15 April 08: Liberty Place can



Consider this the intro to a post coming later today. Clicking it enlarges it, natch, so do so if you please and enjoy the sky blue sky on the sky blue skyscrapers, One and Two Liberty Place in the springtime. Do note that there is NOT a bright red, 58' x 11' sign affixed two-thirds of the way up the shaft of either building, advertising some company that just moved into it.

Two Liberty Place has never had signage because it doesn't need signage. ACE and especially Cigna have been Two Liberty tenants for years, and they've had subtle signs at the entrances. Okaying Unisys' request to brand this trophy tower with their logo sets a bad precedent, especially since it would appear so arbitrarily placed on the building's massing. And then you have residents above the sign -- do they want to live in the "Unisys Tower"? I doubt it. Please, ZBA, shoot this stupid idea down. Unisys can have a subtle sign at ground level, just like the other high profile tenants there.

Unless of course Richie Sambora wants to pin a rotating Bon Jovi heart-and-dagger on the point of the crown, shooting different colored lasers through the air that transmit "Wanted Dead or Alive" . . .

In the meantime, please pardon our busy-ness. It is Tax Day, after all. For which, why not, let us yank on yonder YouTube for this late rendition of a Beatles song released after their touring days. As nearly as I can tell, it was never performed live -- their last tour spanned summer of 1966 and Revolver was released that August. According to Wikipedia, "the newest song the Beatles performed on their 1966 tours was "Paperback Writer", released on a single and recorded at the same time as the Revolver album."

Taxman: George Harrison's first "serious" contribution to the maturing Beatles. This version, from a circa-Traveling Wilburys show in 1991 in Japan, is no Concert for Bangladesh, but it's still cool, in a terrible "old men who used to do drugs get clean and perform with backing singers" sort of cool. Clapton on guitar, Harrison on commentary: "Ah haa, Boris Yeeeeltsin. Ah haa, Mister Bush!"

Go 'head, Taxman.

–B Love


14 April 08: PSA: Sport is missing!



A special call out to our friends in West Philly and neighboring communities: Sport is missing. The beloved male cockatiel and semi-official mascot of the 4600 block of Hazel Ave flew away on Saturday afternoon and has been missing since.

Sport has small, a yellow head with bright orange cheeks, and a gray and white body. He responds to "SPORT" and will repeat it back. He also nods his head if you clap a beat for him.

If you have any information or if you have seen him, please call Melissa at 215 203 4957.

–B Love

13 April 08: 3000 and beyond



Oh my, that's quite a . . . long photo, isn't it? 'Tis.

You'll have to pardon the metablogginess to this post, but I think it's worth its own mention. The photo above, 500 pixels wide by 2,000 pixels tall, is a custom reproduction of the photo in the Comcast Center section titled 'comcast_uc3000.jpg', a bit of a milestone for yr Skyline. Over the course of the construction of the city's tallest tower, to open officially next month, I've taken photos from up close and far away, saving and uploading them numerically, from 'comcast_uc001' (as in "Comcast Center, under construction, 001") in February 2005 to 'comcast_uc3007', the most recent effort, taken during the ninth inning of the Phillies' 7-1 victory over the Cubs last night.

Those 3,007 photos are strictly 'construction photos' in the Comcast Center section -- photos of the site prior to construction (e.g. the Public Defenders Building and the mural on its side), official renderings granted to us by Liberty Property and Robert AM Stern Architects, photos of the model, construction diagrams (which I guess I should finish, considering the exterior's been finished), hard hat tours, skyline composites, Philly Skyline Philly Skylines, images included with regular daily posts, and those which ended up on the cutting room floor . . . adding all of those would push the total closer to 5,000.

Anyway. A big shout to Roberto Clemente for #3,000. The weather was spectacular at sundown yesterday, a nice touch for what is actually just a part of another update to the Big Four. Comcast Center, Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Murano and 10 Rittenhouse Square are all now up to date:
• The dichroic glass installation on the trellis at Comcast is almost done and already looks wicked cool from just about any angle in any lighting.

• Glass on the Ritz is high enough now that it's reflecting pretty clouds during sunset.

• Murano's first floor is being fitted out now that heavy equipment has been removed.

• 10 Rittenhouse got full attention yesterday as Walnut Street was blocked off for the removal of steel bracing on the Rittenhouse Club.
Find each here:

Comcast Center § Residences at the Ritz-Carlton § Murano § 10 Rittenhouse Square

Yep!



–B Love


12 April 08: And now, springtime in Center City,
presented without comment













* * *

Two items of note for yr Saturday night:
  1. THE PENNSYLVANIA PROJECT: Hinda Schuman and Linda Johnson (Hinda & Linda!) are two former Philadelphia Inquirer photographers whose feature project could not be more in line with Philly Skyline's sole goal: to bridge the gap between Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians, to bring love to both sides. Hinda and Linda's Pennsylvania Project is a photographic exploration of all sixty-seven counties in the Commonwealth. Their web site is just fantastic, and this evening, they open their exhibition at Yo Darkroom, 23rd Street between Arch and Race, from 6 to 9. The show runs until June 15th.

  2. CANSTRUCTION: The second annual Canstruction competition, hosted by the local chapter of AIA, launches today in the rotunda of Liberty Place. Both myself and Nathaniel Popkin had the pleasure of being on the competition's jury (along with Warren Muller from Bahdeebahdu, Hilary Jay from Philadelphia University, and Walter Palmer and Lisa Godlewski from the General Building Contractors Association), and our winners will be announced at the opening ceremony this evening. Canstruction, which uses canned food donations to construct objects and scenes within a 10' x 10' x 8' space, will remain on display in Liberty Place until next weekend, after which the food will be donated to Philabundance.

    Canstruction
    Philabundance

–B Love



11 April 08: Taste of Philadelphia



It is a glorious day for beer drinkers in the city of Philadelphia.

Following its grand entrance during Beer Week last month, Philadelphia Brewing Company has been rolling its barrels out to bars across the city for patrons with discerning tongues and civic pride. PBC's Kenzinger, Rowhouse Red, Newbold IPA and Walt Wit ales have been tapped, poured, consumed and kicked from South Philly Taproom to Grey Lodge Pub, back down to Johnny B's and across the street from the Kenzo brewery itself at Atlantis.

And now, it is ours to consume at home, preferably on the deck on a warm sunny day (pictured above and below). PBC began bottling and boxing its four signature beers over the last two weeks, and last week they hit local distributors including an assortment case. (All the cases come with the red stickers you can plaster on your bike/walls/neighbor's car.) This weekend, the brewery is formally re-open to the public.

Tours of the brewery at 2439 Amber Street, which opened as the Weisbrod & Hess Oriental Brewing Company in 1885, start back up this weekend, the first tours as Philadelphia Brewing Company. Like any good brewery tour, the brewers themselves walk you through the place, explaining the process and showing the process, and like any good brewery tour, it ends with free samples of the product made on the premises.



