More future stuff incoming:
4312 Market: 6 stories, 40 units 1613 Germantown Ave: 4 stories, 40 units 5420 Ridge Ave: 34 units 4900 Spruce: 5 stories, 151 units 1408 N 3rd: 3 stories, 78 units 525 N 41st: 30 units 4112 Lancaster Ave: 4 stories, 37 units 1102 Germantown Ave: 9 buildings, 4-5 stories, 64 units total 125 S 46th: 3 stories, 12 units |
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2009: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4916/...885954fab7.jpg 2017: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4885/...ea845886b9.jpg |
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^It must not be the high-build plastisol type paint, but more just a regular oil base paint. No wonder it only lasts a few years.
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I've lived on my block now for 5 years. I know we're served by overhead lines. But I honestly had trouble remembering if the lines run down my street or back alley. I peeked out my window to check. Power lines are simply not important to me or my life. They don't bother me. Period. I honestly don't think we're all that far apart in reality though, I just think that two of the things that have been mentioned here recently are really big pet peeves for certain people. If the trash on the highway bothers you, or messy power lines bother you, philly gives you ample opportunity to get annoyed and have the issue just build up in your head. Meanwhile it is also clear there are a lot of people like me for whom these two specific things don't really bother us. At the same time, I assume some of the things that really get on my nerves don't bother others as much. Road striping as others have mentioned DOES bother me. But, my greatest pet peeve is when utilities dig up pristine freshly laid asphalt for what appears to be routine maintenence. It just makes me feel like nothing can stay nice in this city, that we're too incompetent to communicate and get everyone on the same page so that things like that don't happen. It really depresses me and truly drives me nuts, but I can see how others don't care. I think we might disagree on which little things the city should be doing, but I think we all mostly agree that the city should be doing the little things it can while it tries to tackle the larger issues. |
Not to beat a dead horse but I was checking out some of the photo threads yesterday and it instantly occurred to me what those power lines remind me of: a dying rust belt city. Obviously, Philly is not that but seeing residential streets with those ugly power lines just gives off that kind of vibe to me.
Happy Thanksgiving all!!! |
I dont want to sound like an ass, but complaining about utility lines sounds like a "I drive through the neighborhoods outside center city occasionally" or "I only know the city through Google Street view" complaint rather than something a resident might complain about. I live in South Philly and you get used to it. Things at street level like sidewalks that are obstructed or in disrepair, people not shoveling their sidewalks after a snow storm and of course the trash on the sidewalks and streets are much more annoying. I would rather the power lines were buried but it is way low on my priority list. In fact, requiring outside gas shut offs and electric meters are far more annoying to me. That said I do agree with requiring all new developments with more than a handful of units burying their utility lines. Some developers already do this.
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POD Hotel - 3 floors of steel to go
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Nice development - adds great density without destroying the 19th Century scale of the street (or destroy the 19th century buildings for that matter).
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I did something of an experiment a few years ago where I photoshopped a few intersections in the city and removed the overhead wires and then asked people their impressions of each image. One, i remember, was of the Italian Market at Christian St and by simply removing the overhead wire mess, it took the image from what looked like a downtrodden third world street and transformed it into a quaint-feeling marketplace. Pretty stark. Also, as stated, it's not just "power lines: - power lines make up a small % of the visual overhead bundle - it's mostly fibre lines...which pisses me off. Especially if you watch a Comcast or FIos installer just have blatant disregard for their handywork - just so long as that house is somehow attached to the network. Wires are so sloppily and haphazardly and needlessly strung about on the poles, it's a joke. Frankly, I think people should be a bit more pissed off about this issue in particular. Even just some simple oversight in this area would go a long way to cleaning up the mess. |
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Nice clarity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_pole From the utility pole, the electrical transmission wire is stringed from pole to pole. From each pole, an indivudual wire is stringed to the home, apartment. Something bigger like a low rise, mid rise or high rise, because of cumulative greater load is gonna have a different set up than an individual single family row home. I think this is the reason why new construction low-mid-high rise buildings don't have utility poles wires running to the building. Older buildings, I'm know sure what they do if it is not buried. Of course, there are other wires on the pole usually on a different elevation of the pole for copper phone wires, cable fiber optics, and other wires. |
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There is nothing I love more than the city getting great bang for its buck. So I'll agree that when a road is already torn up, or if there is a major development, the city should use these opportunities to bury lines. It's more reliable and clearly it will improve things for SOME people. Over the course of recent debates here I've come to relent that just because something is not remotely important to my life, doesn't mean it is not important. People care about different things. The power lines are clearly important to you. But you should understand that they don't bother everyone as they bother you. And if someone doesn't care about the things you care about, you shouldn't assume that deep down they do care on a subconscious level and just don't realize it. Just accept people care about different things. |
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Of course I don't think it's on the top of peoples mind. And I also accept that it's not a priority for many. But I think the absence of them has a greater effect on our subconscious than people realize. In the same way a well designed building has a subconscious effect compared to a poorly designed building. The difference between something that is high quality and low quality (anything, could be a car, a house, a handbag, a pair of shoes) are so subtle that people sometimes don't even perceive the differences, yet, there is something about the two products that "feel" different. This is that sort of issue for me. And I happen to think it's more important than many acknowledge. Not because I think it's a priority. I don't. But because it's this sort of attention to detail overtime that really elevates a place. In the same way Guiliani paid attention to QOL issues in NYC compared to Dinkins and Bloomberg even moreso compared to Guiliani. Some of what they addressed I'm sure seems absurd in retrospect, and many in NYC at the time I assure you thought they weren't "priority", but it's the cumulative effect of all of those little things together that create the perception that a place has momentum. What bothers me about Philadelphia more than anything else is that so many people are unbothered by it. I can tell you. There are a lot of people in the world who notice those things and they by and large do not even give Philadelphia a chance. That could be our loss. Catering to a larger audience doesn't necessitate that we will lose our edge or become Colonial Williamsburg or Fanieul Hall...we can do those things and still maintain what makes us special. |
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But are you honestly saying that if you were comparing two houses to move into in a "hot neighborhood" and they were identical homes, let's say, with the same orientation, light, same general view, same school catchment, etc, and the only difference between the homes would be that in one, from your master bedroom window on the third floor you saw a gaggle of wires hanging from a power line literally feet from your house, and in another, from the same exact room you had an unobstructed view with no wires...you would pick between them at random? Or pick the house with wires in front of it without even thinking about it? |
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