CHUCK HARRIS: THE BIG GARDENER

Charles Harris, past Chairman and Professor Emeritus of Harvard's Department of Landscape Architecture, thinks broadly about the way we treat and mistreat land and natural resources of our land. He is very disappointed that those with power and funds have not made a new mode of automated personal transit (podcars) happen in the USA. He sees clear benefits and tries to visually introduce this new technology into today's and tomorrow's urban landscapes.

Light transit can help create and fit into walkable urban environments.

Known as Chuck to hundreds of students and colleagues, Harris points out that historically eighty percent of Southern New England's land was occupied by humans in some way in 1850 -- mostly agriculture, forestry and a growing number of villages, towns and cities with streets and industrial uses. Only 20 percent of the land was left as forest. By 1950 -- one hundred years later -- 80% of Southern New England land had returned to nature, because its rocky hills with short growing seasons simply could not compete with the broad fertile plains of the Heartland, drained swamplands in the heart of Florida or irrigation in California's Central Valley. The result today: only one New England acre in five is directly used by humans. Trees and other forms of natural areas have reclaimed the other four.

Historically human settlements have tended to cluster along coastlines, waterways, and major land-based travel ways. Today's settlements have continued this pattern of clustering and spreading, often in unplanned ways into surrounding agricultural and natural areas. This has resulted in vast suburban areas that have overpowered the surrounding natural resources. Recently there is a reverse trend away from low density, car-dependent suburban development to clusters of higher density with a mixture of uses. These new and old nodes need podcars to transform the unsustainable auto glut of contemporary life.

Rather than plot out maps, crunch numbers or argue the logic of pod-oriented develop, Chuck with pen in hand has sketched out it in creative proportion, as shown above. Such illustrations can be very powerful and be worth more than 10,000 words.

FIGHTS ON THE AIRFRONT

After four years of lawsuits, Philadelphia has agreed to pay millions of dollars every year to an airport neighbor that is a kind of  Paradise-Lost-to-Airport Noise. The township of Tinicum is south of PHL. Funds will go to it, the county in which it lies, and the local school district. A $6.4 billion Capacity Enhancement Program has FAA approval, now ready to go.

Immediately to the east of PHL is the mouth of the Delaware River as it leaves South Philadelphia and numerous industrial scars of the 20^th century to flow into the vast marine beauty of its large estuary.  To the west  of the airport is Amtrak’s NE Corridor (but no station, only a special $8 fare commuter rail shuttle in Center City run by local transit agency SEPTA).

Aircraft noise from flights to and from Philadelphia's main airport have deprived Tinicum of waterfront quiet.

PHL ranks high in the national aviation grid, with passenger traffic of almost 38 million last year. That puts it ahead of LaGuardia and Newark but trailing JFK with its 50 million last year.  PHL needs to grow, and a new ground transportation center is planned astride the Amtrak corridor. With its location roughly midway between New York and Baltimore -Washington, PHL is also nicely located for trans-Atlantic traffic going on to most of the Americas.  In other words, PHL is real estate with value.  Airport, City and Township lawyers have come to terms to build.

Curiously, Tinicum was first settled by Swedes in 1643. It was occupied by the Dutch in 1655 and ultimately by the British in 1664. Most people consider it to be part of the United States, but Governor Printz still looms large at City Hall and in a riverfront park.

Airport-Airfront Conflicts

Conflicts over rights and benefits in the struggle to balance regional need for a large airport and the degraded quality of life for nearby residents are common. PHL and Tinicum are a case in point.

Tinicum has memories and reminders of its quieter past, tucked away far from the bustle and hustle of the City of Brotherly Love, whose Mail Line goes to the northwest, not southwest. Once sleepy, Tinicum was shaken up decades ago by growing air traffic.

Today it has about 5,000 residents, and the township  will soon get $5 million for airport land takings, $1 million per year for twenty years, and share $1.86 million per year with the County and local School District. It is a complicated formula, but a quick look says Tinicum will get $4000 per person per year to compensate for the pervasive drone of aircraft landings and takeoffs, millions of tons of GHG and commercial development encroachment.

Jobs are a political priority. Prospects for lots of airport and airfront jobs are good. There is an APM spine in the PHL master plan with a branch to the planned multi-modal hub. In future years, it could be extended to serve future development in Philadelphia. Should it also go to Tinicum?

A more promising option would be an ATN to multiple landside locations flexibly designed as a network with non-stop taxi-like service, not stop-go linear rail.  It is well worth study, especially if Swedish planning expertise emerging from studies of efficient development options around Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport are brought to bear.

Post-Car Urbanism

Implications for Town & Airport District Planning

The 8^th annual Podcar City conference will advance the vision of sustainable urban transportation that reduces our auto-addiction and its high costs. Most modern countries are auto-addicted. Recent converts are in oil-rich areas and the choking cities and towns of India and China.

Auto-addiction is life when cars serve almost all everyday needs. On the whole, and especially from a community viewpoint, this degrades the quality of life. Whenever too many people want to gather somewhere, parking becomes a problem. If more people walked, rode bikes or came by transit attractive enough to make them prefer it, community life would improve. Automated Transit Networks (ATNs) do that. Planners, civic designers and landscape and building architects need guidelines. PCC8 will help create them by addressing issues head on.

Come move forward to sustainable transporation

Airports present special challenges. PCC8 will learn from professional studies of sustainable development underway near Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. What efficiencies can be achieved to create good jobs for thousands of Swedes? Mark your calendars for September 3-5 north of Stockholm.

Conference Theme

Here are the themes to be explored in the PCC8 program:

·   Revitalization of maturing suburbs and inner neighborhoods

·   Rationalization of airport clutter into airfront development

·   Definition of the evolving range of ATN options including solar

·   Innovative remote parking solutions, robo-valets, and urban infill

·   How PPPs can finance and implement infrastructure projects

The  Icebreaker on Wednesday, September 3 will be close up and personal with the Podcar Station Display  already greeting from afar thousands of highway motorists approaching Arlanda Airport. The conference technical sessions will take place September 4 and 5 at the Arlanda Radisson.   

For current information on PCC8 and to register, www.podcarcity.org.