Inquirer Editorial: Perfect spot to pop up

Around midday recently at Spruce Street Harbor Park on Penn's Landing, families picnicked along the edge of the promenade, young adults and children swung lightly in hammocks or played games, and couples sat side by side reading in Adirondack chairs shaded under the trees tinseled with color-changing LED lights.

Spruce Street Harbor Park was created by the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. and Groundswell Design Group with a $310,000 grant from the nonprofit coalition ArtPlace America. The object of the park is to bring more foot traffic and activity to the waterfront as part of the corporation's larger goal of providing "the city with the tools necessary to once again make Philadelphia's original waterfront a treasured public amenity." In the often lightly used space between the Independence Seaport Museum and the Moshulu restaruant, the pop-up park does just that.

"It's lovely, clean, and quiet," said Pat Ransom, of South Jersey, who sat across from coworker Linda Weller. "We're just chilling out here, relaxing." The two women praised the park's "boardwalk atmosphere" - which includes an actual boardwalk laid on top of the bricks - and noted "there appears to be a great selection of games," including oversize chess, Connect Four, Jenga, cornhole, bocce, and shuffleboard. Nearby, park security guard Shanee Thompson made sure people weren't smoking, littering, swinging too hard on the hammocks, or entering the fountains.

It's a park in the daytime, and in the evenings and on weekends, some of the space is filled with a more lively crowd. Parkgoers can drink craft beer, frozen drinks, and cocktails while indulging in boardwalk-style snacks offered from repurposed storage containers served along the promenade and pier.

Pop-up parks and beer gardens are proliferating in Center City and beyond in recent years. Meanwhile, the Department of Parks and Recreation is sponsoring artist Candy Coated's "Magic Carpet" as part of the second incarnation of a pop-up park at Eakins Oval at the base of the Art Museum steps. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society is also doing a second version of its acclaimed beer garden, now relocated from Broad to South Street.

These pop-up parks and gardens are beautifying underused and disused city spaces, populating them, and often bringing in revenue for the organizations doing the work. "It's a terrific idea," Maggie Phi-Mahoney of Philadelphia said during a recent visit to Spruce Street Harbor Park. "The kids are the ones saying, 'Take me to the new pier!' " She's hoping it comes back next summer.

The park will be open until Aug. 31, so there is plenty of summer left to enjoy it.