PHILADELPHIA | Schuylkill Yards Future Phases | 1,095 - 375 FT | 70 - 28 FLOORS

[allovertown]

I don't get what is so hard for you people to understand. Our actual streets are filthy. You know, the places, we walk everyday, where we live, where we work. Are you guys familiar with Philadelphia or do you just drive by on the highway?

I'm not sure what others are saying. But I am not saying that it wouldn't be a good idea to clean up our highways, I'm saying you'd need to have a hole in your head to think it should be a priority. I mean you're talking about impressions, as though people will be so impressed with our clean highways, they're not going to care about all the trash all over the city they're actually visiting.

The idea that so many people would focus on this issue, when they live in a city with so many more pressing issues boggles my mind.

[Frontst17]

Amen ^

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by allovertown

I don't get what is so hard for you people to understand. Our actual streets are filthy. You know, the places, we walk everyday, where we live, where we work. Are you guys familiar with Philadelphia or do you just drive by on the highway?

you seriously are complaining that some of us think PennDot should prioritize keeping our highways clean and you can't understand why the city should have a vested interesting in keeping the approach into the city clean and friendly looking? I think most of us live in the city. I don't think anyone would argue the city needs to take street sanitation more seriously everywhere, but you need to fight the fights where you can actually win and where it will count the most. The impression the city gives off from it's main entrances is more important than keeping G street in Kensington clean. Currently nobody is cleaning anything. Greater Center City isn't that dirty, my neighborhood is actually very clean. For a lot of visitors the ride in is the most off putting part. Don't we want to fix that? It's a nasty ride all the way up until the foot of our Ivy League campus. Why would you be against prioritizing to fix that? I am done talking about this. Let's hope the Schuylkill Yards will one day bring in enough caring stakeholders that the city isn't treated like dirt by all levels of government.

[Raja]

Originally Posted by allovertown

I don't get what is so hard for you people to understand.

That’s a pretty forceful statement to make in a thread that has at this point largely become about how Philadelphia presents itself. Most people who visit the city see (1) the airport, the train tracks, and/or interstate 95; and (2) Center City. Fair enough that highway cleanliness might be near the bottom of the list of priorities for those of us who live here, but to say that a visitor will be put off more by the trash on, say, tourist magnet Lehigh Avenue than by the drive in from the airport is naive.

Even then, the premise that trash in the gutters of South Broad Street is a bigger issue than trash along the Platt Bridge is, like, not off base but also not entirely a slam dunk. What’s going to pay for street sweeping? It’s not ridiculous to take the position, as many posters here have, that spending money on impressions where visitors actually go might help change our perception and draw in businesses whose taxes can then go to help clean up our streets. It’s like a broken window policy for business development.

[Raja]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

you seriously are complaining that some of us think PennDot should prioritize keeping our highways clean and you can't understand why the city should have a vested interesting in keeping the approach into the city clean and friendly looking? I think most of us live in the city. I don't think anyone would argue the city needs to take street sanitation more seriously everywhere, but you need to fight the wins where you can actually win and where it will count the most. The impression the city gives off from it's main entrances is more important than keeping G street in Kensington clean. Currently nobody is cleaning anything. Greater Center City isn't that dirty, my neighborhood is actually very clean. For a lot of visitors the ride in is the most off putting part. Don't we want to fix that? It's a nasty ride all the way up until the foot of our Ivy League campus. Why would you be against prioritizing to fix that? I am done talking about this. Let's hope the Schuylkill Yards will one day bring in enough caring stakeholders that the city isn't treated like dirt by all levels of government.

Edit: Basically this. Beat me to it.

[Greg Meckstroth]

Originally Posted by Raja

Edit: Basically this. Beat me to it.

Agreed. After I left Philly I moved to Sydney, Australia and still live here. I have met many people that travel to the States and decide to go to New York and then down to DC by train. I have heard endless commentary on their negative impression of Philly because of this train trip. I have a good mate from Johannesburg who said it reminded him of parts of where he is from and that it still shocked him.

Not surprisingly, then, most folks don't stop in Philly to visit. I have always ensured folks that Philly is wonderful but it seems clear that there is a negative impression of the city for many who visit America.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Greg Meckstroth

Agreed. After I left Philly I moved to Sydney, Australia and still live here. I have met many people that travel to the States and decide to go to New York and then down to DC by train. I have heard endless commentary on their negative impression of Philly because of this train trip. I have a good mate from Johannesburg who said it reminded him of parts of where he is from and that it still shocked him.

