My 24 Hours Back Home In Philly (Girard, Ellsworth: bus, safety, pubs)

[frankgn87]

Originally Posted by newmarlig

"While the mall could use a stronger anchor, it still looks to be a decent place that serves the city residents."

The gallery is not a decent place. It needs to be torn down.

ya gotta love tone's 'rose colored glasses' approach tho. The Gallary is a slime pit..

[FindingZen]

While I would never confuse the Gallery with the King of Prussia Court and Plaza, I thought the sections I saw were kept up well rather than "slimy". It's true that there are ongoing issues with truant/rowdy kids that may have been a precursor to the "flash mob" phenomenon. There are probably stores there too that wouldn't have as much appeal to those who like the selection out in KoP...but at the same time, I feel that the city deserves a downtown mall that serves a cross-section of its residents. If there were a stronger anchor or two, perhaps some city residents who might prefer Liberty Place, Walnut Street or choose to trek out to King of Prussia or Cherry Hill would come to the Gallery as well.

Nonetheless, I respect the opinions about my "rosy" view of the Gallery. I trust that you will all find the rest of my story to be as realistic as I intended it to be.

[pman]

you could have saved yourself some walking by using the girard el stop

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by pman

you could have saved yourself some walking by using the girard el stop

I know that now. However, I still liked walking through Old City to get to NoLibs, even if my feet weren't so thrilled about it.

[frankgn87]

Originally Posted by Tone509

While I would never confuse the Gallery with the King of Prussia Court and Plaza, I thought the sections I saw were kept up well rather than "slimy". It's true that there are ongoing issues with truant/rowdy kids that may have been a precursor to the "flash mob" phenomenon. There are probably stores there too that wouldn't have as much appeal to those who like the selection out in KoP...but at the same time, I feel that the city deserves a downtown mall that serves a cross-section of its residents. If there were a stronger anchor or two, perhaps some city residents who might prefer Liberty Place, Walnut Street or choose to trek out to King of Prussia or Cherry Hill.

Nonetheless, I respect the opinions about my "rosy" view of the Gallery. I trust that you all find the rest of my story to be as realistic as I intended it to be.

yes we do.. I like center city... Great restaurants and attractions..

[FindingZen]

PART THREE

As I sat on the El making my way back west towards Center City, I couldn’t help but notice how remarkably clean that both the El and my previous bus had been. Long time residents might remember how shabby SEPTA’s vehicles used to be until around the turn of the millennium. A friend we met up with later would later tell me that because of increased tourism, SEPTA was trying to do its part to appeal to them. (I wouldn’t be surprised if regular riders found that funny.) Nevertheless, after that long overdue change, I was surprised to see another upgrade so “soon”. Of course, I was brought back to reality once I switched trains at 15th Street/City Hall and got on the venerable old Broad Street Subway. But even that orange monster had installed a new automated announcer in place of the usual driver’s voice…or sometimes nothing.

Continuing on my vaguely defined journey to East Passyunk Avenue, I got off at the Ellsworth-Federal stop and started walking east. It appeared that some homes or whole blocks had been renovated while others were still a work in progress. At one point when I found myself at 10th and Reed, I heard the faint sounds of an ice cream truck coming in my direction. I had two thoughts at that point:

1) I had rarely seen an ice cream truck in Northern Virginia. Perhaps there were too many Cold Stone Creameries and Ben and Jerry stores around.

2) What the heck is an ice cream truck doing out here in the middle of March??? I mean, spring just started “five minutes” ago…not to mention that the day hadn’t gotten any warmer.

I passed on Mr. Softee and kept going until I reached 9th and Passyunk and the twin phenomena known as Pat’s and Geno’s Steaks. While many locals, including myself, forego the hype of these two popular cheesesteak factories, there were nonetheless lines literally wrapped around each establishment. I couldn’t believe it! They just had to be tourists, I said to myself, or maybe suburban day-trippers. Interestingly enough, I saw a storefront across from Geno’s that displayed motorcycles with some Geno’s paraphernalia around it. Apparently while you wait an hour to order your cheesesteak, you can buy a hot rod! Or maybe you get a free cheesesteak when you buy a bike.

I made my next fatal-yet-serendipitous move when I decided to head north instead of south on Passyunk. I passed by a set of basketball courts where I saw a bunch of White, Hispanic and Asian kids mixed together in different pickup games and recall thinking that was rather cool. Next I approached the Italian Market…except it looked more like the Latin American Market; not that there was anything wrong with that but it wasn’t what I expected.
Eventually I reached Washington St. (I think?) and realized that I should have gone south on East Passyunk rather than north. So me and my poor feet doubled back hoping that I would somehow find this trendy new community I kept hearing so much about....

Next: Would you believe... East Passyunk Avenue?

[pman]

two things: SEPTA is cleaner since the new CEO took over. not wonderful, but noticably better. I find the BSL generally cleaner than the el. second, what's left of the Italian section is north of washington ave so you missed most of the good stuff (excluding the number of good mexican restuarants you passed). claudio's makes some of the best mozzarella this side of Italy.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by Tone509

Next: Would you believe... East Passyunk Avenue?

oh man, yeah, the Snyder stop or Tasker-Morris station are way closer to the action on E. Passyunk . . . although the Devil's Den at 11th & Ellsworth is a nice place to rest your feet along the way if you do get off at Ells/Fed station.

[CHIP72]

With SEPTA, you can buy a Convenience Pass for $6 (8 non-Regional Rail trips permitted) or an Independence Pass for $10 (unlimited trips on the entire SEPTA system, including Regional Rail, excluding the Regional Rail stations in New Jersey). Obviously you bought the Convenience Pass, but that may have been what you wanted in this case anyway.

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by pman

two things: SEPTA is cleaner since the new CEO took over. not wonderful, but noticably better. I find the BSL generally cleaner than the el. second, what's left of the Italian section is north of washington ave so you missed most of the good stuff (excluding the number of good mexican restuarants you passed). claudio's makes some of the best mozzarella this side of Italy.

What's interesting about SEPTA cleaning up is the Metrorail system in DC (which Tone509 would probably be most familiar with at this point) has gotten noticeably messier in recent months; people don't seem to care as much about cleaning up after themselves and many of the afternoon trains have newspapers laying all over the floor.

I walked up East Passyunk from the Snyder BSL station to the Pat's/Geno's area a couple years ago, and although some of the Italian Market definitely has a Latino flavor now, it looked to me like there was still a good bit of genuine Italian stuff around. (Mind you, that was a couple years ago and I wasn't looking that closely at everything.)