1980s Philly question (Penn: real estate, apartment, city hall)

[wndsofchng06]

Anyone remember a restaurant downtown in the 80s called Cody's? My dad used to work there, I have fond memories of eating a chocolate mousse dessert while waiting for my dad to get off work...

[wndsofchng06]

Would like a reminder of where it was. I feel like it was a corner...

[thedirtypirate]

Google tells me it was in a building at Front and Chestnut St. which seems to have been torn down for... a parking lot unfortunately.


https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9482...8192?entry=ttu

[wndsofchng06]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Google tells me it was in a building at Front and Chestnut St. which seems to have been torn down for... a parking lot unfortunately.


https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9482...8192?entry=ttu

I appreciate that. Thank you. I googled and did find much, but looking at a tiny phone screen doesn't help either. I'll walk by and see if the area feels like it. I sure do miss those days, and my old man.

[Hermit12]

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Google tells me it was in a building at Front and Chestnut St. which seems to have been torn down for... a parking lot unfortunately.


https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9482...8192?entry=ttu

Why is it 'unfortunate'?

People coming in and spending money need to park and they can't fill all the buildings along Front Street anyway. The building on the SW corner of Front and Market has been empty forever (or was, haven't been by there in a couple of years). I'll be by there today, though, so I'll check ... BE nice to see something FINALLY in there after decades and decades of nothingness.

And nothing ever seems to last long on the SW corner of Front and Chestnut. Last I remember, the Sphincter Cafe was in there.

[Pennsport]

Originally Posted by Hermit12

Why is it 'unfortunate'?

People coming in and spending money need to park and they can't fill all the buildings along Front Street anyway. The building on the SW corner of Front and Market has been empty forever (or was, haven't been by there in a couple of years). I'll be by there today, though, so I'll check ... BE nice to see something FINALLY in there after decades and decades of nothingness.

And nothing ever seems to last long on the SW corner of Front and Chestnut. Last I remember, the Sphincter Cafe was in there.

Well, the good news is that surface lot is almost certainly on limited time. Once the cap and park over 95 is complete, connecting the River to Old City, Front and Chestnut will be hot real estate. Can't wait for that project to get done.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Hermit12

Why is it 'unfortunate'?

People coming in and spending money need to park and they can't fill all the buildings along Front Street anyway. The building on the SW corner of Front and Market has been empty forever (or was, haven't been by there in a couple of years). I'll be by there today, though, so I'll check ... BE nice to see something FINALLY in there after decades and decades of nothingness.

And nothing ever seems to last long on the SW corner of Front and Chestnut. Last I remember, the Sphincter Cafe was in there.

As a native of a drive-everywhere city, I can tell you why.

Turing land from places where people live, conduct commerce, engage in productive work and meet to socialize, entertain or be entertained into storage space for cars gradually drains the life out of the land that surrounds it.

Jane Jacobs said this more succinctly in her iconic 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by phrasing the choice as "the erosion of cities by cars or the attrition of cars by cities."

There's an aerial photo map of Downtown Kansas City and the adjacent Crossroads Arts District to its south with all the surface parking lots covered by yellow rectangles and the parking garages by brown ones. About 2/3 of the total land in the picture is colored yellow.

(Edited to add: I can't seem to find that photo, but you can see something close to it in this interactive map of the southeast part of downtown Kansas City and the northeast part of the Crossroads contained in this Strong Towns article:

Asphalt City: How Parking Ate an American Metropolis | Strong Towns

The freeway junction in the picture is at the southeast corner of the downtown Kansas City freeway loop, where I-70, I-670 and Bruce Watkins Drive (US 71 — if the Missouri Department of Transportation ever fills in the two surface boulevard segments of it, it will become I-49) all meet.)

Downtown Kansas City, even during the work week, is bereft of human activity, at least if my visit this past June is any guide. And I was staying in a downtown apartment building (a 1960 bank headquarters that got converted) just two blocks from the city's civic center, where the City Hall, Jackson County Court House, police headquarters, Federal office building and Federal courthouse are all located. (Maybe had I stuck around to wait for lunch hour, I would have seen people on the streets. But they sure weren't there at other times of day, save for at night in the Power & Light District entertainment zone a block south of where I was staying.)

Even in the adjacent Crossroads Arts District, which does have signs of human activity at night and on weekends, the streets didn't look all that busy, in sharp contrast to here. It was only in Westport on the weekend and on the Country Club Plaza where you saw activity of the kind you might find in Old City or along Walnut Street here.

And surface parking lots dominate neither. The Plaza has plenty of parking, but just about all of it is tucked under, located on top of or hidden behind the stores, which all face the street and have no gaps between them (save for one block with a one-story building on its north side, a candy store on its southwest corner, and a mostly-underground parking garage with its top level on the surface taking up its remainder). I don't know where they stick the cars in Westport, but they don't have huge holes in the streetscape there either — that neighborhood has some of the highest Walk Scores in the city.

Ideally, the drivers would leave their cars on the fringe and do things like ride a train (e.g., KC's free Main Street streetcar) or bus to get where they're going. SEPTA makes that possible here, though QOL issues hamper its ability to do so. Meanwhile, the streets would be lined with buildings, maybe some with garages on top of or beneath them.

[Hermit12]

OK, the 'BAR' building on the SW corner of Front and Market is occupied (finally) and there's a dry cleaner in the property on the SW corner of Front and Chestnut.

Lotta empty properties on South Street, but looked good otherwise.

One thing that was noticeable (and an eyesore) was the empty lot on 2nd Street at Elfreth's Alley. I mean, really??

[Hermit12]

Originally Posted by Pennsport

Well, the good news is that surface lot is almost certainly on limited time. Once the cap and park over 95 is complete, connecting the River to Old City, Front and Chestnut will be hot real estate. Can't wait for that project to get done.

How does that benefit you or me, the surface lot disappearing?

How's 'hot real estate' there going to change our lives?

If you live there and own property, then it's understandable ... Weird otherwise.

Old City is doing great regardless. And, yeah, I'm glad this dopey city is finally connecting Old City to the river ... but I'm not all 'ga-ga' over it - I don't live there. (I find it odd how some people get all 'YAY' over developments that have no impact on them. They act like they won something ... and they live nowhere near where their 'victory' occurred.) BTW, I'm not, and have never been, against development. Nobody is. I think people (who don't live anywhere near the new developments) get excited for one reason and one reason only ...

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Hermit12

How does that benefit you or me, the surface lot disappearing?

How's 'hot real estate' there going to change our lives?

If you live there and own property, then it's understandable ... Weird otherwise.

Old City is doing great regardless. And, yeah, I'm glad this dopey city is finally connecting Old City to the river ... but I'm not all 'ga-ga' over it - I don't live there. (I find it odd how some people get all 'YAY' over developments that have no impact on them. They act like they won something ... and they live nowhere near where their 'victory' occurred.) BTW, I'm not, and have never been, against development. Nobody is. I think people (who don't live anywhere near the new developments) get excited for one reason and one reason only ...

"The greatest crop for any field
Is a crop of bricks it can yield.
The finest crop that it can grow
Is a crop of houses in a row."

I recall reading something about downtown Detroit where property owners there who tore down buildings downtown referred to the parking lots that then covered them as "taxpayers." That is, the revenue from the parking lot covered the property taxes on it.

Hardly what I'd call highest and best use. While I may carp about the architectural quality of the buildings rising on those parking lots now, replacing "taxpayers" with something more renumerative for the property owner and beneficial for the streetscape and the neigthborhood as a whole should be encouraged, and even welcomed. Especially by the neighbors, but I don't see anything wrong with others living elsewhere voicing their excitement.