“No Sitting on Wall” Signs Disappear From Rittenhouse Square
Photo | Dan McQuade
The rumors are true: the Rittenhouse wall-sitting ban is over.
The signs discouraging park users from lounging on the walls reportedly came down this morning, three days after Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted that, somehow, he missed the ban enacted by Friends of Rittenhouse Square, the Parks and Recreation Department and city officials, and visitors should “sit where you want.”
Regarding Rittenhouse Square, I'm frustrated too. This government is very large and at times things just get by you. Sit where you want. ✌️
— Jim Kenney (@JimFKenney) January 15, 2017
“The mayor felt like while some of the concerns park-users had were legitimate, including smoking, that this is an over-correction,” city spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told the Inquirer.
While Friends of Rittenhouse Square and the Parks and Recreation Department maintain that the ban was enacted “due to continuous vandalism and marijuana smoking,” their reasoning prompted quick and fierce backlash from wall-sitters and other park users who saw it as a form of “class warfare,” like marijuana activist N.A. Poe. Opposers took to social media to condemn the ban and celebrate the history of wall-sitting in the park, which stretches back through decades.
Protests planned for this week – like today’s “Sittenhouse” and Friday’s “Toke Back the Wall” – have taken on celebratory frames. “Sittenhouse” reportedly garnered roughly 60 people in the park around noon today.
Live from the Rittenhouse Square "sit-on:" wall-sitting, intended as civil disobedience, now a civic celebration of common sense prevailing pic.twitter.com/RlnKPwgMNe
— Jonas Maciūnas (@JonasMcivitas) January 17, 2017
The signs are down at Rittenhouse square! Just in time for a friendly sit-in in a #publicspace – as we should. #Sittenhouse pic.twitter.com/M1A6Mkn90l
— Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman (@think_katrina) January 17, 2017
Mina Smith who paints in the park each week, with her rules for Rittenhouse Square pic.twitter.com/EYDDQomGt7
— Julia Terruso (@JuliaTerruso) January 17, 2017
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