philly

Monday, April 23rd was the date. I think something on the motherboard straight up fried. I rebooted with different setups of the RAM and they all checked out fine, so it wasn't that. The HDD is new so I don't think it is that either. The laptop was working fine on the plane as I was typing up a post in Open Office's Writer coming back from Atlanta. It was working fine Sunday night when I downloaded all the photos I took and backed them up to my xHDD.

But Monday, it died. Blue screen of death all up in my grill after I boot it up. Sometimes it just hangs before the boot process goes through to my desktop. All sorts of error messages displayed on the BSOD. There are files on the HDD that I need to get off, but I think I can just pop it into Lady's laptop and extract them and transfer them to my xHDD. But until I get a new laptop, this space will most likely be unchanged.

It's a shame – I have lots of posts to write. The At-Large City Council candidates forum I went to (with photos). The trip to Atlanta (with photos). The forum on homelessness I'm headed to tonight. What I experienced during the 16 weeks I volunteered (once a week) at the homeless shelter run by Project H.O.M.E.. Along with plenty of other matters I need a computer for throughout the week.

It was a good 3 years I had with it (and I bought it used so add another 1.5 or so to it). I beat the shit out of it running all kinds of applications at once. It was bound to die at some point. It held up remarkably well.

Tonight, at 6.30p, there will be a mayoral candidates forum at the Arch Street United Methodist Church (Broad/Arch) on affordable housing and homelessness. It runs through 8p. Unfortunately, it'll most likely be awhile until I get a post up about it (and the other things I've already mentioned).

Anyone got $1200 stashed under their mattress they're looking to get rid of?

Eight hours from now, Lady and I will be on a plane headed to Atlanta, GA. Eleven hours after that, we'll be at a rehearsal dinner. Twenty-four hours after that, I'll be an usher at my best friend's wedding.

I still can't believe it's happening. It was almost a year ago when she told me and now, the time has come. Insane. I've known her since the 6th or 7th grade back around 1992. We became good friends by chance junior year of high school and I won the admiration of her mother by being able to dip a soft-serve ice cream cone in that chocolate sauce which almost instantly hardens on it – my parents owned a Carvel ice cream store while I was growing up and I worked there from the age of 14 to 20.

The photo above is from a trip out to Arizona I took for her graduation from college. I had a blast, even though I came back to NY with a cold.

It's gonna be a great weekend.

(Above l-r Saidenberg, Anastasio, Applebaum, DiCicco)
On the 10th, I went to a 1st District Council forum put on by the Washington Square West Civic Association, the very civic association serving my neighborhood. In attendance were twenty or so neighbors and three candidates: incumbent Frank DiCicco (D), primary challenger Vern Anastasio (D) and a Republican unopposed in the primary, Mike Saidenberg. The forum was basically a free for all with such a small audience. After some not so brief opening statements from each of the candidates, the floor was open, no time limits were placed no rebuttal structure was decided upon. President of the WSWCA, Judith Kaplow Applebaum, saw hands up in the air and called on them to ask the candidates a question.

First up for opening statements was Saidenberg. He aid that the priority in his term as District Councilman would be casinos and that we need our waterfront. He's been a realtor for the last 4-5 years and before that, he was in the hotel and restaurant business. He did not discuss any political qualifications, but hey, who needs that. Brady was a carpenter, Fumo was an is a licensed electrician, W was a, uh, what was he?

Anastasio was up next. He quickly went into his stump of being a lifelong Philadelphian. He said that as a child, he was given a great city by the preceding generation with a lot of hope and he wants to give his children a better city, but that's going to be very hard. He grew up in the Italian Market area, unloading produce off the trucks was an early job. He listed some other local work which can be found on his Accomplishments page on his site. He cited one of his crowning achievements as changing how real estate is disposed of. I emailed him to explain a bit as to what he meant. He replied that the old way of disposing city owned or controlled real estate within councilmanic districts was to hand pick who got each parcel of land to develop. This was/is obviously an easy way to deliver payback for favors. Anastasio approached the Redevelopment Authority to change this and as a result, any property worth more than $100k must be opened up to bidding.

