PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread II

[chimpskibot]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Was in the city over the crazy hot weekend for an event. Getting very discouraged by the proliferation of graffiti on the highways and elsewhere. It's starting to look like the 70s.

Have you been to Berlin or CDMX? I think Philly should lean into being a little edgy compared to its more sterile/homogenized peer cities. Why do we find murals by mural arts okay but not graff on highways? To me this “grit” seems like a huge draw for many new and young people and just a part of city life. Think about how many people romanticize the grit of other cities. Also If this is your only complaint while the city is on a major upswing I think claiming the city is regressing is a little overblown.

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Was in the city over the crazy hot weekend for an event. Getting very discouraged by the proliferation of graffiti on the highways and elsewhere. It's starting to look like the 70s.

Highways are more a PennDOT/state issue, and they paint everything every few years, but if you go on street view on 76 it's always ebbed and flowed. You might just be focused on it if you're thinking about it. Sometimes as I get older I go through phases of noticing these things more.

But, I've lived here in the city for 12 continuous years and it's not any notably different now than before (besides the annoying political flyering on the Schuylkill River Trail). Compared to most cities (including Europe in my experience), actually, Philly has way less graffiti and tagging on private property thanks to CLIP working fast. I don't think anyone else immersed in daily urban living would find it out of the ordinary

[BroadandMarket]

Graffiti is unfortunate but I can't really be concerned about it until the city is actually clean. Litter IMO is a much bigger issue, both in the city and next to highways. Weekly street sweeping needs to move past the pilot program and we need 10 times as many trashcans. PennDOT and the city need to do a better job fencing off any area that can attracts transient people and then trash. The 676/95/2nd/Callowhill interchanges are disgusting. People break into the fenced areas easily and leave trash everywhere. I've emailed Squilla, PennDot and no one will take responsibility. Squilla said it was PennDot, they said it was the city.

The entire new path and park area under 95 at the Girard/Aramingo interchange is disgusting. It was a good idea but they are so damn naive to think that people wouldn't be camping under there. There were 15 tents under there a week ago and trash covering every square inch.