Design consultants and city officials unveiled plans last night for long-term bike and pedestrian improvements that could include upgrades to the intersection of 50th and Baltimore and more bike lanes on West Philly streets.

The preliminary plan, which is the second phase of an overall evaluation and improvement of Philadelphia’s bike and pedestrian infrastructure, recommends bike lanes for Chestnut Street from 34th Street to the Cobbs Creek Parkway, a separated bike lane on Belmont Avenue and the conversion of Pine Street to a “bike friendly” street from 39th to 57th.

Some recommendations are minor and include the painting of streets, while other are very ambitious, including the possibility of installing “cycletracks” – a bike-only lane sandwiched between the sidewalk and the street on major thoroughfares like Walnut Street.

“One of the downsides is that it would take more of the parking off the streets,” said Dan Goodman, a senior planner at Toole Design Group, the firm assembling the plan.

The plan’s recommendations are based on field research conducted over the past year on streets throughout West Philadelphia. Data collectors examined pedestrian and bike traffic from Greys Ferry to City Avenue and from the Schuylkill River to Cobbs Creek Parkway. Their tentative plans, including maps, will soon be available here.

Last night’s meeting was the second in West Philadelphia this week. Both are part of the community input phase of the project. Later this fall and winter, Toole Design Group will review community recommendations and come up with a final plan to submit to the city. Phase one of the plan, conducted in 2009 and 2010, saw vast improvements to bike and pedestrian facilities in Center City, including 200 miles of new bike lanes and “bike friendly” streets.

But just because recommendations are in the plan does not mean they will be carried out. As with most improvements in Philadelphia, politics will play a big role – at least for the major improvements such as new bike lanes that could affect traffic flows and parking.

Small improvements, though, are usually included in the city’s paving plans. Steve Buckley, the city’s deputy commissioner of transportation, was at last night’s meeting to answer questions about whether many of the proposed improvements will ever see the light of day.

“Do we think every single piece will be implemented? We can’t guarantee that,” he said. “Right now we are looking for low-cost improvements that can be done with paint.”

One problem is that the city has far less paving projects scheduled than it has in the recent past because those funds have been designated for other projects like installing accessibility ramps at street corners to meet federal guidelines.

One low-cost recommendation at the meeting was repainting some of the existing bike lane borders to make clear to drivers that they are for cyclists. Buckley agreed.

“We have not committed enough money to those kinds of refreshers,” he said.

He recommended reporting fading lines to the Streets Department.

Possible improvements to the block of Baltimore Avenue include a mid-block crosswalk for pedestrian traffic crossing over to Cedar Park.

Toole Design is still accepting comments from residents for a couple of more weeks. Contact them here.
 

Another person with West Philly roots has been appointed to the School Reform Commission. Mayor Michael Nutter appointed novelist, arts advocate and professor Lorene Cary to the commission, which is charged with overseeing the city’s public school system.

Cary, 54, attended Henry C. Lea Elementary (4700 Locust St.), the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a creative writing instructor at Penn. Cary’s novel The Price of a Child, which tells the story of a slave who declares her freedom while traveling in Philadelphia in 1855 but whose child is still held in bondage in Virginia, was the first “One Book, One Philadelphia” selection in 2003.

“For me what is truly outstanding is that she has an incredible passion for the well-being of children,” Nutter said in a statement. “She cares very personally about parents and she’s very much focused on supporting teachers. She will be a tremendous asset to the School Reform Commission and the children of Philadelphia.”

Cary also started Art Sanctuary, an arts advocacy organization. She lives in East Falls with her husband Rev. Robert C. Smith, the rector of the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, and two daughters.

In many ways Cary is an atypical choice for the Commission, which has been made up mostly of lawyers, business people and bureaucrats since it began in 2001. Last month Nutter appointed West Philly resident Wendell Pritchett to the Commission.

Dogs and dog lovers gathered yesterday in Clark Park for the annual “Bark in the Park.” There were contests for everything from tallest dog to curliest tail to fastest runner. A good time was had by all. See the photos below.

The Penn Bookstore (3601 Walnut St.) has a bunch of interesting authors coming in over the next couple of weeks, including Nicholas Sparks and Philadelphia Inquirer mob correspondent George Anastasia.

Here is a rundown:

• October 13 – Julie Hersh, author of Struck by Living: From Depression to Hope, 6 p.m.

• October 15 – Nicholas Sparks signing his newest book The Best of Me, 2 – 4 p.m.

• October 17 – Poetry Readings by the 34th Street Poets.

• October 20 – Former Penn faculty member Elijah Anderson will discuss his book The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life.

• October 25 – Stephen Tow will discuss The Strangest Tribe: How a Group of Seattle Rock Bands Invented Grunge.

• October 27 – The Inquirer’s George Anastasia and sports radio talk show host Glen Macnow will discuss The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies.

Should Philadelphia have an elected school board? Should the school district’s governing body be appointed locally? Here’s a chance to have your voice heard.

These issues will be discussed when parents, students, educators and community members meet at a public forum on education governance on Tuesday, Oct. 11 in Center City.

Entitled “Governing the School District of Philadelphia: Do We Have the Right Model?,” the forum is open to the public and will be moderated by recently retired Daily News columnist Elmer Smith. Panelists will include Maurice Jones, a parent from the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust streets), who has helped spearhead improvements at the school over the last several months. The West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools is a co-sponsor of the event.

The forum will run from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The United Way Building (1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Lobby 2). The first part will include a panel discussion and Q and A and the second part, which begins at 7 p.m., includes breakout groups to identify community concerns and priorities. Refreshments will be served during the breakouts.

You can get free tickets by going here.

• The Philadelphia Tribune and WHYY’s Newsworks site both have stories about the innovative high school program located in the Navy Yard called The Sustainability Workshop, which has deep West Philly connections. The school, which teaches students to solve real-world problems, is run by West Philly resident Michael Clapper, a former teacher at West Philadelphia High School and until recently an education professor at Saint Joseph’s University, and Simon Hauger, who gained national attention as the director of West Philly High’s Hybrid X Team. The program gives about 30 seniors from West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and Furness high schools the chance to spend a year focusing on energy efficiency, climate change and other issues.

• Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer includes a story about the efforts of the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) to keep school libraries open. The organization has helped reopen 10 libraries at schools in West Philly that were or would have been shuttered due to budget cuts. WePAC supplies volunteer storytellers and librarians and has donated a heap of books. We have also reported on WePAC’s good work.

• The City Paper‘s online restaurant blog Meal Ticket alerts us to the opening of Chewy’s food truck, which slings sandwiches, burgers, hand-cut fries and “tater tots tossed with buffalo sauce, Whiz, bacon crumbles and ranch dressing.” Meal Ticket reports that they also have an “Apples to Apples” BLT that includes Granny Smiths and cider mayo. The truck is a joint venture between Charlie Sokowski and Terence Jones, an old street food hand. The truck operates between 34th and 35th streets on Market from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.