A highly anticipated linear park project in Philadelphia will open this year. Planners and activists have been working in anticipation of increased pressure on the local housing market.
Mark Dent reports on the ongoing effort in Philadelphia to insulate neighborhoods along the planned route of the Rail Park from the forces of gentrification. With Phase I of the park planned to open in the spring, planners and neighborhood activists are wary of comparisons of the project to New York's Nigh Line—and rents are already rising.
The article introduces the dynamics at work in the Chinatown neighborhood that will be home to the highly anticipated new Rail Park, the plan for the park, and the people and organizations working to create new affordable housing to stem the tide of rising rents in the area. Dent also raises a comparison to the 11th Street Bridge project in Washington, D.C., which has set similar goals for preserving housing affordability in the neighborhoods connected to that project.
FULL STORY: LESSONS FROM THE HIGH LINE
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research