PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread II

[gjrip]

Those new MFL cars are fcking glorious. I am so excited for those, plus the new trollies. Good stuff.

[Gatorade_Jim]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

"He who breaks the law goes back to the House of Pain!"


Well they did have to install special lights in the bathrooms to try to deter addicts from shooting up and had to have employees mop up blood on a regular basis so...

This location is going to come with some extra security benefits so it's not a good correlation.


This is an interesting topic and one I have been personally tracking, not growing up in the Philly area myself and thinking about my next move. Many of my neighbors in MontCo are from other states and countries and the pandemic seemed to accelerate this shift. But they are starting to leave, though, for numerous reasons. In the last few months:

• One family from Canada to OH due to a job transfer.
• One family from OH back to OH to be closer to family.
• One single male to FL.
• One couple is building a house in FL and moving at the end of this year.
• One single male will be moving back to FL within a few years.
• Two sisters + Mom from Iran are discussing moving back to FL but also house shopping in PA outside of the Philly area and towards Allentown.
• One couple discussing moving closer to NYC where she is from (she can't stand PA/Philly, we have some funny conversations ha ha).

I am seeing more out of state plates around me than ever, with FL, GA and NY being the top (I don't count NJ or DE, as you never know if that is for a move or just in the area for the day). So anecdotally many arrive but not as many are staying for more than a few years. I've been in the area for many years now and have never seen it this transient.

Counterpoint: the Callowhill location just expanded into a bigger space and added a bunch more indoor seating. I was there this morning. It's really nice. Also that's not just a Philly thing re: bathroom occupancy detectors and altered lighting. I worked at a starbucks in another big city outside the NE in law school several years ago and they made that change to the store I was at.

I seem to remember the data showing that the #1 place people are moving to Philly from is other places in PA, #2 is the NY metro area. I can't remember where I saw that though. If anyone knows that would be cool to see the actual data

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Sorry all I can get is this crappy phone pic. BNY Melon has been testing new lights tonight in the 'cornice' looking section!

[Jerryiz]

I was just in the Baltimore area yesterday (Maybe Towson)I drove down to purchase an item off Facebook Marketplace. The area was really nice and reminded me of the Main Line or the Villanova area. The gentleman that I met asked me if I was from Philly. (I had on my Phillies jersey) and I told him that I was, and he proceeded to tell me that he was moving into the city next month.!I said well it's very different from here. (Loyola Blakefield area). He said yes it is but I was very surprised at the price of the homes. He said that he is moving to the Graduate area, i believe he said somewhere around Pt Breeze or so. I said you never knew rowhomes could cost so much huh? LOL.He laughed and said he is looking forward to it and that there is SOOO MUCH New Construction up there and Philly has really been making a lot of improvements.! Glad to see someone outside of our area has such positive things to say about our City. I wished him all the luck with his move. !

[TK2001]

HOLY shit they're listening. And I am happy! Three Logan Square next please! And Two Liberty!

[PHLtoNYC]

This would be a hit in Center City. The one in NYC has lines out the door every weekend.

Museum of Ice Cream scouting Philadelphia for new location
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...-location.html

[jephph]

Speaking of the MFL trains, does anyone know what the status is on the new turnstiles? I heard a couple months ago that the results seemed good at 69th street but hadn't heard any more since then. If they're effective I'd love to see an expanded rollout

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by jephph

Speaking of the MFL trains, does anyone know what the status is on the new turnstiles? I heard a couple months ago that the results seemed good at 69th street but hadn't heard any more since then. If they're effective I'd love to see an expanded rollout

This needs to happen ASAP. Every day they leave it the way it is equals money flying out the door.

[BroadandMarket]

I emailed Septa about it a while ago and got this:

"We are mobilizing now at 69th St where the pilot will take place. The first phase will entail closing down half the MFL fareline and replacing the current turnstiles with the new models. We will also replace about 1/3 of the NHSL turnstiles in Phase One. Installation of the new units will commence the week of March 19th. We anticipate that by late April/early May we will be put the new units into service, and then begin to swap out the remaining original units. The new gates will be evaluated by several people to ascertain if they are performing as desired. If the pilot proves successful, we will then begin to retrofit the other stations in 2025 and would have everything replaced within five years.

If you have a chance, please visit 69th Street later this month to see the work in progress and then use the new gates when they are in service. Let me know what you think.

Concurrently, we are working with the City to revise how fare evasion and various quality-of-life civil infractions are adjudicated. These administrative changes plus the use of new technology we anticipate will help to turn the tide on the recent proliferation of anti-social behavior that you are others witness on SEPTA."

I hope they are smart enough to see that the pilot was a success and they need to do it everywhere (especially MFL) as fast as possible.

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by BroadandMarket

I hope they are smart enough to see that the pilot was a success and they need to do it everywhere (especially MFL) as fast as possible.

