Pepsi Refresh Project

I'm sure everyone has seen those commercials on TV by Pepsi about their new project. I never really knew where this idea came from, or where all the money Pepsi is giving away came from. Pepsi decided that it was a better idea to spend the $20 million that they normally spend on their Super Bowl Ads and instead give the money away to people with good ideas. One such idea was submitted by two friends from Passyunk who want to turn the area at the busy intersection of 12th street and Morris Street, one of the city's most famous diagnoal intersections, into a little people watching area. They want to put cafe tables, sailcloth umbrellas and planters in the area to make it more welcoming and relaxing and it'll also allow people to stop and take a break, enjoy a nice refreshing drink or read the newspaper, and just people watch. If they win their category they will recieve $50,000 from Pepsi to help them make this into a reality, and maybe also start to create more in other areas of the city. Their idea is modeled off of the street plazas that New York created. People were hesitant at first, because they closed off a lane of traffic to create the street plazas, but they are actually a great success. People were afraid that the Broadway plazas would create gridlock throughout Manhattan, but instead they have had miraculous traffic-calming and civilizing effects. I personally think this is a great idea, it's a better way to use a boring chunk of asphalt and it will beautify the neighborhood.

here's the article from philly.com
http://www.philly.com/philly/living/green/20100524_Local_planner_needs_votes_on_Pepsi_website.html

and here's their Pepsi Refresh page
http://www.refresheverything.com/reclaimconcrete