Market Street

The parade honchos were worried about windy conditions but in South Philadelphia, the guys at the Jokers Fancy Brigade hall were obsessing about glitter, not gusts. Reality for these Mummers late last week was foam-rubber fish masks, 60 pairs of worn sneakers, 120 rectangles of colored nylon, and a can of rubber cement that stank up the whole room. "We've got eight green Atlantises to do, eight black lagoons, 12 sea monsters . . . ," explained Joe Muller, 45, a disabled longshoreman, as he and his buddies slapped glue on each sneaker, wrapped it in a sheet of colored cloth, and voila: a genuine Mummer's slipper - or close enough.

If you anticipate thirst or hunger while watching the Mummers Parade on New Year's Day, it might be a good idea to pack a lunch and fill a flask. Unlike the former parade route along Broad Street, Market Street offers few restaurants and even fewer watering holes for participants and spectators of this Philadelphia tradition. Three of the biggest food plazas on or near the parade route, the Bourse (5th and Market), Reading Terminal Market (12th and Juniper) and Liberty Place (17th and Market)

The news hasn't been great lately over at Eighth and Market Streets, where dreams of a Disney park are becoming as empty as the giant abandoned hole that has been carved into the ground. But who needs Disney when we have Stephen Starr? The visionary vibemaster of the table has been busy converting east Center City into his own version of Epcot Center. A ratpack martini bar, a big Buddha pan-Asian hall, and a glittering French bistro set new standards for stylish concept dining.

The countdown clock reads 268 days until the next strut around City Hall, but there's serious off-season foment in Mummerland. A new, potentially multiracial string band has applied for the 2001 Mummers Parade and been assigned the No. 1 marching position in this week's draw. Plans are in place for two indoor Fancy Brigade Finales next Jan. 1, and Two Streeters have met to get their rowdy and unofficial New Year's Night parade organized. But after elections that shuffled (and confirmed)

Mummers bass fiddler Harry Murray is coming out of retirement, never mind the neck surgery and gimpy knees. The healthy lure of Market Street - yes, Market Street - is too great to pass up. Murray, 61, will be in there plunking when Fralinger String Band "Reigns in Spain" on Jan. 1. He sat out last year, and other recent Broad Street parades, because the three-mile strut was too taxing. "I just couldn't make the parades any more," he said. "When they were talking about moving it to Market Street, I decided to give it a try. " Murray isn't alone.

The decision by the New Year's Shooters to stage their Millennium Mummers Parade on Market Street, as opposed to their traditional venue on South Broad, now is a wrap. Dr. Joseph A. Pandolfi, the physician whose effort to keep it in South Philadelphia turned into a noble cause, has thrown in the plumes. "I don't have any fight left. It's over. I am done," a dejected Pandolfi said last week. Over the summer, Pandolfi collected more than 3,000 signatures on petitions for a coalition he helped to form called "The Committee to Keep the Mummers Parade on Broad Street.

First they switched their New Year's route to Market Street; now the Mummers are changing the site where they will put their best Golden Slipper forward: the reviewing stands. Tradition had the big moment on the north side of City Hall. But on Jan. 1, 2000, Philadelphia's folk-art paraders will face the judges on 15th Street and also on Market. In a meeting last week at City Hall, representatives of the Mummers' four parade divisions met with Deputy Mayor Kevin Feeley to work out the ABC's of reviewing and the route of the final steps of the city's New Year's pageantry.

The old Sears, Roebuck & Co. store on Market Street in Millbourne is coming down, slowly. Plans have been under way for years to tear down the abandoned department store, which occupies about a third of the tiny borough's land.

In wheelchairs, on crutches and on foot, about 40 disabled protesters held up Center City traffic in a parade down Market Street from 30th Street Station to 12th Street yesterday. Their demands: cut waiting time for ParaTransit van service; fix or replace bus lifts; and provide elevator access to subways and rail lines. On their way to SEPTA headquarters, many chanted: "Access is a civil right. " With cerebral palsy, 69-year-old Charles Holmiller could not shout. Instead, he used his foot to tap a button on his footrest, tooting a horn wired to his wheelchair.

Mayor Rendell yesterday said he remains confident that the DisneyQuest project proposed for Eighth and Market Streets will go forward despite problems in closing the sale of the property to the developer, the Goldenberg Group of Blue Bell. Rendell also said Disney has given Goldenberg a five-day extension from its Monday deadline to complete its acquisition of the property and begin construction. "This is the last-minute negotiating you see in a lot of deals," Kevin Feeley, Rendell's spokesman, said.