Philly Portal to move from LOVE Park due to ongoing vandalism, damage
The Brief
It's been five months since the Philadelphia Portal opened in LOVE Park, connecting the city of brotherly love to Dublin, Ireland, Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland.
Due to much damage and vandalism, the Philly Portal is moving.
PHILADELPHIA - The Philly Portal's got some problems.
It's been damaged, vandalized, and now it needs a new place to set up shop.
What we know
The portal has been offline since early January after it was damaged, and then a month later, it was hit by copper wire thieves. And that's not the only time it was damaged.
The portal will remain in Philadelphia, but it will not be in LOVE Park.
What they're saying
Some of the most recent damage done to the Philadelphia Portal happened in late January.
"The glass has been ordered, and the portal is in a position to go back online very soon," said Joe Callahan, director of the Portals Organization.
While it looks like three gunshots were fired into it, it was not done with a gun but with a rock.
"So the engineers have assessed it, and it appears someone took a rock and smashed the protective cover on the screen," Callahan explained. "The other end of the portal at the time of the damage was Vilnius, Lithuania. So somebody in Lithuania could have been a witness to it, and it was daylight in Lithuania at the time because you can see by the picture it was bright out," Callahan said.
And that happened before the copper cables connecting the metal to its power generator were cut, stolen, and hauled away by thieves who filled a recycling bin and took it for a ride on a SEPTA subway train to get to the scrap dealer they sold the copper to.
Last week, FOX 29 reported the portal was being moved out of LOVE Park.
"It's not leaving Philadelphia on my watch," Callahan stated.
This week, we learned from the Philly-born and-raised man responsible for bringing it here why.
"Logistically, to move it again for the Christmas village, to move it back, it's very expensive to disassemble it and move it and bring it back and forth, so we made the decision we want it stationary for a year as a piece of art," Callahan explained.
"There are three potential locations. Those three locations are within the city—public property with one and the other two are private areas with public access within the city. Can you say where the three are? I'd rather not because right now they're wanting to liaison themselves for keeping the portal on their property, and it'll be in that location for a year," Callahan added.
"The portal is gonna arrive in any of these three locations at no cost to the taxpayers and to the institutions that are considering it," Callahan assured.
"All we do is keep pushing love and positive energy back into the universe, and good will prevail eventually," Callahan said.
Joe Callahan says the portal presents a unique way Philadelphia can celebrate the nation's 250th birthday in 2026 with the world.
"To think about the 56 men who signed that Declaration of Independence and risked their lives for our independence, and they're looking down upon us. We have an obligation as the citizens of Philadelphia to come together to treat everyone with respect, and the portal is a conduit for that to happen," Callahan concluded.
The Source
The information in this story is from Joe Callahan, director of the Portals Organization.
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