philly

I spent about nine hours canvassing this weekend all over Philadelphia handing out information for Chuck Pennacchio. Saturday started off over by the Rodin Museum at 11a where the gang caught up and split up walk lists for Ward 15 in the Art Museum / Fairmount area. I took off for the area from 30th to 27th Poplar to Pennsylvania. I'd say about 60% of the doors I knocked on weren't home or were still sleeping. Of the rest of them, most either had no idea there was an election nor who any of the candidates were. Most were very happy to have someone [me :)] handing them some literature about a candidate.

Along the way, I ran into a man who was a Fairmount lifer. He was sitting on his stoop watching his son work on their rowhouse. He used to be a sole delivery driver for Home Depot from Maine to Virginia he said. I guess he's been there for quite some time since Home Depot has probably grown quite a bit and that kind of a route would likely be impossible for one driver. He was glad to get a brochure and gave me some encouragement as I made my way further down his street. He said that the area was heavily Democratic, as I could tell by my list, and waved me on with his paint-speckled hand.

I met another man, an elderly gent, who told me that he'd vote for whomever his ward leader told him to. They were apparently good friends. But he didn't say, "I'll discuss this with my friend so-and-so, he's also the ward leader" but he said that he'd simply go to him and the ward leader would say who to vote for. I wonder how many people use their ward leader as the sole source of information on election matters. And this gentleman was what we call a Super Voter, he had voted in the last two full election cycles [primary + general] so he's asking his ward leader quite often. It just makes me want to break into this stagnant system even more!

After four hours, we took off for Northern Liberties and Old City. I went with Kim and Danie to Old City and stretched back towards the center of the city where we all live. We hit a good number of houses in what is probably one of the nicest areas of town. The 2xx block of Delancy had the single nicest house I've seen here in Philly in my two years. It was a corner spot with a tulip garden and two stable doors which lead to an open front door with a little puffball dog barking at everything that walked by. I wonder how much that house goes for. We also found out what the little doorknob thingies on the door frames were on the fronts of the older houses — they're bell pulls. Pre-electric doorbells. Cool. Danie's take over at the Pennacchio blog.

Sunday was back to Fairmount for the Fairmount Arts Crawl. Canvassing at an event like that is really easy as people simply want the flyers you pass out without regards to what it is about. I did talk up a bunch of people who did ask before taking and they were overwhelmingly responsive. There were also a bunch of people there who we had hit the day before and said that they got some info and liked what they saw. I ran into the SpinDentist from The All Spin Zone out with his other half shopping for some art. He had seen our flyers in people's hands and up around the area.

I even met a guy who reads this here blog. He was crossing the street and came over and asked if I wrote a blog and I said yes. I asked how he recognized me and he pointed to my camera. Ha. Small world. Glad to say that he's learned quite a bit about the race via the information I've had a hand in gathering and posting through volunteering on the campaign and reading on my own. Hi M.P.!

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