Residents react to the start of Manayunk’s Venice Island work

Construction for Manayunk’s long-awaited, Venice Island project is now underway behind Main Street. 

The Philadelphia Water Department will soon place an underground stormwater basin under the site before the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation builds a state-of-the-art recreation center equipped with basketball and hockey courts, a spray garden, an indoor performing arts center and a new parking lot. 

We asked the residents of Manayunk, is the Venice Island project important to you? How much will it benefit this neighborhood? And is the money going in the right place? Here’s what they had to say. 

Sara VanTrieste, Alex Tagiev and Tom Hogg are students at the University of the Arts. This piece was produced as part of the collaborative media program of The University of the Arts and WHYY/NewsWorks.