Signed this week by Mayor Street and William G.M. Goetz, resident vice president of CSX Transportation Inc., the agreement is a win times four: The city, the CSX railroad, the Free Schuylkill River Park advocacy group and park users all make out well. That's a rare outcome in a culture where big business often employs "wear 'em down" tactics to sap energy and enthusiasm from grass-roots organizations.
CSX, which had balked at the street-level crossings - they cited safety reasons, though trail advocates suspect it had more to do with the convenience of parking railroad cars in the area - finaly gave in, and thus ended five years of fighting.
The city's greenscape grows. The railroad continues to use the tracks, recreational users will have greater access to the trail and the folks from Free Schuylkill River Park accomplished their goal to make the trail more accessible from the street, and keep train cars from blocking the trail.
The agreement illustrates a minor paradigm shift that we may see more frequently as the city continues to develop. In this case, the riverfront is no longer the sole propriety of industrial giants created in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Instead, a 21st century compromise - you could call it a partnership - won out, with costs being shared by the city, state and CSX.
Hats off to Russell Meddin and Sarah Clark Stuart, coordinators of Free Schuylkill River Park, and board chairman (and City Council candidate) Andy Toy. They showed that goals can be achieved when people get together, work for what they believe is right, and utilize all the resources at their disposal.
Also, U.S. District Judge Bruce Kauffman, who pushed the sides to agreement.
Now, a new timeline starts: 24 months for the crossings to be built at Race Street and Locust Street; 30 months to erect the pedestrian bridge.
And then, city residents get easy access to a new back yard, one that can take them from Valley Forge down to Bartram Gardens to Fort Mifflin, all the way to the airport.
Nothing beats a win times four. *
Phildelphia Daily News, April 26, 2007
Ronnie Polaneczky | CSX Goliath couldn't untrack park Davids
But all things considered, it's a happy problem to have.
The organization they helped to found in 2003, Free Schuylkill River Park, was born in the face of CSX railroad's threat to cut off the park from the Logan Square and Fitler Square neighborhoods.
CSX tracks separate the park from the neighborhoods, and CSX was adamant that no one cross them. But fencing them off would render the park a cattle chute, hindering its use and crippling waterfront development.
Clark Stuart and Meddin, longtime Logan Square neighbors, wanted to "free" the park from this nonsense, hence the name of their web-based advocacy group.
So what's the problem?
This week, the mayor and CSX agreed to a solution precisely of the kind that the corporation once deplored: the installation of gated and signaled pedestrian crossings at the park's Race and Locust Street entrances, along with a pedestrian bridge over the tracks just south of Locust.
So now that Schuylkill River Park has been "freed," what should Clark Stuart and Meddin call their group?
"It's too soon to say," chuckled Meddin yesterday, still jubilant about Tuesday's agreement. "There's still a lot to do."
Explained Clark Stuart, "We want the community involved in the design of the gates and bridge, and we have to figure out who will monitor the project."
So who knows what roadblocks the group might face between now and the end of 2009, when construction is supposed to be completed?
I guess it's prudent, then, to wait on a name change.
But it's not too soon to cheer Clark Stuart and Meddin, along with web-campaign guru Rob Stuart, board chair (and at-large City Council candidate) Andy Toy and others who managed this grass-roots campaign so deftly, they made it look easy.
Given its deep pockets, many lawyers and political ties, multibillion-dollar CSX should've destroyed Free the River like a freight train on a mole rat.
Except Free the River kept outsmarting its opposition.
When CSX wanted to close off its tracks in the interest of public-safety, Free the River responded by documenting instances where CSX tracks are wide open to pedestrians.
When CSX denied that it was using the tracks as a parking lot, Free the River installed "train-cams" - outside the windows of apartment dwellers whose homes overlooked the park - to monitor the parking.
"I knocked on doors until I found people who'd let us mount the cameras," recalled Meddin. "That was fun."
The group also made a big stink about how often freight cars filled with hazardous materials idled on the tracks - suggesting that CSX's bad neighborliness was more sinister than anyone had thought.
Every action by the group was meticulously explained on its site (www.freetheriverpark.org), and "action alerts" were sent to its growing list of subscribers any time the group needed lobbying of City Council, CSX or the company's own customers to get behind pro-access initiatives.
The response was so instant, the rebuttals so relentless, CSX just couldn't stay nimble.
Still, it goes without saying that Free the River had powerful support on its side.
This week's agreement wouldn't have happened if Federal Judge Bruce Kauffman hadn't pushed for a settlement between CSX and the city; if Mayor Street and City Council weren't behind the project; if Gov. Rendell and Sen. Specter and state Sen. Fumo hadn't lent backup, and if other advocates and elected pols hadn't gotten behind the project in the first place.
But it's also clear that support never would have coalesced if Free the River hadn't had the savvy to first make a case for its cause to a major funder - the William Penn Foundation - and then organize so strategically that it became easy for park lovers to support the cause.
"There was such a groundswell, it kept us going," said Clark Stuart. "People's belief in this was so inspiring."
But just because people believe in a great idea doesn't mean it will turn into something real and wonderful.
They need help to make that happen.
Free the River helped them. And the waterfront will never look the same because of it. *
Signed Agreement Opens Public Access Along Schuylkill
"This part of this neighborhood didn't always look this way," Street said. "This is one of the greatest improvements we've made to this city in the past few years." The mayor added that an abandoned parking lot in Schuylkill River Park was the very first project embarked on by the mayor's neighborhood transformation initiative. The pedestrian trail is expected to start around South Street and continue for 40 miles into Chester along the river. Launched in 2003, Free Schuylkill River Park, a citizens' organization, lobbied the city to make safe, ground level crossings into the park trail at Locust and Race streets. In addition to being successful at this, the group, in conjunction with the city, managed to negotiate with CSX to reroute several garbage-toting trains so they no longer come through the park.
Andy Toy, board chairman of Free Schuylkill River Park and candidate for an at-large City Council seat, said Philadelphia cannot be "railroaded in the age of modern, livable cities." "This frees the park to reach its full potential by guaranteeing safe new connections with the trail and the riverfront. We hope this is a harbinger of the future." There are 21,000 miles of CSX railroad across the eastern U.S., which transport anything from trash to Florida orange juice. Mayoral candidate Michael Nutter was in the audience because he said he was an element in getting talks on the negotiating table when he was on City Council. He said the agreement was the start of a great venture with money well spent. "It's the start of broader thinking about use of the riverfront, and I'm pleased to play a role in this," Nutter said, adding that he was instrumental in putting pressure on CSX to reach a compromise.