Not surprisingly, then, most folks don't stop in Philly to visit. I have always ensured folks that Philly is wonderful but it seems clear that there is a negative impression of the city for many who visit America.

This honestly makes more sense. Someone riding the train through Philly may not stop in Philly, so that may be their only impression. They did that weird spray painting at one point to try and distract people from the industrial graveyard but it would be really nice if we could get some development along the rails and maybe do something temporarily to make it look less dismal.

If you're coming from the airport though, your end destination is Philly. You will be in the city itself. Thus your impression of the city may be in part based on highway approach into the city (when I visit cities, I can't imagine something I could give less of a shit about, but whatever, I'll buy it's more important for others.) But then once they're in the city won't their impression of the CITY ITSELF also affect what they think of the city?

People talking about G Street in Kensington, like that is where the city starts to get dirty. Lol are you serious, do you people live here? Center city is dirty. Areas tourists and people in town on business frequent often are dirty. I just can't believe anyone thinks cleaning the highways are more important than cleaning the area directly around city hall. I mean who are these visitors who think this way? "Philly was great! I mean sure, everywhere I went there was trash and stunk of piss, but my god, you should have seen their highways! They were so immaculately clean you could eat off them!"

I'm not even someone who cares about cleanliness all that much. One of my favorite cities in the world is Rome and that city is next level filthy. But to the extent we're gonna make a big deal about Philly being dirty, I'll never understand the thinking that cleaning the highways would be better than cleaning the streets.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Tell that to Elizabeth NJ.

Elizabeth has nothing to do with anything. It isn't on the route between Newark Airport and Manhattan.

[Inquizative]

Originally Posted by allovertown

This honestly makes more sense. Someone riding the train through Philly may not stop in Philly, so that may be their only impression. They did that weird spray painting at one point to try and distract people from the industrial graveyard but it would be really nice if we could get some development along the rails and maybe do something temporarily to make it look less dismal.

If you're coming from the airport though, your end destination is Philly. You will be in the city itself. Thus your impression of the city may be in part based on highway approach into the city (when I visit cities, I can't imagine something I could give less of a shit about, but whatever, I'll buy it's more important for others.) But then once they're in the city won't their impression of the CITY ITSELF also affect what they think of the city?

People talking about G Street in Kensington, like that is where the city starts to get dirty. Lol are you serious, do you people live here? Center city is dirty. Areas tourists and people in town on business frequent often are dirty. I just can't believe anyone thinks cleaning the highways are more important than cleaning the area directly around city hall. I mean who are these visitors who think this way? "Philly was great! I mean sure, everywhere I went there was trash and stunk of piss, but my god, you should have seen their highways! They were so immaculately clean you could eat off them!"

I'm not even someone who cares about cleanliness all that much. One of my favorite cities in the world is Rome and that city is next level filthy. But to the extent we're gonna make a big deal about Philly being dirty, I'll never understand the thinking that cleaning the highways would be better than cleaning the streets.

Trains always give a front row seat to poor peoples backyards. I was a conductor for Amtrak, Philly is not exceptional. The rich get richer because the poor got poorer, it's the way of capitalism. Center City is not dirty. I work in Center City and it has a dedicated cleaning crew and they do a good job. Our downtown area is in flux, it's re-building and renovating. Now we have a sizable amount of homeless but so does San Francisco, a rich city with an enormous amount of poor homeless people. For any questions why, refer to my statement on capitalism. Now cleaning highways is important for safety reasons, I saw a dead deer on 76 east in Philly near City Line Ave and it laid their for almost a week rotting away. Running over a rotting road kill at 50-60 mph is not the safest thing in the world.

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by allovertown

This honestly makes more sense. Someone riding the train through Philly may not stop in Philly, so that may be their only impression. They did that weird spray painting at one point to try and distract people from the industrial graveyard but it would be really nice if we could get some development along the rails and maybe do something temporarily to make it look less dismal.

It is hilarious to me you can understand why the train might give off a bad impression, but you seem incapable of applying the same logic to the highway even though they provide the same function and visibility.

If you're coming from the airport though, your end destination is Philly. You will be in the city itself. Thus your impression of the city may be in part based on highway approach into the city (when I visit cities, I can't imagine something I could give less of a shit about, but whatever, I'll buy it's more important for others.) But then once they're in the city won't their impression of the CITY ITSELF also affect what they think of the city?

