January 10–17, 2002

news

Train-ing Cramp

Kimmel Center officials haven’t taken even the simplest steps to promote public transit to visitors.

by Daniel Brook

Christina M. Felice

Paving the way: The new 660-space parking garage opened in conjunction with the Kimmel Center.

Walking down the Avenue of the Arts from City Hall to the Kimmel Center, it’s all upscale hotels, restaurants and shops. Past the Kimmel, it’s just one parking lot after another.

By breaking up the flow of the street, the lots ensure that the boom at the upper end of the Avenue can’t make it past Pine Street.

Unfortunately, the execs at the Regional Performing Arts Center are only making the situation worse. As part of their efforts to turn South Broad Street into a world-class arts district, they have focused on adding extra parking for patrons. But if every new arts venue means more unsightly parking garages instead of the offices, apartments and restaurants that would add more buzz to the Avenue, South Broad may never reach its potential.

There are only two ways to bring thousands of people to the Kimmel Center: encourage them to drive by putting in more parking, or encourage them to use public transportation to get to the show. So far, the powers that be have gone exclusively with the first solution. Despite the numerous lots below Pine Street, the Kimmel Center built its own 135-space underground lot and encouraged Philadelphia parking magnate Joseph Zuritsky to build a massive 660-space garage across the street at 15th and Spruce.

	Lots of lots: This area map from a Kimmel Center brochure highlights 11 different parking lots but no transit stations.

"I had spoken to [RPAC board chairman] Bill Rouse early on, explaining that if they wanted … we would be willing to build [a garage]," says Zuritsky. The new garage is about as attractive as a parking lot can be; when completed, the ground floor will hold two restaurants. Still, by Zuritsky’s own admission, the lot is rarely filled, calling into question whether the monstrous garage is even necessary.

While the new lot was going up, progress on the transit front was almost nonexistent. According to The Kimmel Center’s interim president, Leslie Ann Miller, "In terms of promoting public transportation over parking, frankly, we have not done that."

Miller, who lives in Bryn Mawr, spoke to City Paper from her car.

Not only has the Kimmel Center not promoted transit over driving, but in some cases, it has not promoted transit at all. One Kimmel Center brochure does not explain how to get to the venue by mass transit. Another tells patrons to call SEPTA if they want to find out how to take the train to the Kimmel. These same brochures give detailed driving directions from I-95, the Schuylkill Expressway, the Ben Franklin Bridge and the Walt Whitman Bridge. Every Kimmel brochure includes a map showing 11 different parking lots, some as far away as Chestnut Street. City Hall is labeled on the map, but Suburban Station is not.

The lack of progress on transit is especially irksome considering that so many of the Kimmel Center’s patrons live in communities served by the Regional Rail lines. Not only is the Kimmel Center a few blocks from Suburban Station, but the walk between them — past the Ritz-Carlton, the Union League and the Bellevue — is one of the most pleasant the city has to offer.

In other cities, public transit authorities work with cultural institutions to offer free or reduced price transportation for patrons. In New York, a common Broadway promotion is a free roundtrip commuter rail ticket with each ticket — an incentive that seems tailor-made for Philadelphia. In transit-phobic Los Angeles, the J. Paul Getty Museum waives the admission fee for people who take the bus instead of driving. But here in Philly, despite our comprehensive rail service, nothing is being done.

The officials responsible seem to feel that marketing transit will be an uphill battle. "We have a wonderful public-transportation system, [but] we live in a city where people tend to drive," says Karen Lewis, executive director of Avenue of the Arts Inc.

The fact of the matter is that Philadelphia has the second-lowest rate of car ownership of any city in the nation. It’s just that the powers that be seem to believe that despite the viable mass-transit options, Kimmel Center patrons simply will not use them. Lewis adds, "We have a pretty good relationship with the parking lots." Unfortunately, the Kimmel Center honchos don’t have much of a relationship with SEPTA. At a public planning meeting for the center in summer 2000, a SEPTA official’s offer to discuss options for a transit plan were largely ignored. Options currently on the table, like running a bus loop down the Avenue of the Arts, are unambitious in that they offer no incentive to use public transit.

According to Kimmel Center spokeswoman Sandy Horrocks, "With SEPTA, things have to go through public hearings, and they take a long time." Granted, but with the Kimmel Center in the works for years, couldn’t a plan have been in place in time for the center’s opening?

Philadelphia is fortunate to have the transit infrastructure in place to serve the new venue. It’s just a matter of promoting transit. And when a prime parking spot for the evening costs $15, it shouldn’t be too hard.

Despite the lack of progress, perhaps there may be reason for hope. In February, Janice Price will take over as president of the Regional Performing Arts Center. Price is moving down from New York, where she has been serving as interim director at Lincoln Center. Coming from a performing arts venue where patrons line up for the bus after the opera lets out, Price may bring a more balanced approach to the transit vs. parking debate.

Hopefully she will realize that adding more parking to the arts district only impedes future development, and she’ll dispense with the prevailing philosophy among Avenue of the Arts planners that sometimes you have to destroy a street to save it.