Our City could take a tremendous leap forward with a new park on the Avenue of the Arts. Currently, the northern corners of Broad and Washington are hideous looking. They are paved areas surrounded by chain link fences. Who owns this space? I suspect that it is owned by the city or the county. This space is ideal for the creation of a new park.

Not only is this space ideal for a new park, but the new park could become the anchor of the Avenue of the Arts. Are you familiar with Guell Park in Barcelona? Guell Park attracts visitors from worldwide. It is an incredibly beautiful space designed by Antoni Gaudi.

I have a local artist in mind who could create something that is unique to Philadelphia, and that would attract people worldwide because it would be so beautiful.

I also have ideas on how to obtain funding; and ideas on how to generate income to maintain the park; and ideas on how to create space for artist studios within the park.

Anyone interested in discussing this further?

1. Funding
How can we get the City to properly fund the maitenance of our parks? Our Friends of the Park group has to raise thousands of dollars through donations to replace dying trees in our local park.

2. Marketing
This goes hand-in-hand with the first concern. Greenplan Philadelphia is a great initiative, but we need to do more to convince people how important open space is. From school programs to bus ads, we should be promoting the creation and maintainence of open space throughout the city.

3. Multi-use
As much as possible, a park should allow for a variety of uses -- ball field, playground, dog run, etc.