{"id":608,"date":"2015-05-14T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T13:39:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T18:39:25","slug":"do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know What’s Happening at Venice Island?"},"content":{"rendered":"

No? Come out to Main and Lock streets in Manayunk tonight at 6 p.m. and get the inside scoop<\/a> along with a free scoop of ice cream.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Cyclists<\/strong>
\nCyclists stop to ask about the new Waterways artwork in Manayunk. Credit: Philadelphia Water.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

While we were working with Mural Arts<\/a> to install artist Eurhi Jones<\/a>\u2019 Waterways<\/a><\/em>, a 10-block string of colorful steppingstones in Manayunk, our public engagement team took the time to do an informal survey of people passing through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

During the first two weeks of May, we spoke with 113 people at Pretzel Park, on Main Street, and at Venice Island\u2013all places now featuring the temporary street art of\u00a0Waterways<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What we found reinforces our motivation for creating\u00a0Waterways<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in the first place, and shows a definitive gap between what people want for the Schuylkill River and what they know about the work being done to make that desire a reality.<\/p>\n

First, we asked people if they knew about the Philadelphia Water improvements that debuted at Venice Island in October 2014<\/a>. Those improvements include a massive stormwater basin that keeps as much as 4 million gallons of untreated water from entering the Schuylkill as well as Philadelphia Parks and Recreation\u2019s Venice Island Performing Arts and Recreation Center.<\/p>\n

Of the 113 people we spoke to, just 11<\/em> said they knew about Philadelphia Water\u2019s work at Venice Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That lack of knowledge is precisely why we wanted to use art as a means of highlighting infrastructure. The work we do can be a little hard to wrap your head around if you aren\u2019t an engineer or environmental scientist. Waterways<\/a><\/em>\u00a0uses compelling imagery to draw people toward the somewhat hidden grounds of Venice Island, where signs help to explain what the infrastructure\u2013much of it shielded from view beneath the ground\u2013is doing to make the Schuylkill a cleaner, healthier river.<\/p>\n

And, if our informal little survey tells us anything, it\u2019s that people really do care about making our rivers healthier places where both people and wildlife can thrive. When asked whether they support improving the health of our waterways, all 113 people said yes. People were also unanimously positive when asked if they think waterways can be incorporated into our city\u2019s public spaces for recreation.<\/p>\n

So, people want cleaner rivers and they want them to be a part of our recreational lives: places where we can fish, hike, go boating and more. Yet very few people seem to know what a huge public effort has been made in the pursuit of those goals.<\/p>\n

Tonight, people will have a chance to learn about what Philadelphia Water is doing for the Schuylkill as we unveil \u00a0Waterways<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>at a 6 p.m. ceremony and ice cream party (the treats are on us). Join us at Main and Lock streets, tour the artwork with Eurhi Jones, and educate yourself about how we\u2019re working to make the Schuylkill the river we all want it to be.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t make it tonight, find us on Venice Island this Saturday during the PLAY Manayunk festival<\/a>(Sorry, this content is no longer available)<\/em>, and help spread the word about Philadelphia Water and\u00a0Waterways<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to your neighbors. After all, it\u2019s your informed support that makes fighting for the health of our rivers possible.<\/p>\n

Follow along on social media:\u00a0@PhillyH20 on Twitter\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Facebook.com\/PhillyH2O<\/a>\u00a0and use #phillywaterart <\/a>to see what is being posted about\u00a0Waterways<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While we were working with Mural Arts to install artist Eurhi Jones\u2019 Waterways, a 10-block string of colorful steppingstones in Manayunk, our public engagement team took the time to do an informal survey of people passing through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"custom_css":"","custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21,51,61,83],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infrastructure","tag-community-groups","tag-infrastructure-investment","tag-mural-arts-program","tag-schuylkill-river","wpautop"],"acf":{"suggested":null},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/phila.gov\/blog\/do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Do You Know What’s Happening at Venice Island?","url":"http:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/do-you-know-whats-happening-venice-island\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Infrastructure","author":[],"creator":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"@PhillyH2O Blog","logo":""},"keywords":["community groups","infrastructure investment","mural arts program","schuylkill river"],"dateCreated":"2015-05-14T18:05:00Z","datePublished":"2015-05-14T18:05:00Z","dateModified":"2022-12-03T18:39:25Z"},"rendered":"