DiCicco went straight for the accomplishments. His eleven years in office have resulted in a lot of things for his communities. He stated the obvious in that he's not doing it for the money; the 14-hour days, 7 days a week is not exactly the most luxurious of lifestyles. He touted his fight to keep the district's firehouses open. He said that the mayor (Street or Rendell, I'm not sure) was going to cut 15 firehouses, 11 of them in the First District, but DiCicco fought for them. As a result, the firehouses at Broad/Fitzwater and 4/Arch, among others, were kept open. He asked the audience what Old City would look like now after the fire at the Five Spot without those 11 firehouses still open. He cited his push for then Councilman Nutter's smoking ban, and that without his support, the bill would have continued to stall. He admitted that he was an occasional smoker as well.

The first question was rambling, but I think I got the gist of it – why do communities have to pay developers large sums of money (the questioner put it at $100k) to sit down and talk about projects (does that sound right?). Anastasio said that he would mandate transparency. A development impact fee would have to be paid to communities. Communities would get a percentage of big developments and put that money right into the community. He said that the 6th police district covers a huge area with an ever increasing population and that the 6th police district should be split into two districts [perhaps sub districts to keep the same numbering system]. Anastasio put out a number of $90M that development impact fees could've collected in the last x years which would have been enough money to fund a split district and the founding of two separate districts.

DiCicco, picking up on the comments about the 6th police district said that while the actual numbers of officers in the district was confidential, the number had increased since he's been in office [1995], but that we need more. Anastasio nodded in agreement. He informed the audience that the corner of 13th and Locust Sts would be fitted with a surveillance camera which got several sighs of relief from the crowd.

Question two was from a lady who told of her own run ins with crime in the neighborhood. She said that she was recently mugged and that she was scared to live in Philadelphia. She asked how can the situation be improved? Anastasio went first. He cited some numbers: Under Mayor Rizzo, the city had 24k employees and 8k police officers. During the terms of Mayor Rendell and Mayor Street, the number of city employees has stayed the same, but within that number, the amount of police officers decreased to 7500 and now 6k. He said that the 2k loss in police officers was a 2k gain in administrative jobs; he said we need another 1k cops on the streets. His excellence in government proposal would use technology to improve the city. The CitiStat system of tracking numbers for each individual complaint and a 311 system (which he commended Councilman At-Large Jim Kenney for introducing a bill on) would greatly benefit Philadelphia. He said education is the best way to fight crime and more well lit zones and mini police stations would deter crime. Anastasio called out Operation Safe Streets as Operation Move the Crime.

Saidenberg truly showed how green he was starting with this question. He said he was shocked to hear someone being mugged in this area. I guess he doesn't read the papers. It happens. It's not an everyday occurrence, but chroist, this is a big city and crime happens, even in his very own stomping grounds. His ignorance to that fact is troubling. He said that the police department isn't focused on crime prevention and that a councilperson should be able to hold the police accountable.

DiCicco said that everything takes money to implement and that he helped bring 100 more cops to the streets. He noted that while there were more cops on the streets under Rizzo (whom he repeatedly said he was not a fan of) Philadelphia experienced its highest murder rate ever. he said that it would take an additional $50M – $100M for 1k more officers to be put on the streets and that money must be taken from another part of the budget and the question is always where will money be sacrificed. But even when/if the money is found, the Mayor can just sit on it and not distribute the funds for a council approved measure. Anastasio noted that he saw boarded up homes which is a part of the broken window theory [of which he seems to be a believer], but DiCicco said that he didn't see boarded up homes, rather, lots of construction. He said the boarded up homes didn't really start until the Kensington area of town on this side of Broad St. He said that we need officers present at the start and end of school days, but that's a decision the Mayor must make and tell the police commissioner to order; he went a step further to say that Commissioner Sylvester Johnson was a good guy, but just not a good commissioner.

And then it was time for my question. I was building mine on the comment DiCicco made on budget cuts. What part of the budget would you cut to make funds available for other more important projects like education, crime…? Saidenberg took his greenness a step further when he couldn't name a single portion of the budget he could think of cutting. He went back to his hotel management experience and said that when he had to cut corners, he noted that people didn't mind so much when the phone at the front desk rang a few extra times as long as patrons were getting their demands met. I asked him again, relating his hotel experience to the question – where in the budget would you "cut corners" like you would as a manager of a hotel? He didn't have an answer.

