It was clear since Moynihan Train Hall opened that the waiting area was too small and didn’t have enough seats. Today, the waiting room is full and dozens of travelers are sitting on the floor.
@NYGovCuomo
I am always grateful to come home to Philly's awe-inspiring train station, with its generous and accessible seating, ample space for traveler flow and grand civic architecture. (h/t
@HiddenCityPhila
for the great photo)
First photo was taken at a construction site on NY’s Fifth Avenue. Second, on Philly’s Walnut Street. One city prioritizes pedestrians, the other doesn’t care if you die wading into traffic.
It bears stating plainly that these tragic occurrences can be avoided. The city needs to take proactive steps—invest in Vision Zero and create truly separated bike lanes, which protect cyclists as well pedestrians on adjacent sidewalks. (3/4)
I’ve been car-free in Philly for 30 years. Raised a child, saved enough money to pay her college tuition and take some nice vacations. Never looked back (except when crossing the street)
I’m angry at people like this who won’t let new, modern apartment buildings be built in their neighborhood and prioritize parking over places for people to live.
Maybe you thought US learned its lesson about ramming highways thru cities. Maybe you thought we were starting to get serious about climate change. Then you haven’t looked at PennDot’s study for rebuilding I-95 in Philly. I did & here’s my column:
Only three years ago, the president of
@UArts
took me on a tour to show off the $3 million renovation of the Philly Art Alliance. How did they get from there to bankruptcy? We’re not just losing a university, but a whole arts ecosystem.
I’m so glad the Pine Street bike lane was finally repaved so all the Uber and Lyft drivers could have a nice smooth surface to wait for their pick-ups.
The majority of Ottawa city councillors have committed to travel solely using public transit for the entire week, to gain first-hand experience of what riders go through daily.
Nearly every museum along Independence Mall has failed or nearly failed, going back to The Living History Museum built for the Bicentennial. To think, they removed three blocks of good city buildings to create an incredibly boring lawn that no one visits most days of the year.
Philadelphia just created a big new hub for its Megabus service. And like the old stop, there’s no shelter, no benches, no trash cans and no restrooms. Intercity bus passengers deserve better. My column:
Remember when the Kenney Administration was going to require safe pedestrian passage at construction sites? This blockage is on the 1700 block of Walnut, the busiest retail street in Philly.
For half the price of a boring energy-guzzling digital screen, Amtrak could hire a Philly company to build a cloud-controller modern clipboard.
#savethesign
It’s such a thrill to see the cover of my book even if there is still nine months to go before Rutgers University Press brings it out. It’s a collection of 90 columns from the last (gulp!) 20 years, plus a long essay about how Philly has changed in that period.
Big news out of Philly this morning! Content creators at
@whyy
are unionizing with
@sagaftra
. More than 80 percent of us signed the union recognition petition, and today we delivered that petition to management. Here’s why we’re organizing.
#WeMakeWHYY
Demolition Permits Issued for Revolution-era Stortz Buildings in Old City
One of Philadelphia’s oldest industrial landmarks to be razed with no development plan in the works. Kyle Bagenstose has the details.
Five minutes into Rem Koolhaas’ “Countryside, the Future”
@Guggenheim
I realize it’s complete BS, an incoherent stew of cherry-picked ideas, random examples and contradictory arguments. How does this guy get to take over FLW’s spiral for this?
1) Philly city planning staff testified at today’s Civic Design Review meeting of the proposed Sixers arena that 10 and 11th Streets would have to be closed before and after every event for crowd control. That suggests the site isn’t big enough for this use.
PennDot cannot be trusted. The widening of I95 won’t just destroy these popular ball fields, it will Bigfoot thriving city neighborhoods and further cut them off from the waterfront.
“Rarely has a single government decision unleashed such chaos. What’s happening on Market Street is a humanitarian disaster, a municipal disgrace, an economic assault on struggling businesses, and a major blow to SEPTA.” My column:
If the city of Philadelphia or
@PhilaHsgAuthPHA
simply bought this portfolio for $7 mill, they could create 35 affordable houses for $200,000 apiece - less than half of what costs to build a new affordable unit. Even if they do need work.
