Love Park

MARK ALAN HUGHES and the Daily News have sunk to a new low. Hughes' mean-spirited opening salvo in his piece titled "LOVE Park & the Art of Governing" (April 23) included references to Mayor Street's supposed tendencies toward "malice," "greed," "race-baiting" and "racism. " It's an outrage that he would inject such venom into an opinion piece ostensibly about LOVE Park and the city's plans to reclaim it from the scrap heap. Hughes' vituperative, single-minded attack on the mayor has blinded him to the facts.

IF RITTENHOUSE Square is one of the loveliest urban parks in America, Love Park, despite its name, is surely one of the most unlovely. It is expanse is bleak. Its surface is hard and uninviting. And it is, with some exceptions, pretty much devoid of people. No doubt it is wonderfully located. Thousands of people are employed within a block or two of the park. On any given day the sidewalks surrounding this square are crowded with workers either heading to lunch or out on break.

PHILADELPHIA has an unfortunate reputation for selling itself short. The planned renovation of LOVE Park isn't an issue most Philadelphians might think would have major implications for the city's international image. But if the renovations remove the features that made LOVE Park an international icon for skateboarding, the negative impact will be profound. In the 1980s, LOVE Park became a world famous center of skateboarding at a time when the sport - already building popularity for more than 40 years - was becoming more international, diverse, and urban.

A homeless man raped an unconscious 28-year-old woman along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway near LOVE Park early Wednesday, police said. Warren Fitts, 48, has an arrest record dating from the late 1980s. Police said they were investigating his possible involvement in other Center City sexual assaults. Fitts was charged with rape and related offenses in the Wednesday attack, which occurred shortly before 3 in the 1500 block of the Parkway. Police said at least one witness saw Fitts raping the woman.

Mayor Street wore a suit. Dark. Todd O'Brien wore shorts. Baggy. But across the haberdashery divide, they agreed on one thing: With changes making famed LOVE Park inhospitable, Philadelphia needs a new skateboarding arena. "There's nothing to do in Center City," O'Brien said. "I'm committed," Street said. The mayor was on what his office dubbed a "fact-finding and research mission" yesterday afternoon, with skateboarding the object of his interest. That brought him to South Philadelphia's FDR Skatepark, directly beneath the whoosh and thump of cars and trucks on Interstate 95. O'Brien, a 16-year-old skateboarder from across the Delaware River in Audubon, Camden County, said he liked FDR Park just fine.

FIRST the Philadelphia Gas Works, now the LOVE Park Garage. The Nutter administration has put out a request for proposals seeking a broker to oversee the potential sale of the 810-space parking garage beneath the iconic LOVE Park. Selling off the garage, owned by the city and operated by the state-run Philadelphia Parking Authority, has long been discussed by officials. The proposal request states that the successful bidder must manage the sale process and conduct "financial analysis related to a potential sale and its benefit to the city.

LOVE Park could use a lot more love. Or at least a little common courtesy. Every morning at 7, Parks and Recreation Department employee Albert Figlestahler arrives at the picturesque John F. Kennedy Plaza to give it both, but he's fighting an army of visitors and inhabitants who strew trash across its granite surface, scribble profanity on its walls, and use it as an open-air bathroom. Keeping LOVE Park clean has never been easy, but the problem has grown worse since the city fenced off Dilworth Plaza late last year to begin a $50 million renovation.

LOVE Park was closed for several hours late Friday afternoon and evening as police played cat-and-mouse with throngs of roaming young people in Center City. Large crowds enjoying the springlike weather also gathered along South Street, keeping police busy trying to discourage rowdy behavior. Lt. D.F. Pace of the police bike patrol said a large crowd had been dispersed late Friday afternoon from LOVE Park, which had been a rumored gathering spot for a flash mob. Teams of officers guarded some, but not all, of the entrances to JFK Plaza, the official name of the park, and turned away many people, including disappointed visitors hoping to get their pictures taken next to the world-famous Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture.

Police shut down LOVE Park yesterday afternoon after 10 to 15 teens were arrested for disorderly conduct and rumors spread that flash mobs were set to form. Officers stood guard at the entrances, telling passers-by not to enter the park. The park was shut down from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., said Lt. D.F. Pace, of Center City's 9th Police District. "We keep tabs on Internet chatter - especially these social-networking sites - and we received credible information that flash-mob activity was going to form here," Pace said.