Best of Philly

2025 Symbol of Our City's Rep

The Portal Debacle

The Portal is that fancy-dancy video/audio art installation that’s been traveling the world, with setups everywhere from Lithuania to Poland to NYC to Dublin — setups that let everyday citizens meet and greet and make funny faces at each other across the globe. Well, sure, any city can have a visit from the Portal — but only one city has ever had to shut the thing down and then relocate it due to persistent vandalism. And that city would be … ours, of course. No one likes us; we don’t care!