Three stages of civic engagement planned
Jan. 15, 2007
The planning process of revisioning seven miles of the Central Delaware River Waterfront moves into a new phase of civic engagement during late January, February and March as Praxis presents a series of public meetings.
The forums begin on Feb. 3 with a full day of Best Practice sessions at the Seaport Museum featuring the top design and planning minds in the country talking about a wide-range of topics that will impact on any plan that is eventually identified and implemented. See attached agenda below. Click here for participants
The Best Practices forums will feature presentations on the ecology, diversity and sustainable systems of the river; advocacy planning; infrastructure; urban design; politics and planning; and best practices in cities such as New York, Vancouver and San Francisco. See case studies by Praxis staff
These talks, which reflect the values about their neighborhoods and the waterfront citizens brought to the surface from the December 2006 forums, are open to the public.
On Feb. 12th, 13th and 20th, Harris Sokoloff, an expert in civic engagement with the Penn Project on Civic Engagement who is working with Praxis on facilitating the public forums, will conduct “History of the Future,” a civic exercise designed to create values-based planning principles. Participants will deliberate about how the Delaware Riverfront became the envy of the nation by, say, 2030 and what obstacles had to be overcome to get there. These sessions will be held in river ward neighborhoods.
On March 1-3, a three-day design workshop with leading design professionals, citizens and public intellectuals will integrate the civic design principles into the beginning of a vision for the Central Delaware. The workshop, which in simplest definition is a collaborative planning process that includes multiple voices to achieve a productive change in a community, will produce a preliminary design vision that will be evaluated by the public. This charette will be held at the Seaport Museum.
There will also be an Advisory Group meeting Feb. 5
Check out www.planphilly.com later this week for a full list of participants.
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