Mayor's Race 2007: City-planning issues land Fattah in hot water

For the past week, about 6,100 city planners from around the country have flocked to Philadelphia to discuss the future of urban life.

But even before these development gurus had packed their bags for home, they had managed to stir up controversy among the city's mayoral candidates that brings into question the economic growth of the city and Penn's plans for the future.

At an April 9 planning forum held by the National Planning Conference, three of the candidates laid out their plans for improving the city's infrastructure.

But, according to experts, former Councilman Michael Nutter emerged the clear winner over state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Phila.) and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), who seemed to say planning would take a back seat to other issues like fighting crime and tackling poverty.

Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, the consulting arm of Penn's School of Design, said Nutter was the only candidate who laid out a "broad vision" of city planning and seemed to understand the connection between urban planning and economic vitality.

Steinberg contrasted that position with that of Fattah, who said that, though he understood the need for urban planning, his main focus would lie elsewhere.

"My mind goes back to the 140,000 people in this city with no health insurance," Fattah said at the forum.

Those comments may spell trouble for Penn's development in the postal lands, which the University will break ground on this fall.

Though Facilities spokesman Tony Sorrentino was quick to point out that Penn isn't spending any city money on actual building construction, he did say the city will help in building the infrastructure that links the University to Center City.

Steinberg said a master development plan - a staple in other major cities like New York and Boston - is desperately needed for both the University and the city to take full advantage of its 24-acre acquisition.

"The city's been passive," he said, adding that this attitude will need to change if Penn has any chance of meeting its goals of changing the Schuylkill riverfront by, for example, building a pedestrian bridge into Center City.

Dawn Maglicco, director of Penn's Office of Government and Community Affairs, agrees that long-term planning and "really close interaction" with the city, state and federal governments is necessary for the postal-land expansion to be successful.

Steinberg stressed that a negative attitude toward city planning has broader implications for Philadelphia.

Fattah is demonstrating "an unfortunate bias away from planning," he said, arguing that planning is one of the most effective ways to tackle poverty - the goal of Fattah's "Opportunity Agenda."

"Targeted public investment in infrastructure . helps to spur the private economy exponentially," Steinberg said.

As for Fattah, he says he was misunderstood at the forum.

"I'm for a comprehensive city plan," he said in an interview. Even if he plans to devote himself to poverty-reduction measures, Fattah said, he won't forget about the importance of city planning.

Fattah pointed to his support for Penn in Congress regarding the postal-lands expansion and says he believes that there's "a uniform consensus to merge Center City in a seamless way with the University community."

And as for those city planners levying criticism at Fattah?

The congressman chalked that up to his ideas being "new and novel because no one's ever said it."

Nutter did not return repeated requests for comment for this story.

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