Take Frankford Ave north and make a left on York -- it's on your right on both Martha and Amber Streets. Or better, take the 5 or 25 bus and hop off at Hagert and walk about twenty steps west. You can stop in Atlantis after the tour while you wait for the bus. You could take the el to York-Dauphin and walk the five blocks to the brewery, but that's an ugly walk.

Philadelphia Brewing Company: 2439 Amber St in Kensington. Tours are from noon-3pm.

For more on PBC, visit their web site HERE, or visit their brewers' blogs HERE and HERE.



Local glass love for local bottled beers.

–Beer Love


10 April 08: Springtime is nice



I like it.

Now turn off your computer and get outside.



–B Love



10 April 08: Non-performance clause



by Nathaniel Popkin
April 10, 2008

The architect Winka Dubbeldam (by way of The Illadelph by way of Men's Health) says that her firm Archi-techtonics, isn't "into stylistic things, but deriving form from performance." This manifesto is a sign that in architecture Modernism -- form follows function, remember -- remains gravity. Performance, after all, is function riding high after drinking a triple shot soy latte with cinnamon on top.

But there are important, and instructive, differences. A building that functions is passive; one that performs aids and enhances. It gives back. In order to make form follow function but also to account for different functions, Modernism separates uses. A building that performs is capable of balancing even contradictory functions with a smile and a wink. Thus, stylistically, function informs a restrained aesthetic, performance something visually more active and perhaps interactive.

So Dubbeldam and other ambitious contemporary architects face an enormous challenge: balancing sometimes conflicting desires, needs, and functions in a way that makes everyone -- from the building tenant to the Pacific Islander whose way of life is being destroyed by rising sea levels caused by global warming -- more productive and invigorated. What a performance!

You know what follows. Once buildings start performing, we're going to have to ask our cities to do so too. A city that functions provides shelter, transportation, common ground for the production of culture and commerce. A city that performs also wows us, inspires, entertains, dazzles, and raises the specter of our consciousness. It is comforting and challenging, open and particular, it makes human life not just possible but extraordinary. And it does so with less, therefore achieving the greatest feat of all: the production of a habitat that enables contemporary humans to enhance rather than destroy the planet.

We aren't performing well, are we? (Well, no, given how much trash was hauled away on Saturday, it seems we're barely functioning; given the spectrum of social and economic failure, we aren't providing even the basics.)

Former Septa GM Faye Moore once said the transit agency's job was to move people from point A to point B. Period. Maybe she was clever enough to lower our expectations, but I see her comment as precisely why Philadelphia underperforms even when it (in)adequately functions. The best Septa stations are clean and well-lit; the best transit stations worldwide are fun and energizing -- and a lot busier than ours are.

The same goes for public spaces and parks, where as I noted a year ago, mere function leaves us bored; it's simply no longer enough. Having recently had a peek-in at the rather spectacular glass-covered gardens inside the Bellagio in Las Vegas, I'll say in this regard and while thinking precisely about the Kimmel Center's rooftop garden (that painfully wasted opportunity), when it comes to performance, we might learn a little from Las Vegas.

Doing so doesn't mean embracing a simplistic approach to city planning. Nor do I advocate abandoning our city's straightforward, hardworking way. Quite the opposite, for a city that performs enjoys a far greater return on its assets than a city that merely functions. Turn the Benjamin Franklin Parkway into a grand pedestrian entrance to Fairmount Park (with thousands of bikes available to take you into the park, a Ferris wheel, and lots of places to sit and play) and you'll quickly forget how fast you used to motor down the center lane between the Art Museum and City Hall. In a city like ours there's little return on functional efficiency, but a great deal to profit from the engaged pedestrian.

Ed. note: Steve Weinik wrote a fantastic what-if essay about this just last week. The Parkway would still move traffic on its outer lanes, but the center lanes would be turned over to a pedestrian mall. Read it HERE.

The same efficiency impulse that resulted in the Parkway has us frequently tearing down old, historic, and suggestive buildings simply because they are in the way. There is play and contrast in the urban landscape that performs; there is morbid regularity in the cityscape that merely functions. This, particularly, is an old notion, but we give it contemporary relevance out of necessity. If we continue to under-perform, devaluing our assets, we'll be too poor to even function.

I leave off with another missed opportunity to profit from the golden egg of our inheritance. It is minor in the scheme of things, but instructive. At Second and Walnut stands William Strickland's Merchant Exchange building, the curving marble temple of early American commerce. (Consider it the American Commerce Center of its day.) Is there a more handsome building in Philadelphia? Are there better stairs on which to sit and read a book, more docile lions, a more suggestive portico? Yet all you and I can do there is sit on those lions and dream.

This great icon and its river stone plaza, which served as the mercantile and transport center of the ambitious 19th century city, is closed to us. It functions, sure, as office space for the National Park Service. But it ought to perform. Give the place to a witty and anachronistic theatre group; to a restaurateur to engage the public space; to a group of peddlers and food vendors, musicians, and jugglers. Least of all, light it at night, so that it lives on in our imagination. Right now, it's all but dead to us, and we, in turn, are left a little less alive.

–Nathaniel Popkin
nathaniel.popkin@gmail.com

For Nathaniel Popkin archives, please see HERE, or visit his web site HERE.
For The Possible City, please see HERE.


9 April 08: Potentially potent

Talk about timing. When Mary Patel began her column Political Notebook for City Paper over 13 years ago, she had no idea she would turn her love of all things politics -- especially its consistent inconsistency -- into a film. When making a documentary about electioneering did come to her a few years ago, she knew it would have to be done in time for the 2008 election season.

But, even Mary couldn't have predicted that its premiere at the Philadelphia Film Festival would come at such a crucial juncture in the primary season, when our Pennsylvania home turf is swarmed by candidates, candidates' staffs, candidates' reporters, and when our airwaves are inundated by 30 second spots about who's going to answer the phone at 3 in the morning and who the big oil companies do or don't support.

Those 30 second spots also include a new one of our popular mayor backing the Democratic machine's nowhere-near-as-popular Hillary Clinton. (Governor Ed Rendell and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl have also offered their support for Hillary, while Senator Bob Casey has campaigned for, and bowled with, Obama.) Nutter's ad is making the rounds on local television, including an airing on Action News last night on Channel 6, the station that hosts Inside Story, where Mary is a regular.

While she says she is not surprised by Nutter's backing of Hillary, she is surprised that Barack Obama has fared as well as he has nationally, and more recently statewide. "If you'd have asked me in December (before the primaries started) who would be the nominee, I'd have said the it-girl Hillary, but ask me today, and I'd guess Obama," she says. "And my question is why: was it her comments about Bosnia? Is it truly campaign content? Was it Mark Penn stepping down?"

These are the sorts of questions that drive Electile Dysfunction, Mary Patel's first film, which was shot under the working title State (18 April 07, second item) in the time since the last Presidential election. In this day of nonstop media -- multiple 24 hour news channels, hundreds of talk shows, an internet that's always on, political blogs that are the first stop for many with a certain mindset -- Electile Dysfunction looks to "examine the dichotomy between the complex science of electioneering and the disillusioned voting public." (Noelle Riley, Philadelphia Film Festival.)