DiCicco said he didn't know specifically, but that there is wasted money in the government and that would be a start. He said he put forth a bill for single stream, once a week collected, recycling for the city. It would cost $4.5M to start up, but will save money down the line as Philadelphia would have its own recycling plants and would not need to need to pay to have trash sent out of the state [I wanted to ask a follow up question on expanding the Recycle Bank program, but there wasn't enough time]. He noted some $500M in uncollected real estate taxes which need to be collected; he pointed out that it was an issue with the Mayor's office and them ordering to get that money. He described a prototype trash pickup program. Trash cans would be fitted with a trash compactor and a sensor indicating how filled the can was. It would ping a central command station telling it when it was full enough to be collected and trucks would know, via GPS, which can was ready to be emptied. This, he said, would help cut down on the needless emptying of not even half full trash cans all over the city. It would reduce traffic backups with less stops and increase efficiency.

Building on what DiCicco said, a follow up question was asked by someone in the audience – How about the possibility of privatizing trash collection and cleaning services? DiCicco said that some places do have their own private trash collection [most high rise buildings do] and that the city's unions were too strong to have a citywide program like this to be completely privatized.

Anastasio paraphrased former Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz's saying that [and I'm sure I'm butchering this] if a candidate couldn't help make the city 2% smarter, it's not worth running, which I guess means doing the little things right helps more than striking out on bigger plans. He said that mayoral consultants could be cut, the mayor's security detail could be cut, upper management's free cars (which come with free gas and insurance) could be cut. Agencies could be consolidated; he noted that there were currently three separate agencies on reducing school violence. The city needs to grow its revenue and lift taxes off of the backs of homeowners and shift some of the burden to speculators.

DiCicco noted that 3 or 4 years ago, he gave up his free city car. An audience member [not me :) ] said that the city should use more PhillyCarShare. DiCicco didn't miss a beat and capitalized in saying he was one of the people who provided some of the initial money that made the program possible in the first place [true]. He added that the city's fleet is moving to hybrid vehicles. He noted the size of the district, stretching from Oregon Ave to Oxford Circle including some 20 rec centers. He noted the lighting projects he's been a part of. With each block costing ~$150k to light, he's made 4 blocks in the neighborhood brighter. He's worked with Thomas Jefferson University to have them buy some lights and PECO as well. He noted that police captains receive two, two!, cars: one marked and one unmarked and that the unmarked car usually goes home with the captain at the end of the day. Eliminating that extra vehicle would cut costs as well.

The fourth and final question of the night was on housing and taxes. A gentleman bought a house 13 years ago and 3 years ago, property tax went up 160%. He asked each of the candidates what they'd do in the next year to improve the dire situation of increasing property taxation. DiCicco said that full value reassessment won't happen next year. He said he'd increase the millage.

Saidenberg, stepping up to the plate with real world experience, said that the issue isn't only affecting people who bought over a decade ago and that people who moved and bought more recently were hardest hit as their property tax shot through the roof without the benefit of built up equity. He said that annual reassessments would help get rid of the problem of random hikes. He noted that shifting taxes from those who cannot pay to those who have the money to pay is not reform.

Anastasio said that massive reassessment will happen and soon. He also said that the millage should be reduced – the the lowest possible. He restated that the homeowner is paying too much compared to the speculator. He said that in terms of taxation, an everyday homeowner was paying $1.50/square foot in taxes while a commercial speculator was paying 50¢/square foot – three times less. He said that he's a supporter of the 10-year tax abatement, he's 5 years into one himself for a small plot of land in a South Philly neighborhood. But that people were taking advantage of the abatements and over developing. He said that the city doesn't need to end the abatement, but manage growth. Change the abatement plan to allow the 10-years to be at the back end. Adapt the abatement to encourage green/sustainable building.

It was an informative night for me. I learned quite a bit about what Anastasio and DiCicco had to offer and what each of them had done in the past. I'm glad I got the chance to see them live in a forum setting.

Above is one of the oddest pieces of campaign giveaways I've ever seen. It was a mini trashbag. Weird.

