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Judge Denies Montion to Intervene
July 15, 2005
Federal Judge Bruce Kauffman denied the request of a Motion to Intervene in the CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit by Free Schuylkill River Park. Although the Judge agreed that the reasons for supporting the request for the Motion were valid, he concluded that Free Schuylkill River Park's concerns were in adequately represented by the City of Philadelphia. Read the Oder Denying the Motion to Interven here
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Negotiations Derail! Access Issue Returns to Federal District Court
May 24, 2005
CSX might allow Race Street, but is intransigent on Locust Street
Read Letters exchanged between CSX and City here
The Locust Street crossing is necessary to allow for emergency and service vehicles into the Park south of Chestnut Street. Currently, 600 people use Locust Street to enter the Park on weekdays and 1500 people use it on weekend days. Shutting down Locust Street would result in a substantial increase in safety risk and loss of public benefits. What’s driving CSX to close off Locust Street is not public safety, because the City is prepared to take action to prevent trespassing. What’s driving CSX is its desire to preserve their practice of parking freight cars carrying garbage, hazardous materials and other cargo day and night along a busy residential riverfront. CSX cannot consider itself a good corporate citizen if its main goal is to deprive Park users and property owners of their rights and to impair the City of Philadelphia from protecting its residents.
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Free Schuylkill River Park files Motion in Opposition to CSX's Motion to Strike
March 7, 2005
Read Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion to to Strike here.
Free Schuylkill River Park Files a Motion in Opposition to CSX's Motion to Strike Free Schuylkill River Park's Renewal Request to Intervene in CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit. This is a response to the February 14, 2005, CSX motion to strike Free Schuylkill River Park as 'Friend of the Court,' Amicus Curiae, in the Preliminary Injunction and to strike the request for Renewal for the Motion to Intervene in CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit. Read CSX Motion to Strike Free Schuylkill River Park from Lawsuit, Read Memorandum for Motion to Strike here
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CSX Indicates Possible Negotiations on "Effective Barricades"
January 26, 2005
Read CSX Response here.
CSX ask Judge Kauffman to delay ruling on the Preliminart Injunction for 45 days in response to City's brief. They indicate that at grade crossings are possible.
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City Files Submission To Court On What It Means By "Effective Barricade"
Read the City's submission here. City proposes fencing and automatic rolling gates at the Locust and Race Street crossings.
This is the document that led CSX to ask for a "stay" in its motion for a preliminary injunction.
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Free Schuylkill River Park Files a 'Friend of the Court,' Amicus Curiae, and a Renewal for the Motion to Intervene in CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit.
January 20, 2005
Read Amicus Curiae Application here, Read Request for Renewal of Motion to Intervene here, Read Exhibits here.
Free Schuylkill River Park files an Amicus Curiae, 'Friend of the Court' Motion in the Preliminary Injunction Hearing and renews the Motion to Intervene in the lawsuit.
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Street Level Access to Park Still Intact After Hearing in Federal District Court
January 6, 2005--CSX did not succeed in getting Federal Judge Bruce Kauffman to grant a preliminary injunction to barricade the fence openings at Race and Locust Streets yesterday. Judge Kauffman was unconvinced that CSX could show "irreparable harm," which is the standard for getting a preliminary injunction. Judge Kauffman did what every local, state and federal elected official and all of us who have sent CSX countless emails have done: he asked CSX to be reasonable and find a pragmatic solution. He said he thought CSX's solution, barricading the fence, was "extreme."
After listening to five hours of testimony and arguments, Judge Kauffman said that he needed time before making a decision on the preliminary injunction. He urged the City to put into writing anything else it wanted to say about alternative "effective barriers" (which is what the City agreed to erect in a 1979 agreement it made with CSX's predecessor). He gave the City a week to submit its "answer" and CSX a week to respond. We estimate that the judge will make his decision by late January.
Although the Judge deferred making a decision on our motion to intervene, he did allow our lawyer, Janine Bauer, to see all the exhibits and asked the City to allow her to give input to the City's submission.
City Council President Anna Verna, Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilman Jack Kelly all attended the hearing yesterday, as did State Representative Babette Josephs and staff for Senator Fumo. We were grateful that they could take time out of their busy schedules and show the Judge how important this issue is to them. Many thanks to everyone else who came and sat through the hearing, especially our potential
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CSX Files Answer in Opposition to Motion of Intervention
December 30, 2004
Read Answer here
CSX asks Federal District Court to deny the request of FreeSchuylkill River Park and Parties to Intervene in CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit.
