Tear Down Little Pete's? Sure, Can We Tear Down City Hall Too?

Philadelphia, I love you, but you’re bringing me down: Little Pete’s to Meet the Wrecking Ball

Little Pete’s, a beloved Center City diner, will meet the wrecking ball soon in order to make way for a 300-room hotel.

South Street is a shell of its former self; the Boyd is being hollowed out into a shitty multiplex; Little Pete’s is going to be torn down for a goddamn hotel. Hell, they even want Frank Gehry to tear out the steps of the Art Museum.

One of the great things about Philly has been that it’s a place everyone could afford live; I don’t want it to be the “sixth borough” or SanFranEast.

But what else is new?

The Decline and Fall of South Street

Pearl Art is closing at the end of the month. I'm both depressed and not surprised. South Street has been in a rapid decline for several years now, ever since they started raising the rent rates. But there are a lot of causes behind the emptying of South Street, much of it sad.

So let's take an incomplete tally:

• The Brick Playhouse: well, this is a case of mismanagement--I know, because I was a member. But the few years I was part of the Playhouse was some of the happiest of my life.
  
  
• Zipperhead: namechecked in the Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl, it was, of course, a clothing store. Best part about the place was the exterior (which may still be there, I don't know, I haven't been down that way in a while)--big ants crawling up the side of the building. Apparently they've moved and changed their name, and the fact that I only found out about it in 2010 says something, though maybe it just points out my own ignorance.
  
  
• Spaceboy Records: and when we lost Zipperhead, we lost their neighbor, Spaceboy. I loved Spaceboy--they had a great selection of new indie, new lps, old LPs and CDs upstairs. But with the massive changes in the record industry, even big chains have gone out of buisness. Between the high rents and the decline of record sales, there was no way a place that deals largely in new music products was going to survive, but it still hurts.
  
  
• The Book Trader: not exactly gone; they moved up to 2nd and Arch. But I miss their two-story store on the corner of 5th and South, with the big bay windows where you could look out on the street below, busy with foot traffic, lit up at night. They moved, but it's not the same, and South Street isn't the same.
  
  
• Philadeli: sure, it was pricy, but they sold six-packs, great sandwiches, and now they're gone too.
  
  
• TLA Video: I don't know what got them more--the rise of Netflix, or the decline of South Street? Sadly, I'm going with Netflix overall, because this isn't the only store they've closed; they've also closed the one near my old apartment on Spring Garden St.
  
  

And there's probably lots of others that I can't remember.

There are a lot of causes--South Street's rent is too high, we're in the Great Recession, and media consumption has moved from brick-and-mortar stores to the computer. And there are still places that I like down there--The Bean Cafe, Tattooed Mom, they're still there, and hopefully will stay there. But I've lost a lot of reasons to go down there.

And now Pearl Art, where you could find just about anything you wanted, is gone. And I hear that's as much how the company--not this particular store--is managed.

I don't have to leave my house anymore to buy a book, or find a record, or rent a movie, or talk to friends. Everything can be done right here on my laptop, as I sit on the living room, warm and narcotized by the soft glow of Law and Order in the background, while tabs for Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook are up on the browser. But doing so, I'm losing something. I'm losing real human contact, I'm missing meeting new people, I'm missing finding things by accident.

Update
Den just reminded me of Tower Books, also gone a long time, before even Tower Records, IIRC. He used to sell his zine there.

Life Goes On Without Me

I've been bogged down with school--since February, really. I'd like to post more, but I just don't get the chance.

I watch the news, read blogs, listen to podcasts, and I realize that I really don't know what's going on in the world. The market falls, the market rises, oil rises, oil falls, Yes, we're going to bomb Iran, No, we're diplomats, are you crazy?

Anyone know the number of a good haruspex?

I just found out that my local independent grocery store is going out of business. I'm bummed on several levels--first, it was a great place to get really good beer--microbrews, imports, etc. I'm really gonna miss Middle Ages' Druid Fluid, because the closest place selling it is up past Bethlehem.

But I'm also depressed to see a good, locally-owned, organic-dominant grocery store go out of business. Not enough people went, obviously--it was only just over a year old, meaning it's been in Lansdale about as long as we have. There are lots of places around us going out of business, too--some chains (CompUSA and the Bombay Company left last year, and recently my husband said there were empty stores at the mall), some local. The bowling alley burned down last year, and there's no plans to rebuild. This town--like a lot of SEPA (uh, Southeastern Pennsylvania)--just feels like it's dying a slow death. Which, to be fair, it's been doing since the 1970s, just the time when I was born.

It's weird, to feel like you've been born into a dying land. While other parts of the country improve, grow, etc. (Phoenix, California), the rust belt keeps... well, rusting.

What has this to do with oil? (Or any other potential disasters?) I don't know. Maybe when transportation gets too expensive, the trend will reverse. Maybe the Southwest will be uninhabitable. Maybe we'll get a local grocery store again.

But maybe things will just go on as before, with this area on life support, barely breathing, while everything but the big box stores fail.

I don't know.