What’s happening
Vol. 67 NO. 46 ■ November 13, 2014
southphillyreview.com
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Happy Huskies Coach David Hand, fourth from left, and his West Passyunk-based Prep Charter Huskies made school history Saturday by capturing the Public League’s AA football title. Their victory sets up a date with Neumann-Goretti High School for the City AA crown. See page 38. ■ Peter DeCarl shares the Wells Fargo Center’s meatballs recipe. See page 32.
MoVIE
■ “Foxcatcher” is catching its share of attention thanks to standout performances. See page 16.
S ta f f P h o t o b y J o s e p h M y e r s
Blue and gray and green The Philadelphia Water Department is looking at Guerin Recreation Center and depaving to create green space. ■ By Bill Chenevert R e v i e w S ta f f W r i t e r
I
t’s a classic South Philly scenario sparked by the Philadelphia Water Department’s ongoing strategic plan it calls Green City, Clean Waters – change is coming to 16th and Wolf streets, and not everyone’s on board. The program aims to alleviate mounting pressures in the City’s sewage
system and water treatment facilities by installing infrastructure and creating green spaces that directly improve the health of the Schuylkill River. After successfully executing projects at Columbus Square Park, 12th and Wharton streets, and Herron Playground, 250 Reed St., and creating the City’s first porous street on the 800 block of Percy Street, the Water Department has set its sights on the Guerin Recreation Center, 2201 S. 16th St. The City is confronted with watershed issues due to a structure of wastewater collection fairly typical for older cities called Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). During dry weather, the city can appropriately treat sanitary sewage before it enters into 164 combined sewer outfalls along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers and the Cobbs, Tookany/Tocany-Frankford and lower Pennypack creeks. It becomes more challenging during wet weather and seasons of snowmelt, when sanitary
Get Up, Stand Up
sewage gets treated but untreated stormwater and meltwater gets dumped into our rivers and streams, threatening native species and inviting in invasive species and degrading the landscape. These CSOs exist in the older parts of the city, including North, West and South Philly. And the Water Department’s newest site, at the Newboldsituated Guerin Rec. Center, is looking at a 2015 start date for construction. But it has already been years in the making. “I first met with the community two years ago in ’12, that was the very beginning of the planning process,” Maggie Wood, a community planner and outreach specialist for the Water Department, said. “At Guerin Rec., we have an opportunity to manage stormwater from the streets surrounding the Rec. Center – it’s the same process that brought us See Guerin center page 10 >>
City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson’s Stand Up, Man Up initiative is aimed at South Philly youth in danger.
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