June 16, 2008

Broad Street Renamed, For Some Reason

The U.S. Olympic trials for gymnastics are in Philadelphia this week, and Philadelphia Will Do is your complete source for coverage of the most important thing to happen in Philadelphia since Ben Franklin sired several thousand illegitimate children here (all Swedes).

Okay, ha ha, of course not. (I was more of a table tennis guy myself.) But in also important news, Mayor Nutter has renamed Broad Street as the Road to Beijing for this week only. Much like the governor's renaming of the Schuylkill Expressway to I-76ers, the only good that can come out of this is if someone is confused, leading to possible hilarious sitcom-style situations.

Posted by D-Mac at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2008

Broad Street To Be Closed For 8 Days

Know what would make this whole Convention Center expansion even better than knocking down some old buildings? Right: Closing off Broad Street for eight days. Duh, why didn't we think of this before?

Starting tomorrow at 5 a.m., Broad will be closed off from JFK Boulevard to Race Street northbound and from Race Street to Arch Street southbound. SEPTA's buses will have a bunch of detours (see the map from KYW 1060 at right).

The closing is taking place because of the demolishing of a building at Broad and Cherry streets; the Convention Center expansion project director says: "It's kind of an extraordinary circumstance. And the measures taken for public safety reasons are also extraordinary." Oh, well it's all okay if it's an extraordinary situation, then. I thought it was more inconvenient, but now I understand.

Convention Center Work Will Close North Broad St. for Eight Days [KYW 1060]

Posted by D-Mac at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)

March 07, 2007

Conversion Of 'Broad' To 'Sesame' Complete; 'John' Next?

Earlier this week, I wrote about how, for the duration of Sesame Street Live's stay in Philadelphia, a Broad Street sign near City Hall would be replaced with a Sesame Street sign. And now, I have the tourist-confusing evidence:

Well, at least I can now tell people how to get to Sesame Street. Apparently, it's PA Route 611.

Monday: Grover, City Work Together To Confuse Tourists

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March 05, 2007

Grover, City Work Together To Confuse Tourists

Hey kids? D'you like Broad Street? Do you like Sesame Street? Well now you can combine the two into one people-confusin' sandwich!

Sesame Street Live stars Super Grover and Elmo help representatives from the City of Philadelphia rename Broad Street to Sesame Street while Super Grover! Ready for Action performs on "South Sesame Street" at the Wachovia Spectrum (March 7-11) and on "North Sesame Street" at the Liacouras Center at Temple University (March 15-18). Super Grover and Elmo will literally help replace the Broad Street sign with a Sesame Street sign, which will remain while the show is in town.

I kind of like these random street name changes for a few days. Can we rename Walnut "Milton Street" for a few days?

Full release after the jump.

Continue reading "Grover, City Work Together To Confuse Tourists"

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December 28, 2006

Giant 30-Story Parking Garage Nearing Completion

Behold: Symphony House, the jewel of Broad Street.

Photo by Bradley Maule

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October 09, 2006

Tower Of Terror

Apparently, the Center City Tower Records is going the way of the Center City HMV -- remember them? -- and closing up shop, probably to make way for another Dunkin Donuts or three. Actually, all the Towers are closing, so maybe there are cheap DVDs to be had.

But, if you didn't catch the Spaceboy closing sale, you can get all your Beyonce, Dave Matthews and Fat Joe CD's at up to thirty percent off! (I'm not sure on this, but I think everything must go.) I know that many of you have probably not purchased a CD in a store since sometime after the Battle of Waterloo, but, if you didn't know, a CD can be "ripped" into mp3s or other digital formats! (Well, maybe not on CDs with copy protection, although that usually can be broken in about a half-second.)

Anyway, you'll notice -- or maybe not -- that the sign in the photo is being held up by a person, who will join the Children International and DNC kids on Broad Streeet every day, attempting to get our money in various ways. But, yes, this is this type of advertising -- officially, the "have some guy hold your stupid sign all day" method -- is usually used by stores in the Franklin Mills Mall.

Which can only mean one thing: All those people buying condos downtown are people from the Far Northeast, and, dammit, they want things to feel kind of the same. Egads.

Tower Records, R.I.P. [Blinq]

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