Philadelphia Metblogs » phil_jeffrey

National Coming Out Day

phil_jeffrey — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:48:01 +0000

As the resident mo on our little slice of life weblog, I’d like to wish the City of Brotherly Love a happy National Coming Out Day!
Today also marks the day when Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Anders takes his oath of office, and becomes the first openly gay male judge in the city.

Jinxed Street?

phil_jeffrey — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:17:37 +0000

So for the last two days when I’m coming home from work- the street has been blocked off by police activity-
Yesterday, a 23 year old undergrad at Penn tried to commit suicide- she stood on the roof of the Fresh Grocer on the corner of 40th and Walnut and the police and fire departments were on the scene.
Thankfully- she stepped down from the ledge and was taken to the hospital, hope she is alright.
Today a fire broke out on 41st and Walnut and spread up an electrical pole causing power to go off for a couple of residences. This was the second time that power has been lost for those people in the last week!

Whats going on? Is PECO just not ready for the return of all these Penn students?

University City Jam

phil_jeffrey — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:53:56 +0000

Just a heads up to anyone thinking about driving around University City today and for the next few days- Penn students are in the process of move-in. Basically everything is going to be busy all day!
Horray for traffic.

Nightmare at PHL

phil_jeffrey — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:27:36 +0000

Not sure about anyone else, but my experience at PHL was horrible. How was service at Philadelphia International Airport if/when you flew out of there?

I had a flight out of Philadelphia International Airport last Friday, and it was a nightmare just dealing with the airport. My morning started out at 6:30, when I arrived 90 minutes ahead of time for my 8:00am flight. For a domestic flight- you’d think that 90 minutes was more than enough time to check in and get through security.
Storms/Weather had canceled most of the flights the night before- everyone was told to return the next day, and of course- everyone comes back at the exact same time. Right before my flight.
To make things better- there was no order or any kind of logic to the lines, and everyone was forced to wait, so I got into the line for e-tickets and waited. If someone with any sense of logic had any idea of how to run the airport- they would have made two lines- one for people with confirmed flights, and one for people that had cancelled flights and needed to get booked onto other flights.
Forty five minutes later, I got called to a kiosk to print my boarding pass and baggage stickers- type my name in, and the destination airport code, only to find that the kiosk isn’t working. Lucky me. The three other people standing in front of me that tried to print out their boarding passes from the same kiosk and now we were all waiting to be helped by one of the counter people- so we wait for the person who worked behind the counter to help us.
20 minutes later, the person working at that station still has not come back, one of the passengers in front of me has missed their flight, and she decides to leave the airport. Line moves up. We complain to the manager(whose name I will keep off this post), and he just tells us that we have to be patient and wait. Another 20 minutes pass, we continue to complain to the manager, and nothing is done. The other two people still waiting in front of me miss their flight, but continue to wait. I’m about 5 minutes from missing my flight, and stay in the same spot.
Someone from another desk comes over after helping their customer, and helps the two people in front of me print out their boarding passes and tags their bags. I get to the counter and the person walks away. Back to the manager who tells me that I have to wait again, I ask why I should be waiting in line for an hour after getting to the airport with more than enough time to be ignored at the counter- and how he was not in any way helpful- Then the Magic Words- Can I speak with your supervisor/boss?- and he brings me to the front of another line of 500 people to get re-booked.
I get re-booked for the next flight out- which according to the ticketing attendant is 3:55pm- So they expect me to wait in the airport for over 6 hours, and don’t even give me access to the frequent flyer lounge(any time my flights were delayed at JFK, they would give me day access and a meal or two). I decide to go into the airport to find the Customer Service counter to lodge a complaint- and guess what I find there- another line, not as long as the last two, but still would have taken over an hour if I decided to wait in it. I whip out my phone and call up the airline directly and tell the person I want to file a complaint, they ask for my information and tell me that they can put me on the 11:15 and that I will need to get back on the 500 person line to print out a new ticket. I get her information, hang up, and head back down to ticketing. I find the manager again and tell him the situation- only to be told that I will have to wait in line and basically he tells me that he is not responsible for any of the mistakes that his staff has made. I head to the line, spot another employee and flag her down- turns out she was nice enough to head behind the counter and print out my new ticket.
So at least one person had the right thing in mind, but still- how is it possible that the airline gets any business at that airport? If I had not threatened to file complaints to the employees I would have been there all day- probably wouldn’t have gotten onto the 3:55 flight because of the lines.

