Public Spaces

Focus on the process and the meaning of art Philadelphia's vast collection of public art is owned by either the city, private property owners or institutions. The new Frank Rizzo statue was commissioned privately and donated to the city after receiving the necessary approvals from numerous city agencies, and after the donors committed to funding the statue's ongoing maintenance. Proposals for new public art must undergo a long and complex process. First, public art is almost always controversial; individuals or groups may oppose the city's acceptance of an artwork.

SPOTS AROUND the city will soon be livened up with art, thanks to more than $1 million for arts projects coming to Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter announced yesterday that the city won $1.2 million in grants from ArtPlace America for four projects that will enhance public spaces in University City, Frankford and on the Delaware River waterfront. The projects, selected from a pool of more than 1,200 applications, include: FringeArts on the Waterfront, which received $400,000 to create an outdoor plaza and performance space along the Delaware River, and the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., which was awarded $310,000 for a summer event that will transform Penn's Landing's boat basin into a river stage.

Maybe you don't own an office tower on Market Street. But you walk among the tall buildings at lunch time, right? Well, you and the other folks toting lunch in a brown bag know as much about this problem as the monied bunch who built Center City - probably more. The problem is, it's a desert out there for anyone who has to spend any time at all at street level. You try to escape your boss for a half an hour and here's what you encounter: a landscape of blank walls, sidewalks crowded with bollards, vendors or both; empty, wind-swept plazas; or long, sterile colonnades.

The chill winds that drive scores of homeless men to occupy SEPTA's Market Street concourse bear an urgent warning for all Philadelphians. Unless the Rendell administration and City Council move promptly to find other places for the chronically homeless, hopes for the Convention Center rising virtually above their heads - not to mention other plans for revitalizing this city - may well blow away. The Dickensian concourse scene is frightening and unhealthy for both the homeless and SEPTA riders, who smell the problem before they see it. The stench of urine, feces and unwashed bodies emanates from the area where dozens of people line the tile corridors.

One theme enjoyed broad if not universal support at the Penn's Landing Forums: Public space at Penn's Landing must be preserved. The four developers competing to build at Penn's Landing insisted that they had heard that message loud and clear. But for the most part, the results of how they translated the message are disappointing. Yes, all of the developers set aside space for a continuous public walkway along the riverfront, as well as other areas for people to congregate.

It was a brilliant spring afternoon, tantalizingly warm and breezy. John F. Kennedy Plaza, an open space in the city's crowded core, should have been bursting with tourists. Winter-weary office workers should have been jostling for spots on its benches. Except that the great big fountain at the heart of the park was off. The flower beds were empty. Graffiti and litter were hardly inviting. And the only thing that passed for entertainment was the clackety-clack of teenage skateboarders defying gravity and then deftly scattering as a Fairmount Park ranger rounded the corner.

For 26 years, Peg Gaskins said, she has been a good neighbor to the people who live in the tidy, white houses on Glenbrook Avenue. But since her neighbors moved out in recent years, she said, raucous college students renting the homes on each side have turned the block into a late-night party den. The loud music, the trash strewn across lawns, and the destructive pranks have taken their toll on Gaskins' patience. "Drunken orgies go on all the time. The students are terrible.

Fifteen years ago, the city agreed to make way for public access television, to create studios and provide technical training so citizens could broadcast cable shows over specially set-aside channels. The agreement came after the 1983 repeal of a Federal Communications Commission law requiring public access television. Cable providers agreed to pay the city a franchise fee, part of which was to help pay for setting up studios and producing shows. Fifteen years of fees later, Philadelphia is the only major city without public access television facilities.

Attention casino developers: Don't try to plunk a bland brick box topped with flashing neon lights into historic Philadelphia. And we want art, public spaces and landscaping, too, says a casino zoning ordinance that City Councilman Frank DiCicco is expected to introduce in City Council today. The ordinance is intended to let casino developers know what the city wants. It also is intended to send a message to state legislators that the city expects to have a say in what the two Philadelphia casinos will look like and where they will go. "We do not need the state legislature to tell us we're going to wind up with a casino and not have any say in it," DiCicco said.

The number of homeless people living on Center City streets was lower this summer than last, according to the most recent quarterly census of Philadelphia's street population. Project HOME, which conducts an overnight survey once a quarter for the city, reported yesterday that the census last Wednesday showed that there were 475 people sleeping on city streets or in parks - down from 621 people a year ago. In a broader area that included not only Center City, but also parts of West Philadelphia and Kensington, the street census was 572, down from 698 a year ago. The drop in the summer number followed a similar decline in the spring census for Center City - 261 vs. 429. Last summer's homeless number was the highest in 10 years, putting pressure on city officials.