Tacony-Frankford Watershed
Discussion Notes
TACONY-FRANKFORD
Just finished creating a master plan
Need money to implement this
The safer the park, the safer the infrastructure under the park will be
Measure how much litter we pick up
Goals:
Clean watershed
Park: clean, welcoming, community asset bringing people into the park
Tools:
Monthly programming
Partnerships
Stewardship
Relationship with Parks & Rec
Gives support and leeway
Park has no trash cans
Limited capacity of Parks & Rec
Building credibility is important
Credibility with parks & Rec, with the City/Mayor, with the community
Don’t want to wait for staff. Need partners.
Everything is mobile
Positivity spreads
Put it in pockets throughout the city
Closed the boat launches because of parties and ATVs and ranger shortages
Hesitant to allow others to do the services that they don’t have the capacity to do
Lack of trust in other models
The middle tier – in between the small and large groups – is hard. Left on their own and “abandoned”
Ask for volunteer and friends groups but don’t know how to work with these groups
Lost a friends group (no indemnity)
Maintenance agreements and liability
Changes need to come from the mayor
Public Support
Programming:
Walks and runs
Nature walks/birds
Quarterly festivals
Family
Free events
Clean ups
The little kids like to use the “robot hands” and be part of the clean up
Need not just support but a plan of how to support volunteers and groups – from the mayor and elected officials
Need support, and plan and funding – the Mayor and the City have to have our back
What’s the succession plan for friends groups?
Crime, opioid epidemic, and homelessness
Inequity in response and prevention
The officials need to walk through the area. Walk slow so that they really see what’s going on
It’s a question of leadership: making this a priority and be willing to take the risk
People are concerned about access and safety vs. new programming
Tookany/Tacony Watershed
Julie, Executive Director, provided group with a summary of the Tookany Watershed
30 square mile urban watershed
We need to protect the parks that surround the urban watershed
Storm water sewers and infrastructure are built under their parks
Julie and her staff work to connect people to their creeks
They do this through education, stewardship, restoration, advocacy, programs, community engagement
Funded by Philadelphia Water Department
What was most important to success?
Tookany has just finished up their masterplan
According to Julie, success hasn’t been achieved yet
Collaboration:
PWD supports TTF each year
PWD created Tookany
PWD is able to support Tookany because they have infrastructure under the park
Community
The more people using the park, the safer the people will be
What are the goals of the organization (Nunera)
Make Tookany a clean, welcoming space that is a community asset
This means a clean watershed
Build a constituency and get people back into the park
Get the city to address the issues that keep people out of the park
Crime
ATV usage
Sign of progress:
There is an active friend group within the park and the city agreed to allow the friend group to create a masterplan
Challenges to success:
Building a relationship the city has not been easy
Building credibility to the city, and parks and rec
Would like for Tookany to be just like Friends of the Whisahicken
Lack of investment by the city
Up to friends groups to clear trash
There is no staff at Tookany creek park
They have gates that they don’t open because of lack of capacity
City timeline vs. Tookany’s timeline
Julie can’t wait on the department of Parks and Recreation to have the staff needed
Instead, it is more effective to support and enable partners to get things done- Don’t want to wait on the city
Lack of trust between Parks and Rec/the city and smaller organizations
There needs to be accountability to people, such as those who make up friends groups, who are volunteering so much of their time doing the City’s job
Lack of capacity at Parks and Rec
PPR has maintenance agreements with larger organizations and that is what Julie is asking for; city needs to be willing to create maintenance agreements with smaller organizations
Issue across the city: ask for friend groups/volunteer groups but inability to figure out how to work with them
Good model in NYC
If you’re going to ask groups to work with you, you need to ask them what they need
They are working with larger friends groups but not middle tier or smaller groups
Tookany is left on their own
Friends groups have been sued out of existence due to lack of support from the city
Lost 60 year old friend group because of a slip and fall
Liability and maintenance issues
Programming has been important to success for Tookany
Walking group, running group, weekly cleanup, monthly cleanup
Built constituency, brought a lot of people into the park and created programming; BUT Tookany doesn’t have a facility which is limiting (though this is not even a priority anymore)
All programming that Tookany does is mobile
What worked best to build public support?
Programs
Getting people out on the trail regularly
Nature/bird walks
Quarterly festivals
Block parties every June
Fall fest
Movies
People appreciate this! It is all free and this is how they connect with the community
Frequency is important
People feel invested if they attend events and also have the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of the park
Challenges to public support
Lack of support/planning around friends groups and volunteers
The aforementioned lawsuit that happened was discouraging because the friend group was liable but had no support from the city
What is the succession plan for all of these friend groups?
A lot of older people are maintaining them and they will age out
Gun violence and opioid epidemic
Problems in parks that Parks and Rec cannot address
Don’t want a massive police presence in the parks, but they also don’t want the parks to be a hub for crime
City expected Parks and Rec to deal with opioid epidemic in Kensington
This took resources away from other parks
Homelessness
That shouldn’t be an issue for parks either
That is a separate social issue that the city to take care of that isn’t up to the friends group or parks
The parks have been abandoned
Lack of leadership
Lack of comprehensive response
Programming can only do so much to address the larger issues in our parks
Key takeaways from first breakout session:
Tookany
Safety
A safer park will protect the infrastructure
Programming, partnerships, stewardship
Hard to deliver for TTF
They need more support and capacity so that they can continue to deliver
TTF is in between friends groups and larger organizations
Funding and Plan is needed to be spearheaded by the mayor and other leaders
The mayor needs to have our back!
Discovery Center
What worked with the discovery center?
The support from the community
And in turn the support they were able to provide to the community
Rental space created income for utilities
Partnerships
Partnered with other organizations (Audubon and Strawberry Mansion)
allowed them to understand what the community needed
Negatives
Maintenance
Turnover
18 million dollars fundraised