"Huh, When Did This Get Here?" Lost Student Stumbles Upon Clark Park

Popular ‘It-Girl’ Becky (C ‘22) loves to venture through all parts of Philadelphia. Wait, never mind. The “good” parts of Philadelphia. You know, the safe ones… like Penn Park and um Penn’s Landing down by the river and also where the Constitution was signed! Oh, and those nice places that have Restaurant Week specials and the Art Museum! Becky is quite the traveler of the city she’s proud to call “home”. With this info, it would be shocking to find out that our neighborhood explorer Becky would have stumbled across somewhere new and cool close by campus, right? Well, consider yourself shocked.

Last Saturday morning, while walking home hungover from a “crazy, wild, but socially-distanced!” night, Becky took a few wrong turns and ended up at the corner of 43rd and Baltimore. She looked around, confused at what she saw. A park? A huge park… just right off of campus? “Huh, when did this get here?” she wondered. There was a farmer’s market, a huge field to lay out on, and benches to sit on! Even a cute little coffee shop nearby? It was just like Rittenhouse Square! 

Becky was perplexed. Before she came to Penn, her alum mother told her there was no reason to ever go past 41st street. Wait, scratch that— no reason, except if you’re going to Backlot. The possibilities for this new land rushed through her head… she felt like Christopher Columbus ready to colonize. Becky was elated, saying to her friends later: “I have gone on ten straight dates on the Cira Green Rooftop… so I’m very excited that there is a new green space so close to Penn all for myself!”