Looking toward Center City on 19th Street at dusk.

Nice to be back in a big city!

This is the Point Breeze neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia where both my sons live with partners and dogs. City buses run on the street under my bedroom window from early in the morning.  Voices in many dialects are overheard as people are amiably mixed. Restaurants, bars and corner groceries abound. Children troop in clusters helped by a crossing guard on the corner.   Houses share walls in this cramped neighborhood and there is  construction everywhere with front loaders, dump trucks and cement mixers.  Single family homes along side those that have been broken into apartments, many with covered front porches. Churches appear in every other block, large and small, old and new construction. Center City is a 10 minute walk with stores providing everything imaginable and huge parks to provide respite from the bustle.

And now that I have lived here a few more days there are more sounds: airplanes landing at PHL, ambulances, I talk with the crossing guard every morning and afternoon and she shares stories of Hunter on the street,  people stop to talk with me about the dog and I tell them I am his grandma,  the buses have automated voices announcing the route number and destination at every stop and occasionally cars go by with music blasting.  This is the CITY!

Dog walking photos of the sidewalk plantings on just one street in this neighborhood. People are proud of their environment and it shows.

Tomorrow is The Food Trust’s Night Market in Point Breeze to lift up local food entrepreneurs, especially those owned and operated by immigrants. There promises to be great food, local brews and live entertainment. All this will take place a block from where I am dog sitting.