Byko: City has mind in the gutter

LET'S GET IN the gutter for a bite to eat.

In another of the myriad ways Philadelphia is evolving, now you can sit in the gutter, chill and eat at a parklet, a platform in a parking space.

Here's something the world has been clamoring for. Well, maybe it has.

We call them parklets. The first time I saw anything like this was in an Israeli Arab town, where they are called necessity. My family ate lamb kebab and hummus at a table placed perpendicular to the curb while cars - even a guy on horseback - rode by.

If it's good enough for an Arab town, it's good enough for Philly.

The idea of sucking up "available space," such as auto-traffic lanes and parking spaces, emerged about five years ago from the brain of Michael "Nanny" Bloomberg, the man who bought the New York City mayor's chair. That city annexed a couple of lanes of Broadway - Broadway! - and put in lawn chairs. It was just like Coney Island without the Wonder Wheel, with pigeons instead of seagulls.

We have two kinds of tiny urban parks - parklets and plazas, carved out of the roadway, as at 23rd and Grays Ferry, where a pleasant sitting area was created. The plazas are year-round, the parklets April to November.

My favorite parklet is at 10th and Cherry, two small tables on a platform. There, you can enjoy the peace and tranquility of cars, delivery trucks and buses lumbering by, belching fumes, on one of the city's most clogged streets. Enjoy the gorgeous view, plus the refreshing odor of fish and vegetables from the nearby groceries and restaurants. You can't get closer to heaven.

Oddly, few people seem to take advantage of these benefits, and we lose what looks like one parking space. Wait! Andrew Stober, chief of staff of the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities, drops the penalty flag: The spot had been a loading zone.

Across Cherry, about three car lengths are X'd out in white, but at the end of the box, there's room for a bicycle corral.

So cute.

Each parklet taking up one or two parking spaces adds to my claim that the city loathes motorists. While Philadelphia steals parking spaces from cars, it puts up bike stands that steal sidewalk space from pedestrians, such as at 10th and Filbert.

Parklets can be requested by a store or by a community development corporation, Stober tells me. The permit costs $125 for a year, and the permit-holder is responsible for maintaining the parklet and is the party who gets sued - not the city - if someone gets hurt.

Restaurants can't serve at a parklet, but anyone can buy food and bring it in.

Ten parklets are scattered around the city, led by University City with five (including one across the street from a real park). The rest are in Hunting Park, Chinatown, South Street, Fishtown and Manayunk. More are under discussion for Mayfair, University City, Northern Liberties, Fishtown, Graduate Hospital and Bella Vista.

The three plazas are at 41st and Woodland, 48th and Baltimore, and 23rd and Grays Ferry. Plazas are a pilot program, but Stober says he's had no complaints, so I'll bet they are here to stay.

"The way that we think of parklets as replacing a parking space," says the ever-upbeat Stober, "is an on-street parking space can be used by four people an hour, but many people can use the parklet in an hour."

That's the theory. My math might be different.

If relaxing, eating or drinking in the gutter is your thing, knock yourself out. Reservations are not required.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

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