I agree with you about “should.”

Lamentably, I’m giving you insight into how it actually is, or how it might be. I know it’s easy to blow me off as someone who thinks they know how it works, and, that’s partially true since admittedly I am not a PP&R budget expert, but that in itself not sufficient reason to blow me off entirely. I worked closely enough with PP&R to stand by what I said. For whatever it’s worth, my comment is an attempt to add some factual nuance to the conversation, not an attempt to muddy waters with more opinion.

Understanding the shoe string budget that PP&R deals with (especially when it comes to funding non rec center parks, ie most of East and West Fairmount), consider being grateful.

Even moreso, be grateful for whoever at PP&R was creative enough to shoe string this literal shoe string semi-solution together.

Please do not put concrete barriers with advertising on the drive. For real?

Are people going to drive their cars through these chains?*

Finally, back to the budget… It cannot be understated the degree to which Philly is a city fighting endemic poverty, and the PP&R budget is almost 99% focused on rec center programs that feed kids and attempt to keep kids off streets and doing well in school and in life. It is not funded well enough to make a priority of Azalea Garden strolls and Kelly Drive exercise.

Seems to me this is exactly how we should want the city to prioritize spending.

That said, maybe Streets Dept is responsible for the barriers. I know less about the mechanics here.

Anyways, I don’t know how to solve the larger issues, and there’s certainly plenty of wasted money and stupidity in city government.

But this is not an example of that.

*Edit: I can tell people think, yes, people will drive though the chains. I’m not so sure. When lots of people park on the grass in that section, it’s not because they are all the type of people who would commit an obvious act of vandalism to park on grass that looks dubious to park on; it’s that a larger number of people probably will park dubiously if someone else has done it first. Will some asshole rip the chain down and park on the grass? Undoubtedly. Will mom, dad, and the kids follow suit when they realize they need to drive over a broken chain to do so…?

Edit 2: Permanent barriers are not the solution. That grass should be considered as an opportunity for festival and other use. This is a world class and historically important regatta course. Is it hypocritical to let boat trailers park on the grass? No! Hosting world class regattas is exactly the type of thing we should want Fairmount Park and Parks & Rec and Philadelphia to be known for. The grass can survive occasional mixed use. The grass can’t survive weekly parking. We can handle the nuance folks!