DAILY GRINDER: No Joke: SEPTA Named Best Transit in U.S.
SEPTA…(SEPTA!)…has been named…the…best…“large transit system”…in…North…America…by the…American Public Transportation Association. That was hard to get through. But anyway, the group called them “the best” because of things like their environmentally friendly construction, hybrid buses and something about “financial management”? From the Inky article: “Matthew Mitchell of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers, which has frequently criticized SEPTA’s shortcomings, said, “There are a lot of ways to measure ‘best.’”
[This is true.]
It’s the end of an era in douchiness: Mad River in Old City is closing and will re-open as a Seafood restaurant.
Two shotgun-armed men robbed a Dunkin Donuts in Northeast Philadelphia early Thursday morning.
Fight For Philly found out that Senator Pat Toomey was going to be at the Union League this morning, at 8:30 a.m. So they’re there, right now, protesting. As they recently Tweeted: “Here at the union league to tell @SenToomey to tell him to tax the 2%, not the working families.”
A woman has posted a story at Travel Underground in which she claims the TSA at Philadelphia International Airport went out of their way to weirdly search two disabled wheelchair-bound kids, and that it was terrible. “I noticed in the other line there were two young, handicapped children – they appeared to be around 8 to 10, a boy and a girl, in wheelchairs. They were obviously both physically and mentally handicapped, with two adults,” she writes, later adding: “They made each child get OUT of their wheelchair and walk through the detectors – alone! These children were clearly profoundly mentally handicapped, and could not understand what was happening.” It’s worth reading the whole thing.
The salary for new Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William Hite: $300,000.
The state’s Clean Indoor Air Act could be expanded. The law currently bans indoor public smoking, but allows for exemptions at casinos and bars that don’t allow anyone under 18 inside and make less than 20 percent of their sales in food. State Rep. Dan Frankel would rather have a uniform law. Be afraid, smokers.
[But what will be of McGlinchey's?]
A majority—58 percent—of Pennsylvanians support Voter ID. The court case continues today.
The Olympics begin today. Try to act like you care. Or don’t.
Yeah, well about that SEPTA thing. You do know that SEPTA has to care for four modes of transit right? Bus, Heavy Rail, Light Rail and Street Trolleys – track and trackless. No other transit system has to do them all, only SEPTA. And the restored trolleys because Philly screamed and yelled that couldn’t do without them.
And about them trains. SEPTA has to care for old rail cars, not so old rail cars, new rail cars and hundreds of miles of track and power lines. It’s a huge, HUGE system.
I know SEPTA people. They really, really do care about their system. SEPTA is that good. Philadephians just love to bust on them.
Since writing and performing a song about SEPTA last fall, I’ve become a sort of SEPTA therapist. After hearing the song, everyone wants to tell me about their traumatic experience on the El or something like that.
Here, listen for yourself.
http://wellmusic.bandcamp.com/track/were-getting-there
See what I mean? The music video is nearly complete. Contact me if you want to be involved with the SEPTA story slam in the works for this fall (michal@wellPHL.com).
We’re Getting There!
Hey Waldfogel. Try writing about lost loved or puppy dogs. Us adults have to use SEPTA to get to our real jobs. You might want to try getting one.