On Monday the 9th at the Free Library, the Design Advocacy Group held a forum on Design for Community and Quality of Life. It was a well attended forum with a packed house of I'd say 250 – 300 people. Dwight Evans, Chaka Fattah and Michael Nutter were the only ones there. Bob Brady and Tom Knox were not there and neither of them have an events section on their site to see why they were not present. Republican candidate Al Taubenberger was supposed to be there too, but was a no show.

Above is a shot of the president of the Free Library, I didn't catch his name Alan Greenberger, the chair of Design Advocacy Group [thanks Brad!]. He said a few brief words and introduced the moderator for the evening.

The moderator was Chris Satullo, editorial page editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He didn't do much for the evening other than ask questions. I wanted to ask him about the Prius v Hummer "Study", but I didn't recognize him up front until the forum was about to start, arg. Satullo announced that there was another forum that evening so they'd get right to it without opening statements and before any more people arrived for the 5.30p start. People trickled in for a few minutes during the opening question and answers.

The first question from Satullo was what signature piece of design would each prospective mayor leave for the city. U.S. House Representative Chaka Fattah (PA-02) (above) said that rebuilding and transforming the lives of the people was a priority in his plan to improve Philadelphia. He wants to take away councilmanic veto power for individual projects within District Council "fiefdoms" as he called them. He said that big projects need the input of the full council. He did not list a single piece of physical design.

Former Fourth District Councilman Michael Nutter said that reforming the zoning code would be his way of affecting design within the city. The 50-year-old code is sorely in need of an update and reaffirming the planning commission would provide the new code with a set of responsible guardians. He did not list a single piece of physical design.

P.A. House Representative Dwight Evans (203rd) wants to rebuild the great forgotten avenues of the city. He listed Woodland Ave and Baltimore Ave as two of them. He wants to make them destinations again to improve neighborhoods by rebuilding from the main arteries.

Question two was on the issue of casinos, specifically the referendum on the May 15th ballot:

Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to prohibit Council from taking any action that would permit licensed gaming within 1500 feet of a residentially zoned district, an Institutional Development District, or certain residentially-related uses, and to prohibit the Department of Licenses and Inspections from issuing any license or permit authorizing licensed gaming within such areas?

In plain english: Should the City keep casinos 1,500 feet away from a school, home, places of worship, or playground? [translation via Casino-Free Philadelphia]. Michael Nutter (above) simply responded by saying he advised every Philadelphian to vote for the referendum to keep casinos out of Philadelphia.

Dwight Evans stated, once again, that he voted for the casinos to come to Philadelphia in the State House. His reason, which he states at every stop on the campaign trail: the reduction for each resident of the wage tax refund. The actual amount to be saved by each Philadelphian, all of $100.

Chaka Fattah stated, once again, that there will be two casinos in Philadelphia and that we must accept it.

Question four moved to the topic of affordable housing in the city with there being too many luxury housing units and nobody building anything for the middle income bracket. Evans (above) said that we must look to the projects in cities like Boston and Chicago. He cited Boston's linked development projects which, from what I understand, mandate that within a new large plot of land for luxury condos and the like, there must also be some amount of middle income housing as well involved. I didn't catch what he said about Chicago's measures.

Nutter said that we must maintain an abatement incentive to develop, but change it slightly. He suggested splitting it to perhaps a 5-year abatement in some areas and 15-year abatement in others. Nutter said that NYC has a similar split abatement program and that they have an even longer abatement program. He also wants to split the money garnered from developments coming off the abatement to a 90% and 10% split: 10% to go towards a housing trust fund. (I think I'm getting this a little fuzzy, I don't totally understand it, I'm no good with numbers anymore).

Fattah wants 100% of the offline abatement to go towards the housing trust fund which will be $53M fund to go towards much needed programs spread across the city.

Nutter clarified his statement and Fattah's statement (I'm probably still getting this wrong) to say that the $53M will take ten years to accrue while his plan will make new developments pay the 10% up front right into the housing trust fund.

Satullo moved onto a subject which I had previously never heard discussed before. Question five was on the issue of sinking/lowering I-95 on the Delaware River waterfront to take back the city's riverfront. Nutter came out and said he wholeheartedly supported the plan. He said that it will take enormous state and federal support and that Fattah and Evans sit on very powerful committees in the US House of Representatives and PA House of Representatives, respectively; Fattah has a good deal of seniority sitting on the House Appropriations Committee and Evans is the Democratic Chairperson of the PA House Appropriations Committee. Both committees could move much monies to such a project. He emphasized that "This is worth an investment" to very loud applause.

