Heinz Catch-up

by Daniel Brook

Natural beauty may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the drive into town from the airport but maybe it should be, according to the experts at Scenic America, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that works to protect America's "scenic heritage." In its annual list of 10 "Last Chance Landscapes," Scenic America lists the Schuylkill marshes, a wetland near the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. Views of the site are in danger of being blocked by what the group calls "billboard blight."

The area was nominated for the national top-10 list by the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB), an anti-billboard group. SCRUB Executive Director Mary Tracy said she was pleasantly surprised that the site she nominated made the list. But if there was ever a "last chance" for this landscape, this is it. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether to permit billboards on the site this session.

The case got there after a series of appeals. First the city zoning board granted a variance allowing billboards on the site. The case is now before the highest court in the state. While Tracy calls it "appalling" that the city would "abuse its own billboard-control laws," administration spokespeople remain mute. "It is inappropriate for the administration to comment since the matter is in litigation," says Mary Rita D'Alessandro of the mayor's press office.

In addition to blocking vistas of the Center City skyline poking up behind pristine marshes, the installation of billboards could harm the natural environment, SCRUB claims. Dr. Gary Stolz, acting refuge manager at the nearby John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, says the aesthetic issues are a matter of "personal opinion. Different people think different ways. Personally I enjoy natural scenery." But Stolz acknowledges "the potential for disturbance to wildlife in [the] construction and maintenance" of billboards.

Boyd Brain

In the latest offering from the city's most action-packed preservation effort, the Friends of the Boyd Theatre are hosting a lecture titled "Saving Historic Theaters: Examples from Across the U.S." by Adrian Scott Fine, senior program officer in the Philadelphia office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Fine's presentation will be followed by a discussion. The free lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. March 5 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but those who get there early can take a 5:30 p.m. tour of the PAFA exhibit "On the Edge of Your Seat: Popular Theatre and Film in Early Twentieth-Century American Art."