The documentary features interviews with and clips of top level politicians such as Barack Obama, Al Gore, Arlen Specter and Christine Todd Whitman, as well as strategists like Joe Trippi, who was Howard Dean's 2004 campaign manager and who has worked for John Edwards and Tom Knox. And, though the film is about a broader voter awareness, it's got a decidedly Pennsylvanian view, as the 2006 Senate race between Bob Casey and Rick Santorum serves as a case study.

Just two years removed from that election, the diluted political information overload is that much more diluted and overloaded. "Modern technology," Mary explains, "offers more options than anyone can possibly handle. People are looking for immediate gratification and the media is looking to feed it." That often means bypassing fact-checking to get a scoop, repeating things so frequently that they become catch phrases, and packaging news segments with flashing graphics and titles like CNN's "Ballot Bowl". With Pennsylvania's primary 13 days away and voter registration at an all time high, here's hoping PA voter awareness is also at an all time high.

* * *

Electile Dysfunction is screening this evening at 7, at the Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut. Running time is 90 minutes, tickets are $10.

–B Love





8 April 08: ATTENTION HOMEOWNERS, or,
A day-early umpdate



Greetings and salutations, friends. Lots of floating Philly Skyline Bites out there, so what say we get down to it? But first, this important message to our friends 90 miles north: We hope you enjoyed your final Shea Stadium opener as much as we did.



So then!

  • PCPC PUTS YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW: HOME, that is. The $25,000 City Planning Commission's feature project of the past several months is now ready for consumption. The Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual: A Practical Guide for Homeowners not only provides a ton of background information, including a small chronology of the changing styles of the 'Philadelphia Rowhouse' -- small, medium, large; brick, brownstone, wood; trinity, federal, airlite; Center City, Northeast, Southwest -- but it is also very much a practical guide.

    The Rowhouse Manual offers assistance and tips on insulation, replacing windows, water damage prevention and the like. Nothing a contractor doesn't already know, but if you, like me, are not a contractor and could benefit from an inside tip from the city on how to navigate the city, this document is for you. (And me.)

    The Planning Commission does not mince its words when offering advice, either. For example:
    - Do not remove your vestibule, unless you like high heating bills.
    - Streets with trees are more inviting than those without. (Yo South Philly!)
    - Garages are interruptions to the streetscape of streets that were not made for them so STOP BUILDING ROWHOMES WITH GARAGES ON MAJOR STREETS LIKE BAINBRIDGE, DEVELOPERS.
    Download the 50 page PDF HERE.

  • CHERRIES AND PEARIES, SPRING TREES ARE FRUITY: All these April showers, or at least gray days, are working on bringing us their May flowers, but April is the cherry tree's and pear tree's time to shine.

    From now till April 19th, the Sakura Matsuri -- Cherry Blossom Festival -- of Philadelphia runs with the celebration of the pretty pink and white flowers on trees throughout Fairmount Park, but especially noticeable along the River Drives and near Shofuso (duh).

    The ornamental tree blooming throughout Center City right now is the callery pear tree. Let's step into the archives for Dig my funky callery gallery, Mallory, from 4/20 last year.

    Do note: neither tree is native to the area, so if you're looking to amend your Rowhouse Manual suggestions with some you-bet-your-gardening tips, make plans now to head out to Bartram's Garden on May 3rd for the native plant sale.

  • SMELLS LIKE BACON IN U-CITY: This past Sunday, a stone bench was dedicated in Ed Bacon's memory at the Community Education Center at 35th & Lancaster, complementing the one already there in memory of his wife Ruth. As well, the Bacon Brothers (yep, those Bacon Brothers, Kevin and Michael) performed at the Zellerbach Theater as part of a fundraiser for their sister Hilda's organization that helps people with disabilities. A regular Bacon family affair in West Philly. John Dowlin has a great write-up about it in the latest University City Review.

  • UNISYS: SURE, WE'LL MOVE TO YOUR CITY, ON ONE TINY CONDITION: We'd like a big red sign on two sides of Two Liberty Place -- not even at the top of the tower -- so we can let everyone know we are leasing three whole floors here. There are zoning notices affixed to Two Liberty Place right now, indicating a ZBA hearing is scheduled for next week. The signs would be installed on the east and west sides of the building on the 38th floor, which is right around the first setback (just below the Sambora residences) and which will look TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. For example:



    This is of course just an estimate, but presuming it's ANYthing like this, it will look terrible. Terrible. Yes, Unisys, we are grateful you have elected to move your corporate headquarters into the city. Moving two hundred twenty-five jobs into 90,000 sq ft of corporate space is nothing to sneeze at.

    But please, have some decency. Two Liberty Place is one of maybe a half a dozen trophy towers in Philadelphia. It has looked perfectly fine without any corporate branding for two decades -- ACE and Cigna never did it -- so there's no real reason Unisys should now, either. Let alone the fact that people who spend a whole lotta money on upper floor condos probably don't want to tell people they live in the 'Unisys Tower'.

  • MORE PULITZER RECOGNITION FOR THE SKYLINE SIREN: Finally, congratulations to my friend and admitted inspiration Inga Saffron, who is a 2008 Pulitzer finalist for her architecture criticism. This is the second such accolade, the other coming in 2004, and it was the only nod from Pulitzer for the Inquirer this year.

    Congrats, Inga.

    * * *

    Well then, that'll do it on this Phillies 5, Mets 2 kinda Tuesday afternoon. Have a nice evening.

    –B Love





  • 8 April 08: Bad blood begins NOW



    The Team to Beat vs the "Team to Beat", 2008, it is ON. Game one of 17 between the Phillies and Mets starts at 1:10 in New York today, the final home opener at Shea Stadium. The Mets have upgraded from Tom Glavine, who absolutely blew it in their final game last year, with the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana, who the Phillies will NOT face in this first series.

    2007 is fresh on the minds of both teams, most especially the Best Series I Have Ever Seen, the Phils' amazin' four game sweep in late August. The game one blowout, Chase Utley's first game back from a broken hand, 3-for-5 with a homerun. The game two opposite-field walkoff homerun by Ryan Howard. The game three Marlon Anderson takeout of Tadahito Iguchi that cost the Mets the tying run, ending the game. And game four, the most exhilarating single baseball game I have ever seen, the afternoon sellout on Wednesday, 30th August 2007 (video HERE):
    Just wow.

    5-0 Phils, then 5-5, then 8-5 Phils, then 10-8 Mets, then Wagner, then Burrell, then Werth, then Iguchi, then Utley, then the play at the plate, then Iguchi is safe, then 11-10 walkoff win.

    Wow wow wow.


    So then: Philadelphia Phillies vs New York Mets, 2008. Let's do it. Make your plans now for:

  • PHILLIES @ METS:
    • Tuesday April 8, 1:10pm, the first clash of 17 this season
    • Wednesday April 9, 7:10pm, on ESPN 2
    • Thursday April 10, 7:10pm, Mets rally towel day, perfect for waxing your car or bike and cleaning your oven

  • METS @ PHILLIES:
    • Friday, April 18, 7:05pm
    • Saturday, April 19, 3:55pm
    • Sunday, April 20, 8:00pm -- this game is a nationally televised game on ESPN, and if you buy your tickets NOW, you can support the Philadelphia Film Festival AND get a discount on the game. I'd recommend lower level leftfield seats to get in on the action when Pat Burrell takes someone deep, because he always takes the Mets deep. Details are HERE.

