“Good morning Dublin!”—These were Michael Newmuis’s opening words at a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning at Philadelphia’s LOVE Park, home to the iconic 1976 sculpture by Robert Indiana.
Newmuis, director of the City of Philadelphia, was there to christen The Portal’s debut in his hometown. “Philadelphia is not just the City of Brotherly Love. It’s the city of global love!” he said into the mic.
At the ribbon cutting, Philadelphians gestured hello to Dubliners, danced, and took pictures with their cellphones. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, where The Portal’s founder Benediktas Gylys hails from. The Portal’s installation in Philadelphia was paid for entirely by Gylys, and came at no cost to Pennsylvania taxpayers, Newmuis said.
The Portal now on view at LOVE Park is the same one New York had, but lost. The sculpture was transported this week by laborers from the Flatiron District. But it didn’t take long before controversies started: When The Portal was being installed in LOVE Park, a crack was spotted, as reported by CBS News.
“This portal does have a crack. I can say confidently that crack is not the result of vandalism, and it’ll be fixed in a few days,” Newmuis said, who likened The Portal’s crack to the Liberty Bell’s beloved blemish.
Dublin City Council are delighted to announce the Dublin Portal is now linked to Philadelphia in the USA. The Portal is Philadelphia is located in the city’s JFK Plaza. The livestream will now alternate every 3 minutes between Dublin, Vilnius, Lublin and Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/90KhztUC96
— Dublin City Council (@DubCityCouncil) October 22, 2024
New York’s portal opened last March, as reported by AN. It was temporarily closed in May because of “inappropriate behavior.” In the few months that it stayed open, most visitors were respectful, but there were some instances where things went awry.
One Dublin drunkard stood before The Portal and flipped New Yorkers the bird for almost one minute, forcing parents to cover their children’s eyes. Another New York TikTokker exposed herself to unsuspecting onlookers in Dublin.
Not long after, an inebriated Irish woman was stopped by the Gardai from “grinding her bum” on The Portal. Irish teenagers also stuck up their iPhones and broadcast images of 9/11 and swastikas into The Portal, catching some New Yorkers by surprise.
Will The Portal find less controversial refuge in Philadelphia? Only time will tell, but the internet has already weighed in. One skeptic from the peanut gallery asked on Reddit: “How long do we think it will last before someone either does something lewd (mooning, flashing, etc.) or intentionally breaks it? Days? Hours? I’m going with hours.”
An X user commented that installing The Portal in Philadelphia was “breathtakingly irresponsible” because “[Philadelphia] can’t have nice things.”
Not everyone is pessimistic, however. Another Redditor asked fellow interlocutors to think about The Portal’s potential for world peace, and even romance: “Imagine if two people met via [The Portal] and fell in love?” A nice thought for the City of Brotherly Love.
