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

In continuation of my 5^th Street ride series this post is all about Lower North Philadelphia or, as known by many, “the area you don’t go” 

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

After emerging from the tunnel, bypassing much of Old City and more importantly tons of automobile dominated infrastructure, I found myself in Callowhill. 

Callowhill is an area, in short, that was built up as an industrial district in the late 19^th century and continued to thrive as such until the mid 20^th century.  It is now a collection of old industrial buildings (some vacant, some are cool loft apt/condos), mid-century office buildings and parking lots. Lots of parking lots.  There are several plans for the area, to redevelop some of the buildings for medium/high density loft style housing, reconnect the area to Chinatown and there is even talk of turning the abandoned Reading Terminal viaduct into a High Line-esk park.  Also, the area does have some spectacular views of the city’s skyline. 

The Callowhill district is not very wide and after about 5 blocks, I crossed over Spring Garden and entered Northern Liberties.  Northern Liberties is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. As mentioned in a previous blog post the neighborhood is home to the site when William Penn struck a treaty with Native Americans.  Much like the Callowhill district the area was home to several industrial complexes, mainly breweries such as Schmidt’s and Ortlieb’s, along with a large number of residences for industrial workers.  After many of the factories downsized and eventually shuttered the neighborhood went into disrepair and began a renaissance in the 1980s as an artist/bohemian community. As seen in many cities across the U.S. this low-rent, artistic community became a catalyst for new development in the area and the neighborhood is now better known for interesting architecture, innovative planning projects (i.e. Liberties Walk and the Piazza at Schmidt’s) and hipsters. Even the hipsters are beginning to be priced out. The neighborhood’s main commercial corridor is along 2^nd street, but shops/restaurants and cafes can be found on the corners of many of the numbered streets.  After all that I don’t have many interesting shots of the neighborhood; I guess I’ll have to go back. 

The edge of Northern Liberties is Girard Avenue, a very wide, commercial corridor.  In 2005, SEPTA reinstated the trolley line that ran along Girard Avenue using historic 1947 PCC trolleys.  While planners typically advocate for fixed rail transit to help revitalize corridors, I’m not sure what the Girard trolley has done for the neighborhoods along it in the past 5 years. It seems more like a historical Disney ride than a functional transit line. The design of the stops and layout of the street does nothing to promote pedestrian safety and comfort along the 7 lane road.  The stops are not covered, and are essentially concrete steps in between moving traffic lanes. Additionally, the trolley runs only every 15 minutes during peak times and is not timed with either subway that it crosses, making it function more like a bus than anything else.  Sorry, that’s enough railing against Philadelphia transit for now, like much of SEPTA…they’re getting there. 

One the other side of Girard is the beginning of Old Kensington. To be fair there are a lot of different Kensingtons throughout Philadelphia’s Lower North/Northeast sections: Old Kensington, West Kensington, Upper Kensington, New Kensington…..  From what I can tell they are all fairly the same; historically industrial neighborhoods with vacant industrial lots, very underserved retail corridors and modest rowhouses.  I biked through two of the Kensingtons this ride: Old and West. 

Old Kensington is the industrial heart of the city; many of the factories located here were well known while Philadelphia was ticketed as the Workshop of the World.  I cycled past two relatively large industrial buildings that pretty much sum up the entire area, the vacant Drueding Brothers Leather Co. and the recently converted Sewing Factory Lofts. 

The Drueding Bro. was part of the area’s leather and tannery history and through what I can find closed in the 1960s, lying vacant ever since.  The buildings windows are completely broken out, the roof line looks so rusted that it is beginning to disintegrate, and some daring hoodlum (probably hipster) has sprayed the words Tape Radio across the middle floors of the building.  While researching this building I found this link that contains several photos inside the building and along the roof.  Pretty impressive. 