  • METS @ PHILLIES: • Friday, July 4, 7:05pm. People, it's the Fourth of July, in Philadelphia. Phils vs the effin New York Mets. With any luck, the game will end just in time to catch the Art Museum's fireworks amidst the skyline from behind home plate or the plaza above Ashburn Alley.
    • Saturday, July 5, 7:05pm
    • Sunday, July 6, 1:35pm



  • PHILLIES @ METS: • Tuesday, July 22, 7:10pm
    • Wednesday, July 23, 7:10pm; this is of course also the last season for Yankee Stadium, and they are at home against the Minnesota Twins for a businessperson special at 1:05, so why not make it a day/night AL/NL doubleheader?
    • Thursday, July 24, 12:10pm

  • METS @ PHILLIES: As I mentioned last week, this piddly two-gamer in late August is the last time the Phillies play the Mets at home this season, which is a bunch of crap from Major League Baseball. Last weekend of the season Red Sox/Yankees, sure, but Phillies/Mets? Nope. Eh.

    • Tuesday, August 26, 7:05pm
    • Wednesday, August 27, 7:05pm, last game against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park this year

  • PHILLIES @ METS: This series will be the last ever for the Phillies at Shea Stadium, barring the playoffs of course, as next year the Mets open Shitty Field, yet another throwback style ballpark. One could see its construction in the outfield during last year's games at Shea, as it's right next door, built on the old Flushing scrap yard.

    • Friday, September 5, 7:10pm
    • Saturday, September 6, 3:55pm, nationally televised on Fox
    • Sunday, September 7, 1:10pm, the last Phillies game ever at Shea Stadium; also Johan Santana bobblehead day. Give 'im the Mr Met treatment.



    All and together now: LET'S GO PHILLIES.

    –B Love



  • 7 April 08: Tearing down the tower

    Kimpton Hotels' $71M conversion of the Architects Building it purchased for $21M into the Palomar Philadelphia now includes the news that the communications tower on its roof is coming down. Kimpton's contractors are dismantling the tower as we speak, seen at left. (Whattaya know, this idea was floated on yr Skyline back in October. (26 October 07, mishin & mashin))

    The tower was at one time owned by Septa but had been inactive for years. The 245' tower was mounted to the lower of two roofs of the handsome art deco building that opened in 1931. Whether Kimpton is removing the tower for precautionary/safety reasons or to convert the space into a 25th floor terrace with an in-your-face view of One and Two Liberty Place half a block away, Kimpton's media relations could not say.

    To get to this theoretic terrace now, one must walk through the building's mechanical room which, at least in the several times I walked through it when I worked there a few years ago, was full of sparks and clicks as the antique elevator mechanism tried its hardest to make those Otis elevators work. While consistency was never the forte of those elevators, all four of them were decorated with intricate mosaics of circa-30s Philly scenes: City Hall, Swann Fountain, the old skyline, the Ben Franklin Bridge. Here's hoping those mosaics are preserved.

    With the luggage store and the beloved AIA Bookstore already relocated, their former spaces will be home to a new restaurant when the Palomar opens in fall 2009. The hotel lobby will presumably be routed via the 17th Street foyer. Palomarphiladelphia.com is not yet live with any details, but it does forward over to Kimpton's official web site.

    In the meantime, if communications towers are your thing and you've ever paid any attention to the one on the Architects Building, get out there now for a last glimpse, cos it'll be gone in a matter of days.

    Or, have a looksee at this Philly Skyline Architects Skyline from the archives:



    –B Love




    7 April 08: Hooray, Philly is clean!



    If cleanliness is godliness, Philly is at least a little less hellbound now, after a widely successful citywide cleanup. The mayor and most media outlets estimated the turnout at 12,000 volunteers strapping on the free garden gloves and pushing brooms across the entire city.

    The camera-phone image above was the scene at Penn Treaty Park, where by my count at least 60 people picked and scraped the debris from the rocks and banks of the Delaware River -- and the grass lawn that comprises most of the park. It was surprising to me just how dirty a park I'd thought was for the most part clean really was when you got down on your hands and knees. The broken glass and candy wrappers, this is the sort of litter you see all the time. But the amount of non-biodegradable plastic collected just at Penn Treaty . . . it was really depressing. Not just plastic trash bags and cigarette box wrappers, either; I'm talking plastic #1 and #2 -- the type that is now collected in single stream recycling in a large part of the city, and which will be available required across the entire city in July -- chewed up dog toys, prescription bottles, bottle caps from soda/water/Gatorade . . . I would estimate that three-quarters of the paper trash bag my baby and I filled was comprised of some sort of plastic, and a good part of the other quarter was an old fire hose.

    And then of course are the cigarette butts. Way back when some City Councilman called Nutter introduced legislation for the smoking ban, yr Skyline took a decidedly non-stance stance, not unlike that with the casinos. Nanny laws are over-government, and bars without smoke just seem wrong, but on the other hand, cigarette smoke in just about any other indoor place that is not a bar is pretty disgusting, and coming home from the bar NOT smelling like smoke is just fantastic (and reduces the number of times you have to do laundry). What a smoking ban inadvertently increases, though, is the amount of smokers' litter, just by sheer numbers.

    Butts, butts, butts. It would be nice if there were more Smokers Poles, the awesomely-named cigarette receptacles found outside a number of popular former smokers bars like Doobies, but even then, there'd be no guarantee all smokers would be considerate enough to use them. It's the same thing with the lack of trash cans in neighborhoods . . . even if there was a trash can on every single corner in Fishtown, the Arctic Splash phenomenon would without a doubt carry on. But yeah, lots of cigarette butts at Penn Treaty, on the walkways, near benches, near the parking lot.

    I'd imagine that fascinatingly durable plastics and annoyingly hard-to-get-out-of-crevasses cigarette butts were common themes across the city's targeted cleanup areas: residential blocks, their commercial corridors, parks and rec centers, and Fairmount Park. Keeping these places from regressing to pre-cleanup filth is the hard part. We can have monthly cleanups from here to eternity, but until the point is drilled into the skulls of people who think it's ok to do anything from dropping a toothpick wrapper to throwing a milkshake cup out a car window to dumping old refrigerators . . . well, we'll have to keep having monthly cleanups from here to eternity. How long will willing participants want to pick up the trash left by people who create the need for a cleanup?

    This reminds me: was Mount Moriah Cemetery one of the targeted cleanup locations? If you were there and have pics, send a few to photos AT phillyskyline DOT com (or better, a link to a gallery), I'd love to check em out.

    Anyway, I think everyone would agree that Saturday's cleanup is a great starting point. A few thousand folks hit the Linc for the postgame BBQ, but here in Fishtown, Philadelphia Brewing Company's BBQ and Johnny Brenda's PBC cleanup special hit the spot without a 45 minute trip on Septa.

