On Jan 15, 2013, at 11:48 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
The last time that I was there was 40 years ago. At
that time,
the harbor was full of LARGE rats (bigger than cats), not tourists.
US40 ran through the city, with cobblestones in some areas,
and a few remaining horse-drawn rag-picker carts. All along
US40, almost everything was condemned. There was a unique
demolition style - they would romove all of the interior doors
in a building, and nail those together to create a fence. For
block after block after block, the entire block would be a fence
of nailed together doors, punctuated at regular intervals by marble
doorsteps.
The rats are still there and still that big, but generally
not in the Harbor area. 40 isn't all *that* different, and
you can get a tour of the various stages of urban blight and
renewal by taking it across the city. It's fascinating,
actually, especially because a lot of buildings and signs
dating back to the '30s are still there (though obviously in
a state of disrepair).
I've heard that the city changed soon after that.
Sort of. It never really got on its feet, because it never
got the hang of street-level commerce with upper-level
residential areas (or proper mass transit, for that matter).
Philadelphia (well, my part of Philadelphia) is a massive
improvement.
- Dave