You reminded me of how a similar point was demonstrated in this video about a highway that was restored to a river/stream (around the 5:19 mark):
It is possible to move away from a car-centric model, and hopefully there will be more demand for change in Philly to make that happen.
I think it’s imperative. I think that the actual “level 5 self driving” thing is a distraction and what the really want is to turn our cities into dystopian hellholes where only self driving vehicles are allowed and humans and human scale development aren’t tolerated. Humans will still be there, scuttling among the robots scavenging for the dregs.
Or we can build cities for people. Which is what the right wing are going nuts about being mind control and authoritarianism. You know, local neighbourhoods with mixed use, shops, work, and recreation that you can walk around and get efficient pubic transport to bigger centralised things like hospitals and museums and sportsball games.
That’s a great video. I love the term “car sewer.”
Thinking about the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway a bit more. I’m sure at the time having a vast roadway carving its way through neighborhoods felt like the future. They probably even thought if they give cars enough space, it could even be beautiful. In order to build it, they even took one of the four original parks and transformed it into a traffic roundabout. Now Logan Square has a beautiful fountain that you can only appreciate from your car as you drive by.
It makes me glad Manhattan was able avoid the LOMEX. Thank you, Jane Jacobs.
Exactly. Over the past decade New York CIty, and especially Manhattan, have been reducing car lanes. More and more car lanes are now reserved for pedestrians or bicycles. This is what the local Republicans point to as a reason for traffic jams. They say, “Everything will be better if you take away Congestion Pricing and give us all our lanes back!”
Here is a map of my epic walk.
According to Google, it was roughly 7.75 miles. That means it was 7,750 paces or 15,500 steps. Try that calculation with the metric system!
My route was basically a large figure eight. I left the hotel and proceeded east on Market Street.
Near Independence Hall I found what I thought was the National Library Museum. There were many signs outside supporting the concept of sharing ideas throughout history. I went in. I hoped to get a pro-library sticker for my suitcase. It eventually dawned on me that this was the National Liberty Museum. I hope it isn’t something right-wing. I bought a “Free Speech” sticker anyway.
At the Delaware River I turned south, and then zig-zagged up to the museum. You know my impression of the Benjamin Franklyn Parkway by now. I don’t know what used to be there before it was built, but I bet it was more interesting.
I ascended the so-called “Rocky Steps.” Did you know there are two statues or Rocky at that location? I did not pose with it. I actually found a third statue of Rocky at the City Hall Visitor’s Center. But that’s another story.
I looked in the front doors of the museum. It was too late in the day to devote myself to art, and I wasn’t dressed for it. I just wanted to look in the gift shop. I assumed they had one. But it seems you needed to pay $30 just to enter the lobby. So I closed the door and turned away. Maybe next time.
So now I went back down the Rocky Steps in much better condition than Rocky did.
I turned south and looked into the Trader Joes to see what that was like. I was once again disappointed with their products and exited. From here I went back to the hotel.
This was all accomplished in about 4.5 hours wearing my five-year-old Adidas Sambas — the sneaker that never lets you down. Please also note, I did not need to drink a glass of raw eggs at any point of my day.
After resting and re-hydrating for 3/4 of an hour, I left to get coffee at Black Turtle Coffee. They are very good. Then I picked-up an equally good caesar salad at Di Bruno Brothers.
In short — stuff it, Rocky!
Surely in imperial thats 7 miles, 15 queequogs, and a yablooney or something? .75 sounds awful metric to me!
That was amazing.
Well actually… it was 56 furlongs and 60 chains. But I didn’t bring my surveying equipment.
(From ToS…)
if anyone is unfamiliar with the time Bill Burr played Philly, about 12 minutes before he was contractually obligated to finish the show, the heckling got bad enough to break his concentration; whereupon, he launched into a poisonous, free-form, curse-filled rant about all the ways Philly sucks, with some particularly choice words about Rocky. (cued to relevant part.)
the whole thing is pretty incredible. and rather than just leaving the stage, this way he could dis them and still get paid.
[full disclosure: I visited Philly once to see the Dead Milkmen and had a blast, personally]
haha, I went through that thread looking for my post, but it was in a different EOTT thread
To be fair to Philadelphia and Rocky, I should post this.
I should say, no one in Philadelphia was mean to me, even though I was wearing a jacket with with words “NEW YORK” written across it in large letters.
Edited to add — the ship he runs past is the Moshulu. Still basically in the same area, but now a restaurant.
Since we’re doing this, I’ll get the printer out:
This will be the last sound heard after AI takes over.
Joe Frasier…he’s not wrong about that one.
This is really quite melodic. It sounds like the actual recording being played through a small AM radio.
Note: this is from 9 years ago. But it has interesting pictures and history.