    * * *

    Related reading:

    BROWN: the first photo essay on this web site, from 25 January 2003, following a walk through a trash-laden G-Ho
    NUTTER FOR MAYOR: the May 2007 interview with Nutter Butter, with commentary about Philly's litter problem and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's comments about it.

    –B Love


    6 April 08: First word on First Person



    The 17th annual Philadelphia Film Festival is in full swing, effective right now. This year's showcase of homegrown talent includes takes on the lives of Patti Smith, Isaiah Zagar and Richie Ashburn, as well as the Mummers, the subject of Tom Quinn's The New Year Parade, which had three screenings at SXSW and which won Best Narrative Feature at Slamdance.

    Two of this year's documentaries are of particular interest within the Skyline realm: Ben Herold's First Person and Mary Patel's Electile Dysfunction. Cassidy Hartman wrote for the latest Philadelphia Weekly an excellent preview of First Person, which premiers this evening at International House.

    The screening is on one hand a closure for Herold's five years of incredible and trying work, and on the other a fitting launch for reopening public discourse on public education in Philadelphia, which Mayor Nutter made one of the hallmarks of his campaign, and in which someone who knows him well is involved -- his wife Lisa. Lisa Nutter is the president of Philadelphia Academies, Inc, the nonprofit organization that "expands life and economic options for Philadelphia public school students through career-focused programming that prepares young people for employment and post-secondary education."

    First Person is so called because a large part of the story is told directly, via video diaries, by the subjects of the film, six public high school students who became involved in the projects as 10th graders enrolled in the Young Scholars Program at Herold's alma mater, Temple University. In what might be considered an illustration of the hardships of the urban public education system, that program disbanded in the time the film was shooting.

    The challenging reality of growing up in North Philly and Kensington, and what happens after it, is First Person; it puts some backbone into the "inner city student" outlook. Yet for as real a look at the lives of these six students is, even more so is the outcome of their goal of reaching college: none of the six is enrolled in a four-year college, and one of them is incarcerated. "You see genuine hope in each kid," Herold says from getting to know each one, "so it was shocking when Kurtis was arrested . . . he really is a bright person, and his family has been incredibly supportive."

    As for what happens from here forward: a trust fund has been established to assist the students of the film as they pursue their individual goals of higher education. The film has been optioned to several outlets to serve as a tool for better understanding the public education system -- education education -- including WHYY, which will broadcast the film this fall.

    First Person's premiere at the I-House tonight is sold out, but there is another showing this Saturday (same location) at 4:30pm. Buy tickets HERE. Also, there's a fundraiser concert for First Person Trust Fund at World Cafe Live directly after tonight's premiere, and is only $5. The event is hosted by Philly First Lady Lisa Nutter, with performances by Ursula Rucker and the Back to Basics Band, with sets by DJ Dozia.

    Ben Herold is nominated for the first-time film director award. For more on First Person documentary, the Philadelphia Film Festival and Philadelphia Academies Inc, please see the following:

    • First Person documentary official site, which includes blogs and narrative not included in the film from all six students
    • First Person at Philadelphia Film Festival
    • Philadelphia Film Festival official site
    • Message from President Lisa Nutter at AcademiesInc.org
    • Cassidy Hartman's PW story Worth a Shot
    We'll catch up with Mary Patel later this week as she braces herself for the premiere of her own first film, Electile Dysfunction, at the Prince Theater on Wednesday night.

    –B Love


    6 April 08: 10-4 on a 6-Four-10



    Here we go, here we go, here we here we here we go. Six days into April, we're ready for the first Big Four update of the month, with a focus on 10 Rittenhouse Square. The image above there is click-to-enlargeable, but please note the clicked image is 5,330 pixels wide, so go easy on the bandwidth, wouldja?

    Really though, have a look: it's ten images taken from the same vantage point five stories above 1845 Walnut Street, arranged chronologically to watch the hole in the ground that was once the so-called Rindelaub's Row fill in with the massing of a tower that will be 33 stories and clad with real masonry upon its completion a year or so from now. You can also see Comcast Center rising in the backround.

    From 18th & Sansom, let's have a quick sampling over to 21st & Market, over to 17th & JFK and then back down to 15th & Chestnut . . .

  • MURANO: The hoist elevators have been removed from the 21st Street side of the building, and the holes it left were quickly zipped up in the last of the glass to be installed on the tower. The staging platform that went with it has also been removed, so the bottom floor is being fitted out now, including the curved black granite entrance on the west side which counters the curve of the glass rising above it. The building's web site says that occupancy begins this spring (it's spring now), so let's assume the fences and scaffolding along 21st & Market Streets will be removed by then, too.

  • COMCAST CENTER: As mentioned in Thursday's daffodil update (three posts below this one), things are shaping up across the plaza and in the remaining upper floors still to be finished, and all parties should be able to meet their mid-May opening. It will be at that time that Georges Perrier can shift the public's attention away from the unusual demotion he handed his signature restaurant Le Bec Fin (in an even more absurd news story from Channel 6), when he opens Table 31. With any luck, the Sixers and Flyers will still be hanging around in the playoffs and Comcast will have to choose between its two sports franchises for the live feed into the 80' HDTV in the lobby.

  • RESIDENCES AT THE RITZ-CARLTON: By my count, the glass is 27 stories up and the concrete frame is 45 stories high, leaving three floors before a topping off party. RATR-C has recently been observed from: the Camden Riverfront, Citizens Bank Park, Rittenhouse Square, and the Mann Center.



    All of the above but the flavor of Le Bec Fin's tuna tartare is found in photo updates in the following sections:

    Comcast Center § Residences at the Ritz-Carlton § Murano § 10 Rittenhouse Square

    –B Love




  • 4 April 08: Anniversaries



    by Nathaniel Popkin
    April 4, 2008

    I've only missed two Philadelphia springs since 1988, the last being a decade ago, in 1998. Beau Monde, at 6th and Bainbridge, opened then, while I was bungling French at photo school in Paris and my wife Rona was learning how to make sauces at the Ritz Escoffier. When we reappeared in Philadelphia, partners David Salama and Jim Caiola hired her to work the crêperie's prep kitchen. Rona didn't work for David and Jim long, but since then, they've seen us through a bundle of milestones, including a dinner (and celebratory bottle of wine) during Rona's labor with our first kid, Lena, and the book-signing party when my book, Song of the City, came out.

    Since that first spring of 1988, April in Philly has always made me feverous; I spent hours studying in what was 19th century banker Clarence Clark's arboretum at 42nd and Locust (now Penn's Sadie Alexander school) and in Clark Park, barefoot, petals in the grass. Nowadays winter ends and I long to lounge around the azalea garden behind the Art Museum and read the paper and watch newlyweds amidst the coral and hyacinth; in the magnolia garden near Fourth and Locust (near resplendent now) I'll doze and the kids will play in the broken fountain. Lena, apparently, has inherited the genes: this past 50 degree Sunday, in t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, she dragged a bean bag chair outside and sprawled herself across our stoop. More than one passer-by still in winter coat had a good chuckle.

