Footing the Billadelphia - The South Street Bridge

There are two things in this life at which Don Bito excels: the English language (disagreement unwelcome) and driving.

I'm not going to get all cliche and sentimental and tell you my car is an extension of my being or some crap like that. My car is my stalwart companion. She keeps me warm, dry, and on the move. She's my second home and, like my first home, she smells of tobacco and is often teeming with old Diet Coke bottles and food containers. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

We've been through a lot, my car and I. Hardly a day goes by when we don't spend at least a couple hours on the road, commuting to and from work or my parent's house in the far Northeast. We were each other's only company on the long haul from Philly to South Carolina and back, and together we've toted innumerable friends to the beach. We've been to Hunlock Creek and Sunbury, New Hope and Ocean City, and she is the only one who hears my spectacular car karaoke.

But it wasn't always peaches and cream between us. As is true in any good relationship, we've been through rough times. Our first couple of years together were spent begrudgingly giving people rides home and suffering the hellish commute down Roosevelt Blvd to Temple every day. Like the unrecognized genius flipping burgers at Mickey D's, we were better than that and we knew it. And sadly, as one is wont to do with their closest friends, we sometimes took our frustrations out on each other.


My car and I having one of our lovers' spats.

While we didn't always delight in each other's company during this time of hardship, it's safe to say that I, at least, came away with a greater appreciation for our bond and, more importantly, a more intimate understanding of city driving.

And of myself.

I forgot where I was going with this. Or at least forgot my clever segue. So let me just direct your attention to this article from The Inquirer.

In it, Inga Saffron (hippie?) discusses the current reconstruction of the South Street Bridge. She criticizes the city planners for their lack of vision, and who can blame her? The Schuylkill waterfront(not to even approach Penn's Landing) is perhaps the part of the city with the most lost potential. A walk across the Walnut Street bridge, for instance, provides what could be a stunning view of the river, were the bridge itself and many of its surroundings not so strictly utilitarian. The park on the river's east side, just south of Walnut, might be a beautiful place to dally or picnic were it not so architecturally desolate, and frankly far too inaccessible to pedestrians.

The whole area is a sad milieu of lost opportunities.

But as much as I want to agree with Inga Saffron (hippie?) when she expresses her disappointment with the proposed SSB construction, I am halted by her closing point:

The engineers may be right that South Street Bridge traffic backs up. But just because a bottleneck exists doesn't mean a city is obliged to fix it. It's a matter of priorities.

Indeed it is a matter of priorities, Inga Saffron (hippie.) I'm just not convinced that your proposed priorities are any better than the city's.

I, too, desire more and better pedestrian thruways in the area. I love my city perhaps even more deeply than my car (I'm sorry, baby, I don't mean it)and want nothing more than for visitors to be able to recognize the beauty in her lush parks, winding alleyways, stunning skyline views, and the delicious array of cultures that coexist here. More tourism = more money = good things for Philly locals. I get that.

But a struggling tourism trade is only half of Philly's problem. The other, I would argue, more pressing issue, is the fact that we are constantly hemorrhaging the population we have. Of course there are many factors contributing to this, but as a young veteran of city driving I can tell you there is little about city life that frustrates me as much or as often as the traffic situation.

And as much as we would like to be forward-thinking and express our architectural creativity, there's no point in shooting ourselves in the foot in the process. Would I enjoy meandering along a more beautiful, pedestrian-friendly SSB? Absolutely.

Would I start a bloody revolution if the city spent $50 million reconstructing a major traffic bridge without improving the flow of traffic?

Hells to the yeah. Hells. to. the. yeah.



PS - It occurs to me that this post is a tad schizophrenic, but you guys are hardy, I think you can handle it. Expect more tales and tips from me and my car in the upcoming series "Skilladelphia - Driving in the City."