by KYW's Karin Phillips
The "People's Plaza" is open on Independence Mall, a highly visible space for groups that want to stage demonstrations in the park.
Tom Caramanico is with the Friends of Independence Park, which raised funds for the People's Plaza:
"It's a place where, if people want to demonstrate, congregate, or complain or dissent from something, there's a specific place they can do it."
Acting Independence Park superintendent Darla Sidles signed the first permit for a gathering in the area newly dedicated for that purpose. The applicationi was made by David Miller of the Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting (shaking hands with Sidles at right), for the group to hold an anti-war protest next Sunday.
Miller says he's grateful for the newly designated location:
"Better facilities for people to be heard, not to stand in the mud and the grass. I mean, this is just wonderful."
The large granite and marble slab is located on the south side of Market Street, between 5th and 6th Streets, near the President's House site. The First Amendment is carved into a slab at the end of the space.
(Photos: Karin Phillips)
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