Lucky Old Souls. Taco Mondo. Say Cheese. Yum.
Now, food trucks at The Porch at 30th Street Station are full-time year-round, the University City District announced last month. Various vendors from around the city like the aforementioned will pull up to The Porch each Monday and Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and every Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m.
What opened in 2011 as an experimental approach to urban place making—taking a heavily traveled sidewalk and animating it with seats, plants and tables—has grown into one of the City's most vibrant and recognized public spaces.
From WXPN's Free at Noon, to beer gardens and mini golf, the folks at the University City District who first developed the park with a $275K capital grant in 2011 have developed The Porch into the perfect place to wait for a train or to catch a hot sandwich and drink in the Philly skyline. Tree seats and even zumba have dressed up this formerly drab stretch. In fact, The Porch has redefined what a sidewalk can be. Before it was The Porch, this strip of land was 34 parking spaces. In its first year, instead of hosting thousands of cars it hosted thousands of people and spread vast joy. In 2012 10,391 flowers and 38 trees were planted. There were 250 new places to sit and $1,165,000 in private revenue was generated.
Now that food trucks are there full-time, we know where to get our lunch truck fill any week of the year. Kudos to the folks at UCD for their vision and steady riding here at The Porch.