Morning Headlines: Will We Find Out the Fate of UEDs This Week?
This one on South Broad Street isn’t happening.
There’s a good chance that you’re tired of hearing about Urban Experiential Displays (UEDs) by now. Whether you’re for or against the six-story ‘huge televisions on a stick,’ as Mary C. Tracy of Scenic Philadelphia recently called them, it’s time we figure out if they’re just some wacky proposal or if we’re actually going to have to see these things on the streets of our city. City Council is expected to vote on the bill on Thursday that would create special ‘UED Urban Experiential Display Overlay Control District’ that allow UEDs.
While the UED situation is still up in the air, we do know that Councilman Kenyatta Johnson pulled his district out of the discussion last week. It would have allowed for the one pictured above to be placed on the Bellevue garage. Councilman Mark Squilla has said that people really do want these displays in the core of the city, going so far as to provide the binder full of petitions to PlanPhilly. Sure, some of those signatures were from far flung places like Texas, Austria, Singapore and the Philippines, but over 275 letters delivered to Squilla’s office were from Philadelphia. Where Councilman Johnson’s constituents didn’t want the UEDs, Squilla tells PlanPhilly, “I know there is neighborhood support … I would not move forward without community support.” Is your head spinning a little? Hopefully, the answers are all revealed on Thursday.
• Letters supporting 3D billboards are identical, linked to Catalyst petition [PlanPhilly]
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- Little Left of Marlborough Street Church [Naked Philly]
- Nonprofit works to revive East Mount Airy [The Inquirer]
- Scientists Are Growing Vaccine-Laced Lettuce at Penn’s New South Bank Site [Citified]
- Next Time the Eagles Want a New Stadium, They May Have to Pay for It Themselves [Citified]
Worth 1,000 words:
The French hamlet of Mont Saint-Michel, famed for its 8th century monastery and imposing fortifications, is normally connected to the Normandy mainland by a thin causeway. But thanks to high tides and the strong gravitational pull generated by this weekend’s solar eclipse, the 44-person medieval town and Unesco World Heritage site was briefly turned into an island. The event is being called the “tide of the century,” with tides as high as 46 feet surrounding the fortified town. The photos are fantastic.
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