A Busy Monday

The trip to Germantown we took today was a different experience from my group’s first trip because we spent the whole time walking the streets, opposed to riding in the car. The majority of our time in Germantown was spent on the busy Chelten Ave. It was a Monday and there were many more young people out this time because the school day had just ended.

At times, groups of people as large as twenty or thirty were grouped together at a stop light or bus stop. Most of the younger crowd were full of energy and seemed very excited, possibly overjoyed due to the completion of the first school day of the week.

It was a different feeling to be among the people and up close to the stores instead of just zooming by them on four wheels. On two separate occasions, while walking up and down the avenue, the smell of marijuana was in the air. I was not the only one that noticed.
It was interesting to see at least six or seven sporting apparel/sneaker stores all on Chelten Ave. within five minutes walking distance. Some were even right next door to each other. It made me wonder how they all manage to stay in business. Some looked to be doing better than others. For example, a Sneaker Villa looked to be in better shape the Sneaker Town store.
The amount sneaker stores was not the only time the economy crossed my mind. We also passed one of Philadelphia’s free libraries which made me think back to Mayor Nutter’s economic plan which would call for the closing of many free libraries.

We passed two men that were apparently almost going to be arrested but were sort of pleading with the officers to let them go as they were already in the process of fleeing the scene. The officers who were stationed outside of the Dunkin’ Donuts had no interest in taking any further action on the young men.

Group 15
Thomas Wolfe, Anna Conzelman and Jennifer Campbell