Fattah supports the plan and stressed that this would incredibly change the landscape of the city and would change the city dramatically.

Evans said that this is a 30-year project and that he supports the plan, but the city needs to spend money elsewhere in more pressing areas including new/improved rec centers and within the police department.

Nutter added that Philadelphia made the decision to build two new sports stadiums and they're done. He agreed that there are more short term/immediate needs for funding, but that there are long term plans, like the I-95 plan, which need to be on the agenda as well.

Questions six was on mass transit/SEPTA – how to give the city more of a voice in the matter. Evans wants to stop the "civil war" between the city and the suburbs. The issue isn't the number of people representing Philadelphia on the SEPTA board, he said, but the predictable [I think he meant dedicated] funding. He said that this was the most important long term issue the city faces, over the I-95 project.

Fattah said that we do need more than the two seats we currently have on the SEPTA board and to completely redo the relationship with SEPTA over the lease of the train tracks. He said that the suburbs have to put in their share of funding the program. Fattah said he 1000% supports the Governor's plan to lease the turnpike for SEPTA to get more [possibly dedicated] funding money.

Nutter said that the city needs its own policies set on mass transit and to do so, the city must re-open the Office of Mass Transit – he would do so as mayor. He would also advocate the development of property around SEPTA stations to make them hubs of activity.

The packed house seemed to like question eight a lot: Convince a recent graduate of one of Philadelphia's fine colleges to stay here and not move elsewhere.

Fattah said that everything important in the world can be changed from within Philly. In addition, Philly's proximity to the financial hub of NYC and the political seat of DC, it's an ideal place to live. He wants Philadelphia to be the first American city to truly take on the issue of poverty and make the city livable by all inhabitants. Fattah had to leave at this point for another engagement.

Evans told a story of his walk over to the library. He said while walking through LOVE Park, he heard bunches of tourists excitedly talking about all of the historic and new things to see in Philly and that by living among it all, Philadelphians simply don't appreciate the greatness of the city.

Nutter said the future of this city is right on the horizon and its past is rich. The city boasts one of the largest city park systems in the world coming in at 9200 acres [an American football field is 1 1/3 acres] and the city will have leadership [under him] which understands the city well.

Question ten was directed primarily at Nutter. It was about skate parks and what happened to ban skating in LOVE Park. Nutter said his vote on city council to take skating out of LOVE Park came because it would take $1M a year to repair the park from the damage the skaters [supposedly] did to the park. He is, however, fully supportive of the new skate park proposed behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more skate parks around the city. He said that people need to be out side having fun, more so than they do currently. I thought that was a refreshing thing to hear at a forum, a candidate concerned with constituents being outdoors doing things. Evans had no comment on this Nutter-specific question

Question twelve was on the issue of unions and their power to sculpt development – a question aimed at the very recent issue of waterless urinals and the Comcast Center. Nutter said that he hears it over and over again: it's too expensive to build in the city. One of the reasons, the demands of the unions. He said that if the building/zoning codes were standardized and enforced, there wouldn't be issues of what should and shouldn't be done. He added that he sees too many out of state license plates at job sites – we need more Philly residents doing work, especially people of color [more loud applause].

Evans said that Pat Gillespe (head of the Building Trades Council) should never have been on the Convention Center committee. And that John Dougherty (head of the IBEW Local 98 – electrician's union) shouldn't be on the Redevelopment Authority. I think what he was trying to say is that union leadership cannot serve on the decision making panels of building groups.

Lucky number thirteen asked the candidates their thoughts on a push for green buildings in Philly. Evans said that incentives work well and that the city of Chicago has been a model for other cities to follow with their green enhancements – their green roofs especially. He commended this administration in its partnership with the PA Horticultural Society and another group [didn't catch it] to think more green.

Nutter said that zoning code should change to incorporate LEED standards and for all city buildings to be built to LEED standards [I think he also wants all rehabbed city properties to be LEED as well]. He said incentives of money and speedy permits/inspections should be applied. Nutter said that the city must take the lead with LEED building to encourage other developments as the city of Boston has done.

