Ruin Value

Walking up to the Brooklyn Public Library, I was struck by how much the central library architecture and the arch in Grand Army Plaza were reminiscent of 1930's Berlin, when what do I see on walking in but this.

O beautiful for spacious skies

Return to Sender

The Ruination of Happy Harry's

Now that Walgreen's has taken over Happy Harry's the drug store chain has become a junk store chain. Cold remedies are in the back by the fire exit and employee break room, but in the front of the store are DVD's, junk food, and inexplicably, University of Michigan and Penn State ball caps.

Good-bye to All That

A "box of grass" no more.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each Feels shorter than the day.

A Place to Be Somebody

Wilmington

What a City Looks Like

Art of the Move

I Often Dream of Trains

Disused trolley tracks in the median of Columbus Boulevard are a silent reminder to motorists stuck in a failing left-hand turn lane of the great city that was.

Former Wawas V: Wawa No. 5

A 24-7 Food Mart has opened at Christian Street and Moyamensing Avenue, the fifth former Wawa location in my survey. The neighborhood, Queen Village, is not Center City but it is contiguous to it, and is nice enough for me to count.

Wawa signage directs customers to the soda fountain.

All but one the five Wawas that have closed in Center City since 2002, are home to convenience stores with deli counters (the Dorchester store off Rittenhouse Square which had been vacant is now home to a new 7-11). This would seem to suggest that these Wawas were not closed because they were unprofitable concerns, but because they were not profitable enough. Wawa has apparently decided to focus instead on expansion into Maryland and Virginia and suburban Mega-Wawas replete with gasoline pumps. The irony of this business decision is that it is many of Wawa's neighbors and some of their earliest customers - urban Philadelphians residents - who are left with no Wawa stores.

I'm really going to miss you (III)

Manhattan Bagel at 18th & Sansom.

Now and Then

On Governor Printz Boulevard in Edgemoor, Delaware, today (top), and the same spot circa 1965 (below).

A Prayer for the City

Easter Cat

Wrapping up

Who ya gonna call?

Ghostbusters!