$45M allotted to revive Fairmount Park as tourist destination

Standing at the site of the nation's 100th birthday party, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah yesterday announced legislation to authorize $45 million to create a Centennial District in Fairmount Park.

The district's aim will be to revive the area as the tourist destination it once was, Casey said at a fountain in front of Memorial Hall that hasn't operated in decades.

"It's along the lines of quality of life and being able not just to celebrate the history and the heritage, but also to build a foundation for the future," Casey said.

Casey said the legislation would provide five years of funding for capital projects, planning and technical assistance for the Centennial District.

The district's key attractions are the Philadelphia Zoo, the Mann Center for Performing Arts, the Please Touch Museum and Fairmount Park itself.

Those institutions, the Park Commission and the Fairmount Park Conservancy will collaborate on the improvements.

"We are today through this legislation going to be looking backwards at that history but also utilizing it in a way to [create] . . . a place where there will be many family attractions in which people can envision spending the whole day," said Fattah, who's sponsoring the House bill.

The 2005 Centennial District Master Plan envisioned an interactive, year-round destination for the district, said Mark Focht, executive director of the Park Commission.

"It lays out a vision of a family-friendly, multiple-venue destination that would build upon the legacy of the centennial," Focht said.

Miller Parker, executive director of the West Philadelphia Technology Center, said the project would stimulate residential construction.

"It will mean more jobs, more contracts, more performing-arts centers, science and environmental," Parker said.

Councilman Curtis Jones proposed turning Centennial Lake in West Fairmount Park into an "outdoor environmental classroom."

"Our work is still in front of us, but thanks to Congressman Fattah, thanks to the Centennial District Planning Committee, we now see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not a freight train to run us over," Jones said. *