpaldo, an aide to State Rep. William Keller, had been charged in a federal indictment with misusing state economic development funds designated for maintenance of Dickinson. Instead, most of them talked about how thrilled they were with the park's renovation, which was completed in July with money unrelated to the allegations in the indictment.

At Dickinson Square Park Thursday, a child skittered down a slide on the new playground, people lounged on park benches, and dogs strolled with their owners. No one seemed to have heard the news that Traffic Court Judge Robert Mulgrew and Lorraine DiSpaldo, an aide to State Rep. William Keller, had been charged in a federal indictment with misusing state economic development funds designated for maintenance of Dickinson. Instead, most of them talked about how thrilled they were with the park's renovation, which was completed in July with money unrelated to the allegations in the indictment.

LOVE Park needs more love In reference to Friday's editorial "Where did our LOVE go," while more work can always be done, I think we have made progress at John F. Kennedy Plaza, also known as LOVE Park. Some of this progress was mentioned in two earlier articles written by Miriam Hill, namely the dedicated work of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation employee Albert Figlestahler. Operating under budgetary constraints, the Department of Parks and Recreation has devoted maintenance and programming resources to LOVE Park, and the impact is being felt.