Quote:
Originally Posted by PhillyRising
In the early 80's, it depended on where you lived in the city. The Great Northeast was pretty much unscathed from the rot of decline that had ravaged other parts of the city. Center City was a hodge podge of vibrant pockets on one street and then dreadful on the next. The streets were not well lit.....you didn't really enjoy being on the streets at night. The streets were much trashier in Center City. Graffiti was everywhere on everything. When I would be on a train with my mom...it came into the Reading Terminal. The shed itself was a sight to see as you got off the train...but it smelled in there of exhaust and diesel. The terminal building was worn down. It just seemed like the city had seen better days. Not that getting off the train at Market East is any grand entrance...but even with it being 34 years old...it still seems modern and SEPTA hasn't let it fall into total disrepair.
...and Center City sidewalk cafes in the 1980's? Unfathomable.
The city wobbled for sure...but it never completely fell. It just had enough to stay above the water until the pieces started to slowly come together to what you see today.
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Both are completely correct. I'm not telling my age but I started working in downtown in the 1980's; Philadelphia and downtown especially was in a transition period at the time; we were moving from being a city that was coming out of an industrial base to a professional, tech and service oriented city.
Before I would say 1980 you could feel the change and people were planning things but a recession in the early 80's slowed things down. Before 1980 downtown was real, well it was simpler. If you were into high culture you were along Board Street to hear the Orchestra at the Academy of Music; right after 1980 Eugene Ormandy passed a way so it was a period of transition there. If you were into shopping you went to East Market Street where the Gallery brought new life to the shopping strip; remember Lit Brothers and Gimbles had just closed a few years earlier. But once you got to I would say 12th Street all you had was steak shops and bowling alleys like around 17th Street. If you wanted to make money or be a professional back then it was pretty well assumed that you had to leave town and go to New York or LA; it was assumed that people here were to small minded and didn't want Philadelphia to be more than a small town; but you had leaders who wanted to really make the city better. Mayor Green, Mayor Goode, Mayor Rendell; Rendell was most fortunate because of his timing more than anything else I suppose.
The attempts to remake downtown Philadelphia really started I guess with the construction of the Aramark Building and New Market on 2nd near South Street; that was the first place where you had outdoor cafe's and things like that but it was really ahead of its time by about a decade.
Liberty One, oh wow; I remember that. When they talk about building Liberty One it was about 1983 or 1984 I guess and I was so excited; a lot of us young adults were; my parents were to; but you had these people who didn't want anything tall being built in the city; it was insane; oh it was so insane; I will never forget it which is why I am probably obsessed with height now; they were talking out ads in the Inquirer and everything trying to make the idea of Liberty One look bad like I remember one add they had where that had William Penn's statue surround by skyscrapers; then about add had his Quaker hat with Liberty One's spire poking a hole out of the top of his hat.
It was ridiculous; that's probably why I don't trust the media now; we wanted Philly to build a skyline; bring business; be a place for families since 1970 and some of my friends who love skyscrapers had been wanting it since the 1960's but those Nimby's; dude it was insane. We wanted anything to give us a skyline and bring life and business into the city and especially downtown so when they built Liberty One, me, my friends, even my father who helped worked on the saw how it was changing the city for the better because to hope that Mr. Rouse wouldn't just build Liberty Two but that he would make it 100 floors; there was the rumour it would be wider and be 100 floors.
Sadly after decades of frustration we got a good pair of buildings but we didn't get our wish; but Comcast Tech is the height of the Hancock Tower which is 100 floors; so at least we're close.
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