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Free Schuylkill River Park Files Motion to Intervene in CSX v. City of Philadelphia Lawsuit
December 17, 2004
Read Motion here, Read Memorandum for Motion here, Read Counterclaim here
Free Schuylkill River Park, along with three other non-profit groups and five elected officials, filed a motion today to intervene in the lawsuit filed by CSX against the City of Philadelphia, which seeks to block the public from accessing Schuylkill River Park at Race and Locust Streets. Free Schuylkill River Park was joined by Logan Square Neighborhood Association, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, City Council President Anna Verna, Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilman Jack Kelly (all three are represented as individuals), State Senator Vincent Fumo and State Representative Babette Josephs. The motion argues that CSX cannot prevent the public from using those streets to access the Park and the River. All parties are represented by Janine G. Bauer, Esq. A hearing is expected on January 5th before Judge Bruce Kauffman in the United States District Court for the Eastern District, Pennsylvania. Free Schuylkill River Park is seeking to represent the users of the Park who exercise their right to use City streets to get to the Park and River.
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City Files Answer and Brief to CSX's Motion for Preliminary Injunction
December 13, 2004
Read Answer in Opposition and Memorandum here
City asks Federal District Court Judge Bruce Kauffman to deny request for a preliminary injunction demanded by CSX.
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CSX files Motion for Preliminary Injunction to Stop Philadelphians from entering Schuylkill River Park at Locust and Race Streets!!!
Read Motion here.
CSX asks Federal District Court Judge Bruce Kauffman to issue a preliminary injunction ordering that the openings in the fence be "barricaded."
As a result, Park Users sent over 3100 Faxes to the Mayor and City Council Members in less than a week to let them know how important the users of the Park and River feel about CSX's lawsuit.
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CSX Files Federal Lawsuit to Barricade the Park at Race and Locust Streets
October 26, 2004
Read the Complaint
On Tuesday, October 26th, CSX Railroad filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Philadelphia, seeking an order to have barricades put up at Race and Locust Streets. Despite the efforts of the City’s Law Department to negotiate an agreement with the Railroad, it chose to run to court rather than work out a safe solution for both itself and the City. We think that CSX’s action is outrageous and disrespectful considering the time it wasted in negotiations this past spring.
After CSX sent the City an ultimatum letter in late September threatning to "seal" the fence at Race and Locust if the City did not, Free Schuylkill River Park succeeded in getting substantial publicity on October 5th about CSX's game of playing cat and mouse on the issue of crossings. Subsequent to the bad press it received, CSX agreed to meet with the City's Law Department again on Tuesday, October 26, to discuss where to go next. At the end of two and half hours of presentations and talk with City officials from the Law Department, Streets Department and Managing Director's Office, CSX abruptly announced to the meeting's attendees that it had just filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the City that very same day.
CSX's complaint, obtained today by Free Schuylkill River Park, essentially claims that the City has breached its contract; a 25 year old contruction agreement signed by the City when it purchased the land for the Park in 1979 from the B&O Railroad. CSX contends that the contract called for a permanent barricade to be built between the Park and railroad property. CSX asked the Federal Court for a preliminary injunction to stop the City from permitting public passage over its right-of-way across to the Park at Locust and Race and that the City be ordered by the Court to erect "permanent barricades" to close the gaps in the fence at Race and Locust Streets. Stay tuned for further developments as the City and Free Schuylkill River Park each consider its legal options.
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CSX Says "No"
September 23, 2004
It doesn’t matter that CSX parks garbage trains next to residential neighborhoods, prompting the state DEP to issue not one, but two Notices of Violation. It doesn’t matter that thousands of people want to cross the tracks to get to a brand new riverfront trail. It doesn’t matter that a federal senator of one of the largest states in the country, the mayor of the country’s fifth largest city and every other politician who represents the area wants CSX to be reasonable and work out a deal so that street grade crossings can exist to the new Park. It doesn’t matter that local residents have sent hundreds of letters and phone calls to CSX’s management pleading with them to be reasonable. CSX’s position remains: NO CROSSINGS!
After being in negotiations for months this past spring with the City of Philadelphia, and receiving pressure from Senator Arlen Specter, Representative Chaka Fattah and Mayor John F. Street to find a middle ground, CSX broke its 4 month silence last week in a letter to the City to simply re-state its previously held position that it would not agree to any crossings, the same position it took a year ago when this issue broke out in the open. Click here to read CSX's September 23rd letter. In fact, CSX threatened to close the openings in the fence at Race and Locust by October 15th if the City did not do before then, repeating the same threat it made nearly a year ago.
City Responds
The City responded quickly with a letter urging CSX to reconsider and warning them not to touch the fence, as it is City property (Click here to read the Law Department's September 27th letter). It also took the position that the parked CSX trains are “an attractive nuisance” and that CSX is maintaining “potentially hazardous conditions for the public.”
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Is CSX Above The Law?
CSX sent a letter on September 3rd to PA DEP on the issue of parked garbage trains (Click here to read CSX's September 3rd letter to PA DEP. While it gave an explanation for the parked trains on July 16th and said that it would try to not locate the trains next to residential neighborhoods, it maintained the State has no jurisdiction over CSX. They contend that the Notice of Violation is pre-empted by 49 USC Section 10501(b) (federal transportation law)
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