Public Spaces

A mere seven months after its splashy debut onto the casino scene, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has decided it's time for more. The casino announced this week it would start formal planning on a 500,000-square-foot expansion - a 20 percent increase in the public areas of the mammoth 2,002-room, four-million-square-foot casino in the city's Marina section. Bob Boughner, chief executive officer of the fabulously successful hotspot, yesterday said the expansion would accommodate new restaurants and bars, a "significant" increase in retail, additional casino space, and more meeting areas.

Marilyn Keating and Debra Sachs didn't need fancy. Cheap: yes. Brimming with potential: most definitely. When the two were scouting for a house to turn into a funky, comfortable haven, they turned to an unlikely spot - Gloucester City. The hard-nosed dock town fit both criteria just fine. And since they purchased the unassuming spot on Broadway, two fairly remarkable things have happened: First, the house that 20 years ago featured dead pigeons and a thick layer of dirt on every surface has been shined up to be a showplace.

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.

Recently I took a tour of the new Liberty Bell Pavilion. As I walked through Philadelphia's newest monument I couldn't help but cast a sad, wistful glance to the old pavilion. This small building, much loved by architects and much hated, it seems, by just about everyone else, likely will be demolished when the bell takes up residence in its new home on Oct. 9. After 27 years this jewel of modern architecture may soon be just a memory. For an architect who completed his education at the University of Pennsylvania at the moment of its creation, this is a poignant, yet revealing, milestone.

Philadelphians know their favorite places: unexpected parks tucked into residential streets, forgotten fountains along Kelly Drive. There are other places, right in the middle of everything, with their own tonic magic. Places to chill out, meet a friend, eat lunch, day dream, read, or not read. For pleasure and relief, many of us take refuge from the extreme summer days in these spots of cooling greenery and watery fountains. But they offer more than relief: They are the essence of a city, what a city needs to remain a place where people can be themselves yet live together.

Brian Lathrop, a 36-year-old skateboard enthusiast, told City Council members yesterday that unless Philadelphia provided suitable alternatives, there would be no way to keep skateboarders out of public parks. But Councilman Michael Nutter is proposing a means for police to rid all public property of the high-flying, fast-riding skateboarders - confiscate their wheels. Yesterday, six out of seven Council committee members agreed. Next, the full Council will take up the issue before members break for summer recess.

Baptists Coming. The National Baptist Convention will hold its 2002 annual meeting in Philadelphia, drawing 25,000 to 30,000 delegates to the city. . . Frozen Out. A New Jersey court ruled that a Camden County woman may destroy frozen embryos left over from her failed marriage despite her ex-husband's objections. . . Smoke Studied. Hoping to garner support from angry restaurant owners, City Council agreed to set up a panel to study a controversial measure that would ban smoking in most enclosed public spaces.

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.

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.

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.