Convention Center to double, Sherwood Forest gets Pine Sol treatment
BlogKing August 19th, 2007
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Demolition started this week of old buildings in the path of the Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion. After years of wrangling the project to double the size got going and should be competed by 2010.
In unrelated news but perhaps more symbolic of the new optimistic mood in Philadelphia is this article about “Sherwood Forest“ in Philly. That is the term Philly police call the maze of underground plaza, concourses and walkways between Suburban Station, City Hall and Market and Broad St Subways and connections to several office buildings.
As a sensory experience, few things can match Philadelphia’s Sherwood Forest in August.
It’s a copse of concrete columns inhabited not by Robin’s “Merrie Men” but a band of homeless people seeking shelter from the elements. And in August, when Philly’s temperature and humidity soar, the pungent odor of urine-soaked concrete is unforgettable.
I often use 15th Street Station and am disgusted with the smell and heat. How can the 5th largest US city give such a bad impression at its most central civic location?
For the first time, at least in anyone’s memory, crews are cleaning the concourses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Center City District, the privately funded organization created to improve cleanliness, safety and the quality of life downtown, has begun tackling the quality of life below ground along 3-1/2 miles of corridors connecting the subways, Market East Station and the Gallery, Suburban Station and much of South Broad Street’s Avenue of the Arts.
Levy, who has headed the district since its founding in 1990, was eager to take over the job. For all the praise he and the district have received for cleaning and promoting Center City, the concourse was literally the city’s seamy underbelly.
“It’s one of the largest parts of the city and it simply left a perception that the city doesn’t care,” Levy said.
Hallelujah, the city cares. I can’t wait for Nutter’s inauguration so that this good idea can be expanded to other areas in need of upkeep. It is the Disney World model! If areas are continually cleaned that sends a positive message and people are less likely to trash it.
Lets encourage more transit use by more great ideas like this that make everyday city life a little more pleasant and civilised. Then more people will perceive Philly as the classy city is is.
