\u201cYou never get a second chance to make a first impression,\u201d said Carlton Williams, who leads the city\u2019s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. \u201cThis is an opportunity to shine on the biggest stage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
In addition to events directly celebrating America\u2019s 250th, the city will also host a number of high-profile events including World Cup Games and the MLB All-Star Game. The city is expected to spend more than $125 million on preparing and celebrating the milestone.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about bringing people together via unified landscaping, thoughtful design, and public art investments around our major highways and intersections to increase civic pride, stimulate tourism, and quite frankly, support workforce and economic development,\u201d Parker said.\n<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said the state is supportive of the city\u2019s effort, as it also helps Pittsburgh with money to support the NFL Draft and other events in western Pennsylvania this year.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to tell you one of the most important things that I\u2019ve learned since I became secretary of transportation, and that is, first impressions are key. Especially ahead of one of the commonwealth\u2019s biggest years,\u201d Carroll said.\n<\/p>\n
The beautification effort is already underway, with crews planting 95,000 plant bulbs that will bloom in the spring.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project is about elevating people\u2019s experience, perception and expectations of Philadelphia, whether they live here or whether they\u2019re visiting for the first time,\u201d said Matt Rader, president of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society. \u201cThese highways are some of our most frequently used civic spaces and so how we treat them says something about our values and what we expect of ourselves in our city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The gateways will be decked out in \u201cribbons of gold\u201d according to Parker, which she said is inspired by \u201cthe golden palette of flowers that you will see brighten and transform these gateways.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
There will also be painting of walls in a gold color and an extended mural visible from the Schuylkill Expressway that will have a Philly-250 theme.\n<\/p>\n
The estimated total cost of the plan is currently at $11.5 million from city, state and philanthropic funding to support project installation and long-term maintenance. The effort is part of a public-private cooperative with the Pew Charitable Trust, the Neubauer Family Foundation, the Connelly Foundation, the Philadelphia Foundation, the Hamilton Family Foundation and the Funder Collaborative.\n<\/p>\n
\u2014\n<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: The Neubauer Family Foundation, the Connelly Foundation, the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust, the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative and the Philadelphia Foundation have supported WHYY. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou never get a second chance to make a first impression,\u201d said Carlton Williams, who leads the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":507256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,30814,20788,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-507255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-250","13":"tag-phillys-100th-mayor","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115873477117869633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}