Cross Section of Philly, via 5th Street (South Philly edition)

As I stated before I had an idea for a bike ride during a trip I had taken to FDR Park earlier in the week.  On my way back to my new apartment I biked up a large portion of 7^th Street and found it to be absolutely fascinating. It was kind of like a cross section of South Philadelphia. So I thought it’d be awesome to bike up the entire length of a numbered street to get a fuller perception of the city. 

Choosing a route was kind of difficult. While essentially there are 24 some-odd routes one can take through the city (approx how many numbered streets run through Center City) after some initial research there aren’t many continuous streets. There is the obvious one; Broad Street, but I have biked on that before and found it to be 1) too busy and 2) not a very good cross section of the city as far as neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods’ boundaries are on the edge of Broad Street and one side of the street can be completely different than the other.  Additionally, many of the numbered streets west of Broad end just north of Temple. That left east of Broad. There are several streets that are quasi-continuous.  7^th is probably the longest because it goes through the Sports Complex.  Front and 3^rd were also considered.  However I settled on 5^th because it has some cool features: 1) a tunnel, 2) it’s a commercial corridor further north and 3) it does not get broken up by the Vine Street expressway, Roosevelt Blvd or the large railroad corridor (near Temple).  So 5^th it was, below is a map of my route as well as the stats:

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/6816980

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
24.3	120	12.1	1,445

Also I made a reference map of all the neighborhoods I cycled through or bordered.  There were several neighborhoods I went through and part of the reason for making this map is for me to get my bearings as much as it is for you the reader.  Because there is a lot to write about I’m also just going to highlight the neighborhoods I am talking about in that post. 

The ride started off with me biking to what might be described as the grundle of civilization, the Comcast service center at Columbus and Reed.   This is where time goes to die, as one has to wait in line with people dropping off their Comcast equipment (i.e. me), or people that don’t understand the concept of a toll-free phone number.  These patrons get the same service from representatives that could care less if they are talking to humans or a flock of Canadian Geese.  Anyway, that happened and I continued south to my starting point at 5^th and Oregon. 

The ride begins in a sea of parking lots and auto dominated businesses lining Oregon Ave.  But just a few blocks north lays Whitman, a neighborhood whose namesakes is the large, suspension bridge just south of the shopping along Oregon.  The blocks are typical of South Philly blocks; two story, simple rowhouses that have at least one of or more of the following three elements: awnings, vinyl siding somewhere on the house, or a picture window.

The area is also home to Mifflin Square, one of the few block sized squares found throughout South Philly, similar to Girard Park (in Girard Estates) or Dickinson Square just to the northeast of my route.  However this square is a little drabber then the others ones, the trees are not as large, the grass looks fairly untended, the sidewalk seem like it has seen better days.  There also is not much in it but a newer looking playground and an older looking basketball court.

Continuing up 5^th Street I entered the neighborhood of Pennsport. Pennsport is somewhat hard to distinguish from Whitman, at least the part along 5^th Street.  But it’s much more storied as it has been a residential area for the docks and industry that lay along the Delaware. The neighborhood is also home to 2 Street, a portion of 2^nd Street that houses many of the Mummers’ clubhouses. While I was biking through Pennsport I made two discoveries. First, this animal hospital which I had to snap a picture for my riding buddy Zack. 

Second, I found an abandoned hospital, Mt. Sinai.  The hospital used to be part of what is now the defunct Graduate Health System.  The system, whose namesake hospital is at 18^th and Lombard, was bought in the mid 1990s by Allegheny Health and promptly went bankrupt, forcing the abandonment of Mt. Sinai.  Although the hospital is 11 stories and takes up an entire city block it is very small.  When shuttered in 1998 it only had a capacity of 170 beds and 500 employees.  In comparison, Pennsylvania Hospital, a relatively small hospital, contains 515 beds and employs 2,700 people. After closing there were plans for to turn the hospital into a long-term care center, and most recently into condominiums.  Both of those never got off the ground.

Additionally, in Pennsport there are several abandoned lots right along 5^th street, which is surprising for the amount of density that is contained in the area.  However some of them were intriguing, like the following which seems to have been turned into a park a few decades back and then forgotten. I also appreciated the sign next to this “park”

North of Mt. Sinai (or Reed Street) is an area that looks like it was redeveloped by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA).  However I found no information to support this theory, in fact from the amount of for sale signs the houses seemed to have been developed privately.  Regardless, they are an utter shift from the Philly rowhouse typology. Constructed in what it looks like the mid-2000s, the houses are actually duplexes with a traditional suburban style porch, first floor brick, second floor vinyl façade and a lovely garage. 

Except this guy he is just straight up single family house.  The rowhouse next to him looks very confused about how his neighbor got there. 

After crossing Washington Ave I entered Queen Village. This area lies just south of Center City and is one of the oldest areas in the entire city.  Once named Southwark, the neighborhood used to be home to a large number of Swedish immigrants during the colonial days of the city.  There is even a church on Columbus Blvd that is a reminder of the area’s Swedish heritage.  Today, the area is a mix of several different architectural styles dating from the 18^th century trinity to the 21^st century mega-rowhouse; a rowhouse that has a two-car garage, a Palladian window and possibly a balcony.  It’s like a Cherry Hill (New Jersey) “cottage” was stuffed between the Betsy Ross house and a typical Philly rowhouse.  Biking along 5^th Street I passed what is actually PHA housing and then entered the adorable commercial center where 5^th, Bainbridge/South, and Passyunk meet.  The intersection makes for some interesting urban form. 

I want to end this post by discussing some of the demographic observations I made while biking thorough this section of South Philly.  Along 5^th Street in Whitman and Pennsport there is a diverse collection retail: Asian beauty parlors, Hispanic grocery shops and corner stores which look like they have been owned by the same Italian family since 1904.  After looking at the NY Times’ 2010 census map I realized that the area just west of 5^th Street is extremely diverse.  There is even one census tract that is practically ¼ White, ¼ Black, ¼ Asian and ¼ Hispanic.  Also the two neighborhoods are quite possibly the densest area in the City of Philadelphia, approx. 45,000 – 50,000 people/sq. mi. Comparable to the densities surrounding Rittenhouse Square and in the Gayborhood.