Say a final goodbye to the Belmont Plateau sugar maple, which is being removed any day now. After 90-plus years the tree that framed the Philly skyline has seen a lot of change. Blame the climate crisis for its early demise.
If a regular motorist kills a pedestrian, Philly police will release the driver's name. Why won't they do the same when a police officer in an official vehicle kills a pedestrian? So many unanswered questions.
It’s insane that
@JoshShapiroPA
wants to destroy 2 Philly rec facilities to widen I-95. But if there is no other way to repair the span, the least
@PennDOTSec
can do is pay to rebuild them elsewhere. It’s a rounding error in a massive project like this.
Imagine how great a city Philly would be if it cracked down on tax delinquents, required owners to maintain their buildings and put vacant properties back on the tax rolls. We’d have more housing and less blight. Good story from
@wbender99
and
@rw_briggs
I can’t believe that Philly officials are going to be clearing the Parkway encampments at the exact same moment the Delaware waterfront manager is picking a developer for Penn’s Landing.
The pandemic is a chance to re-set Philadelphia’s relationship with the car, and its traffic engineers have some great ideas. Will Jim Kenney listen? My column:
V sorry to see my neighbors reject this variance for a cafe over fears of traffic. Don’t they realize there is a business on every corner of Lombard - Pub&Kitchen, Doobies, Rival Bros., Cafe Lutece, a barber - and we love these amenities?
Septa’s 30th St station sparkles. Amtrak’s magnificent train hall is getting a chef-driven restaurant to attract locals. So when is Philly going to do something about the abysmal conditions for intercity bus travelers? My column explores all the issues.
Wow. New York's MTA, Amtrak and New Jersey transit issue a joint report saying that the existence of Madison Square Garden on top of Penn Station is hindering their transit operations.
Let the record reflect that a Habitat for Humanity affordable housing project in N. Philly was rejected so a neighborhood could preserve a small parking lot, in a area with a surfeit of on-street parking.
Philly, like many places, is facing a heat emergency this week, so it seems like a good time to repost this 2021 column on our failure to adapt to the new climate reality.
When I wrote this piece in 2009, proposing a "Philly Dig" to get rid of I-95 in Central Philadelphia, so many people told me I was nuts. Just stumbled upon it and it still seems like a perfectly reasonable idea.
It’s crazy to think that DuPont manage to run a research campus without a giant parking garage, but Pennovation needs a 10-story, 858-space multi-deck behemoth. How hard would it be to create a shuttle or walking route from University City station?
Even if I didn’t know him as my daughter’s former 6th grade science teacher, this is just a horrible tragedy. It’s been the worst year in a long time for Philly bicycle and pedestrian fatalities. We need a big change in driving culture. Slow down, please.
How is it ethical for Philly’s managing directing to hold two outside consulting gigs without disclosing the names of his clients? That makes it impossible determine if a conflict exists. Good reporting from
@rw_briggs
and
@anna_orso
Maybe the most shocking detail in the Design Impact study for the Sixers arena is that the team never provided a rendering or elevation drawing of the north facade - the one that would face Chinatown.
Philly’s government is so in thrall to development that it refuses to provide oversight of new construction, and now some of its poorest residents are losing their homes to irresponsible contractors.
@samanthamelamed
reports on the latest collapse.
Lots of cities are removing their downtown highways. Philly’s I-95 is being built back bigger, even as the adjacent neighborhoods bounce back. My column:
@IngaSaffron
We should be building things that will connect communities and encourage economic growth like the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway!
Instead, they want to widen highways.
If anyone tried to build townhouses in the historic park behind Independence Hall, people would go nuts. Yet that’s what is happening to these important Underground Railroad buildings in Plymouth Meeting. Attn:
@JamesMartinSJ
Making construction sites safe for pedestrians was going to be one of
@JimFKenney
big initiatives when he was elected mayor. Like a lot else, it didn’t happen.
