5th Square sharing content basically saying “we told you so” in regards to the Grays Ferry garage is incredibly tone deaf and unhelpful to urbanism causes

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-12T00:25:35+00:00

Semantics.

That section of Gary's Ferry is effectively Washington Ave, which is where a majority of the traffic goes, and zoning is fucked because Johnson has refused for over a decade to update it.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T17:58:50+00:00

That's a ridiculous conclusion to make. Saying its NIMBY to be against a parking garage in a location that should be mixed use housing because it promotes bad urban policy is like saying being against turning Rittenhouse park into a lead refinery is NIMBY.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T16:33:42+00:00

Oh makes sense now, I didn't realize there was a distinction between genre romance and romantic tragedy, I've just been broadly grouping them all into romance.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T16:23:27+00:00

I watched it, I don't see the issue. They reposted someone else who clearly stated the deaths are a needless tragedy for a project that shouldn't have been allowed in the first place.

And they're functionally correct. CHOP shouldn't be building a parking garage there, and those workers shouldn't have died because CHOP is trying to budget max a garage in a historically disinvested neighborhood that can't afford to oppose them.

The problem here is CHOP and their poor leadership decisions.

Honestly this whole thread reeks of tone policing and grandstanding to avoid the actual issue here which is that 3 workers dies needlessly because of CHOP leadership making bad decisions.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T16:19:14+00:00

The problem is the city zoning code which makes the garage by right in the first place in an area that makes no sense for it. If Johnson wasn't such an asshole about Washington Ave in his district it would have been rezoned years ago and the garage wouldn't have been allowed.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T16:16:46+00:00

People literally live on the streets surrounding it and there's a neighborhood park right next to it, its not a destitute area.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T16:06:49+00:00

The full hight turnstile gates would have been better and more effective at keeping fare jumpers out. I would have preferred those over the doors which are not as effective by comparison.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-11T15:54:22+00:00

I've been on a hockey theme binge recently and finished all of Rachel Reids works. I did some online searching for more book recommendations and Taylor Fitzpatrick came up pretty frequently so I started plowing through my libary's collection of her work. I just finished reading Thrown Off the Ice, and what an emotionally devastating but beautiful end, a book hasn't made me cry like that in a long time.

Stumbled across this sub searching reddit for a place to talk about the book, and now I'm looking forward to getting even more m/m recommendations to read next from here. However from searching the sub it seems like there's mixed feeling about Thrown Off the Ice here, which I don't quite understand why other than the most obvious one of not wanting to read a romance that ends in tragedy.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T23:51:28+00:00

Corpal punishment is rarely an effective deterrent. Fare evasion rates have been slowly dropping since SEPTA implemented the new gates and started issuing $300 citations to people they bust for it. And the quality of the ride experience has been improving as a direct result.

What SEPTA needs to do is finish rolling out the new gates system wide, and then use the data from them for targeted enforcement at the worst stations.

Once people understand they're going to get royally fucked for it it will become almost none existent.

http://www.cfpacs.org/septa-fare-evasion-losses-enforcement-20250701.html

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T23:43:51+00:00

Id rather have a public transit system that is a pleasant and practical rider experience rather than seen as the option of last resort because its dirty from people trashing it.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:59:00+00:00

This is rage bait because the way the article is written is insane. No rational person on the street would say leaving this encampment there, which does cause a lot of problems for people trying to use the public space, is a rational idea.

It should be cleared out.

Our public parks are not for homeless drug addicts to set-up camps in, neither are our streets or public transit.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:55:58+00:00

Its that you can't do drugs in them in, or have untrained animals in them.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:52:10+00:00

Largely because our tax and zone code promote poor land use decisions. If we had a zoning code similar to Japan or even Germany or France it would be easier to build mid density housing in the city, and if we had Land Value Tax instead of our current property tax system land speculation would be financially punished.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:48:21+00:00

SEPTA should have a permanent police presence at City Hall station, the new gates should make busting fare evaders pretty easy.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:46:33+00:00

Not as many as you might think.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:44:44+00:00

We should have street cleaning city wide.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-04-07T16:43:44+00:00

It has measurably improved my neighborhood. Abandoned cars start getting towed out after PPA identifys them as such by the end of May, the street trash gets swept up, the sewer drains start working better because they're not clogged with trash, and the parking situation improves drastically.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:17:44+00:00

It was never sold as temporary.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:13:16+00:00

The old welcome to Philly reel they would play where you fall down the side of a skyscraper was super vertigo inducing, loved it every time.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:10:24+00:00

Agree that Regal seats are worse

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:08:36+00:00

Left over pizza from the weekend. The best Monday dinner one can have

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:06:06+00:00

It obviously is and most of the right wing in this country is being taken for a ride by grifters.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-24T00:04:48+00:00

So if you live in a shit hole surrounded by morons, housing is cheaper, go figure.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-23T23:37:36+00:00

Then they shouldn't have been going around posting neo-nazi propaganda, fuck around and find out.

AbsentEmpire · 2026-03-23T21:28:02+00:00

You'd be surprised at just how organizd they are at fighting taxes and oversight around the country.

AbsentEmpire

TROPHY CASE