Category: Philadelphia

bookmark_borderQatar Airlines at Philadelphia International Airport

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Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) announced that Qatar Airways, recipient of numerous Skytrax industry awards and twice named the Best Airline for International Travel by Business Traveller USA, has chosen Philadelphia as the airline’s fifth U.S. city. Qatar Airways is scheduled to begin nonstop service from PHL to Doha, the capital of the State of Qatar, in March 2014. Boeing 777 aircraft will serve the route, which is Philadelphia’s first to the independent state in the Southern Arabian Gulf region of the Middle East.

“This is a great day for the entire Philadelphia region,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “Convenient international air service in today’s global marketplace is essential to the economic vitality of a region, and this new direct service to Qatar gives businesses in the greater Philadelphia area access to a nation that has the world’s highest per capita GDP.”

The new service to PHL is the first by a foreign flag carrier in more than a decade. Qatar is the first foreign flag airline to the Middle East from PHL and would become the 4th non-U.S. airline to serve Philadelphia.

Qatar Airways serves more than 120 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North and South America.

Added Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor, Transportation and Utilities: “Qatar Airways has distinguished itself as one of the best airlines in the world, and we are very excited that it has chosen to serve Philadelphia International Airport. This is terrific news for our Airport and our City, and I want to acknowledge Mark Gale and his staff as well as representatives from a variety of business and tourism sectors who worked hard on getting this new service.”

Earlier this year, Mayor Nutter and several City officials, including Airport CEO Mark Gale, met with representatives of the U.S. – Qatar Business Council, a non-profit, private sector organization that provides a forum for discussion of key economic, commercial and other issues of interest to American companies doing or planning to do business in Qatar. The Qatar delegation spent 2 days in the City and visited the Airport, where they met with Gale and members of PHL’s executive staff and were given a detailed presentation on the Airport including air service development.

Qatar Airways is the fifth new airline since 2011 to announce it would begin serving PHL. Virgin America and Alaska Airlines began new service in 2012, Spirit Airlines launched at PHL in April and Jet Blue will start service later this month.

“We are very proud of our successes in bringing new air service to the Philadelphia region, and this announcement by Qatar is great news for our traveling public, especially business travelers, who will have convenient access to an important economic center in the Middle East and beyond,” Gale said. “We look forward to Qatar’s new service and a long relationship with this award-winning international carrier.”

In a press release issued by Qatar Airways, the carrier’s Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker noted that “Philadelphia is one of the major hubs of the soon-to-be-merged American Airlines / US Airways and will provide Qatar Airways’ customers with onward connections to over 100 cities. With the implementation of code share agreements with American Airlines and Jet Blue, which offer numerous connections beyond our U.S. gateways, Qatar Airlines is making big strides to strengthen its presence in the United States to ultimately give our passengers greater travel options.”

Qatar has a 5-star rating by SkyTrax, which named Qatar Airways Airline of the Year in 2011 and 2012 as well as the Best Airline in the Middle East seven consecutive years. Business Traveller Middle East also named Qatar Airways Best Business Class in the World in 2012, while Business Traveller USA named Qatar Airways Best Business Class to the Middle East in 2011.

bookmark_borderArtist Awarded

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TAMMY KUSHNIR RECEIVES SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Artist, TAMMY KUSHNIR of PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA has received a special recognition award in the “15th Annual Contemporary Art Juried Online International Art Exhibition” hosted by Upstream People Gallery.

This international exhibition received approximately 200 art entries from around the world and 40 artists were selected by the juror Laurence Bradshaw, Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, U. S. A. Professor Bradshaw states this about the specially recognized work:

“‘TAMMY KUSHNIR of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a keen eye for capturing the tenderness of youth as seen in her special black and white photograph “Georgie”. The delicacy of the child is quite touching.”‘

Further information about this special work:

Artist Statement
“I like to capture my subjects unguarded. In this particular case, Georgie had momentarily looked right in the camera and I was lucky enough to capture that precious moment.”
_Tammy Kushnir

The exhibition will be featured online during May, 2013 at www.upstreampeoplegallery.com and continue indefinitely in the archives section of the website.

bookmark_borderCleanup Of Brownfield Land

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the City of Philadelphia as one of 20 communities to receive a grant to conduct a planning study to guide the cleanup and reactivation of brownfield land. A $200,000 grant to Philadelphia will fund a study for a four-square-mile area of Frankford Creek, including sections of the Bridesburg, Frankford, Port Richmond and Juniata Park neighborhoods. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission applied for the grant, which was announced April 25th, and will manage the planning process. The Department of Parks and Recreation and the Mayor’s Office of Grants assisted with the application process.

“Through the collaboration of the Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation and the Grants Office, we received this EPA grant, which will be a critical part of the ongoing revitalization around the Frankford Creek,” said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. “I look forward to seeing the final plan and eventual revitalization of these brownfields sites.”

Gary Jastrzab, Executive Director of the City Planning Commission said, “The revitalization of this area was the focus of the recently adopted Philadelphia2035: Lower Northeast District Plan. This grant is the first step toward reusing formerly industrial properties along Frankford Creek in new and exciting ways.”

The former Philadelphia Coke and Rohm and Haas site, totaling 126 riverfront acres in the Bridesburg neighborhood, present economic development opportunities for waterfront redevelopment and community revitalization. “By comprehensively planning in partnership with the EPA, Bridesburg’s vacant brownfields can successfully be remediated and redeveloped with a dynamic mix of uses that will contribute to the city’s and region’s economic vitality” said City Councilman Bobby Henon.

Similarly, the former site of Edgewater Dyeing and Finishing presents a unique opportunity for creekside redevelopment in Frankford. “EPA’s investment in the Frankford Creek area is crucial for us to unlock the transformative potential of these brownfields sites,” said City Councilwoman María Quiñones Sánchez, whose district includes the Frankford Creek watershed. “We now have the opportunity to replace environmental contamination and vacancy with new life and economic vitality, as we have done with nearby success stories like the Globe Dye Works and Amuneal Manufacturing.”

The rehabilitation of brownfield sites will also enable the development of the Frankford Creek Greenway, a greenway that would connect Tacony Creek Park to the North Delaware Riverfront. “This planning grant provides us with an exciting opportunity to advance our trails, watershed protection, and open space objectives while connecting and engaging with communities on these vital assets,” said Michael DiBerardinis Deputy Mayor Environmental and Community Resources and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Commissioner. “We look forward to continuing to work with PCPC and other partners on this important collaborative effort.”

The EPA will award a total of $4 million to 20 communities as part of the Brownfields Area-Wide (BF AWP) Planning program, which aims to promote community revitalization by using cleanups to stimulate local economies and protect people’s health and the environment. Since the program’s inception, all EPA’s Brownfields investments have leveraged more than $19 billion in cleanup and redevelopment.