John Randolph was paddling a canoe on the lower Schuylkill when inspiration struck. There really ought to be a riverside park, he thought, one that would link his Fitler Square neighborhood to the river next door. It was the late ’80s and the riverbank was lined with an overgrown tangles of vines and weed trees, cut off from the rest of the city by a freight railroad line. It looked nothing like it does today.

Like Randolph, we all daydream from time to time about some of the little things we’d like to see in Philadelphia — a new bike lane on a scary road, say, or a cute pocket park on a tiny, empty lot.

Most times, that’s all they remain: dreams. And like dreams, you might tell some friends about them, maybe even tweet or blog about them. But on that sublime day on the Schuylkill, long before blogs or tweets were a thing, Randolph decided to do something to turn this particular reverie into reality.

Realizing a dream for a new neighborhood park or streetscape improvement can be especially difficult in Philadelphia, where small-town politics collide with big-city problems. Even the smallest proposed community amenity can be interpreted as an attack against a sitting politician or turned into a referendum on gentrification. So how can members of the public advance change?

For Randolph, actually doing something meant recruiting a small army of supporters, raising money (first thousands, then millions), creating a non-profit, lobbying public officials, negotiating with corporations, knocking on doors, and picking up trash. All told, Randolph spent more than a decade working full time on what might have been just another idle thought on the idyllic river.

Randolph wasn’t a power broker or government official, but an architect. Although the idea for a riverside park had been kicked around since at least Ed Bacon’s 1960 citywide comprehensive plan, it hadn’t advanced. What was new about Randolph’s approach was citizen-driven change. Like Randolph, neighbors and advocates have used perseverance, public pressure, and the power of imagination to build coalitions and draw political support, advance their visions for great urban spaces, overcome pinch-points, and move from dream to reality. They have played a long game, by parochial rules, and have slowly changed expectations.

“It just takes a lot of persistence”

Schuylkill River Park was built in 1987 on the site of an abandoned rail yard a few blocks west of Fitler Square. When Randolph first got serious about the idea of building a riverside trail to link the park to Boathouse Row, he thought it might take five years to accomplish. That was 1989. The trail opened in 2004.