@IngaSaffron
@JeffGammage
Philly sports complex is unique , great for more investment for the city , not many city can do this because they have spread out stadiums
We’ve been so focused on whether people will go back to the office, we’ve failed to recognize that they’ve been in the offices in their homes all this time. And that their presence is transforming Philly’s neighborhoods into a ‘Bedroom City’. My column:
Just starting to read the economic impact studies on the Sixers arena and it’s no slam dunk for the team. Contrary to their claim that it would create $1.5 billion in net tax revenue over 30 years, report finds it would only generate $390 million. 🧵
Rittenhouse Square is the city’s living room, used by all, and the friends group is doing a great job maintaining it. But please note that no city money is paying for these lawn repairs. Philly’s City Hall has given up supporting our parks.
Just a reminder on this horrible day that it has been less than a year since this great public school science teacher was killed on his bike in Philly.
Kind of amazing that 2 parks in Philly - Eakins Oval and Franklin Square -are now surrounded by opaque fencing to enhance attractions that cost money. It is ‘free to enter” the Oval, but $12 to ride the Ferris wheel. Meanwhile, the Water Works has been turned into a banquet hall.
Perhaps the stupidest government decision ever. Dedicated lanes are crucial to increasing the reliability of
@SEPTA
service &getting people back on buses. Now buses can’t use one of the most important stops in the system, Fed courts/Independence Mall.
I was glad to see
@PhillyInquirer
respond with this apology and explanation for the unfortunate headline that accompanied my column Tuesday. I am deeply sorry for the trauma it caused black people in Philly, and my black and brown newsroom colleagues.
This is just horrific. 13 people dead in fire that swept through a Philly Housing Authority-owned house. Unbelievably 26 people lived in this Fairmount townhouse. The investigation will have to go beyond the immediate cause of the fire. via
@phillyinquirer
In 1991, I crossed into Albania on foot to cover to the Communist collapse, lived on boiled eggs & stale bread for weeks, scrounged aspirin from aid workers to treat a terrible fever. And now there is a
@nytimes
lifestyle piece about mixologists in Tirana.
The argument that NW and West Philly neighborhoods need MLK Drive reopened for driving, rather than for recreation, misreads the real needs of those communities.
Cars park in the medians on Broad, Washington & the Parkway - no enforcement. Somebody guerrilla-landscapes the central median of Philly’s new Dutch-style traffic circle - immediate enforcement. Story from
@tomfitzgerald
The line for Mayor Parker’s town hall on the Sixers arena is wrapped around to the Arch Street side of the convention center. The contingent of building trade guys (yes, all guys) appear outnumbered by people opposed to the arena.
Breaking: The University City District plans a $60 million bi-level park on the Schuylkill River, with amenities like an Olympic-size pool, a beach, and slide between the two floors
My innovative colleagues at the
@lenfestlab
have come up with a cool new app that lets you access my architecture pieces whenever you walk by a building/place I’ve reviewed. Try it, it’s free!
Just smh reading this Kenney Administration statement on Philly’s Greyhound debacle. After abruptly moving the bus depot to a Market Street sidewalk with no shelter from the elements and no restrooms, they are now blaming bus riders for the chaos.
We like to call Philadelphia a city of neighborhoods. It also happens to be one of the most segregated collection of neighborhoods in the U.S.
@MichaelleBond
and
@aseemrshukla
gather the numbers.
As a mayoral candidate, Jim Kenney promised to make construction sites safer for pedestrians. But as with so many campaign promises, execution proved harder than talk. My column:
It’s sad to see
@MariaQSanchez
leave the Philly mayor’s race for lack of funds, but it would be tragic to lose such a deeply knowledgeable and passionate voice from our civic life. Hope she finds a way to remain active.
I spent a day on New York’s new 14th Street busway to see what Philly could learn. No. 1, get over the myth that the Chestnut Street Transitway was a bad idea.
This building has got everything my architecture critic’s heart wants: texture, articulation, preservation and a civic mission. So why don’t the neighbors like it?
Thanks to Philly’s broken system of councilmanic prerogative, one person decides whether the Sixers arena is the cure for Market Street’s problems, one with no expertise. It becomes a matter of choosing between the people shouting in his ears.Shouldn’t city planners weigh in?
Philly has been trying for over a decade to gain control of the Reading Viaduct. Now it’s about to deputize the CCD’s Paul Levy to go after them. What happens then? My column: