July 30, 2008

Inquirer: Improving Lives

Hey, so after highly scientific article on the homeless that featured a few interviews with people in Rittenhouse one morning, apparently the homeless problem in Rittenhouse is gone. The source: Why, the Inquirer, who else?

The ranks of the homeless sleeping overnight in Rittenhouse Square have dropped over the past week.

The reason? More aggressive patrols by Philadelphia police. Front page news accounts. Maybe it's the weather.

Ha ha, so thanks to the Inquirer's stories, the cops now have to move the homeless out of Rittenhouse Square every morning. Even during the day, when they're, uhm, allowed there? "This park is only for those with homes" or "You have to be dressed a certain way to sit here" must be how it goes.

My favorite part of the article is the quote from Andy Rouse, a Center City resident: "I personally don't mind having a few of these guys around in moderation." I have to assume this guy feels the same way about alcoholics.

I really think the only way to solve the homeless problem is for the Inquirer gives a bunch of homeless people beds and Internet access, and pays them to refresh Philly.com all day. Pageviews++ and people have a place to sleep! It's a win-win situation.

A drop in the homeless in Rittenhouse Square [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 02:24 PM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2008

Ben Franklin, Mayor Put Heads Together

Hip, hip, hooray! The power brokers in this town (Mayor Nutter, Ben Franklin) are finally doing something about the homeless problem. Yes, it's "OMG THERE ARE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN RITTENHOUSE" day on Philly.com. I'm not writing about it yet because I'm willing to wait to see where they go next. It should be amazing.

Providing housing for Phila. homeless is slow going [Inquirer]

Posted by D-Mac at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2008

Wawa Vigil: TONIGHT! 11 PM!

A reader sends in another protest piece from some website where you can make your own ribbon magnets for your SUV.

Don't forget, tonight at 11 is the Vigil for the Rittenhouse Square Wawa. I heard about this earlier today and I am now convinced it is the greatest thing ever, even though I'm not totally convinced it is real. Tonight at 11, we shall all stand tall for freedom and Tastykakes. I mean, as long as those Wawa fatcats don't change the temperature to below 0 with their weather-controlling machines.

Posted by D-Mac at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)

Yes, Yes: Wawa Vigil At 11 Tonight

Ahh, yes, the Wawa. Sometime over the weekend the wheels began to turn on the closing of the RIttenhouse Wawa tomorrow. (2/29 NEVER FORGET!)

Despite being a multi-billion dollar corporation, Wawa is a regional chain; instead of inspiring hatred like Starbucks, regional chains are adored by residents of that particular locale. People will argue for hours on ends about how much better Wawa is than Turkey Hill or Sheetz or whatever. (This is true, of course.)

To be fair, it's a sad state. The mysterious Jerome Nottingham IV gave us a description of the one-stately Wawa in yesterday's Metro: The Wawa here looks like a Soviet grocery store in the 1980s, filled with empty shelves and customers complaining there's no mustard for their pretzels. A young man in his 20s tries to order a roast beef sandwich, only to learn the store has run out of roast beef. An ATM screen simply reads 'out of service.' It won't be repaired." The place is closing tomorrow.

There's also a Wawa at 20th and Chestnut -- as opposed to 20th and Locust -- but that one has more homeless people in front of it, though I always found it cleaner. As such, the minor inconvenience has nonetheless inspired a movement so great you'd think the Real World pretended to move out of town!

Yes, there's a vigil tonight at 11 at the Rittenhouse Wawa.

Update: Whoever the dude is who blogs at The Illadelph -- who is also among the Very Angry Wawa Customers but has some good comments as usual -- has some extra info from an awesome release of some sort.

It is "not going to disrupt commercial activity in the store — on the contrary, [they] plan to buy up whatever is left, and thank everyone inside for serving [them] all these years — but after indulging in the Wawa goodness, [they]'re hoping to stage some nice photo opps [sic] out front with signs, maybe some candles, who knows."

Man, I was kind of hoping people would be tearing shit up, though I do kind of like the idea of protesting Wawa by purchasing a ton of products. Plus if this were my 10th & Walnut location I would probably have organized this myself.

