There are many reasons to oppose a 120+ unit stack, but while walking past the proposed site today, I realized another approach might be useful. I will try to define what I support. The TROLLEY PORTAL at 40th Street is one of the main gateways into West Philly. I like the sensation of leaving work and riding a Trolley home. My spirits rise every time my ride pulls out of the tunnel into daylight. I love looking left toward the Woodlands and right toward the "Street Car Suburb" I call home. For almost my entire life, I have had the choice of taking the #13 and walking through Clark Park, or taking the #34 and maybe doing a little shopping on the way home. Many of the towers of center city have attractive features, but to me, they resonate in colder, harsher tones. On hot summer days pedestrians learn to deal with the odors vented from the rivers of feces that course, under the streets toward treatment plants. At the end of the day, it feels good to leave center city behind. Exiting the tunnel delivers the promise "almost home". Suddenly trees and natural (not just reflected or artificial or slivered) light grace the street scape. Housing at a human scale seems much more attractive to me. When I was very young, high rises were East of the Schuylkill. As a child, I can remember playing in the construction site that became the bridge at 38th and Locust. I can remember when "expansion" resulted in the destruction of whole neighborhoods and the changes as St. James and St. Leonard Schools closed and families were forced further away from the heart of the city and Penn. Some of the families sent their children to my school, SFDS, but others were forced out of the city. I have grown to accept the Grad Towers at 39th and Locust. The huge swaths of open land around those towers makes them bearable. Plus they sit at a Penn created "T" and seem to end the "closed" part of the campus with an exclamation. I can avoid contact with them by traveling along Baltimore or Gray's Ferry. But, I can not avoid traveling along Baltimore Avenue, at least not without altering so much that I love about living here in West Philly. It may not feel fair to my northern neighbors, but I don't think I'd object overmuch to towers built along Chestnut or Walnut. These streets seem to be dominated by fast moving traffic. The lots are larger and the zoning already commercial. I like change for good. But I am not a huge fan of change for change's sake. I think it is likely that zoning regs are slow to change, because quite often they work. I believe it would be a huge loss to the neighborhood, if we permitted an overly aggressive Tower to be built at what is possibly our most visible and defining portal. So before I go to bed, my 2 cents are about preserving our existing zoning rights and appreciating what we have, right here, close at hand. Sleep well! Liz
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