Last weekend brought the long-awaited arrival of Pope Francis to the City of Brotherly Love. I thought about leaving the city altogether for the weekend, but I decided to stay and check out this potential once-in-a-lifetime moment. While I expected pure chaos, the week leading up to the Pope’s arrival was quiet, and traffic was a breeze.

I easily found parking on my street on Thursday evening (I took off Friday for fear of traffic and parking); while my neighborhood was outside the blocked traffic box, I suspected we might have people parking there who had been forced to move their cars from elsewhere. Not the case — there was ample parking all weekend long.

On Saturday, we ventured out early afternoon, walking to Market Street where crowds were camped waiting for the papal parade as he made his way to Independence Hall for a speech. I tend to hate large crowds; but while there were huge amounts of people, the crowds were never oppressive or unbearable.

We found a comfortable spot to watch his speech on a Jumbo Tron set up in a park. Afterward, we had our close encounter with Pope Francis when his motorcade drove right past us and he waved from his iconic Fiat. Later, we waited for a bit in the lines to enter the secure area for the Festival of Families, but it had been a long day with lots of walking, and we decided to call it a night.

It was weird to see the streets of Philadelphia empty of cars; and as I headed out of the city on Sunday afternoon, it was even stranger to find heavily trafficked roads like I-95 basically empty.

Restaurateurs in the city are angry about the effect the weekend had on business, saying the city scared away both visitors and locals. However, I think the widely televised event showcased our city in a positive light and can only be a good thing for tourism in the future.

— Kim Krol, managing editor