On the other hand, the Sewing Factory Lofts building is one of the courageous residential developments venturing far north of Northern Liberties.  The building contains 52 loft style apartments ranging from 1,400 to 2,200 square feet renting for $1,100 -$1,800.  While only slightly less expensive then comparable buildings nearer Center City, the building has lofts that are typically twice the size. I guess if you want a very large loft space, Kensington is the place for you. 

I suppose the price drop is because this is the scene right outside the building.

Many of the vacant lots across the neighborhood have either become defacto wildlife refuses or “temporary” homes of the homeless. Just to the west of this area is Ludlow and Temple’s main campus.  On my way back to the city I biked down 8^th street which afforded me and amazing view of Septa’s regional rail station. 

The station is set up on the train line and the view is possible due to the fact that there is a large vacant lot on the east.  The City, Temple and other various organizations have been trying to lure a developer here for a while. The area has been designated as a TRID or Transit Revitalization Improvement District, a state designation that allows municipalities and transit agencies to work together and apply for state funds to plan and study the area.  More importantly a TRID allows for the creation of an organization that can capture additional tax revenue and pay for capital improvement in the area, similar to a BID or business Improvement District.   The Asociacíon Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) is leading the development of the lot for the past few years.  However despite the TRID, and having federal funds in place the team is still attempting to find financing for a 164 mixed-income apartment and retail development.

For more information please follow the links here, http://planphilly.com/nutter-breaks-ground-parkway-temple-projects and http://planphilly.com/node/3631.  I know that I didn’t get all that information. 

Nearby the train station I was totally caught off guard to see a row of houses that seem to be fairly well kept sitting in the middle of a green and deliberately planted block, so naturally I decided to explore.  Biking down Darien Street I discovered this horse and immediately thought it was some urban farm project.

However, the landscaping was too passive to be farming. Then I discovered a sign along the NTI looking fence.  It turns out that it’s some sort of pilot project for the Philadelphia Water Department and or the EPA.  I’m a little over researched right now form looking up the TRID development, but the while idea seems to be a really cool.  There are rolling swales and planted lawn/trees to minimize stormwater runoff.

That's about all I can blog about for now.  Stay tuned, I'm only HALF way up 5th Street.  

Why am I up this early on a Saturday?

This is probably the most epic bike ride I’ve gone on. Not so much because the difficulty of the terrain or that it was a billion miles. More so in the fact that it was a very involved ride; waking up early, biking in 20 degree weather and riding other forms of transit. This whole ride began a few weeks ago when my friend Jeff asked if I’d go with him and a few people to help put up East Coast Greenway signs along an interim route through Bucks County. 

What is early? Well, it’s waking up at 6:40 to catch a 7:30 train. Jeff can back me up on the fact when I read 7:30am train that I wanted to punch him in the face. I don’t even wake up at 7:30 during the weekday, it’s one of the benefits of being unemployed. Why was it 20 degree weather? You’re going to have to ask Mother Nature because she’s punking us right now. Spring my ass. Regardless, I made it out the door all bundled up like I was biking among frecking igloos.When I got to 30^th Street where Jeff graciously and appropriately bought me a coffee. 

Here are the stats for this ride, including my short jaunt to 30^th Street Station and Jeff and mine mini bike ride from the Yardley train station to Yardley proper to meet up with our other bikers. This ride was outside of my preset map so I made another map to show the routes, as always the biking is in yellow but the train ride out and the drive back are in purple. 

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/6126562

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
21.1	111	11.4	1,323

Now for all of those who don’t know what the East Coast Greenway is, it’s a traffic free bicycle trail that will eventually span from Maine to Key West, FL. It is planned and coordinated by a non-profit founded 20 years ago. The route is fully mapped on interim routes, and approx. 20-30% of the route is on a car free trail.  The interim route through Bucks County follows the Pennsylvania Bicycle Route E, administered by PennDOT. According to their website there are several PA bike routes, but very little information about them. Hmm…good enough for government work I suppose. 

