Results tagged “parks”

A fence surrounds the park, leaving only an opening at the Carpenter/13th Street corner. A shrub with bright pink flowers grows over by the fence along Christian Street, an unexpected summery display standing in contrast to the the bare trees and fallen leaves all over the rest of the park. Ridgeway is one of a number of parks participating in this week's Fall for Your Park leaf clean up, see below for more details.

Ah, Delancey Street... Always so pretty, particularly right now when the leaves are falling upon the cobblestone. That brings us to this week's park: Three Bears Park, or Delancey Park. It's a quaint little park located at 319 Delancey Street in Society Hill. The park offers a nice place of refuge if you're trying to get away from the hubbub of South Street (read: screaming and skateboarding teens) a few blocks away.

Weinberg Park is a small, triangular park located at Moyamensing Avenue, 6th and Jackson Streets in South Philadelphia. It's about a block and a half above Mifflin Square, and shares some of the same problems with that park—mainly litter. Often, seeing loads of trash on the ground makes me want to scream. But, in all fairness to the users of the park, the garbage can was overflowing. So, really, there was nowhere else for the crushed Old English cans and empty cigarette packs to go but on the ground. There may also be an issue with short dumping in the park as well, as bottles of car windshield wash were gathered around the trashcan. So unless someone was chilling out at the park with a bottle of washer fluid, it looks as though they made a special trip to the park to put their empty bottle on the ground. How thoughtful. In the random and kinda strange category, an empty Pathmark shopping cart was parked at the 6th Street and Moyamensing Avenue corner.

Today we venture over to Northern Liberties to check out Liberty Lands park, the only park located in the NoLibs (do people actually call it that?) neighborhood. Liberty Lands has a terrifc back story. It rests on the site of the former Burke Brothers Tannery. The land was donated to the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association (NLNA) in 1994. The original plan was to renovate the former tannery buildings, but the city stepped in, deemed the structures condemnable, and demolished them all. NLNA was then left with an empty lot that had over $1,000,000 in demolition and tax leins on it. Some donation. (Although the city did later forgive the $500,000 demolition lein).

This week, I will do the obvious and write about Rittenhouse Square. Everyone who has spent more than ten seconds in our fair city has heard of Rittenhouse, right? Heck, Robert Downey even made a documentary about the park, so you needn't have even been here to have heard about and gotten some sense of the experience in the park. But, still, it's unfair of me to ignore a park because it's popular or because I have some unspoken agenda to introduce you all to the smaller, more neighborhoody parks that abound in Philly. I cannot be a park snob. So, Rittenhouse: this week is your week.

Sorry for the late notice, folks, but today is Park(ing) Day! What's Park(ing) Day you ask? It's not a tour of our many parks but rather a day when meter parking spots across our great city get temporarily transformed into mini public parks, courtesy of activists, artists, and various non-profit groups. The event is meant to celebrate green space in cities and also raise awareness for the need for more parks and more ped-friendly spaces and the need overall for better use of public space. The event was started in 2005 in San Francisco and is now sponsored by the Trust for Public Land. It came to Philly for the first time last year and is done with the permission of the Parking Authority (see, they're not that bad). We think it's a pretty great idea and can't wait to see all the little parks. We're betting, though, that it will irk a fair share of motorists, specifically, about 30 of them.

The park hosts several events in the warmer months, including concerts and last summer's Bandit Film Festival. Located across the street from a busy playground and a taco truck, it is a great spot to while away an afternoon.

Help Map the Future of Penn Treaty Park: community meeting to help shape the new Penn Treaty Master Plan, First Presbyterian Church, Kensington, 418 E Girard Avenue. Thursday 2/26, 6:30-8:30PM. Go to share your concerns about the park and hopes for the future park. Refreshments will be served. Hosted by Friends of Penn Treaty Park and the PA Horticultural Society. For more info or to register, email Alice at aedgerton@pennhort.org.

Did any one attend the Love Park kissykissy commercial shoot this past sunday? I didn't—choosing instead to do research on this week's park: Dickinson Square. Although Dickinson is in its name, the park is actually located a block south of Dickinson Street, between Tasker and Morris, and bordered by 4th Street and Moyamensing Avenue on the West and East sides. The park has been a park since 1900, after the Pascal Iron Works packed up and moved to Delaware, deeding the land to the city, who then gave it to the Children's Culture League (hence its rather awesome playground). The name comes from John Dickinson, governor of Pennsylvania from 1782-1785 (who also happened to found Dickinson College, serve as governor as Delaware, and advocate for NOT separating from Britain. The man got around: he deserves his park).

Amy Freeman joins our staff today with a weekly column on Philadelphia's many parks. A native of the Philadelphia area, Amy thinks soft pretzels take the cake in the battle of Philadelphia delicacies and travels the city with the strength of her own two legs—by foot or by bike. Welcome, Amy!

Philly as a "festering spiritual slum?" We can see that more than as "the most genuinely Christian movement in America," but we’re sitting over here.

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

To state the obvious: Spiral Q Puppet Theater is a Philadelphia institution. Combining social activism with larger-than-life puppetry has made the organization a neighborhood favorite in, well, many neighborhoods in the city, seeing as how their folks partner with the community to put on fantastic parades and pageants.

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed.

A Quirky Column about Dog Walking Adventures in the City of Dog-Owning Love

I still hate Valentine’s Day. I’m still bitter and I will still want to throw brightly colored, probably already stale Necco hearts at anyone who wears pink or red today.

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year!

Rainy Sundays aren't usually good for much. The malls and movie theaters are jammed, the parks in Center City are, shall we say, outdoors, and you can't play baseball.

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Fun around town, for $10 or less: The Gathering: "Philly's longest running hip hop and breaking event" from 10pm - 2am at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street). Free Free Screenings Under the Stars: Commerce bank presents a FREE screening of Elf, which will be preceded by a series of Christmas in July events. Movie starts at dusk (9ish). Penguins in the Park: March of the Penguins will be screened for free at 8PM in Gold Star Park (Wharton and Marsh Streets). Big Puppet Karaoke Tea Party: This month's madness from Puppet Karaoke (it's karaoke with puppets - what else?) at the M-Room (15 W.Girard). $5 (21+)
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