Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnland
QUICK POLL----does anyone else feel a sense of loss when they see the photo above? When I first saw a pic of the neighborhood torn down and obliterated to make way for the barren and lifeless Independence Mall, I was dismayed. Had the neighborhood remained, it would've doubled the size of Old City and the city would've been vastly better for it.
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Not only were these three blocks razed for Independence Mall, but the demolition continued over the decades to neighboring Franklin Square and Chinatown, much lost to relocating the regional rail lines from Reading Terminal to Market East and the construction of the Vine Street Expressway. If you look at an aerial map of the area, you can see a series of parking lots that outline the underground rail lines.
Two issues that really annoy be about the engineering that too place in this part of the city: 1. What is the point of putting the rail lines underground if you never intend on replacing the land above it with anything but surface lots, and 2. Vine Street was already significantly wide, rather than knocking down the south side of Vine Street and replacing it with more surface lots, why not put the Vine Street Expressway UNDER Vine Street and create a grand avenue rather than a canyon through Center City?
Although a lot grittier than it is today, Center City essentially looked like Old City from Broad between Market and Vine all the way to the Delaware. What we're left with now, Old City and Chinatown, are urban islands surrounded by uninspired government buildings and parking lots. So many parking lots. What I believe was referred to as the Tenderloin or Furnished Room District has now been all but eradicated by the Convention Center and consisted of a number of very large scaled, urban buildings, some much larger than what remains of Old City, mixed amongst 17th century trinities and cobble alleys.
One could argue that this neighborhood was a blighted eyesore and at the time, developers could have never predicted the value of a vastly larger Old City, but one could say the same about Society Hill. In fact if we're not smart about future development, Chinatown could receive additional blows from a Market East renaissance. The way Philadelphia planners plan, it seems no matter how many parking lots we have, we still need more parking, and with the potential expansion of the Greyhound terminal and a casino at Strawbridges, I'm sure developers are eyeballing the SW corner of Chinatown.