|
|
|
Archive: December, 2011
Hockey fans won't be the only ones heading to South Philly on Monday for the Winter Classic. Unite Here Local 274 — which represents some 1,500 Aramark employees at Citizens Bank Park who were without a contract for the better part of the 2011 baseball season — will also be there, and they're calling in the cavalry.
A few hundred union (and possibly Occupy) demonstrators will be at the first-base gate Monday afternoon. They'll bring Spiral Q puppets, surprise giveaways for fans and a clear message for Aramark, which last met with the union in October, according to organizer Rosslyn Wuchinich. "We're hoping to let Aramark and the teams, the fans and the NHL know that while we're celebrating this huge sporting event, there's a really serious issue of worker justice at Citizens Bank Park," she says. "There are a number of ballparks where Aramark does pay better and have a more just situation for the workers, and we're striving for that. This has been a place where Aramark has been very successful, and we just want the workers to be able to share more in that success."
According to Unite Here, ballpark workers currently make an average of $10.90 per hour. They're seeking a 50-cent hourly raise retroactive to the beginning of the season; a three-year contract; better takes for commissioned workers; and more flexible scheduling for employees who, since 2010, have been disallowed by Aramark from earning overtime by working a full homestand. (That change in policy followed a class action lawsuit by workers regarding overtime pay, according to Wuchinich.) "Ballpark work is sort of feast or famine," she says, "so workers really depend on those periods when there's a lot of work."
Aramark had last offered a five-year contract and lesser pay raises, and had sought to reduce the number of workers elegible for health insurance by about two thirds.
[0] A healthy newborn girl is found in a cardboard box in North Philly. The child was protected from the elements by a kindly yarnbomber.
[-2] A music student accidentally leaves a rare, $172,000 violin on a Megabus from Boston to Philadelphia; it is eventually recovered. Meanwhile, a Peter Pan bus hauls a corpse up and down the coast for a week before anybody notices.
[-3] A 6-foot menorah, missing from a park in Haddonfield, is believed to have been stolen by scrappers. “We thought it would take about a day to melt it down, but it ended up lasting over a week. It’s a miracle.”
Sometimes we reporters mess up. And sometimes, we screw up in particularly scandalous, offensive and/or barely-forgivable ways. I regularly read or listen to, and enjoy, each of the publications that I viciously attack below. I spend hours with the Daily News and Inquirer every day. But here I go, throwing stones from my house of glass, and look back at some of the articles that I criticized in 2011, and some that I haven't—yet. In no particular order:
1) Gene “if I was a poor black boy” Marks, a local financial advice guru who appears on television and writes books sold in the “self-help” aisle, took it upon himself to pen an advice column from a “short, balding and mediocre certified public accountant” (his words) to “poor black kids.” In particular, he had “a poor black kid in West Philadelphia” in mind. The Forbes missive, titled “If I was a poor black kid,” urged poor black kids to 1) stop complaining about their crappy schools and study harder, and 2) use technology and have Skype conversations with other go-getter ghetto youth. This is, I argued, “The worst article ever written by a Philadelphian.” My full takedown is here.
2) Philadelphia magazine aims to please a high-end and deeply out-of-touch suburban readership (Top Doctors, Top Dentists, Top Homes! And newsflash: wealthy moms think smoking pot is cool). But they reached new heights of Main Line condescension when they decided to include the Mummers on their “10 Things We Need To Get Rid Of” list—part of December's mind-numbing “List Issue.” Raising the asshole stakes, they decided to kick award-winning and proudly queer working class poet CA Conrad out of their office. Editor Tom McGrath then went on to confess that he didn't know who Conrad was. “I wouldn’t have known CA Conrad from Joseph Conrad.” Then again, I doubt that right-wing magazine owner Herb Lipson gives much of a damn about gay poets either. Read my full report here.
3) In November, Inquirer and Daily News owners at Philadelphia Media Network announced they were moving from their iconic North Broad location to the long-vacant Strawbridge and Clothier site on Market East. Oh, and the papers' two newsrooms would merge! But you didn't read it there, by which I mean, in the city's two daily papers. Both failed to report on the significance of the newsroom merger or even explain what it would entail. Would it spell the end of two competing dailies in Philadelphia? Some think so, some think not, and some approve while others are freaked out. It fell to City Paper to report it.
For those who have been missing the antics of Occupy Philly since they withdrew from Dilworth Plaza — anyone? Mayor Nutter? — last night about 50 demonstrators roamed the streets with some anti-establishment Christmas spirit. Visiting the Verizon store at 11th and Market to decry corporate greed, they were joined by some Unite Here union members for verses of "We Say No" to the tune of "Let It Snow" — and, of course, the holiday classic, "Occupy is Comin' to Town." (Full lyrics sheet here in case you want to bring this one home for the holidays.) The turnout, while still substantial enough to shut down traffic, drew only a modest police presence, as compared with previous Occupy demonstrations that brought out dozens of bicycle police.
