Ben Station???
I hate it when landmarks are renamed. I realize that this may make me a stick in the mud, but really, why can’t city officials (as well as Amtrak and charitable foundations like Pew) leave things alone! I grew up in Portland, OR and still can’t deal with the fact that they renamed Civic Stadium PGE Park. It will always be Civic Stadium in my mind.
Well, there’s a proposal afoot to rename 30th Street Station Ben Station. In honor of Ben Franklin. And I’m incensed. I really enjoy the historical continuity of going to 30th Street Station, just like my grandparents and great-grandparents used to do. When I tell my mother I’m going to 30th Street, or I’m walking by 30th Street, there is an immediate imagine that her brain conjures up. An image that won’t be there if I say I’m going to Ben Station.
Also does the Northeast corridor really need another train station that can be confused with another over a garbly loudspeaker. Come on, I can’t be the only one who has gotten off the train at Newark Penn Station as opposed to New York Penn Station. Okay, well maybe I can. But I don’t need that confusion when I’m on my way home too.
Go check out D-Mac, he’s got pretty complete MSM coverage about this proposal, along with his signature snark.
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