Summer movie nights on the Schuylkill Banks. Image credit: Schuylkill River Development Corporation

Mayor Michael Nutter’s $108 million budget cut plan includes a reduced economic development contract with the Schuylkill River Development Corporation (SRDC). This public-private partnership is the same one responsible for creating and maintaining the Schuylkill Banks trail from Locust Street up to the Waterworks area around the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The trail, which is home to popular outdoor summer movie nights, remains Center City’s jumping-off point for joggers, walkers and bikers to connect with a series of trails that snake up the Schuylkill River past Valley Forge.

Without knowing how much SRDC is losing in city money, the organization’s executive director Joe Syrnick says any cutbacks would initially mean slashing programming like the outdoor summer movie screenings, and other festivals held along the trail throughout the rest of the year.

SRDC didn’t know the city was slashing its funding until we asked for comment on the issue. Syrnick says no one from the city called for input, or to break the news that less money is on the way. He’s since put calls into the city to find out the price tag of the reduction, but says he’s getting no answers. For each of the last two years, SRDC has received $93,000 in city funding. Syrnick says the money is critical and accounts for 10% of SRDC’s operating budget, which is just shy of $1 million.

A major source of capital grants to develop the Schuylkill Banks comes from the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and Department of Transportation (PENN DOT). But with Governor Ed Rendell making cutbacks, it’s unclear right now whether those grants to SRDC will also decrease.

Syrnick believes the trail is a great resource that helps improve the quality of life in Philadelphia. But at the end of the day, he says SRDC’s financial cuts don’t compare to citizens losing libraries and fire companies in their neighborhoods.

Since 1998, $15 million has been spent on developing the Schuylkill Banks. The next immediate phase is to extend the trail south from Locust Street to South Street via a $10 million boardwalk. Once that’s completed, the trail will then cross the river to Bartram’s Garden, and eventually down to Fort Mifflin where the Schuylkill flows into the Delaware River.