Part of the Fairmount Waterworks System is still there, behind the Art Museum, surrounded by mandated, preserved green space. At the time of its construction it was revolutionary and became a #1 tourist attraction. Today the area hosts runners and rowers, boathouses and roadways, swans and ducks, and eddies of sludge and riverbank trash. When I first moved to Philadelphia, my mother mailed me an article she had carefully cut out from a newspaper and highlighted. It was titled, ‘Drinking Death’, and rated cities with the worst drinking water. An arrow, scribbled star and repeated underlining marked Philadelphia. Old pipes, radiation and my mother’s worry are on my list of things that have sometimes made me feel there’s nothing I can possibly do to avoid impending doom. I drank Philadelphia’s tap water for six years thinking: this is slowly killing me. 

When considering the small but renegade acts of ownership people display daily in Philadelphia, water provides a nice map. If visiting the city, I would suggest finding a hot day and going to watch people swim in the public fountains. I had never seen people do this before. It is a subversively resourceful activity. I especially like the fountain at the center of Logan Circle. Bronze-cast turtles, frogs, fish and two swans spray water many feet into the air. On any warm day, you will find people wading around and swimming in it, traffic swirling around the edges. Nearby is the Art Museum. I remember going one day and seeing two little kids swimming in the small fountain that’s located midway up on the steps that lead towards the museum entrance. The kids were wearing swimsuits, snorkels and goggles and they were splashing about, collecting coins from its bottom. Not only had they turned the little ornate fountain into their own public swimming pool, they were reclaiming some wishes for themselves.