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PlanPhilly reported on a meeting to discuss Dennis Maloomian's parking garage and retail space proposed for Arch Street across from the Pennsylvania Convention Center's expansion. The building, which would be designed by the local architecture firm Erdy-McHenry and would replace a surface parking lot, was blasted by community activists who spent the meeting spouting cliches about McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway.
As someone who can personally speak on behalf of this neighborhood and proudly call it my own, I have to wonder where most of these rabble-rousers were coming from.
I'm usually not in favor of more parking, especially when it's so close to public transportation, but when it comes to the Convention Center, most people aren't coming in on SEPTA.
This center will require more parking, and this angry mob has done nothing but ensure more surface parking in the surrounding area. This neighborhood has proven repeatedly that it is a lot easier to tear down a handful of row homes for five parking spaces than it is to erect anything.
As for McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway, what are these people smoking? It's a Convention Center, that is the kind of business that thrives in these types of areas and they do astonishingly well. We want more Starbucks and fast food joints around our convention spaces. Not everything has to cater to bike messaging hipsters and Rittenhouse foodies. Some of us want Fuddruckers.
This vocal minority has nothing better to do but go to town meetings and stomp their feet. They are dictating life in this town for the majority of us who are too busy to do much more than air our grievances on message boards and blogs.
I live in the shadow of this hulk and I've not heard any local opposition to this garage or any business projected to be brought by the Convention Center.
These are the same professional protesters who come into every neighborhood to stifle development, then they turn their back on us when the same developers decide to level my house for a surface lot because they drove out a parking garage just because it might come with a Burger King.
If you're reading this blog you're probably a bit of a history nerd. And if you're a history nerd and you haven't discovered this site, shame on you.
PhillyHistory.org is probably the city's largest archive of historical photography. With a no nonsense search engine that displays all available results on an interactive map of the region, PhillyHistory.org pulls from an archive of over 2 million photographs.
PhillyHistory.org is supported by The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Water Department, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, The National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of Museum and Library Services, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Free Library of Philadelphia. It has received awards from Best of Philly, URISA, and AIA Philadelphia.
This winter scene at Broad and Sansom in 1914 is one of 2 million photographs available on PhillyHistory.org. The database may be searched by date and location, displaying results in a user friendly interactive map.
Washington Square West has something to say! Well, 24 of its residents have something to say, er, maybe 22.
Brownstoner picked up on a survey put out by the Washington Square West Civic Association in which they found that a whopping 92% of their readers opposed moving the Ride the Ducks tour to the Schuylkill River. As if the Ducks have anything to do with Washington Square West - which hugging Broad Street is about as far from any river as you can get in Center City - that "92%" was of 24 people. Not a very groundbreaking sample, particularly when you consider that 92% of people who frequent community organizations' websites are looking for something to whine about.
I love the Schuylkill River and all of its parks. If anything I would like to see more boats, amphibious or not. When something succeeds it is bound to grow in popularity, and we can't expect it to be reserved for a chosen few. Tourists mean this city is getting better, and they mean more money can go towards more potential successes. The Ducks are going to be doing down the river, not down the Schuylkill River Trail. They'll also be adding a ramp into the river which will allow day sailors to enjoy the lower Schuylkill River without having to dangerously navigate the Delaware and South Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Christmas on Market East was once the site of Rockwellian images of rosy cheeked children walking hand in hand with their parents, cold noses pressed against display windows over flowing with toys. Macy's still does a fantastic job of outfitting its display windows with classic robotic scenes of Santa's workshop and lavish winter scenes.
A Christmas display window at Macy's
Old Navy uses its display windows for neon signage, leaving much of the space behind the windows blank. K-Mart doesn't do a bad job with the windows they decorate, but they sit behind a number of unused windows and entrances. Burlington Coat Factory has made improvements to its entrance and consistently updates its windows, but they also sit behind unused upper windows which are constantly hidden by a security wall.
Gimbels display window in 1910
I was at The Gallery yesterday and noticed a new T-Mobile store. Then I noticed a T-Mobile kiosk. Then I noticed another T-Mobile kiosk. Then I recalled, there is a T-Mobile store at 12th and Market just outside.
Why does it seem that every time a vacant retail space is finally rented, it is another mobile phone store? True, everyone has a phone so the business is, well, potentially 100% of the public. And the purest of mobile phone junkies will replaced their device on a monthly basis, and there is no shortage of encouragement to do so.
I'm fine with my flip phone. I've got it duct taped together because I am hell bent on it finally lasting a year and getting my contractually promised "Free Phone".