    This year, despite or because of the lingering cool air, the pear tree flowers seem brighter and more delicate than ever. In the evening the spearmint-striped cherry blossoms outside of Beau Monde catch the light from the streetlamps, forming a little solar system against the moonless sky. And come morning, daffodils, like little suns, shine all over. It's spring in Philly. The blossoms will fall then turn brown, and the wind will take them away.

    In 1988, Reagan still President, the Phils won three after losing to the Pirates at the Vet on opening day. Then they lost seven straight. As we saw in the photo essay Joe Minardi presented yesterday, with all those parking lots, Center City looked a little more like Charlotte and a little less like Guangzhou; then as now there was a brand new icon on the skyline and a few cranes propped up against recession. A massive site was cleared for the Convention Center.

    It's gratifying to think about all we've done in two decades, how we show ourselves off now (in ways we couldn't have imagined); how we've adapted the economy; how we've allowed ourselves to dream. Because of all that and more, for a lot of people, today Philly's an easier, more compelling, and more rewarding place to live.

    There's another anniversary today, lest we forget why skyscrapers and cherry blossoms sometimes leave us cold. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, who had just begun to press his joint case against the war in Viet Nam and against unfettered capitalism, was assassinated in Memphis. As I noted in last week's City Paper, King's death marked the beginning of the end of ambitious urban policy. (Explicit urban policy continued to evolve -- from urban renewal, anti-poverty, and work programs to enterprise and empowerment zones -- after King's death, but finally died during the Clinton administration.) The failure of civil rights to fundamentally alter the economic well-being of the urban poor is an ample metaphor for the failure of urban policy to end the decline of our ghettos. Scholars say that civil rights moved its focus away from addressing economic inequality toward softer targets in integration, psychology, and cultural enrichment. We might say the same of urban policy. Today there is little talk of poverty and justice. Instead, we grapple with urban design, infrastructure, and transportation.

    Inga Saffron wrote yesterday that not even this sort of urban policy-lite has entered any of the presidential candidates' rhetoric. Indeed, Bruce Katz, the Brookings policy expert she cites, mentions that transit and infrastructure ought to be presidential priorities. Economic issues, housing, and crime aren't among them.

    But what is and what ought to be urban policy? The movement away from social and economic justice towards physical planning, design, and enhancing street life reflects a change in approach as well as the political reality of war, low taxes, and scarce resources. Economic inequality is caused in part by regressive taxation. That's a national problem (with great urban implications, of course) that can't be addressed at the local level. It is the same with immigration, healthcare, and energy policy. Imagine a $3 dollar per gallon increase in the gas tax. Wouldn't that be the most profoundly pro-city policy of all? In this regard, Saffron's point that the candidates are ignoring cities may be technically but not effectively true. We'll have to see what Clinton, Obama, and McCain say about those key issues -- taxation/redistribution, energy, and immigration -- to understand their potential effect on cities.

    Of course we'd like to hear one of the candidates say he or she loves cities and understands their critical role in the development of technology and civilization, in reducing carbon emissions, in fostering a functioning, multi-ethnic democracy. Wouldn't you be astounded if one of them talked about historic preservation -- or gun control?

    In 1998, as America got stupid over a little excess pleasure in the Oval Office, Rona and I waited in vain for springtime to come to Paris. I bought ranunculus and primroses for our little apartment; Rona went to see Titanic. The French papers were full of stories about the American economic miracle. (The Phils, by the way, lost to the Braves on April 4, to fall to 1-3.)

    –Nathaniel Popkin
    nathaniel.popkin@gmail.com

    For Nathaniel Popkin archives, please see HERE, or visit his web site HERE.
    For The Possible City, please see HERE.


    * * *

    Ed. note: I also have a tendency to get wrapped up in anniversaries. (After all I do publish a calendar.) Nathaniel and I were discussing his article on the anniversary of MLK's death and Michael Eric Dyson's book about the same over latkes at Honey's last week. I've been drawing lines between numbers in the time since then: I've noticed that a decent portion of my penny postcard collection dates from 1908, and just last night, I emailed a friend recounting our experiences ten years to the day: in Shippensburg, where I wrote a travel column called Leave This Place (get it?) for the university newspaper, Phish was a popular band.

    Though many would deny it, I really think Phish's energetic surge in the mid-90s helped a lot of people get over the death of Jerry Garcia, on my 19th birthday in 1995. April 3rd, 1998 was the second night of a mini-tour dubbed the "Island Tour" (two shows in Long Island, two shows in Rhode Island). It was at Nassau Coliseum, home of the NHL's Islanders. As Phish shows went, it was near the top, with a cover of Ween's "Roses Are Free" that transitioned into 20 minutes of dark funk, and later during a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Loving Cup", a kid wearing a Tigger backpack who jumped on stage and pumped his fists in the air, prompting Phish's security head Pete Carini to chase him off the stage, which the band followed with their "Carini Had a Lumpy Head".

    After a night at a sleazy motel in Hicksville (no really, the Long Island town is called Hicksville), we had a cup of coffee at Jones Beach and then drove into Manhattan, the only time in my life I've done so. With the wide avenues, cabs everywhere and aggressive New York drivers, it felt very much like a video game. We found a $20 parking garage in the Financial District, had dinner at a Thai restaurant (my first time -- we didn't have any Thai restaurants in Tyrone, or Ship for that matter), drinks at the legendary-to-hippies-and-since-closed Wetlands Preserve (where I was so impressed that Yuengling Lager was on tap), and wrapped up our visit with a trip to the 107th floor bar, Windows on the World, at the World Trade Center. And that was how I spent the weekend of April 3rd and 4th, 1998.

    One last thing: the image of The Vet above was taken five years ago today, the last home opener at that stadium. The end result was the same on April 4, 2003 as it was on April 5, 1988: Bucs over Phils on opening day. Shane Rawley took the loss in '88, while in '03, it went to the inimitable Joe Roa, who served up a grand slam to Reggie Sanders before the Phillies had even picked up a bat.

    –B Love


    3 April 08: I wandered lonely as a cloud, or,
    Comcast Center Quarterly, borrowed from Wordsworth



    The daffodils are a-blooming in the planters outside of Comcast Center. The plaza on which the planters sit appear to be on schedule for the mid-May official opening of the building.

    The infrastructure of the plinth is pretty much done, and the work going on behind the chain link fence with the colorful banners tends to three things: the Perrier-Scarduzio café, the completion of the fountain, and the trellis under which patrons of the café will sit and relax (and take in the mist of the fountain on particularly hot, windy days).

    The last of these, the trellis, maintains a skeletal form, symmetrical and even elegant as its steel reflects the morning sun in a bright white which contrasts the blacks of the shadows in a series of right angles.

    The trellis, as you might recall from last summer's essay about the plaza, is topped by a dichroic glass, a prismatic material which displays different colors in different light sources:



    In this photo, note how the exact same glass emits a bright red and an aquatic turquoise. Unrelatedly, William Penn is off in the background being a whiny little sissy, looking northeast while pretending Comcast Center doesn't even exist just to his west. It's the same angle of ol' Billy the elevated public spaces of American Commerce Center will have from a bit higher up.

