Me too.
The article didn't go into much depth on how much or how little prostitutes use the hotel, or if any johns go there. However, the hotel is the epicenter for the trans prostitutes who roam the area, and they generally stay between Walnut and Pine between Broad and 10th. Occasionally when South Street gets quieter, they can be seen further south. Obviously, the Parker sits almost in the middle of this hot pink epicenter.
No one disagrees though... the Parker is *the* spot for the wildness on 13th Street. If you want to soak all that is 13th, it would have to start here. Standing by Uhuru furniture and absorbing the streetlife you get exposed to a lot of interesting characters. It is a totally different experience from Market East which is more depressing. You can never go out between Locust and Pine on 13th and not be "bored" when you walk the sidewalks. Every day is a different adventure over there. I'm sure Pepperoni Sue knows, she's the PBer who works closest to it at night, and I know 1/2 the staff working in the Westbury, which I visit sometimes.
Sitting by the windows at the Westbury is a popular pasttime for the patrons of the bar (ask Kevin the door guy). The staff there can give you some good stories!
Between Pine and Chestnut the best things to do at night on 13th is to go drinking or clubbing, whether the Parker is the victim of circumstance or a cause is really of little concern. If there were a parking lot in its place you would see a big change in the daytime street life there (probably wouldn't change much at night--my side of 13th is just as busy with the freakazoids as the area where the Spruce is).
BTW, the Parker is not the only low-rent building in the neighborhood. There's quite a lot of "poor gays" living just a block away in another apartment building that is also low-rent. It just happens to not be a hotel, which is directly across the street from a rather drab looking condo tower with fabulous views.
13th is a goofball street in this city. It's "in-transition", but it's also not unsafe to be out here. If I was a single white female I wouldn't really mind being out here much, evidence by how many single girls I pass by along 13th and along Chestnut late at night.
My cousin lives in what used to be a really-shady area of Spanish Harlem, which is now going through lightning-fast gentrification. When he started noticing SWF joggers at night along his sidewalks then he knew the neighborhood had "turned."
I have yet to hear gunfire around here. The last killing anywhere nearby was at 11th and Pine, and that happened to be the crazy guy from Old City who ran over a 19 year old kid with his car, then emptied a revolver in him for stealing a necklace [plenty of posts about that on Phillyblog]