With the completion of the next phase of the Schuylkill River Trail in sight, and with development booming in Southwest Philadelphia, this is not the time to relegate Grays Ferry Avenue to the status of a service road, lined by garages and self-storage facilities. The avenue occupies a vital position, paralleling the river between Center City and rapidly growing Southwest Philadelphia, linking neighborhoods that are critical to the vitality of our city.
As with many other developing commercial corridors in Philadelphia, Grays Ferry Avenue should serve the needs of the adjacent communities, rather than being treated as a thoroughfare to other places, lined with service uses for Center City and University City. Its mixed-use future should include reasonably dense housing, shopping, and other amenities, in addition to strategically located service uses. This requires thoughtful, comprehensive planning, and that can't be done instantly.
In the meantime, to improve the current proposal for a single-use parking garage, modifications should be made to integrate retail and/or residential uses into the primary elevation, at minimum, to promote the well-connected, community-oriented future that Grays Ferry Avenue deserves. Many successful examples of this approach have been constructed around Philadelphia, including parking garages on the 1300 block of Arch Street and at the corner of 38th and Walnut Streets, where thriving retail activates the street frontage, screening the parking usage from pedestrians and vehicular passersby.
The DAG Steering Committee
