Next Great City: Philadelphia - Volume III, Issue XXIII
Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture)
NEWSLETTER Next Great City: Philadelphia
COUNCIL CONSIDERS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS BILL
VOLUME III, ISSUE XXIII
The B Corporation Certification Program run by B Lab, which measures a company’s social and environmental practices, would be used to certify businesses for the proposed sustainable business tax incentive.
Philadelphia City Council's Finance Committee recently approved an amendment to Bill No. 090119 introduced by Councilman Kenney to create tax incentives for certified sustainable businesses located in the City of Philadelphia
This legislation is well timed as it coincides with unprecedented investment in the green economy from the federal level, and supports the city’s goal to “Double the Number of Low- and High-Skill Green Jobs” it set for itself in Target 14 of Greenworks Philadelphia. By creating a more supportive climate for green businesses in Philadelphia, the city is working to grow local businesses so they will be here to hire the graduates of all the new federally-funded training programs that will come online in 2010.
City Council is expected to vote on the amendment early this week. You can let them know that passing this legislation is important to you by emailing them today.
$1.35M IN FEDERAL GRANTS FOR GREEN JOBS
Pennsylvania has been selected to receive a $1.25 million State Labor Market Information Improvement grant from the Department of Labor to assess economic activity in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries and identify occupations within those industries. The Commonwealth will also receive $100,000 through the Green Capacity Building grant program to increase capacity for green job training programs.
Pennsylvania is already a nationally recognized green jobs leader, and this funding, along with passage of supportive legislation like House Bill 80, will help promote local business growth and green job creation, and attract investment to Philadelphia and throughout the state.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF TRANSIT STRIKE
While we have all heard, and likely expressed our own opinions on a variety of issues related to the recent SEPTA union strike, one impact of the strike that hasn’t received much attention is the environmental impact of the strike. Mateo Rando, a graduate student a Penn’s Fels Institute of Government, seeks to assess the strike’s environmental toll in the article, “The Transit Strike and the Law of Unintended Consequences.”
Using statistics on SEPTA usage, car occupancy rates, and averages of pounds of CO2 emitted per passenger, per mile using different transportation options, Mateo calculates the carbon emissions impact of the strike. The impact looks greater still when Mateo considers the likelihood that some people will avoid using public transit because of ill will created by the strike, and revert back to using private vehicles long after the six-day strike has ended, creating even more carbon pollution.
MASTER PLAN TEAM FOR CENTRAL DELAWARE
The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) has selected a team of consultants to develop the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Waterfront. The team includes Cooper Robertson & Partners, master planners; the OLIN Partnership, landscape architects; and KieranTimberlake, architects; and HR&A Advisors, who will prepare the economic analysis of both public and private projects and who will be integrated into every phase of the master planning assignment; as well as several other subconsultants in the fields of transportation, traffic engineering, planning and zoning law, ecology and historic preservation.
The Master Plan is tasked with taking the values and principles set forth in the Civic Vision for the Central Delaware and translating them into concrete land use, zoning, and transportation plans. As part of that assignment, the master planners must address public access to the river's edge for the project area, between Oregon and Allegheny Avenues. Next Great City, the Coalition for Philadelphia’s Riverfronts (CPR), and our partner groups look forward to seeing the planning process unfold and engaging with the DRWC and the master planning consultants regarding public riverfront access.
