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Makeover Begins For 'Sister Cities' Park, Just Off Logan Circle

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia's "Sister Cities Park," on Logan Square, is getting a facelift, designed with the "wow" factor in mind.

The slender park, just across 18th Street from the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, is getting $4.6 million in improvements by the end of this year.

Its current plaza will be replaced by a fountain.  There will be a café, and in another corner of the two-acre tract a "children's discovery garden" based on the Wissahickon watershed.

"All-natural materials will be used to construct a play area where young children can climb on rocks, dip their feet in the water, and sail boats in a new boat pond that we are designing," says Paul Levy, director of the Center City District.

Several speakers delivered glowing praise of the improved Benjamin Franklin Parkway that adjoins the park, which former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (at lectern in photo) says will be the most impressive street in the world.

Sister Cities Park was originally constructed to commemorate Philadelphia's "sister city" status with Tel Aviv (Israel) and Florence (Italy).

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060

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