WAP sticker sightings on League Island Boulevard
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JJ.
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Hi folks! I am working on a project about the history of FDR Park in South Philly. I realized that I had never seen the far edges of most of the park, since I tend to come in from the subway and spend most of my time around the central lakes. I decided to walk around the perimeter of the whole park this morning–which is not something I would necessarily have thought of doing before walking part of the perimeter of Philadelphia.
My walk took me along 26th Street and League Island Boulevard, since there are fences and railroad tracks around the southern edges of the park and I couldn’t get closer. I saw a few Walk Around Philadelphia stickers on bollards and poles as I passed Tastycake and all that, and I realized that a group must have followed the same path walking from the airport to the Navy Yard. It was like seeing a friendly face, which was very welcome on a long solitary walk. Thanks to whoever left their mark. <3
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Hi Sara! And yep, we often find our way on that path, and I’m glad that you enjoyed spotting some of the trail blazers stickers that some of our walkers have left along the way 🙂
A couple random things:
– We’d love to invite you to join us in following that path a little bit further and all the way around the city if you might enjoy. There are a couple upcoming events listed on the website for April and our next full cycle of walks is planned for Sept 5-28 (Fri/Sat/Sundays) if you’d like to save the date; we’d love to have you walk with us.
– We generally skirt the edge of FDR as our whole goal of pushing towards the city’s edge takes us more towards the Tastycake factory, but since this project has led me to enjoy pushing boundaries a bit and looking for places that are in fact accessible even though folks might not regularly walk there, I’ll note that in other days of exploring in FDR park have found my way through some wide open gates at the southern edge of the park where I was able to wander a good bit under 95 in a bit of good mysterious under-the-highway lands that definitely felt “edgy” and like a proper Walk Around Philadelphia adventure.
(I was actually exploring trying to figure out where the access point is for the walkway under the I-95 bridge is, which someday I hope to be able to walk because it’s technically closer to the border than the Platt Ave bridge that we usually cross… but it’s definitely a maintenance access thing that starts forty feet up in the air and would require climbing gear / lift equipment to access and presumably also permissions & escorts from whatever authorities manage the bridge. If anyone has any contacts to facilitate that eventual tour, please put us in touch!)
– When walking by the Tastycake factory, did you get close enough to the silos to read the ingredients on all of them? If not, I invite you to revisit them sometime, whether it be on your own or on one of our walks – they’re worth noting 🙂
– We try to avoid using the acronym ‘WAP’ not because of confusion with Wireless Access Protocols, West African Percussion or any of the many other potential acronyms… but because the kids these days have an unfortunate or hilarious other association with those particular three letters… 😂
– Didja catch this piece in yesterday’s paper?
These forums are still just slowly getting up and moving, so there’s not a lot of readership or participation yet, but I’m psyched to have a space to connect online that’s focused on the walk and doesn’t rely on the corporate advertising & algorithm monsters, so thank you for finding us here and sharing your perimeter story!
-jj
PS When your FDR project is ready for sharing, please do post it here if possible!
PPS When we get around to more website revisions, the file for the stickers will be linked more obviously so that if you want to help blaze the trail you can order your own roll of them. In the meanwhile you can snag a handful or a pack at one of our next events if you’d like 🙂
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