This ride was the first time I took a bike on SEPTA, it’s an experience trying to get a bike up on the platform and then down the train aisle. Maybe it was the 7:30 start time. After Jeff and I got off the train in Yardley we biked down Main Street towards downtown/uptown, to the Wawa to meet up with Andy. Andy is the head of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the East Coast Greenway and a board member of the national board. He also had the signs, the route, and a car to drive us to our starting point. However a few sidenotes before I continue with the ride. 1) SEPTA has no business changing their regional rail scheme again when they haven’t even replaced the R3 sign. 2) Yardley is just adorable, maybe it was the morning sun. 

Andy drove us to some odd look strip mall in Morrisville and there we met up with another biking buddy, Chris from DVRPC. It was a plannertastic bike ride just by the people. From there we loaded up bikes with signs and tools and then headed to the beginning of the trail. For whatever reason I didn’t realize the beginning would be the state line. So I was all confused when I saw Trenton and the Delaware River. However it was a pretty awesome view with an old steel truss bridge in the foreground of the river and the Trenton “skyline”.

That was probably the most charming area of our entire ride. I assume due to political reasons the East Coast Greenway has to follow Route E. Well the Pennsylvania bike routes are only on state roads otherwise known as state highways. So that’s what most of the ride ended up being, wide shoulders, ridiculous turning radii and cars going in excess of 50 mph. It was a great bike ride for Jeff as it was his first in like 2 years. 

As we continued into Bucks County we entered a lot townships one being Fairless Hills whose name I find hilarious. These townships started to look like a lot of really old suburbs, with small or cozy houses lining roads that have large front yards and a small strip of sidewalk. 

The further we biked the house became more similar to each other and older, kind of like a 1950s suburb.  Then I realized we were biking through Levittown. Pardon me while I geek out about biking through Levittown, it’s a classic case study in planning. Levittown is considered one of the first suburban developments in the country, by far the most influential. While Levittown, Pennsylvania is not the first, the first being on Long Island, it is the same type of master planned community and is larger than it counterpart; 10 square miles. The developer, Levitt & Sons, purchased the land in 1952 and planned a community of over 17,000 houses, shopping centers, schools and park spaces. Most of the houses are tucked off of the main roads (hence why I don’t have many pictures) on a curvilinear street system. 

There are a few things I never realized about Levittown. Apparently it’s not a town or city, it’s a census designated place, meaning that it is worth identifying in the national census even though the place lacks its own municipal government. Levittown is actually FOUR different municipalities: Falls Township, Middletown Township, Bristol Town ship, and Tullytown (borough). Additionally, Levittown is divided into several sections, and they are actually called sections.Which reminds me of a communist settlement; surprising for a development that was built at the height of McCarthyism.   

The only pictures I have are in and around Middletown Township Park. The park is located at the intersection of Trenton Ave. and State Route 413 one of the worst spots for a park. It did have lion statues. 

Thanks for the geek out time, back to the bike ride.  After finding the lions, we biked down State Route 413 or Veterans Highway. A highway it was, not only did people zip pass us on this two lane expressway, the shoulder was made up of some of the worst pavement that I’ve ever biked on. Therefore it was often necessary to bike on the line dividing the shoulder from the vehicle lane, sometimes in it. Not cool.  

Jeff and I took a break for some Burger King and Andy and Chris continued to put up signs a few miles down. The Burger King was necessary. However I accidently tossed my Rango sheriffs badge from my kid’s meal.  I did get an apple juice though.

After eating we tried to cross the road. Now I’m not sure why we thought we could “jaywalk” across the road but we tried several times.We eventually biked all the way down to the turnpike bridge and turned around. Near the largest Wawa I’ve ever seen, it had to be on a plot of land that was the size of a Center City block. From there we biked back along our route putting up more signs and eventually getting back to the car. After some pizza courtesy of Andy, Jeff and I got a much needed ride back to the city courtesy of Chris.