Northeast Corner of Broad and South Street
This lot has always pissed me off.. I remember noting it with disgust before I even lived in Philadelphia. A 19,000 square foot wasteland on what should be one of our nicest intersections, this piece of shit has sat empty for waaaaay too long. Thankfully, it will soon be coming to an end despite NIMBY attempts to preserve it. This pile of wild vegetation is also known as the Garden of the Arts. As I've stated before, you know an empty lot is bad when you're not the first one to name it.
Read more at the Philadelphia Citypaper's Naked City Blog!
At one point, it was the LOVE bar, where Chris Boas ran a new wave / punk joint in the 80s... the owner was this weird fat Jabba the Hutt guy who Chris had to go up and negotiate with while he lay in bed, with a semi-circle of electric heaters aimed at him and a flunky massaging his feet.
ReplyDeleteI was one of the dopes who idealistically lent Chris some of my cherished New Wave 45 to put in the juke box... one day I stopped in and there was a new juke...
Chris said sadly that some big mob gorillas came in and picked up his juke and said, "You're on the wrong side of Broad Street..." ie, he had to get his juke from their mob juke supplier, not the one he was using.
They were huge, they explained it, and then carried the old juke out with my records ( and Chris' s and others too no doubt..) and of course, we just had to laugh. Finally, it burned down, like 67% of the punk clubs I hung at!
I saw Bunnydrums play there.
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