Question fourteen was a combination of two topics, what to do with the Parkway and whether each candidate was for/against the move of the Barnes Museum to the Parkway. Evans said that Paul Levy (Executive Director for the Center City District) has good ideas on the Parkway [didn't list any, but given the audience, may have scored points for the mention?] He said that the Barnes move has become a large political decision no longer thinking about the impacts of the move for the area it is leaving and entering and no longer a design/architectural decision. I didn't catch if he was for/against the move.

Nutter supports the move of the Barnes to the Parkway. He said that Logan Square (he calls it a Circle) should be made a more walkable area one way to do that is to slow down the traffic in and around the Square and on the Parkway in general.

The final question of the night was on the recent past of the Street administration and the Rendell administration: what was the main positive/negative thing they learned from each administration. Nutter said that he was constantly amazed as to how then Mayor Rendell was everywhere at once. He said that everyone wants to see their mayor in their neighborhood and Rendell delivered just that. He pointed out Street's focus on neighborhoods during his tenure and applauded his efforts to improve each one of them. He did have some criticism in that both administrations did too much deal by deal transactions instead of respecting codes.

Evans said that Rendell could say "No" well and that he had a poor place to start working with at the beginning of his term. Evans also commended Street's work within the city's neglected neighborhoods. But that it was impossible to do everything. He suggested looking at a 16-year plan, two terms past the end of any mayor's time in office. He gave the example of the Chicago Daleys and their 40-year reign [separated by a few administrations] over Chicago. He noted the people of Chicago's confidence in their government and the trust specifically in their mayor. It took twelve years for Millennium Park to be built, but the city stood by it; politicians must win back the trust of the people into their government and have transparency as well.

Nutter and Evans said that Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative was a good concept, but that the implementation/follow through was lacking. Nutter stressed the incredible cost increases to bulldoze a building. At the beginning of the initiative, it cost $11k to demo a building and now it costs $22k. Incredibly, the cost has doubled.

In the end, Nutter came out on top. He spoke well on the issues and actually answered questions asked. Most importantly, he actually offered some ideas. Some more thoughts on the forum from Plan Philly via Philly Skyline who unfortunately missed the forum] complete with video. A flickr set of my shots from the night.

And lastly, as I was leaving, I ran into Andy Toy, candidate for City Council At-Large. He was passing out literature for his campaign – he had a whole bunch of supporters in the audience all wearing buttons (myself included). I asked Nutter to pause and take a photo with Toy and he obliged. I'd love to see the two of them join forces and support each other in their respective candidacies. For now, and unless something drastic happens, I'll be voting for both of them on May 15th.

Monday April 16th is the final day to register to vote in the upcoming primary.

He did it again. Just being a complete asshole about things. This time, as Pennsylvania's junior senator, he has come out to vote against stem cell research. A friend told me about the news over dinner Monday night and I read about it in this Kimberly Hefling AP story.

Casey, who is Catholic and opposed to abortion, said in a statement released Monday he doesn't support the bill because "I remain opposed to federal funding for research that involves the destruction of living embryos."

…

"I have listened carefully, especially to those whose loved ones are suffering from serious diseases and disabilities and who disagree with my position," Casey said. "I deeply respect their views and hope they can come to understand mine."

Casey's position counters that of his Republican colleague, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, who has been one of the Senate's most vocal supporters of embryonic stem cell research.

Listen you no talent ass clown, these fucking embryos are GOING TO BE THROWN AWAY OR FROZEN FOREVER.

If you're doing this as a Catholic, where would you like me to start quoting the Bible to point out your hypocrisy? If you're going to legislate by the Bible (separation of church and state anyone?), live by it you dipshit.

I hate you.

A post on the Huffington Post on the bill this asshole favors. From the article:

Another bill, S. 30, introduced by Senator Norm Coleman, R-Minn. and co-sponsored by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) will be voted on after S. 5. The Coleman-Isakson bill is a Trojan Horse bill which will kill any federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research utilizing excess IVF embryos or any funding for the derivation of stem cell lines utilizing SCNT technology. Ironically, the short title of S. 30 is the "Hope Act." For the millions of Americans suffering from disorders potentially curable from the future application of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, this act represents anything but hope.

