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FOT Community => Links => Topic started by: Greggulator on June 05, 2012, 11:20:06 AM

Title: A Tour of Roxborough
Post by: Greggulator on June 05, 2012, 11:20:06 AM
Hey! I live in the infamous Roxborough section of Philadelphia, home to the Ziegler clan.

In reality, Roxborough (and the adjoining neighborhoods) are all pretty nice. It's the safest section of the city, largely because one out of every two people who lives here is a cop. And while we certainly do have our share of people who wear black fingerless leather gloves and strut around talkin' about Dem Hooters while clad in Flyers gear, we also have some awesome stuff.

Case in point: Wissahickon Park. The Wissahickon is a gigantic park that goes forever. It's my favorite part of Philly. I can get into the woods one block away from my mansion/rowhome. Anyways, I just gave a tour of the Wissahickon for Newsworks, which is the local news site for Philly's PBS/NPR outfit.

(In true PBR style, I am wearing a backwards hat. You can consider this a tribute. But it's really because my wife thought my hair was disgusting but wearing a hat normally messed up the lighting.)

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/blogs/nw-playlist/item/39154-wandering-along-wissahickon-valley-park (http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/blogs/nw-playlist/item/39154-wandering-along-wissahickon-valley-park)
Title: Re: A Tour of Roxborough
Post by: buffcoat on June 05, 2012, 04:35:15 PM
'Nem Hooters, you Philadelphia-living Philladummy.
Title: Re: A Tour of Roxborough
Post by: dovate on June 14, 2012, 10:16:05 PM
ROXBOROUGH - June 14, 2012 (WPVI) -- Neighbors in the Roxborough section of the city can't stand the sight, the smell or the stickiness of a black substance that is all over their streets.

It's thick, gooey, and making a big mess.

"Quite frankly, it looks like a mess, and it's not just here. It's down the street, it's around the corner and it really makes the neighborhood an eyesore," resident Walter Hawkins said.

 Neighbors said a couple weeks ago, a street crew came through and covered the cracks in the pavement with what appears to be tar, but it never congealed and those street crews keep coming back adding more and more making things look even worse.

"It looks terrible. Look where people drive, they carry it all over the place; you try to walk, you carry it into the house," resident Edwin Jesberger said.

"It's really all over the place; with the hot weather it hasn't hardened, it gets on your shoes, it's on your car tires. It's problematic. It doesn't look good," resident Jim Rainford said.

It just gets worse as cars keep driving through it, spreading the stuff around.

Neighbors said they would understand if this was part of some plan, but they don't know what the substance is, what purpose it serves, and if their streets will eventually get fixed.

"It looks like they patched cracks, but it also looks like it is the part of something larger. I thought in terms of them coming back to put blacktop on the street. That hasn't occurred. Quite frankly, it looks like a mess," Hawkins said.

Returning a call from Action News, the Streets Department says the substance is liquid asphalt.

They say it is used to seal cracks and prevent water penetration thereby prolonging the life of the street.

The Streets Department says it is a non-toxic method of sealing cracks used all around the world.

It does smell, as residents can attest to, but the Street Department says the smell goes away in time.

(Copyright ©2012 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

 http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8701659 (http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8701659)