Settling the Urban Park Debate
February 25th, 2005At work this morning I got into an unusually passionate debate with a coworker about which is the largest city park in the United States. He adamantly maintained that it was Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. And I, being a proud Philadelphian, boasted that Fairmount Park was the undisputed urban park champ of the world.
Well, turns out both of us are wrong. And, to my Brooklyn homies out there, no, it ain’t Prospect Park either. Nor is it Central Park, you egocentric Manhattanites!
According to The Straight Dope, Golden Gate, with its measly 1,107 acres, wouldn’t even be in the top ten. At 840 acres, Central Park would come in at about 15th place. By comparison, Philly’s Fairmount Park looks like Goliath, with 4,618 acres (4,239 if you deduct the Schuylkill River, which runs right down the middle). But even that isn’t enough to give it the top spot. It’s not number two, either!
As it turns out, one city lays claim to both. The largest city park in the U.S. is South Mountain Park, currently 16,169 acres but planning to expand to 16,455. Which city spawned this monster? None other than cursed Phoenix, the metropolitan abortion that just usurped Philly as the 5th largest city in the U.S. This cancer of the Southwest is also home to the number two park, Phoenix Mountain Reserve, which is also expanding from 7,358 to 7,750 acres.
Still, I’m not willing to concede nothin’ to Phoenix — Phoe-friggin-nix! If insisting that Philly has the largest urban park is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
Technorati Tags: Philadelphia, Phoenix, Parks, Fairmount Park, Golden Gate Park, Central Park
When we returned to Philly last weekend, after spending a few fun-filled days skiing and Treasure Troving with the Mendes clan, the Feb. 28 issue of People Magazine was waiting by the front door. For once, just once, I leapt for it — knowing full well what was waiting inside. As I’ve said before, People is Ana’s version of bedtime crack. But to me, on this particular occassion, it held the cure to my recent bout of insomnia. A way to end the nightmares, the marital bickering over my newest hobby — in short, a quote from me in an article about “A Treasure’s Trove.” 
When my attempted breakfast in bed, of chocolate chip pancakes and bacon, was met with a meager appetite and stifled yawns, it became quickly apparent that dinner at Smoke’s or Cereality might not be the ironic evening encore I’d originally planned. In a last-ditch effort at originality, I hit upon the website for 
Fortunately for Ana and me, everything else about our trip to the WXPN building was well worth the five-minute drive. The comfort food at the joint was de-lish; the renovated Hajoca building was decked out in mahogany paneling and funky, colorful decor; and the warm-up act, 
In some ways, I felt that World Cafe Live could still use a little Trading Spaces action. The tables and chairs in the Downstairs performing space, where we were, seemed like the kind you’d find in a high school cafeteria — cheap Formica and aluminum. But besides some minor decorating quibbles, I thought the space had phenomenal potential. I know Philly has plenty of live-music dinner joints, with Warmdaddy’s, Zanzibar Blue, Ortleibs, and Tritone already scattered around town. But let’s be honest: In these joints it’s often difficult to see the band, and the acoustics are downright fugly. The XPN building has the only stage large enough for a band to actually shake their bootie, as well as an amphitheater that’s actually designed for music listening. What more can you ask of a former plumbing supply warehouse?
I can’t believe I forgot to post about this, the single coolest Christmas present I saw this year. Wish I could remember who it was that decided to get the triplets’ the 
The closest I could find was Grecian Goddess Barbie® — and to be perfectly honest, she ain’t quite hot enough to live up to the Barbie name. 
I was able to get out and search one site before her “mandatory break period” was implemented. And the lucky location was … Washington Square Park. 
Sure, Comcast ain’t building another Crysler building, and sure it’s a little boxy and uninspired as far as skyscrapers go. But the powers that be are finally doing something with this skyscraper that they didn’t do with its predecessors; namely, they’re planning at the street-level, not just in the clouds. The planners have hired Laurie Olin, a renound landscape architect (and Penn Press author), to design the grassy plaza on the groud level; they’re building a huge, glassed-in “winter garden,” sort of like the WTC used to have; and a giant indoor/outdoor food court, connected to Surburban Station, is in the works. The hope is that all of this will finally convert that stretch Market and JFK into something other than an apocalyptic, barren wasteland. Maybe if people are actually milling about and enjoying the street life places like Trader Joe’s will finally place their entrances on the street, rather than facing parking lots. And take a look at the architect’s rendering of the new city skyline. Personally, I think it looks pretty damn cool. (Not as cool as it would have from a Phillies ballpark on the Schuylkill, mind you, but we won’t go there right now.)
On the topic of glass-enclosed monoliths, the 
Now, I know we’re not talking about another skyscraper here, but we have an obvious reason for concern: Our office is at 4200 Pine Street. We’ve known for a while that we were going to be booted from here, and moved to the boarded-up hovel that is the former WXPN building, but now that the condo plans have been revealed we’re even more steamed than ever. Take a look at the luxuy condo price list: $270,000 for one-bedroom units, $350,000 for two-bedroom units, and the upper $400,000 range for the three-bedroom, three-bath units. Who on earth would pay that much to live in a neighborhood where the average 4-bedroom family home is about $250,000? These are condos we’re talking about! Jeez. I can’t wait to see how they justify this on their new website (