Hoping to breathe new life into their time-worn but beloved neighbor, area residents are continuing to refine the plan to revitalize Clark Park, the largest public green space within University City.
The fifth of sixth public meetings on the proposed project was held last Thursday evening, drawing a crowd of over 100 to Rosenberger Hall in the park. There, the audience had the opportunity to review and comment on the project's revised draft of the master plan.
"People like a lot of what's going on in Clark Park, and we agree there's a lot of good things happening there, but... we want to improve the park," said Peter Simone, vice president for the landscape architecture firm Simone Jaffe Collins, who presented the latest plan at the meeting.
Previous open meetings brought up issues such as the need for more modern children's play facilities, a plan to protect the park's prized trees and a plan to improve the park's sidewalks and lighting.
The plan's most recent modifications included keeping the Gettysburg Stone -- a relic from the Civil War battlefield -- in its current location adjacent to Baltimore Avenue. Suggestions had been made to move the stone to a more visible location.
Other changes included scaling down the two proposed basketball courts back to one, and reducing the use of wrought-iron fencing, especially along Chester Avenue.
Simone said that these revisions had reduced the project's cost by about $200,000, with the current tab for design and construction set at $2.' million.
However, one of the plan's changes -- moving the proposed restroom facility in the park -- still did not placate many in the audience. A shifting of the potential site from the middle of the park to a location along 43rd Street, near the University of the Sciences, had been suggested.
Residents objected to the presence of restrooms in the park altogether, decrying them as havens of crime and drug use.
The residents suggested that the restrooms in Rosenberger Hall -- a city-owned building -- or those in a public health facility along 43rd Street be utilized instead of building anew.
However, Simone said that the restrooms would be built only when the community had a plan to provide for their maintenance and security.
"We feel that it's important that people who use the park have access to restrooms," Simone said. "We feel that it's a human need, that it's a quality of life issue."
Although the current plan still calls for moving the Charles Dickens statue from along 43rd Street to a more prominent location in the center of the park, many in the audience restated their opposition.
"This is Clark Park, not Dickens Park," said neighborhood resident and high school teacher Asake-Denise Jones.
But with the proposed enhancements marking the park's first capital improvement project since 1961, not all in attendance were against the enhancements.
"I really want to thank you for the process that's been taking place over this period of time," neighborhood resident and architect Emmanuel Kelly told the audience. "One of the things that has occurred to me is that people have a lot of connection to the park -- they love this place, and they think it's magic."
The renewal project is being run by the University City District, the Friends of Clark Park and the city's Department of Recreation. Organizers were encouraged by this latest meeting.
"It was exactly what we had hoped for, which is a continuing large turnout... and thoughtful comments about what people see as the issues and concerns that affect the park," said Eric Goldstein, UCD's director of capital programs and planning.
Goldstein said that he was even more pleased with the turnout since the meeting coincided with a Philadelphia 76ers NBA playoff game.
"That's saying something," he said.
A fundraising campaign is currently being devised to bring these ideas to life, and the final plan will be presented to the public on June 21, despite pleas from some in the audience to lengthen the discussion period.
"I don't think if you extend it six months you're going to wind up with earth-shattering changes from what we have right now," Goldstein said.