People talking about G Street in Kensington, like that is where the city starts to get dirty. Lol are you serious, do you people live here? Center city is dirty. Areas tourists and people in town on business frequent often are dirty. I just can't believe anyone thinks cleaning the highways are more important than cleaning the area directly around city hall. I mean who are these visitors who think this way? "Philly was great! I mean sure, everywhere I went there was trash and stunk of piss, but my god, you should have seen their highways! They were so immaculately clean you could eat off them!"

I'm not even someone who cares about cleanliness all that much. One of my favorite cities in the world is Rome and that city is next level filthy. But to the extent we're gonna make a big deal about Philly being dirty, I'll never understand the thinking that cleaning the highways would be better than cleaning the streets.

You can't seem to grasp the concept that PennDot is responsible for taking care of the interstate highways and the city's street dept. is responsible for the city streets. Who said the city shouldn't clean the streets? You blanket stated the city is 'flithy' and ' No one should prioritize cleaning the highway because it won't do anything'. Can you understand the concept that keeping certain portions of the city clean is more important than others? Like I used a random out of sight street as an example, but that completely went over your head because you followed up by saying 'why wouldn't we clean around City Hall!?' like do you really need me to explain why that's a stupid come back? Of course we all believe the CITY should keep Center City and all the most visible and trafficked areas as clean as possible and at the same time the STATE should keep the highways leading up to Center City as clean as possible. I know, mind blowing!

[Frontst17]

Or stop ignoring the trash on G street and clean up the neighborhoods instead of worrying about what passers by and tourists think. The city’s poppin we don’t need to treat CC like it’s Disney World anymore. We should be addressing areas that have been ignored through the past three decades of revitalization.

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by Inquizative

T The rich get richer because the poor got poorer, it's the way of capitalism.

enough with the communist propaganda. capitalism is responsible for creating more wealth for more people than any other economic system. even America's poor are better off than most of the world's poor.
it's not a closed, static system, where rich people only get rich by taking money from the poor.
and mods, if you are going to delete this post because it is off topic, delete Inquizative's too.

[Urbanthusiat]

This thread is way off topic and negative. We should just stop.

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

This thread is way off topic and negative. We should just stop.

yes, of course, as soon as someone comes to capitalism's defense, it must stop.

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

yes, of course, as soon as someone comes to capitalism's defense, it must stop.

Nothing to do with that - in fact I agree with you. I'm just tired of talking about trash.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Elizabeth has nothing to do with anything. It isn't on the route between Newark Airport and Manhattan.

Haha.

OK. Tell that to Bayonne.

Elizabeth is what you encounter when you drive in from the south.

I believe some people who've visited NY have encountered Elizabeth. My kids uesed to refer to it as "stinky town."

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

It is hilarious to me you can understand why the train might give off a bad impression, but you seem incapable of applying the same logic to the highway even though they provide the same function and visibility.

I mean, I explained clear as day the difference between the train and the highway. I'm sorry you couldn't understand, but there is no way for me to explain in a clearer way. .

Obviously it would be nice if Penn dot would clean their highways. But they don't and they won't, so what is your point? And even if penndot would clean their highways, I'd rather they clean route 611 than route 76.

You say you're for cleaning everything as though we live in a world where money is no object. Yes of course clean the highway and keep center city cleaner. And we should cap the highways and add new subway lines. Anything else? No one is arguing that they'd rather have dirty highways or dirty streets. They're arguing about what should be prioritized first, they're arguing about what would go further in leaving a good impression on tourists.

Before you call others stupid, you should probably make sure you can grasp what is being talked about. Anyway I've grown incredibly sick of this and it seems others have to, so consider this my last post on the matter.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Elizabeth is what you encounter when you drive in from the south.

I believe some people who've visited NY have encountered Elizabeth. My kids uesed to refer to it as "stinky town."

You're just naming random Jersey towns that have heavy industry.

Yes, we're all aware Jersey has ugly parts. Neither Bayonne or Elizabeth have anything to do with the route from Newark to Manhattan.

[TempleGuy1000]

Nvm..

Changing subject. I saw the Redwoods were put in at Drexel Square...




jk

[Gonzo the Great]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Nvm..

Changing subject. I saw the Redwoods were put in at Drexel Square...




jk

....And going to change that subject .... R.I.P. Stan Lee .