City Hall has generated decades of controversy, both on political and architectural grounds. All interested parties are urged to seek out more information on this singular edifice. I will add however, that while unfortunately all our other squares have a problem from time to time with dog leavings, Penn Square has no such problem. Instead, it does have the disadvantage of having to clean up more than occasional leavings of the bull variety. Finally, we are left to wander and wonder about northeast square, renamed for Benjamin Franklin in 1825.
Today living here are many of the maladies and miasmas associated with millennial urban living.
Surrounded on two sides by well-traveled roads and expressways and located hard by the base of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, many a rushing visitor likely does not know the park even exists. Franklin Square is generally shunned by all but the homeless. It is litter-strewn and dangerous, though it is across the street from Philadephia's police headquarters. Its once modest fountain has been still for years. Trees show signs of blight and the park benches are beds to the homeless by night.