You can always call his office and leave angry voicemails as a constituent. They keep a tally of all calls for and against everything (and emails and letters and faxes).

It didn't have to be this asshole. A rotten head of cabbage would've beaten Man on Dog. The man I worked for (Chuck Pennacchio) is currently working his ass off to bring single payer healthcare to Pennsylvania and that's more than Rendell and Casey cared to offer and work for.

A commenter on my flickr stream made a good point on the above photo.

i've yet to see one of these umbrellas in action.

And I thought about it for a sec and noticed that I couldn't recall ever seeing one in action in the four years I've lived here. Odd.

Have you? Do you have one?

I was reading this article in the NY Times on the state of 911 across the US and how poorly the systems have been upgraded to keep up with technologies like cell phones, txt messaging and picture messaging. When you call 911 from a traditional landline, your location, from what I understand, your location is easily traced by the local 911 operator so if you were to leave the phone off the hook after dialing 911, the cops could come busting down your door without you telling them your exact location. But with the advent of cell phones, VoIP, Skype and other services, more and more e911 calls are not being made from traditional landlines and that is proving to be a problem for everyone.

What is e911? Peep the wiki entry on it for a quickie. In a nutshell, most cellphones have GPS transmitting capabilities for 911 calls. When you dial 911 from your cellphone, the operator, in theory, sees your location on a map in case you don't know where you are or are unable to communicate where you are.

The City of Philadelphia does not have e911 locater functionality. But I am charged (and most likely you) $1 a month on my Verizon Wireless. The exact verbiage is: "PA State Wireless E911 Surchg". I would have NO PROBLEM paying this $1 a month tax if my county, which is home to the 6th largest city in the United States, had e911 capabilities, but it doesn't. I believe Montgomery County does have it. So, if I ever needed to call 911 while I was in MontCo, they'd know where I was if I weren't able to tell them. If I had to call 911 from cell phone (which displays the little 911 compass icon) at my home here in Philly, I'd have to be able to communicate where I was or somehow get to a landline if I were unable to communicate my whereabouts (and I have no idea where the closest payphone is located).

So, what the fuck is my city doing to improve it's e911 capabilities? Does anyone know?

This is a nationwide problem. It is a real problem. It is a growing problem with more and more people/families/households/offices/schools moving away from traditional landlines. Copper wires just aren't in vogue anymore I guess with all the "freebies" included with wireless and VoIP services.

There have been a ton of political forums in the last few months. I've been to a few myself [mayoral, mayoral, mayoral]. But with 36 days left on the campaign trail, there are probably 30 more to go and that's just counting the mayoral forums. There are more District Council and At-Large Council forums as well, but the mayoral events are the big draws. Below are a few which may pique your interest.

• Monday April 9th
  Mayoral forum: Design for Community and Quality of Life [flyer]
  Organized by the Design Advocacy Group
  @ The Free Library over at 1901 Vine St in the Montgomery Auditorium
  Starts at 5.30p, Q&A starts 6.45p and event ends at 7.30p
  Moderator: Inquirer Editorial Page editor Chris Satullo
  Candidates: Bob Brady (D), Dwight Evans (D), Chakka Fattah (D), Tom Knox (D), Michael Nutter (D), Al Taubenberger (R)

*****

• Tuesday April 10th
  First District Council forum
  Organized by the Washington Square West Civic Association
  @ Jefferson Medical College's Alumni Hall 1020 Locust St
  WWCA board meeting at 7p followed by the forum
  Incumbent: Frank DiCicco (D)
  Challenger: Vern Anastasio (D)

*****

• Thursday April 12th
  5th District Council and Mayoral forum
  Organized by the Fairmount Civic Association
  @ Philadelphia Mennonite High School, 860 North 24th St
  Doors open 3.30p, ends 6p
  Incumbent: Darrell L. Clarke (D)
  Challengers: Hailie Johnston (D), John Longacre (D)

