Philadelphia boasts some interesting buildings which are both tragic and intriguing in their disrepair.
These buildings represent a cycle of sorts, which in turn represents the backwardness of the intellectual process which belongs to city planners and investors.
North Philadelphia, in the area surrounding Temple University, is home to some particular decrepit spots, but there’s still a strange beauty beneath it all.
There is a house on 16th street between Diamond and French. It’s across from the local elementary school and it's painted metal jungle gyms. It seems exacerbated by its very existence. It appears that trash and moldy old junk are actually purging from its bare window frames, attempting to circumvent decaying boards, which where once nailed in.
I walked by one day after a cool spring rain, and a soggy brown loafer was lying on the sidewalk- just there.
A few weeks later, the building caught on fire from the inside out. It was smoking and burning for a few hours before anyone came to put it out. Walking by on the sidewalk later that day, I stepped over smoldering boards- charred.
Down the block and around the corner, there’s the Han Convenience Store. They always card me for beer, no matter how many times I come and buy it with my fake ID.
Its a good store, I usually buy Cheetos and a double Hug- orange. We even found a little black kitty across the street by the China Bowl.
But the true charm is the beautiful crumbling ruin on the corner. Caving in onto itself, the building’s blues, yellows, and faded pastel make me feel somehow both in the ghetto and on the Mediterranean Sea. Must be the Cheetos.