But still, shopping is starting to feel like flipping through 500 channels and finding 500 incarnations of the same reality TV show. I get so excited when I finally see light coming from that shuttered space and turn the corner to see another Cricket logo, two employees, and no customers.
And does it really bring business and taxes to the city? Do these stores stay open on revenue from subscribers that aren't shopping here? When a customer visits the store to pay a bill or purchase a new phone, are taxes from that payment registered in Philadelphia, or based on the subscriber's postal code?
I guess the biggest thing that cheese's me off is the fact that these businesses put minimal effort into transforming their retail space. After a while, they start to make their surrounding properties look a little like Market East.
S.C.R.U.B., the forced acronym for the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight, found its beginnings doing just that, advocating for the removal of graffiti and illegal signage on abandoned buildings. But like PETA, SCRUB found that you get more attention protesting the President for swatting a fly than you do with sane debates and rational or fact based arguments.
SCRUB first grabbed mainstream attention several years ago for discouraging the city from accepting hundreds of free benches and trashcans from Clear Channel. These free benches and trashcans would have been maintained by Clear Channel who would have used them for advertising. I honestly can't think of another city where the benches and trashcans aren't used for advertising, and I honestly can't think of a city with less benches and trashcans than Philly. Coincidence? Good job SCRUB. Now the hipsters camp out on the ground and everybody throws their trash in the gutter. Thanks for Reducing that "Urban Blight".
These senseless objectors have chosen the attempted revitalization of Market East as its most recent and vocal protest. Councilman DiCicco introduced a bill before the Rules Committee to allow animated signage, digital billboards, and ads on blank, windowless walls left by Market East's mid-century demolition.
The successful revitalization of Toronto's Eaton Centre is often cited as a potential solution to Market East's continuing decline.
A misleading rendering by S.C.R.U.B. shows an historic Market East facade shrouded in billboards. Bill 100720 does not call for the application of signage to any historic facades.
The proposal to add signage to SEPTA's headquarters would have limited advertisement space to the interior of windows below the third floor. But in another misleading rendering, SCRUB has falsely implied that advertisements would cover half the building.
The subtle ad space on an unused portion of the building's facade would have provided millions of dollars in funding for our ailing public transportation system.
The three story metal walls of The Gallery at Market East could be used to display dazzling advertisements for events and businesses in and around the city.
A professional rendering shows the same intersection with signage covering The Gallery's blank walls with advertising for our nearby Chinatown and Jefferson Hospital.
As SCRUB calls this signage "Digital Blight" and argues that it demeans the street's history, they not only ignore the fact that much of that history has already been demolished, but also the fact that this street's history relied on its brightly lit consumerism. It was our nation's first "Market" street, launching a Main Street in each town across America as the commercial resource for its citizens.
SCRUB routinely ignores The Gallery at Market East in its arguments against signage on Market East, instead directing its attention at neighboring historic structures and neighborhoods, falsely implying that advocates for a better Market East wish to litter the quaint streets of Society Hill with neon and plasma billboards.
SCRUB strategically neglects the blight they charged themselves with attacking, stagnating progress and ignoring fundamental economics, all in an irresponsible effort to maintain their relevance.
After three days of polls and blogsters painted Managing Director Richard Negrin Grinch-green for doing his job, Mayor Nutter has stepped in to save the day (and a slice of fresh baked popularity) decreeing that the word "Christmas" can be returned to the illuminated marker at Dilworth Plaza's yearly Christmas Village.
How many people would have really noticed if the sign had said "Holiday Village" in the first place? Or perhaps "Santa's Village"? As a lapsed Christian who closely abides by the philosophy, "What Would Ellen Do," I can't personally sympathize with the 3% who found the word offensive. Nonetheless, I think we could have made the village more festive and inclusive for everyone, without humbugedly leaving a void where the word "Christmas" once stood.
Hanukkah started last night. Kwanzaa starts on the 26th. A multitude of festivities could be represented at the Christmakwanzaakah Village without letting a politically correct 3% dictate a spiritless season, or believing a struggling politician's sensitivity and salvation is anything more than a vote-grab.
PlanPhilly reported on a meeting to discuss Dennis Maloomian's parking garage and retail space proposed for Arch Street across from the Pennsylvania Convention Center's expansion. The building, which would be designed by the local architecture firm Erdy-McHenry and would replace a surface parking lot, was blasted by community activists who spent the meeting spouting cliches about McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway.
