Petition: Declare David Bowie Week in Philadelphia

The death of David Bowie has hit people hard all over the world, but Philadelphia has a special connection to the legendary performer. Philadelphians seem particularly impacted by his demise. Now, there is a Change.org petition to ask Mayor Jim Kenney to declare a David Bowie Week in Philadelphia. Not a day. But an entire week.

Here is what the petition says:

City of MODERN LOVE: Whereas the video for the song “Modern Love” was recorded at the Philadelphia Spectrum on July 20, 1983; and in recognition of the cultural contribution to our city by David Bowie, and Philly Soul; we, the undersigned petition the City of Philadelphia to proclaim July 17 to July 24 as “David Bowie Week 2016.”

The author of the petition is former Kensington resident and sometimes Philly Mag scribe Tim McCloskey (his “Jimmy Fallon Isn’t Funny” article has over 500 comments), who is temporarily living in Bucks County. McCloskey tells us that he first launched the petition back in 2011 (“It got a whopping 75 signatures,” McCloskey tells us), and so he revamped it in light of Bowie’s death.

It turns out that Kenney might just be a Bowie fan. Here’s what he said on Twitter after Bowie’s death:

July 30, 1987. We had seats behind stage. To get in the Glass Spider, David Bowie was level w/our row. I got to say "hey, good luck w/show!"

— Jim Kenney (@JimFKenney) January 12, 2016

We’ve asked Kenney for a comment on the Bowie petition, and we’ll let you know what he has to say about it.