Updated 9:15 p.m.
The mayor of Philadelphia is firmly pro-Rittenhouse Square wall-sitting.
Jim Kenney tweeted tonight that Philadelphians could “sit where they want,” adding that a large city government means sometimes “things get by you.”
His next tweet joked about the reasoning behind the ban, which went into effect earlier this week.
The Parks and Recreation department did not immediately respond to a question of whether the ban was officially over.
Friends of Rittenhouse Square, the Parks department and other city officials made the decision to bar park visitors from sitting on the popular wall because of marijuana usage and vandalism. A police car was parked in the middle of the park Thursday with an officer telling people sitting on the wall to get up.
Shortly after Kenney’s tweets, his spokesperson Lauren Hitt elaborated that the mayor feels the ban “was an overcorrection” and expects to work out other ways to address the concerns that led to it.
The decision was not popular, to say the least. At least two protests were organized after news of the ban broke, including one where park visitors were encouraged to smoke weed.
