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"Progress" here means the beautiful, unique architecture built from quality materials get bulldozed and turned into a generic plaza which, except for some shitty and overpriced art, looks indistinguishable from a mall food court, with clear sightlines for police surveillance and a few entrances and egresses which can be controlled by law enforcement or whichever scam charity has rented it from the city for their 5k fun run fundraiser.
Painfully accurate. Like yeah sure we still have LOVE park technically, they just took out anything that would make it interesting or cool looking.
I remember reading awhile back that they were gonna turn MUNI into like grass or a garden or something, just didn't want to believe it was actually true.
Yup both quotes perfectly sum up the situation. It was extremely sad when City Hall and LOVE were ruined, but now Muni too? Just makes me sick at this point. They're actively trying to push out a culture that had such a positive influence on the city in place of some shit nobody asked for.
Glad I got to skate these spots before they're gone but my last session at Muni was not a good one. Would hate to end on such a low note, but like many others here I probably won't be able to make it back to Philly in time
I’m shocked both spots lasted as long as they did with tuffguys like Oyola fighting people and running around screaming the n-word in the 90’s. It’s a terrible look for skateboarders especially considering how one bad apple can easily ruin an average non-skater’s perspective of what we do. Sadly, all positive influence can be washed away in a second after one shitty experience with someone. As skateboarders, I feel we’re in a constant state of rebuilding our reputation. Constantly resetting the “0 days since last shitty incident” clock. That’s the only thing the people in power care to see - our shittiness.
The people in power are the shitty ones. Leveling a city plaza does not reduce drug use, homelessness, or crime.
Locals tend to keep it clean and respectful in order to protect their ability to skate whatever plaza they have. Not liking skateboarding doesn’t mean skateboarding shouldn’t get to happen.
And keep in mind, the Philly government has actively ignored the millions of tourist dollars skateboarders brought in over the decades just to come and see and skate Love Park.. this was never about skaters causing chaos, it’s always about control and what is socially acceptable, and the rise of hostile architecture probably.