Day 11 Small Changes

Day 11 March 12, 2008

     Today it is back to the neighborhoods just east of 69th Street.  I avoid the traffic on Garrett Road and Market Street by taking the much quieter parallels of Shelbourne Road and Ludlow Streets.  In the predawn hour I pass The Tower Theater closed and quiet, compared to its vibrant nightlife.  The SEPTA buses discharging hurrying commuters on 69th Street contrast the tour buses of  headlining rock groups often seen parked around the corner on Ludlow.

     Ludlow dead ends and I come out to Market Street.  I run east and turn right again to the wide boulevard of Wellington Road.   It is a shame that the center median of this quiet street has not been gardened.  It is a blank canvas waiting for a horticultural artist.  For three blocks I run the long straightaway and then turn back and zigzag Marlboro, Overhill, Chatham and Kent Roads.

 

     These are neighborhoods of neat post-WWII stone twins.  Once the houses were nearly identical, but now you can fathom our interesting cultural evolution.  In at least half the original stonewalls have been covered by stucco or siding.  The skill to repoint masonry has proven too rare or expensive in the interim.  The parking of cars seems to have been relocated from the designed back alleys or side driveways to curbside.  Entire streets are closely parallel parked, more like parallel packed, while alley and driveways are empty.  It must take too long to get underway otherwise.  Most disconcertedly it is evident that all the homes once had open front porches.  Now every one has been enclosed.  Once people had a place to sit out front and wave to their passing neighbors.  There were eyes to watch the kids in the street.  Over time one after another shut their house off from the public sphere.  Everyone had a good reason.  They needed just one more room for their growing families in the 1950’s and 60’s, but the overall effect has been alienating.  The streets look colder and less friendly, more like a city, less like a village.  Not a few of the enclosed porches now sprout satellite dishes.  Today we are more connected to the world than we are to the people next door. 

     

Distance:   4.97 miles Time:   47 min 0 sec   Pace:   9:27 min/mile

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