Owner of Washington Square West street up for debate

Who owns a street when the city doesn’t? It’s a discussion happening in Washington Square West, where neighbors want hard and fast rules about who has rights to the little offshoot of Irving Street between 11th, 12th, Locust and Spruce streets.

 

PlanPhilly has a photo slideshow of the street in question, where the owner of a corner property hopes to officially privatize and maintain the street and some neighbors want it to remain open for general use.

The street is so tiny it isn’t part of the Streets Department’s map, and city law says the space can be divided up among adjoining neighbors.

You can imagine how that might go. Things are heating up the owners who want to maintain the street swear they’ll play nice and their skeptical neighbors push to leave the space open.