Penny for my thoughts: The Portal in Philadelphia, PA

November 3, 2024

The Portal was installed in Philadelphia's Love Park in October, 2024. The Portal connects 4 cities; Vilnius, Lithuania, Lublin, Poland and Dublin, Ireland. The portal opens to each city in 3-minute loops. The purpose of the Portal is to "build bridges instead of walls," suggests Michael Nemesis, the city of Philadelphia 's 2026 director.

For more information: Smithsonian Magazine

When I first saw it on the Evening News I was fascinated.

How does it work? Webcams are used to connect with other cities in the world, "each one is equipped with a small camera above an eight-foot tall screen displaying live video" 24/7.
Can we talk to each other? No, a visual experience
What's the purpose? "all meet as humankind together."

My initial reaction is I have to see this! I have't been to Love Park in years and questions about logistics surfaced.

Parking - https://en.parkopedia.com/parking/underground/love_park_garage/19102/philadelphia/?arriving=202411051400&leaving=202411051600#google_vignette Couldn't be easier, the Exit from the garage was in Love Park facing the Portal.We paid 25.00 for the time we were there.
Safety - to enter the garage to leave, we needed to scan our parking ticket. Everything was clean and plenty of parking spaces on a Saturday afternoon.
Dinosaur Costumes- I had a scathingly brilliant idea to wear our inflatable dinosaur costumes. Doesn't that sound like fun, what do you think??

I soon realized that we would need a helper/spotter. Visibility is an issue when wearing these costumes and we really didn't know what we were getting into at the Portal. Scathingly brilliant idea scrapped, and visit postponed.

Our son, Adam, came home to visit the following weekend and Pan B was enacted. We would drive into Philly, check it out and enjoy the day.

My first impression is that I expected it to be bigger. Everyone was friendly, kind, and considerate, family party like atmosphere. Young people, kids, strollers, couples, seniors, all races and sizes--laughing, chatting, offering to take pictures for each other.

I remarked that I thought there would be a security/police presence. My New York savy son pointed out several standing observers facing the crowd that I hadn't looked at twice.

We joined everyone else in taking pictures.

As expected the visual wasn't always the best and given the different time zones, the crowd ebbed and flowed. (it was around @12;30-1:30 pm in Phila.)

Since it was visually interactive, people in both cities danced, mimicked actions, signed, held up signs, waved, etc.,

When these young men started congregating, there was much speculation as to what they would do, the crowd cheered when they held up cans of beer!

I wasn't able to differentiate each city, the crowd cheered each time the screen changed and they seemed to know based on markers in the picture and obviously knew more than I did. Not knowing did not take anything away from the experience for me. The expectation is that it will be moved in a few days to a new location in the city.

Discussions about the Portal have since been suggested:

If you could step through it would you? (irrespective of Visas, passports, etc.,) Could it retrieve you like ebooks, etc., and recall you?
If it could be a vehicle for Time Travel, would you go forward in time or backwards to a particular time period or event?

I would not go forward, I have fewer years ahead of me than behind and I'm not sure I want to know.

I definitely would go back - not sure where or when and does it have to be in my lifetime?

Something to ponder, how about you???