Not completely true. Providence did spend several million dollars unbuilding something.

Over the course of about five decades starting around 1900, the Providence River, which separates the downtown from College Hill, had been covered over by a series of ever-widening bridges that eventually combined to form a huge parking lot. In the late 1980s, Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci Jr. began a project (with the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; there are times where it's difficult to determine where the city ends and the state begins -- a friend of mine used to refer jokingly to Providence as the "world's only remaining city-state") that removed this massive deck and replaced it with new retaining walls, landscaped walkways along the river's banks, and new bridges to carry key downtown streets across it.

Without that, there would have been no river to light torch fires in, for nobody could see it.

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Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
“Basically I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them.” --Theresa Neilson Hayden

1. I love the Convention Center (original)

It made Center City a hell of a lot better in the 90's. It caused the hotels you see know. It remove the hookers off Marjet and demolished lots of useless dumps, regrew the Reading Terminal from it's almost death, built the Mariott... lotsa stuff you take for granted now. Market East was no better than North Broad in the 90's.

2. I love the expansion. Will do the same thing. Hopefully finally force growth up Broad (retail) and make the City clean up Chinatown.

3. Love the River Trail. Love it. Love the cleanup of Rittenhouse to allow the Rittenhouse today. Rest of the parks all need some major love.

3. Love the expansion of the Art Museum. Love Eastern State and the mini Restaurant area around there. Shame Fairmount's nimbyisn stunts any further growth around there. Guess that's good enough for them.

4. Love City Hall now it's cleaned.

for starters.


Hate wasted money on things that just need some lighting, some soap, (and maybe some vendors in this case).

Just walk around down there (underneath...) they need all the light and air they can get.

and underneath costs so ...so much to maintain.

Ever visit a public HS or Rec Center outside of downtown.

Ever just drive up say 5th Street.

We don't need to do this when there's like an entire city collapsing out there.

Go look under a bridge or at the sidewals outside of Center CIty.


There's a point where you need to start fixing the other 80% of the city.

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I think you shoud remove even more traffic from Franklin Square y tweaking the BF Bridge and 676 ramps.

I'm all for removing traffic around there for the north end of Independence Park.


Only way to fix City Hall Circle isn't that crazy...sounds it but isn't.

Remove all the diagonal Parkway traffic from Logan Circle to City Hall. Restore the grid there. Make JFK two ways with islands.

Spent the same amount on doing that as you would on Dillworth and you'll get Dillworth and lots more.


Putting in a ice rink and a copycat apple store....

Hell close JFK now and put up a screen on Sunday afternoon

the "study" can pay for the screen now and the closure.

and put the rink easily in Fairmount Park... and it could be 3x as large for the same cost.

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That, and the tax breaks they received to open for the Republican Convention.
where do you get this? It's done little to nothing for retail on market. don't know what you're problem is with chinatown or if you are implying that the city shoudl remove chinese people.
Rittenhouse is poorly maintained as well, it's just surrounded by people who use it and has an active "friends" with money.

but all the things you mentioned didn't just get a little soap and vendors, they got full makeovers.

ummm, no, but it could use soap.I think this is a red herring. the money that would be spent on this will have a positive return and, on the whole, is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the city budget.
what's wrong with a downtown rink or you just being ornery?

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

Mayor Nutter yesterday appointed one of his top Cabinet members, senior adviser Terry Gillen, to head the Redevelopment Authority. He also placed himself on the board of the RDA, which works to revive blighted areas.




Sounds like someone is planning on fixing the gallery

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It's a waste and it isn't functional.


You could find better uses and areas.


Heck... put a rink IN the Gallery.


and no El... I don't wish the removal of Chinatown. It is a pretty nasty section in comparison to everything around it. (Sanitation..building condition.. )

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I forget which thread it is, but yes, it turns out the RDA owns the mall and the land while PREIT owns the stores. no wonder it's been a mess. why would you put a rink in the gallery? you really have no good reason why it shouldn't go in either dilworth or the MSB plaza...both of which have more space than the gallery. as for chinatown, I've noticed there's been a lot of turnover and private money has been fixing it up already. by sanitation, I think you mean trash...and by extension, I think you mean removal of the poor chinese that call it home. the other chinatowns I've seen that are stil active are only marginally cleaner. I think chinatown is fine and if anything, it's cleaner than market st. at least the trash in chinatown is mostly bagged and not blowing around. I don't see it as an embarrassment, it's really something to be proud of. DC has no chinatown whatsoever, unless three crappy restaurants and a CVS & fuddruckers with mandarin lettering counts. You're always talking about chinatown as if it's the plague. It's largely poor and looks much better than many neighborhoods with similar demographics. Most of philadelphia is filthy. why not start cleaning regularly in other neighborhoods too?
BTW, accoding to the city paper, the underground concourses have a similar arrangement of ownership.

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

Taking the redesign a few steps further. This is actually part of Central Square, I believe. City Hall essentially sits atop central square. most of us agree that City hall is an architectural gem (love it or hate it) but many think it's not a funcitonal building. I've proposed a number of things in this thread, such as selling off MSB or, at the very least, getting rid of the depressed portion and capping it with one story retail space to liven the place up. If we step back for a minute, is there any reason City Hall itself has to remain City Hall? What if part of the reconceptualization is to move City Hall to another site. the building itself could be converted for use as a plaza. Put a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, add some restaurants/jazz club both the the street level and upper floors. Perhaps some of the space coudl be converted for use as a hotel. Essentially, it woudl return to use as a public square and the building would funciton as a small plaza. the city government coudl purchase the water revenue building and renovate it for use as a modern office building, or it coudl sign on to the ACC project...or it could build new at 13th and market, or in north philly at broad and lehigh. It coudl sell off the MSB and put all the city functions under one roof ina modern building.


or
http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...al-01_jpg.html

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"You down wit OPM?"
Fumo: "Yeah, you know me!"

I like thinking outside the box, but one obvious critique is that the City Hall courtyard is too small to really be a "great public space" - I think Dilworth and Reyburn are better suited for that. I also kinda like this great big beautiful building having a civic purpose (ignoring for a second that the government it houses is bloated, expensive, corrupt and incompetent).

That said, I think the first floor of City Hall could do very well if it were opened up with new entrances and uses. Maybe the Atwater Kent Museum could move there and be renamed "The City Museum of Philadelphia." Or cafes, restaurants, or galleries?

Renaming the Atwater Kent wouldn't fly. A. Atwater Kent donated his personal collections and the building itself (the original Franklin Institute). He should get props, as an inventor (the electric starter for cars and various radio innovations), businessman and donor, even if he did have some nasty quirks. I would bet that it would be very difficult to change the name without losing a substantial part of the collection. It is already called the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, so people know it is primarily about the city.

The museum is not exactly a city entity. Some of the employees are city employees while others are not. Moving it to City Hall would open a whole can of worms about the non-city employees. I think they are currently doing work on their building anyway. It is a great structure, built in he early 19th century and modeled on a Greek Temple. The only problem is that they only have the space to show a tiny fraction of a fairly massive collection. The stuff they have on-site and not accessable to the public could fill their galleries 10 times and their off-site storage is truly amazing. I'm not much of an antiquarian and it made my jaw drop. Maybe they should take over the Rohm and Haas building when all of those jobs get packed off to Michigan. (I kid, I hope.)