Empty Lot(s) of the Week-- April 28

The CCCC Tunnel Mega-Lot

From the Corner of N. 9th and Filbert going north through the middle of the 800 blocks of Arch, Cherry, Race, and Vine Streets.


So big only an aerial view can show it all. Holy shit.
              This is one gigantic motherfucker of a lot. It spans entire blocks and continues across the street. It's the Center City Commuter Connection Tunnel Mega-lot. Many modern Philadelphians know very little about the Centery City Commuter Connection even though it was in the center of Philly politics and redevelopment from the 1950's to the 1980's.
               Long story short: Badass Motherfucker Pro Tempore Richardson Dilworth, whose mayoral administration effects every Philadelphian living today, was sick and tired of having to use two different train lines from one side of the city to the other. His ho's were especially angry. He proposed a train tunnel that would connect the two underground. The city said "fuck you" because it would cost too much money. The train companies said "fuck you" because they hated each other and didn't have trains capable of traveling through the tunnel. The Federal Government said "fuck you" about trying to help fund it. Dilworth and the mayors that succeeded him were fucked....
             Until the Five-Star Admiral of Badass Motherfuckers came along... Mayor Frank Rizzo. He said "eat shit" to every other kind of transit improvement and convinced the Federal Government and the state to throw funding at the project by giving everyone involved one gigantic collective headlock. Construction was an ongoing mess of blocked traffic and pissed off pedestrians for six years.
             Extreme care was taken when constructing the tunnel under the Masonic Temple, City Hall Annex, Reading Terminal, and Strawbridges' Building. The Aramark Tower and shitty-ass Gallery were under construction at the time so constructing the tunnel through them was easy. Then it needed to turn north to connect to the track the Reading Viaduct used to come from. After all that effort to buttress under those buildings, the construction got to Chinatown and they just said, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown. Mow it all down motherfucker!", and they did. The result was a 4 block long hole that later got covered with surface lots. Check the picture above. The buildings outline the path of the CCCC.
              Fast Forward 27 years. Twenty-seven goddamn years and you still have an empty lot that extends for blocks. I used to think that no buildings were built over the CCCC due to noise, weight, and vibration concerns... until I found out that the deepest part of the track is in that area AND that the track was designed to be sound and vibration proof... SO WHAT FUCKIN' EXCUSE DO WE HAVE? There should be 20 buildings in the regions that this lot extends! That ugly-ass Pearl Condo box was built as an attempt to slightly un-fucktify this mega-lot but there needs to be more. This makes me soooo angry. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu......
      

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