Mayor Spotting

phil_jeffrey — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:24:45 +0000

I was thinking of starting a game- lets call it Mayor Spotting. The game is pretty self explanatory, spot the mayor in the public. Bonus points for when you see him doing something that really is not helping the city (when is he ever?). I’ll start it off with my experience yesterday, during my dinner with the boyfriend and his mother at Tangerine, we spotted the mayor and his wife, and three others (at least one of his cronies aka union leader or something) eating at the table next to us. We were there for about two hours, and I’m sure he was there longer than we were.
It’s very settling to know that Street can camp out for an iPhone all day, and go out to dinners in the middle of the week with the current murder rate, and juveniles aged 9- 16 attacking victims around West Philadelphia.

Septa Fare Changes

phil_jeffrey — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:39:08 +0000

As of today, July 9th, Septa has new fares for Regional Rail Tickets, Convenience Passes, and Paratransit & Shared Ride. For more information visit the Septa website - http://septa.org/fares/July2007/index.htm
Lots of information is highlighted in red on the Septa website- indicating new fares or travel information.

All You Can Eat Super Scooper is here!

phil_jeffrey — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:12:04 +0000

The 9th annual Super Scooper is this weekend- a great way to support pediatric leukemia research, and cool down on a hot summer day. Entrance with a 5 dollar donation to the Joshua Kahan Fund will get you all you can eat ice cream. Just make the trip over to the Great Plaza on Penn’s Landing at Columbus Boulevard and Chestnut Street.
The ice cream festival will take place June 29th • Noon - 5:00pm & 6:00pm - 9:00pm, June 30th • Noon - 5:00pm & 6:00pm - 9:00pm, and July 1st • Noon - 5:00pm.
For more information visit the website here- http://www.jkf.org/Annual-Events_Super-Scooper.asp

Dumpsters?

phil_jeffrey — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:01:56 +0000

So I’ve come to a bit of a dead end. Back home in New York City, we had municipal dumpster sites where you could bring things to throw away that were too big to leave on the sidewalk for regular collection. Now that I’m moving to another apartment and have furniture to get rid of- where do I go?
Web searches have not come up with anything other than private companies that will come take away your stuff for a hefty price. :-( Is there no such thing as a city dumpster here in Philadelphia?
Anyone have any experience with this?

Anyone ever wonder what happened to Philly wifi?

phil_jeffrey — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:59:06 +0000

Is it in place already? Everywhere? Supposedly it’s up in most areas already.
I didn’t get word of this until I saw an article in the student newspaper at Drexel- saying that for one year, every Drexel student will be given free access to the Earthlink wireless network set up in every neighborhood in Philadelphia. The catch is that you can use it free for 5 hours each month, giving you the option to purchase additional hours from Earthlink themselves.
Has anyone utilized this system yet? How did it work out for y’all?

Why?

phil_jeffrey — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:07:29 +0000

Just a thought that was running through my head last night while I was walking back to my apartment- aside from fearing for my life- and not knowing whether the guy walking behind me was some random drunk, or something worse.
Why is it that the homeless in Philadelphia feel the need to follow you around and into the middle of the street where they will yell racial slurs and make try to belittle you as you walk by?
Back home, in New York, our homeless just sat there, asking people who walked by for change, but I found that when I came to Philadelphia, the homeless people I have encountered accost people in the middle of the streets. Not sure about how the city has been dealing with the homeless problem, but would like to find out a little- Some searching through the archives of Philly Metblogs led to a post in 2005 talking about the city announcing a 10 million dollar 10 year plan to make homes and programs for them homeless. Wonder what happened to that plan…