Usually Redditors trade in virtual Karma, but here's a Philly guy dealing with the real deal:
Ok, so here goes nothing. In the late night hours of Friday, December 2nd, in the midst of a drunken stupor, I stole a bike helmet from a bike that was locked up in the area of 6th and Chestnut. I did this for no reason other than I thought it would be funny to walk home with a helmet on. Since then, I've been experiencing a plague of unfortunate events, most notably, my car breaking down twice, having to be towed both times. After having it out of the shop for less than 4 hours today, it was involved in a hit and run in the parking lot of a Pep Boys in South Philly.
Let me be clear, I'm not looking for sympathy or empathy. If you're out there, I'd like to give you your helmet back, reimburse you for the cost of a replacement if you bought one, and buy you a few beers.
TL;DR I'm a douche and I want to set it straight with the cosmos.
Click here to get in contact with Lord Helmet.
"To be or not to be?" This was the existential question presented to the School Reform Commission (SRC) by a group of students from E.M. Stanton, one of the schools proposed for closure in a Philly School District-wide effort to pare down 70,000 empty classroom seats. Having already attempted garden-variety lobbying and civil rights-style marches, the students were taking a new tack at convincing the SRC to intercede on behalf of Stanton: Shakespeare.
CP's own cranberry king Isaiah Thompson now has an even more prestigious title: the winner of a 2012 Fund for Investigative Journalism grant. Thompson was one of seven journalists nationwide awarded a significant donation in the latest funding round from FIJ, which — among many other important projects — bankrolled Seymour Hersh's Pulitzer-winning investigation into the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese by American troops. That's not bad company.
While we wait to see what Isaiah comes up with, check out some of his best investigative work from 2011: In addition to blowing the lid off of the smear campaign to take down City Council candidate (and now Councilman-elect) David Oh, he worked on City Paper's "Vacant Land Issue," and examined the perhaps unnecessary shooting death, at the hands of police, of a mentally ill man in North Philadelphia.
Gov. Tom Corbett today signed into law Senate Bill 732, a controversial measure that could make it significantly more expensive to provide abortions in the Commonwealth. Anti-abortion activists are calling it a major victory, noting that it will help avoid more shady practitioners like Philly's Kermit Gosnell.
In summary, "This bill, effective in 180 days, amends the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L. 130, No. 48), known as the Health Care Facilities Act. It will require the Department of Health to regulate abortion facilities in the same manner as ambulatory surgical facilities, require the department to perform at least one unannounced inspection of each abortion facility annually, modify the definition of “abortion facility,” and makes other changes." Those improvements could include expensive (and many say extraneous) upgrades like installing elevators.
Pro-choice groups hve said this bill could raise the costs and limit access to aboritions in Philly and elsewhere. The Pennsylvania branch of National Organization for Women said "
The working class is pretty angry at the owning class these days—a perfect time to support cooperatives, which put communities in charge instead of big business. Representative Chaka Fattah (D-Phila) has introduced legislation to create and fund a National Cooperative Development Center, which would support member-owned businesses ranging from cooperative grocery stores to rural electricity co-ops. Fattah says that two cooperative groceries in his district helped inspire the legislation.
[+4] A judge dismisses an assault charge against an Occupy Philly protester accused of striking a cop during the Nov. 30 raid. That’s because when they asked Officer Champ to take the stand, he said, “neigh.” And ate oats. And, without expression, just started peeing like crazy on his own back feet.
[+5] Jon Bon Jovi refutes the Web rumor that he had died by holding up a sign with the date and the words “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey.” So what does hell look like?
[-2] Armed robbers steal between $35,000 and $40,000 in cash from a Marshalls in South Philly. Prosecutors note that’s like stealing $70,000 to $80,000 from your typical department store.
[-7] Kenny Gamble’s Universal Companies is not awarded a federal Promise Neighborhood grant to carry out its plan to run two schools. “I think I know what the problem is,” says Gamble while starting a new grant application in the name of Kenny Sure Thing’s Universal Companies.
[-4] The American Tort Reform Foundation names Philadelphia the worst of the nation’s “Judicial Hellholes.” “Psst: How much to get that bumped to third worst?” asks Judicial Satan.
[+1] Former Phillies GM Ed Wade rejoins the team as a “special consultant.” The move is a promotion from his prior position of Double Agent in Charge of Diverting Houston Astros Talent to the Phillies.
[0] U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey introduces a bill to block the federal law that requires towns to install new street signs, part of his “Had Enough?” campaign to reduce government reach. The plan also calls for the removal of state-mandated traffic lights and the demolition of all state-funded bridges.
[-1] South Philly’s sports-themed entertainment and dining complex is christened “Xfinity Live!” “We don’t want anyone to go there,” explains spokesperson.
[-3] According to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille, Traffic Court judges and staff frequently accepted “external requests for favorable treatment.” See, round here we call that a heavenhole.
This week’s total: -7 | Last week’s total: 3
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