    Elsewhere across the plaza, one of Comcast Center's final remaining components is its connection to the Arch Street Presbyterian Church. While the shortest part of the project's framework is little more than a giant loading dock with garage doors which close down and look like big garage doors on Arch Street itself, the part facing the plaza maintains the scale of the church and will incorporate a 21st century entrance into the 19th century sanctuary.


    Click enlarge.

    The sidewalk along Arch Street (not pictured) -- clearly the back door of Comcast Center -- is now open, with a miniature model of the "COMCAST CENTER" fixture on the JFK side's awning (seen above). Table 31, the Perrier-Scarduzio restaurant to occupy the first floor, has been shrouded in black plastic since the building's soft opening in December, but some of that plastic is now peeled back far enough to afford a sneak preview. The standard orange liquor/zoning notice is also affixed to the dual doors which have been completed.

    As for the evening lighting scheme . . . well, a big thank you to everyone who has emailed their comments. You've not been forgotten -- that subject will be finished in the coming days. All of this is a preview, I guess, to the first April update of the Big Four, which should be up by the time you smell your morning coffee this weekend.

    –B Love




    3 April 08: Chopper over '88



    On a sunny September day in 1988, some employees of a Philadelphia engineering firm set out in a helicopter for some aerial photographs of possible new sites for a city heliport. Forgotten for nearly two decades, the pictures have now resurfaced and date the progress of the Philly Skyline from the dawn of the skyscraper boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

    Prior to the completion of Helmut Jahn's One Liberty Place in 1987, city buildings were famously limited, per the gentleman's agreement (which is to say not forbidden by law), to a height no higher than the brim of William Penn's hat atop City Hall, or 548'. Once this taboo was shattered by Willard Rouse's ambition, Philadelphia ushered in a new era of breathtakingly tall office buildings. Gone were the days of highrises that resembled air conditioning units.

    One Liberty Place is shown as the dominant king of the sky, minus its shorter sibling. Little did it know it would be surpassed just 20 years later by the 975' Comcast Center. Speaking of missing siblings, One Commerce Square is seen here without its identical counterpart. The G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building (built as the Blue Cross Building) is shown under construction and was itself to be paired with a twin which never happened. Other obvious omissions are from the current building craze that has given the city the aforementioned Comcast Center, the crystalline Cira Centre, the St. James, and others.

    So take a step back into a skyline past courtesy of Joanne Reider, and the crew at McCormick Taylor in Philadelphia, with these 11 aerials circa-1988.

    LAUNCH PHOTOS.

    –Joe Minardi




    2 April 08: Garden State Greetings



    Y'know, Jersey? Your love is like bad medicine. Bad medicine is what I need. Shake it up, just like bad medicine. Click to enlarge that bad medicine above.

    Jersey does rock, after all. Bon Jovi New Jersey is now twenty years old, yowza. It debuted at #1 in 1988, spawned five top ten hits, and both Jon Bon and Richie still have mad love for Philly, the singer with his arena football team and the guitar man with his Two Liberty penthouse.

    The ass-kickin' and 100% genuine image above was an accidental addition to a mini-set that's coming this week. It's gonna be a non-traditional look at the Camden riverfront, so if you're a fan of Camden, keep it local.

    In the meantime, below is a more traditional view from that same riverfront. The thermometer is inching upward, so make plans now for an early morning Riversharks game or, hooboy, the MMR-B-Q with Stone Temple Pilots and Staind at the Tweeter Blockbuster Sony Music Entertainment Susquehanna Bank Center. The ferry will take you right there.



    –B Love




    1 April 08: The Possible City
    Recess/Re-assess

    by Nathaniel Popkin
    April 1, 2008



    Inertia -- and Philadelphia's concentration of large education and medical institutions -- is keeping a lot of contractors employed right now. (This non-profit concentration, long seen as a sign of weakness in the local economy, may protect the city from the worst effects of the bust.)

    Quite a few small contractors are fat, but tired, from a decade of non-stop work; those who were smart enough to pick up a building or two along the way can finally get to work on them. Maybe the slower pace will improve the quality of workmanship.

    Some major construction projects, too far along to reel in, are moving forward. Others, architecturally-speaking among the most ambitious, are just being proposed. In this regard it's interesting to see how density works as a hedge against wider economic trends. The concentration of desires generates demand. This micro-economy signals global capital markets that there's money to be made here, hopefully making something like Winka Dubbeldam's UnKnot Tower possible. If that project moves forward it will tell us that as a brand Philadelphia has enough value to keep the steel rising.

    But Philadelphia the brand hasn't quite altered the reality of Philadelphia the poor city, perennially slow in recovering from recession. So we'd better keep a careful eye on how limited public resources are invested. The wrong moves will set us back five years; we'll start the next growth cycle behind, yet again. The right moves will keep the current momentum going. Given energy costs and likely changes in the political landscape, the second decade of the 21st century could be a good one for America's old cities; but Philly has to be ready to grow.

    There is an important difference between Philadelphia in 2008 and Philadelphia in 1988, at the eve of the last deep recession, and that is immigration. In 1988, few immigrants came here. That decade was the nadir for immigration in Philadelphia, marking the end of our city's descent from most to least cosmopolitan of any major city in the country. Post-recession, Philadelphia had to recover without the necessary injection of immigrant energy. That's like expecting a subsistence farmer to grow rich. Today the climate is substantially different. We've completed nearly two decades of relatively high immigration (now, the proportion of foreign born in Philadelphia is back above the 10% 1950 level); the impact is extraordinary. This outside capital (people, ideas, money) will help propel the city through the recession.

    But the economic downturn comes without change to immigration policy; together this has already reduced the number of foreign born entering the US. As anti-immigrant fervor tends to increase during a recession, we'll need to work harder to keep the doors open -- and people coming through them.

    The slowdown in private-sector investment also makes public sector spending proportionally more important. In order to ally with and magnify scarce private sector funds, government spending will have to be more careful and strategic. The Navy Yard is illustrative. In the 1990s, public money jump-started activity there. Then private companies invested their own money, getting us part-way there. Now it's time to leverage those billions. But there are two problems with the current strategy. The first is the instinct so far to conceive as the Navy Yard as following the form of suburban development; each project is its own discreet entity. The Yard itself is separate from the rest of the city; overall, despite the setting, it's little more than an employment center with acres of parking. The second, very much related, problem is that the Yard isn't capturing new economic activity; it's a transplant center for entities with space needs. So not only does the Yard create little of its own economy, it pulls from other parts of the city. (Hunting Park will feel the loss of Tasty Baking more than the Navy Yard will gain.) Strategic investment in infrastructure and transit, on the other hand, can integrate disparate parts of the Yard and connect the Yard itself with the rest of the city. Taken further, the Yard offers limitless potential for transformative and exciting infrastructure investment. The current, suburban mode is by definition limiting -- and ignores the Yard's strength, the river.

