[iamrobk]

Originally Posted by McBane

As I've argued before, Thomas Paine Plaza's worst sin is its very existence. You can't have Love Park AND Dillworth Plaza AND Thomas Paine Plaza AND expect them to all be highly trafficked. We don't have that sort of population density to keep three plazas - all within one block of each other - populated. And an empty windswept park is a magnet for homeless and hoodlums. The best thing the city can do is demolish the park and permit some sort of development here.

Re the Parkway, I was just there and played Frogger trying to get from Fairmount Ave to the Schuylkill Banks Trail. Ended up taking a very circuitous route that took far longer than necessary. Parkway could be vastly improved for pedestrians for not a lot of money if the following improvements were made:

1) Demarcate direct pedestrian routes from the various points of interest along the Parkway and place signage to help direct pedestrians figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. Even for a life long resident, I find getting around the Parkway to be extremely confusing and difficult. For example, the crossing between the Art Museum and Eakins Oval should really be moved to the center, directly at the bottom of the steps and the Washington statue and fountain. This is the more "natural" path and in fact is where many people cross anyway (at their own peril). And then once you're on the Oval, you're on your own to so to speak in terms to figuring out how to navigate to City Hall, the Schuylkill Trail, the various museums, etc.

2) Fix the traffic lights so that way you can cross an intersection in one light cycle. Again, I'll use the highly trafficked crossing between the Art Museum and Eakins Oval as an example. Like many intersections along the Parkway, these two points of interest are separated by a traffic island. Each traffic cycle permits pedestrians to go from the Parkway to the island - wait - and then from the island to the Oval. In addition to its off-center location, the annoying traffic light setup is probably why so many people dart across the Parkway between the stairs and the statue/fountain.

These suggestions don't require massive construction or millions of dollars.

Not sure if you've ever been in Municipal Services Building, but it would likely be extremely difficult to do anything with Thomas Paine Plaza because there's essentially a giant concourse underneath the plaza.