Posted by D-Mac at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2007

Rittenhouse Vibrant Despite Loss Of Chain Store HQ

Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, the limerent object of many of Philadelphia blogger, has a piece in this month's Metropolis about the shiny new-ish Urban Outfitters headquarters down at the Navy Yard.

It's, as usual, a fine article about the buildings; in a contrast to what Robert A. M. Stern Architects did for a city planning commission, the Urban headquarters kept in remnants from the building's past. (And, for example, wood was reclaimed from a convent's school's basketball court, and added into the project. Neat!) Judging from the photos, the whole look is so much more better than any one-liner t-shirt.

And while the loss of any Center City business besides Dollar-O-Rama or whatever is a disappointment, I don't think we were ever in this much danger:

When I first heard that Philadelphia’s Urban Outfitters (UO) was relocating its headquarters from its cozy Rittenhouse Square offices to the city’s decommissioned navy yard, it sounded like bad news for every­­one concerned. The idea of yanking more than 600 of Philadelphia’s most creative—not to mention best-dressed —workers out of downtown was the equivalent of exiling Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion houses to an industrial park near JFK. Losing so many trendsetters would surely diminish the Center City District’s hard-won cool quotient.

She's right a bit, though. Now that Urban is positioned like 20 blocks south of the Wachovia Center, my personal cool quotient has dipped a bit.

A Stitch in Time [Metropolis]
Philly's Best New Company HQ? Forget Comcast. Try Urban Outfitters [Skyline Online]

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May 02, 2007

Musicians: Let Us Keep Rittenhouse Square Vibrant

As you may remember, back in March 20-year-old Anthony Riley was arrested for singing in Rittenhouse Square.

And, since then, nobody's been singing in Rittenhouse. The cops claim they're actually doing everyone a favor. And by "everyone" I mean "rich people who moved in around a two-block public park and thought there wouldn't be any noise."

“People are happy as can be that police are keeping the musicians from disturbing the peace,” police spokesman Capt. Ben Naish said yesterday.

Those damn street musicians! Always playing their entertaining jingles and making Rittenhouse Square vibrant for free!

(A little bit after Riley was arrested, he also appeared on the Fox 5 o'clock news -- aka the Kerri-Lee Halkett news -- and explained his plight. The story's not on Fox's website, but City Councilman Frank Rizzo said on the report he was starting a program to get permits for people to play in the park if they -- of course -- pay a fee! This is what I remember; I could be wrong. That seems to also be the rule now, so maybe Rizzo would let them play for cheaper, or for free or something.)

And so, yesterday, to protest the permit one has to obtain to legally play music in Rittenhouse Square, a group of musicians got a permit and raised hell in RIttenhouse Square! And by "raised hell," I mean, "played music to the enjoyment of all."

The protest, of course, included on Larry West, the mohawked 22-year-old candidate for mayor who legally can't even run for mayor. (You have to be 25.) While I was writing this update, of course, Larry West actually called me randomly. But of course!

“It’s about a right to perform in a public place,” said Larry West, the mohawked 22-year-old who made headlines two months ago when he announced he was running for mayor. “I really support this because I’m a musician myself, albeit a bad one.”

Wow! Musician, ineligible mayoral candidate, activist... is there anything Larry West can't do? Do you think the Philadelphia Soul could use another defensive back?

Music fills Rittenhouse in a show of solidarity [Metro]
Rittenhouse Square ... Where only birds can sing [Metro]
[Photo also via Metro, taken by Brian X-Ray McCrone]

Posted by D-Mac at 02:30 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

October 30, 2006

Breaking: Upscale Store To Open On Walnut Street! Wow!

Today, ARC Properties -- the part of ARCWheeler that's dealing with the new 10 Rittenhouse Square project -- announced that Barneys New York has signed a lease to occupy at least a part of the 10 Rittenhouse retail space. (It just says Barneys; I'm assuming this means it's Barney's New York and not some sort of discount brand.)

Construction on this building isn't expected to end until sometime in 2008, so it'll be a long while before you females can live out your Sex & The City-type recreations inside the store.

