A Waterfront That Belongs to the City
The Delaware riverfront is one of Philadelphia's greatest assets. It should serve the neighborhoods behind it, not just the parcels on it.
- Public access to the river at least every half mile, as the master plan promised.
- Finish the Delaware River Trail and connect it into the neighborhoods, not just along the water.
- Flood and stormwater resilience designed in from the start, which costs everyone less than retrofitting it later.
- Waterfront value should fund schools, parks and transit in the blocks behind it.
Philadelphia adopted a master plan for the central Delaware that promised public access to the river roughly every half mile, a continuous trail, and green connections back into the neighborhoods. Much of it is still on paper.
Access, actually
A riverfront you can only see through a gap between two buildings is not a public riverfront. Every major approval along the Delaware should be measured against one question: does this get more people to the water, more easily, for free?
Connect it inland
Penn Treaty, Pier 68, Washington Avenue Green and the trail segments that exist are good. They are also hard to reach on foot from four blocks inland, across an interstate off-ramp. The connections matter as much as the destinations.
Build for the river we will actually have
Tidal flooding and stormwater are not hypothetical on this stretch. Resilience — elevated ground floors, real stormwater capture, restored edge where it is possible — costs less when it is a condition of approval than when it is a FEMA claim.
Share what the waterfront earns
When a parcel on the river becomes worth many times what it was, some of that should visibly come back to the rowhouse blocks behind it: the school, the rec center, the trolley stop, the corner that floods.
Help make this happen
Plans need a Council seat behind them. Chip in or take a shift.