The Big Green Block

The Big Green Block is such a remarkable project that has taken place in Fishtown or Kensington whatever you want to call it. When I was told that we were going to go here for our first field trip I could not help myself from being so excited to see the green movement that Philadelphia is promoting at work. As we took the bus ride to the location I could see that there was indeed a need for the area to have more green infrastructure integrated into the community, the open trash filled lots and falling apart buildings were screaming for help. That being said, I did not really have a solid idea on how the green initiative would be successfully integrated into the community. Which is something I feel is all too common for most urban communities, the idea of green infrastructure and having a more sustainable place to live sounds like something everyone wants but all too often it is too problematic to actually put into reality. This is why I was ready to see the Big Green Block, and did that block shock me.

                Honestly, there are so many things that the Big Green Block did superbly I do not know where the best place to start. The green roof? The rain gardens? Permeable parking lots? Outdoor athletic facilities? Or even the dog park? As you can see there are so many things that can be touched on because it felt as though when the city was looking at this block, they wanted to build a perfect model of how every example of green infrastructure you can think of can work so perfectly when intertwined with each other, instead of thinking of them as separate projects for a place. Many times when I hear about green infrastructure I think of it as individual success stories of one type of green infrastructure, for example a wind turbine being installed on top of a light post to create electricity for the light or a house having solar panels installed on top of their roof. While these two examples are nothing to look down upon due to them still being a great step towards being more sustainable, I think what the Big Green Block did was show that is possible to mix a multitude of types of green infrastructure in one project. The importance of their success of doing this is that it shows the city and investors that projects like this is a possibility for any given area. This is a pivotal step in the movement of becoming a greener city which is a more tangible after this project and no longer is it such an outlandish idea to recreate the city’s infrastructure into a more sustainable design.

                  As we were walking around the school I found it so exciting looking at how the younger people who lived around/interacted with the Big Green Block. As we walked around just the school we saw each of the mini areas of the block being used. The football field was consistently being filled with kids running out of school on their way to practice after school. The mini turf field that they made was surrounded by parents full of joy as they saw their little kids try their best to play soccer. The dog park had a constant rotation of new dogs sneaking in to see who was in their new hang out spot. The park behind the school was being tackled by little children that saw the equipment as a castle that needed to be conquered. And even the new soccer/baseball field was getting set up for an older age group of soccer players ready for practice. The fact that all of these areas were being used and at the same time just puts the cherry on the top for how necessary of a project the Big Green Block is for the revolving community. These types of projects are not only supposed to be environmentally friendly and some see that as the main factor pushing it. However, I believe that an equally important factor for these type of projects is the impact that it has on community involvement, interaction, and unity. A green common space for a community is a powerful and simplistic way of easing any sort of tensions in the community and allow members of the community a place to interact with people who they might not have talked to if they were just walking on the street. Just imagine the community revolving around the Big Green Block, if this project was not done where would they go to have football or soccer practice? Where would they take their dogs to play? Incorporating green infrastructure into a neighborhood that allows multiple uses besides just looking at it (like rain gardens) gives the people in the community the ability to do activities that they never would have the opportunity without traveling an extreme distance. The Big Green Block project was much more than just a project to fill the quota of green space, it was a model showing how to integrate a multitude of green infrastructure that relied on each other while also creating a new space for the community to do endless activities.