Alas. Walnut, though, does continue its upscale trend, especially west of Broad. Are there even any dollar stores left?

Full release (in JPEG form, as it arrived!) after the jump.

Update, 5:32 p.m.: A source confirms that it's a Barneys Co-Op and not a Barneys New York. The Co-Op is their "younger-themed" store or whatever. Right.

Continue reading "Breaking: Upscale Store To Open On Walnut Street! Wow!"

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June 16, 2006

He's On Top Of City Hall, Too

I usually try to avoid poking fun of any reports involving KYW 1060's Hadas Kuznits, since she spent two years in the Israeli army and could probably tear me in two.

Putting personal danger aside, here's a quote Kuznits got from Mary Porenzi, in a report on preparations for last night's Friends of Rittenhouse Square ball (originally noticed by The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse):

The square is one of the five squares that Ben Franklin made when he made Philadelphia, and so we want to preserve it and keep it the way it is -- and it's a gorgeous square! It's probably the busiest square on the east coast.

Wow! That Ben, what an amazing guy.

Rittenhouse Square readies for its ball, to which you're not invited [The Illadelph]
The Amazing Ben Franklin? [The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse via Blinq]
Hadas Kuznits [KYW 1060]

Posted by D-Mac at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 19, 2006

Blogicized: Naked dude in Rittenhouse!

• I'll simply quote some of this Livejournal post: "Does anyone know what was up with the naked guy spinning around rittenhouse square this morning? I was walking up Locust street this morning on my way to work and as I reached 18th I saw a naked guy with a large tree branch with a sheet tied to it wedged between his legs." [Livejournal Philadelphia]

• Of course, you knew that one day one of the people in Jay Bevenour's weekly cartoon would post about it on her blog. [Mommy Grows Up]

• Congratulations, Phillies fans! We couldn't even win the "most miserable baseball franchise" award, placing fourth. Ugh, you win one, you lose over 100. It happens. [The 700 Level]

• While we here in Philadelphia have some of the finest hospitals, our ambulances? Not so much fine. Fortunately, if you're like me, you're within stumbling distance to about 15 hospitals. Phew. [Politics Philly]

• The Committee of Seventy is looking for people to run for office. Hey, can Milton Street sign up? [Young Philly Politics]

Posted by D-Mac at 04:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

January 09, 2006

Demolition, man

From Inquirer architecture reporter Inga Saffron comes the news that demolition on Rindelaub's Row has begun. (The photo's from her blog, too. I suppose I could have also gotten the news by walking down the street and looking, but, you know.)

The buildings are being demolished to make way for a 40-story condo tower designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern. (And despite the fact Saffon calls him a "world class hack architect," I think the building looks outofsight cool.) The whole project is the brainchild of developer Hal Wheeler, and has been opposed by "Save Our Square" and the Weekly Press, home of such community paper stalwarts as Thom Nickels and alt-weekly hatin' Donald True Van Deusen.

Saffon says that, although Save Our Square is appealing the ruling that allowed for the demolition of the buildings, they didn't get a stay of demolition -- so, bang, down go the buildings. They had all been vacant for months, anyway, with places relocating or -- sob -- closing, like Lombardi's. (Brad of Phillyskyline says that the developer has offered Lombardi's a spot in the new building. Let's cross our fingers.)

The whole thing seems a bit overblown to me; I'm all for saving history buildings, but with the tower set back from 18th Street and the front of the Beaux-arts Rittenhouse Club (which is one of those neat old buildings you pass and go "Ooh! It's neat and old!") remaining, these four nondescript, ugly buildings can probably go.

I know it's Philly's "French Quarter" (ha) and all, but was a block with a bakery, a hardware store, an Italian pizza place and that art gallery really necessary of all this uproar?

Demolition on 18th Street [Changing Skyline]
News index [Phillyskyline]
Sept. 29, 2005: The Weekly Press, bastion of journalism
Photo taken from Changing Skyline, taken by Inga Saffron's daughter, Sky Kalfus

Posted by D-Mac at 02:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)