Philadelphia 2035 (homes, construction, utilities)

[henrychen]

Originally Posted by Redddog

So I’m old and awash in money. Lol.

Ok - You're a man of a certain age who's 'comfortable'.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by henrychen

I believe the polio vaccine actually prevents people from getting polio ... the covid vaccine, not so much. I can understand why some people are waiting for a more effective vaccine.

No vaccine is 100% effective, and until Omicron, the COVID vaccines did have very few breakthrough cases.

Back to development.

[henrychen]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

No vaccine is 100% effective, and until Omicron, the COVID vaccines did have very few breakthrough cases.

Back to development.

The U.S. has been polio-free since 1979. At least here, the vaccine is 100% effective. NOW, back to development.

[mslhu]

Originally Posted by henrychen

The U.S. has been polio-free since 1979. At least here, the vaccine is 100% effective. NOW, back to development.

Do you not understand how and why vaccines work?

[henrychen]

Originally Posted by mslhu

Do you not understand how and why vaccines work?

Vaccines train our immune systems to create proteins that fight disease, known as ‘antibodies’, just as would happen when we are exposed to a disease but – crucially – vaccines work without making us sick (ideally).

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Too flip by half, henrychen.

But: cpomp, you might be surprised at how some people who you think would benefit from them react to the prospect of street trees.

I had the pleasure of being invited to Morgan State University's architecture school in Baltimore about five or six years ago by a professor there whose work I had written about in Next City. She had organized a symposium on future visions of Baltimore and asked me to be a respondent to the presenters.

One of those presenters was a representative of an organization that works to make Baltimore a greener city and clean up its waters. They had arranged for a mass tree planting on a rowhouse block in a lower-income neighborhood in east Baltimore. (Imagine a treeless block of Philly "workingman's rowhouses," but make the rowahouses one story taller and put the utilities underground.*)

The environmentalists had surveyed the block and figured out where the trees should go. But they didn't talk to any of the residents beforehand. Thus they ran into a buzzsaw of protest on the day that had been scheduled for the tree planting. The residents were upset because they believed that the trees would buckle their sidewalks and drill into their water lines and cause them to leak or rupture.

Now, tree roots only drill into pipes that are already leaking, and you can plant street tree varieties whose roots are thin and deep enough that they don't push up sidewalk segments. But no one has done education around those issues, and if either of those things happen, the abutters have to pay to fix things, so can you blame them?

*You also mentioned burying utilies in your post. I'd love for that to happen too, but from what I've heard, the cost of burying utilities ranges from $1 million to $3 million per mile. No for-profirt utility is going to spend that much to put all the wires that need to be buried underground along with the supply lines to the abutting properties.

Interesting. And The older I get the more I think people are just fearful of change (of any kind, big or small, good or bad, life changing or not)...

Regarding utility lines, Post Brothers is overhauling a large area of Northern Liberties, yet ugly utility lines zigzag through all the new shiny mid-rises. Was it too cost prohibitive for Post to bury them? Either way, that is an example of when there should be some sort of bury mandate.

[PHL10]

Speaking of vaccines, is it time for Philadelphia to announce that we are using the same science as NJ, the rest of PA, and DE and drop the vaccine mandate and indoor mask requirement? The City has a lower case count than all the surrounding suburbs.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by PHL10

Speaking of vaccines, is it time for Philadelphia to announce that we are using the same science as NJ, the rest of PA, and DE and drop the vaccine mandate and indoor mask requirement? The City has a lower case count than all the surrounding suburbs.

I posed that question a few pages back, but bickering ensued.

But I agree, there is no logical reason why the city cannot follow it's neighbors, when the stats are fine.
I would love to be a a fly on the wall in the Philadelphia Health Department when these discussions are happening.

[cpomp]

Liberty Point, a sprawling waterfront restaurant and entertainment venue, eyes spring opening at Penn's Landing

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...are-river.html

"FCM Hospitality is opening a sprawling 28,000-square-foot waterfront restaurant that looks to play off the burgeoning development slated to take place along the Delaware River in coming years."

"The roughly $1 million eatery dubbed Liberty Point will be among Philadelphia’s largest restaurants and offer waterfront views, live entertainment, and casual cuisine with a seafood focus. The restaurant, boasting a 1,400-person capacity, is located at 211 S. Columbus Blvd. and will include multiple seating areas that are essentially wrapped around the Independence Seaport Museum building at Penn's Landing."


Carvana laying off 59 employees at Philadelphia storage site as property preps for development

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=4#cxrecs_s

"Carvana is laying off 59 workers as it closes a vehicle storage site it operates at 5000 Richmond St. in the Bridesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia."

"The 67-acre Bridesburg property was sold over a year ago by Dow Inc. to New York-based DH Property Holdings. The Business Journal reported in December 2020 that the developer plans to build 733,000 square feet of industrial space in a project that will represent a $115 million investment."

Gov. Wolf's proposed budget would give Ben Franklin Technology Partners $8M to fund more startups

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

"Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s ambitious $43.7 billion budget proposal includes an $8 million boost for Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a move that the organization’s leadership says could get more Philadelphia-area startups funded."

"Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania currently funds about 50 startups per year, and the new funding proposed by Wolf could support an additional 10 to 15 companies, CEO Scott Nissenbaum said. BFTP is approached by about 600 to 800 companies per year, he added, and about 200 of those go through a formal review process with Ben Franklin. Only a quarter of the reviewed startups receive funding."

[cpomp]

Great update on the Piazza Terminal project, the new buildings look fantastic. The rooftop pool club is a nice touch.

But... Why aren't the utility lines buried, they are awful, and not present in the renderings.

Piazza Terminal Getting Closer to the Terminus of Construction

https://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phil...f-construction