I'm wary of the "swing design" of the gates. The PATCO gate fare evasion I generally have witnessed is piggybacking (an evader quickly follows an unbeknownst rider through the gate). But now I see more and more people put their back again the gates and just push through. If that's all it takes, what's the point? Hopefully the Septa gate has a catch that locks so a person can't simply overpower the motor brake.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by PHL10

I'm wary of the "swing design" of the gates. The PATCO gate fare evasion I generally have witnessed is piggybacking (an evader quickly follows an unbeknownst rider through the gate). But now I see more and more people put their back again the gates and just push through. If that's all it takes, what's the point? Hopefully the Septa gate has a catch that locks so a person can't simply overpower the motor brake.

There is no effective way to prevent piggybacking, other than by staffing gates with cops to send them back out. What's important is that the new turnstiles can track this.

The new turnstiles also doubled revenues at 69th. I have heard that the pilot will be expanded to 8 or so other stations.

[BroadandMarket]

Originally Posted by PHL10

I'm wary of the "swing design" of the gates. The PATCO gate fare evasion I generally have witnessed is piggybacking (an evader quickly follows an unbeknownst rider through the gate). But now I see more and more people put their back again the gates and just push through. If that's all it takes, what's the point? Hopefully the Septa gate has a catch that locks so a person can't simply overpower the motor brake.

No fare gate is ever going to be 100%. Even with piggybacking, at least 1 person paid which is better than the ratio I've seen at some stations. It's all about making it harder. If a station is empty with no one to piggy back off of, is a person going to wait for someone to come through or pay? Probably a combo of both. Is an addict going to have the composure and timing to piggy back off of someone? Maybe, maybe not. It's all about making it harder because as it was, it was the easiest turnstile to jump of any major metro system I've seen in America. You just go through the handicap gate or pull the turnstile backwards to squeeze through.

My favorite is Prague's which doesn't even have a turnstile, it's just an honor system haha can you imagine that here?

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by BroadandMarket

No fare gate is ever going to be 100%. Even with piggybacking, at least 1 person paid which is better than the ratio I've seen at some stations. It's all about making it harder. If a station is empty with no one to piggy back off of, is a person going to wait for someone to come through or pay? Probably a combo of both. Is an addict going to have the composure and timing to piggy back off of someone? Maybe, maybe not. It's all about making it harder because as it was, it was the easiest turnstile to jump of any major metro system I've seen in America. You just go through the handicap gate or pull the turnstile backwards to squeeze through.

My favorite is Prague's which doesn't even have a turnstile, it's just an honor system haha can you imagine that here?

Sorry, my post wasn't very clear. I mentioned that in years past, piggy backing was the only fare evasion I observed, which is not a huge problem. But now I see many people simply pushing through the gates - that is where I do see a problem.

[blart]

Originally Posted by BroadandMarket

My favorite is Prague's which doesn't even have a turnstile, it's just an honor system haha can you imagine that here?

Don't know if it's still this way, but when I visited Portland, OR years ago, the surface rail was honor system. But there were random checks for receipts and apparently the penalty was tough enough to keep most people honest.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by blart

Don't know if it's still this way, but when I visited Portland, OR years ago, the surface rail was honor system. But there were random checks for receipts and apparently the penalty was tough enough to keep most people honest.

Berlin also operates on the honor system, which when I was there (granted this was 13 years ago) was actually quite hard to comply with because as I remember it you needed exact change to buy a ticket from antiquated machines and in the short time I was there I never had exact change.

I'm sure it's all done through digital wallets etc now.

[mcgrath618]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Berlin also operates on the honor system, which when I was there (granted this was 13 years ago) was actually quite hard to comply with because as I remember it you needed exact change to buy a ticket from antiquated machines and in the short time I was there I never had exact change.

I'm sure it's all done through digital wallets etc now.

It's not, and it's quite annoying. I needed paper tickets for both Munich AND Berlin.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by blart

Don't know if it's still this way, but when I visited Portland, OR years ago, the surface rail was honor system. But there were random checks for receipts and apparently the penalty was tough enough to keep most people honest.

This is also why the system is a total mess. They never actually check and it’s full of drug addicts and people lugging bags of bottle drop cans around. I’ve had several (5+) coworkers physically accosted on the trains and they now drive to work.

I’ve never heard anyone actually having to pay the penalty. $175, it’s so ridiculously high that they obviously never hold people to it.

Leave it to performative Portland to produce something like this:

https://trimet.org/fares/fareisfair.htm

[bdurk]

I actually have a friend who was charged the fine for hopping the gate at 15th St Station last week. The cops handed out about 20-30 of them apparently and one girl even got arrested for arguing with them. Obviously a very small example but still good to hear!!