The streets of Center City were surprisingly busy on Sunday morning after Mayor Jim Kenney’s citywide curfew lifted at 6 a.m. (The curfew takes effect again at 6 p.m. Sunday)
Some had come to look at and photograph the destruction of storefronts along two of Philadelphia’s fanciest shopping corridors. Saturday’s large and mostly peaceful protests over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer were followed by hours of vandalism and looting.
Many stores along Walnut and Chestnut were completely empty the next morning, but some had not yet been cleared — and people were still walking in to snatch goods.
Another set of people out and about were attempting to clean up the mess. A gathering called “Bring a Broom Philly” was organized via social media, and other workers were handing out brooms, bags and wipes outside various storefronts as broken windows were boarded up.
“Some people are cleaning up for themselves, some people are actually cleaning up for the city,” WHYY engagement editor Chris Norris observed during his video tour of Chestnut and Walnut streets.
Here’s a look at the early hours of the aftermath, with pics courtesy of Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Jim MacMillan and Google Master photographer Mark Henninger.
People handed out trash bags and dustpans outside the Cheesecake Factory at 15th and Walnut.
Crews were cleaning up the Rizzo statue first thing.
Graffiti covers glass panes at the City Hall SEPTA station.
Bank windows on Chestnut.
Peeking into the Old Navy on Chestnut.
People clean up on Chestnut Street.
Nothing but hand sanitizer left at the Apple Store.
A lone shoe inside Philadelphia Runner on Sansom Street.
Workers board up a bank next to the building housing the Doc Martens store on Walnut Street, which burned through the night.
The fire department was still at work early Sunday.
Cleaning up outside the Ritz-Carlton Residences.
Lots of people were picking through racks of clothes still out on Chestnut Street.
An overturned piano was dragged out of this shop on Chestnut Street.
A man takes pictures outside Urban Outfitters.
More mannequins in Walnut Street.
A bank on Chestnut Street.
A mannequin bust sits atop an overturned flowerpot on 18th Street.
Some storefronts along the stretch, like Federal Donuts on Sansom, appeared to escape any vandalism.
