no skateboarding on the porch allowed

Philadelphia's University City (WARNING THIS IS A RANT!) District recently completed a city beautification project at 30th Street Station. It is really sharp! A much pleasanter walk is in store for you, the pedestrian. Frankly I thought the whole idea was money misspent, but I guess it kept the unions happy.

Navigating around the station with a vehicle is much more difficult and precious parking spaces have vanished.

This area is designated as The Porch, as chosen from 500 entries. It really is nice and has been complete for about two months and I have not witnessed anyone utilizing the space. For a while they had a guard standing watch, haven't seen them for a while.....then, one night, as I walked through on my way to the El, I noticed a few teenagers utilizing the space quite nicely, so for 10 minutes or so I watched them. They were skateboarding on the edges of the newly installed granite. They were good and doing the usual videotaping of their stunts. They were having great fun and it was joy to see them utilizing the new Porch, but alas, that was all in the past as no sooner had the space been properly utilized a week later, small metal abutments were added to the granite benches to prevent a skateboarder from grinding it out on the granite.

Yeah....I know we can all differ on the importance of this issue, but I have watched as Septa benches have been replaced with new and improved benches that do not allow for proper sleeping and I believe that people should dictate the use of space by....well.....the use of it. It really is a silly thing. And small in the scheme of life.

I just can't help thinking of how vibrant youth are and how we continually make it difficult for them.

I do encourage you to check out The Porch and even utilize it. Just be sure to sit quietly.

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