*****

• Thursday April 12th
  Democratic City Council At-Large forum on: Forum on Quality of Life and the Environment [.pdf]
  Organized by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association
  @ Academy of Natural Sciences 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
  Doors open at 6.30p, RSVP april12councilforum@gmail.com
  Moderator: Daily News cartoonist Signe Wilkinson
  Incumbents: Blondell Reynolds Brown, Wilson Goode Jr, Bill Greenlee, Jim Kenney, Juan Ramos
  Challengers: (as many website as I could find): Jesse Brown Jr., Maceo Cummings, Michael Ellis, Bill Green, Derek Green, Rodney Little, Lorina Marshall-Blake, Harry Massele, Matt Reuben, Sharif Street, T. Milton Street, Marc Stier, Andy Toy, Alexander Wilson, Ben Ramos

*****

• Thursday April 26th
  Mayoral forum on housing, homelessness, shelter, behavioral health, occupational services [.pdf]
  Organized by Vote for Homes Coalition
  @ Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 North Broad St
  Doors open 6.30p, ends 8p
  Candidates: Bob Brady (D), Dwight Evans (D), Chakka Fattah (D), Tom Knox (D), Michael Nutter (D), Al Taubenberger (R)

Oh man. I saw this partway through on Olberamann [what's with their retarded URI?] and had to hunt down the full video and found it on YouTube.

O'Reilly going bonkers on Geraldo regarding illegal immigration and drunk driving. They get into a crazy shouting match on The Factor.

I cannot believe the irresponsibility of Chris Satullo (215-854-5943), Editorial Page editor, and the rest of the editors at The Inquirer in theiir printing of this bullshit "commentary" – more like a hack job. Read that and then read this, the hack job article from a college newspaper. The "commentary" discusses the "Hidden cost of driving a Prius" when compared to that of a Hummer and it is written by the president of some old folks lobbying group from Arlington, VA. What the fuck is some old folks lobbying group doing writing editorials for the Philadelphia Inquirer? Sound like a nationwide letter writing campaign to anyone else on behalf of big oil? The "study" has already been floating around for a little while and has been trashed on /., engadget, True Delta, The Watt, Treehugger, grist…

Taking a look at previous op-eds submitted by the old folks group here, you can clearly see their anti-environmental stance and blind follow-the-leader mentality. Blech. The "commentary" is just fucking bogus.

Martin spends 295 of his 772 words describing the scene of a landscape in Subdury, Ontario where Toyota currently buys 1000 tons of nickel a year for battery manufacturing

On the perimeter of the area, skeletons of trees and bushes stand like ghostly sentinels guarding a sprawling wasteland. Astronauts in training for NASA actually have practiced driving moon buggies on the suburban Sudbury tract because it's considered a duplicate of the Moon's landscape.

Oh but wait, when was NASA practicing driving MOON BUGGIES? Back in the 70s that's when. Toyota's purchasing of 1000 tons of nickel in 2007 has nothing to do with what was already a wasteland in 1970. But Martin bases his argument (38% of it) on it.

Maybe the editors of the editorial page should amend their guidelines page to include "somewhat linked to some fact" and not just shit pulled out of some lobbyist's ass.

The "study" estimated the overall cost, dust to dust (from manufacture to usage to junking), of a Prius at $3.25/mile and a Hummer at $1.95/mile. Those numbers are based on the alleged lifetime of a Prius at 100k and a Hummer at 300k. [bullshit]. Priuses go the long haul and along the way, have consistently been rated as a generally problem-free vehicle cutting down costs in the long run in other ways aside from just at the pump. The Hummer is a clunker of a truck which tends to be, from my experience on the road, driven by idiots who feel safer in a big box taking up 1.5 lanes and 2 parking spots at will but are endangering other people on the road via their false sense of security.

Double the milage for the Prius (it's been documented already) and you have a $1.67/mile cost, that's already less than the Hummer and with 100k fewer miles driven. Make it an even comparison at 300k, or lower the Hummer's number to 200k and the picture looks a little different, don't it?

In the end, this "study" was conducted by a marketing company. It was not peer-reviewed and their data is not being shared with the public – two signs of some fuzzy, secretive methodology, eh?

You've already given Smerconish a further amplified voice, did you really need to publish this bullshit too? Unless they're going the way of The Daily Show and publishing the actual words of crazies and pronouncing them as pure, sad comedy. But they're not doing that, are they? Chris?