    The Navy Yard is tantalizing in part because it's an obvious strength we haven't yet exploited. The same could be said for the length of the Delaware waterfront, where shopping centers prevail, obliterating the urban potential. This is the critique that led to the Penn Praxis proposal for the central waterfront. The Praxis plan isn't perfect, but its central idea -- that value is derived from density and wasted by sprawl -- should govern public investment during this critical period. We face dumb, monolithic projects: the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the two casinos. But public investment surrounding those projects means everything. The Convention Center expansion, so far bungled in every possible way, will be ruin if we do not imagine how to capture the Center's activity and integrate its functions with the city itself. Among other things, this might mean the thoughtful repositioning of public spaces on North Broad, connecting with and energizing those and in and around City Hall. As for the two casinos, the instinct to separate such derelict and confounding uses may be in error. It's unclear if the 1,500 foot ruling will prevail anyway. Assuming at the end of the day it doesn't, a better city planning strategy will be to masterfully integrate those casinos into the life of the city. Really doing so -- with transit, roadway changes, public space, good architecture -- could mean actually profiting from rather than bearing (without grinning) the crud and grim ambition of the gaming industry.

    I've mentioned transit about five times now. I do so because investing in transit shows a return -- and should therefore be a lead strategy in neighborhood development. Here again is an opportunity to build on a strength -- SEPTA ridership is up -- and to enhance the effect of density. What do I mean? Let's bundle transit improvements with investments in commercial areas of neighborhoods.

    The Wayne Junction station preservation project is case in point.



    SEPTA is finishing early-stage plans for a $20 million station renovation, and this evening, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission hosts an open house on its Germantown and Wayne Junction Transit-Oriented Neighborhood Plan, along with its planning consulting firm Kise Straw and Kolodner. (The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, 35 W. Chelten Ave.) Make that investment meaningful and ultimately transformative by tying it to service improvements and investments in the streetscape.

    Fail to do so and consider Wayne Junction another wasted opportunity. In flush times we weather them (some other column I'll compose a troubling list of the decade's missed opportunities); in times of increasing scarcity, we have no such luxury. What we do now matters most of all.

    –Nathaniel Popkin
    nathaniel.popkin@gmail.com

    For more on The Possible City, please see HERE.
    For Nathaniel Popkin archives, please see HERE, or visit his web site HERE.


    1 April 08: Phhhhhhhhh



    Well that was ugly. I almost feel bad for Tom Gordon, who has worked through injuries and had major struggles . . . they make all the good things he's done in his 2+ seasons with the Phillies seem like strokes of luck. It's easy to forget he was an all-star his first year here, the first after Billy Wagner committed treason and signed with the Mets.

    In spite of a big error, Jimmy Rollins started the season off showing the leadership and clutch nerves that made him the MVP last year . . . but it was nowhere near enough to overcome Gordon's awfulness. Flash is gonna have to work a while to trim back that 135.00 ERA.

    But there it is, an 11-6 loss to start the season. Do the Phillies ever win their home opener? I know I've never seen them win one, and I've been to at least five. (A quick check to baseball-reference.com shows they won against Washington here in 2005, the Nats' first ever game . . . how do I not remember this?)

    Anyhow. A new season generally brings new things to the ballpark, and a quick look around shows the following . . .



    First is a new Mayor for the City of Philadelphia. Why Michael A Nutter had his custom "08 NUTTER" jersey tucked so far into his jeans, only he will know (I am guessing his wife Lisa was not present for this game), but the MAN did throw a strike. He later changed back into his suit. He was also welcomed with cheers, which is more than could be said for the President of the United States, who threw out the first pitch at Nationals Park to a raucous chorus of boos on Sunday night, before receiving a typical big-TV blowjob from ESPN announcer Jon Miller. [ESPN/Youtube.]

    Elsewhere around the ballpark, a few Opening Day Casual Observations:
    1. A NEW HIGH-DEF SCOREBOARD: Since the rightfield out-of-town scoreboard, the two upper level scoreboards, and the largest scoreboard in the National League were not substantial enough to keep us aware of the score, the Phillies have purchased us two enormous high-def scoreboards similar to every basketball arena in the country to assist us. Conveniently, about 90% of it is taken up by advertising that can transition, change colors, wipe, and NOT AT ALL be distracting. I'd also like to take this time to remind you that you can save every day with the Comcast Triple Play.

    2. A NEW GULF SIGN: Meanwhile just above the leftfield foul pole, affixed to the Harry the K's section is a brand new giant Gulf Oil sign. It hangs out like a growth on the bleachers, but it is situated such that if someone were to hit a homerun off of it, everyone in the ballpark would win a free tank of gas. HA HA HA, FREE GAS IN 2008, HA HA HA.

      I'd also like to take this time to remind you that Gulf Oil is life . . . one day at a time.

    3. THE GOLF CART IS STILL USING A REALLY LOUD SIREN: Another regular topic of Phillies Skyline conversation is that of the golf cart that travels throughout the park. With Mayor Nutter at the city's helm, we have made an effort to improve our image, and he has us believing we can do it . . . yet outside the Delaware Valley, we're still a filthy, crime ridden city, if Stephen Colbert's recent comments were any indication. Citizens Bank Park, in an isolated island of parking and other stadiums in South Philly nowhere close to homes (yeah yeah, there are like 30 houses on the east side of Broad below Packer), contributes to the outside perception, at least to baseball fans, when on TV and on radio. When the golf cart travels the concourse and has to pass through a crowd, it doesn't use a simple "beep beep" to indicate it is coming through -- no, it uses a REALLY LOUD siren, which sounds exactly like an ambulance or police siren, and the people watching on TV or listening on the radio are left to themselves to guess whether it's an ambulance or a golf cart with a box of nachos on it. In big bad Philadelphia, it's probably an ambulance taking the latest person shot to a hospital.

      Seriously, Phillies management: when are you going to get the memo that this stupid golf cart's siren is embarrassing, the projection of a terrible misconception?

    4. BASE COACHES WEAR HELMETS NOW: and man do they look ridiculous. One minor league base coach was killed in a freak, tragic accident last year, and it is a shame. That's exactly one death in 130-some years of baseball . . . and it's enough of a reason to require EVERY coach in all of professional baseball to stand like a bunch of John Oleruds or eight year old kids in the coaches box? Umm . . . why not let the coaches decide for themselves? (Or ask Larry Bowa what he thinks of it?) A lot of people have likened this rule to seat belts. There's a pretty big difference between driving a one-ton metal machine 70 miles an hour and paying attention to a ball that's not even four inches wide, especially when you're a professional who has been doing it pretty much your entire life. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

    Ahhhh well. Please forgive this burst of cynicism. Opening Day tends to be a little frustrating in this part of the country. One thing that did rise above the South Philly mist yesterday was . . . today's Philly Skyline Phillies Skyline, hooray!



    If you're interested, there are 24 photos of the Phillies' 11-6 loss to the Nationals
    HERE.

    –B Love










    LINKS | ABOUT | CONTACT | FAQ | PRESS | LEGAL