Livestream from land of Rocky: Philly's 'Portal' peers into city's fun, flip side
PHILADELPHIA – It's a city whose favorite movie character is a boxer who loses the biggest bout of his career.
Whose most beloved mascots are a green belly-wiggling monster who routinely dumps popcorn on opposing teams' fans and a googly-eyed orange chaos agent. When the city's NFL team, the Eagles, won the Super Bowl, fans here lost their minds when one of the players sang at the parade, "No one likes us / no one likes us / no one likes us / We don't care!"
And still, someone, somewhere decided it would be a good idea to place a portal here to other places that would show the real Philadelphia, in real time?!
How's that working out?
Surprisingly well, actually.
WATCH Philly's live portal to cities in Ireland, Lithuania and Poland:
A circular video portal, part of a multicity art installation that connects Philadelphia to (at random intervals) Dublin; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland, arrived last week in the city's JFK Plaza, better known as LOVE Park for the Robert Indiana statue that greets visitors.
Like the famous bell on the other end of Center City, The Portal has a crack in it that will soon be repaired. On a recent Monday, the lunchtime crowd in LOVE Park was all about, well, love. Philadelphians waved to those on the other end of The Portal, where it was nighttime in Poland and Lithuania but still daytime at a busy Dublin intersection where its counterpart was.
What is it? Portal installation relocates from New York to Philadelphia, livestreaming to the world
Bringing a 'good energy' to Philly
"It's bringing everybody together," said Jontae Miles, a ranger with the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation. He and other rangers, as well as a few scattered Philadelphia Police officers, kept an eye on people in the park, "to make sure everyone's being safe and kind."
Everyone, it seemed, was doing just that.
"It brings a good energy to the park and the city," Miles said.
Crystal Finley brought Selma Cohen, who was in a wheelchair, to see The Portal and wave to the other side of the world.
"I read the paper to her every morning," said Finley, who is Cohen's caretaker. "She enjoys getting outside. Even if people get a bit mischievous, this is still a nice expression of love."
Dublin seemed to be the liveliest location, and as Caesar Thorne, a rapper who goes by Lambo, held a sign that read "Where are you?" on one side and "Hello from Philly!" on the other, one of the Dubliners opened her winter coat to reveal a Philadelphia Eagles shirt.
A cheer went up from the Philly side.
"I paid some little kids $3 each to find a Sharpie so we could make this sign," said Thorne, who described himself as "genius-borderline-crazy" and said he'd been out there since 6 a.m. looking at − and being looked at through − The Portal.
'We're the city people love to hate!'
"We're the city people love to hate!" Thorne added in what he called his "spectacular vernacular." Asked why, the lifelong city resident said it was a case of envy for Philadelphia's greatness: "They hate us 'cause they ain't us."
Thorne would periodically put the sign down long enough to engage, to varying degrees of success, in a cross-continental game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. When a preteen boy in one city (we won't say which to protect the kid) flipped the middle finger at Philadelphians, a ranger shook his head disapprovingly and said to the crowd, "We'll be better than that."
Kate McCabe danced, trying without any luck to get someone on the other side of The Portal to join her. Thorne obliged, though, and the pair grooved together to the sounds of a TikTok soundtrack.
"I think it's remarkable that we can wave and be friendly," she said. "It's an occasion to dance."
As for the city's reputation for toughness, she waved that away. "I've heard it all, the snowballs at Santa and all that. If there's someone we don't like, well, they know what they did."
Phaedra Trethan has lived in the Philadelphia region most of her life. She's never thrown a snowball at anyone who didn't deserve it. Reach her by email at ptrethan@usatoday.com, on X (formerly Twitter) @wordsbyphaedra, or Threads @by_phaedra.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Portal debuts in Philadelphia, a city known for being prickly
