Results tagged “publictransit”

You have a CBS affiliate, so surely you could have talked to somebody in Philadelphia about our Subway system. For starters, nobody here would ever say they were riding on the metro. That's DC, Montreal, Paris, and Berlin. Oh wait. That last one is just a song...

Dear SEPTA:

Dear SEPTA:

A friend of mine had a rather interesting encounter on a train last week.

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network.

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you.

The Bryn Mawr Film Institute will screen Scene Not Heard: Women in Philadelphia Hip-Hop this Wednesday night at 7:30. A documentary brought to life by Maori Karmael Holmes of Black Lily fame, the film examines the unique place of women in the local hip-hop scene and the special challenges they face in a culture that doesn't always appreciate a strong female voice. The "cast" includes favorites Floetry, Bahamadia, and Lady B; there's also some rare performance footage; and we hear Michele Byrd-McPhee of Montäzh (a group of whom Phillyist is very fond--first date with the husband doncha know) drops some insight as well. Ursula Rucker's even in there; the thing's chock full of delightfulness!

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...

Phillyist has complained before about the pains of public transit commuting in our fine city. While we often ascribe malicious intent to the hulkling behomoth that is our Transportation Authority, they do sometimes try to do something nice for us huddling masses. This Sunday, in celebration of the El's 100th anniversary, you can ride the El for free between the hours of 12 and 5. If you're transferring from another system, you won't even need a transfer. Who says 100 year old transit systems don't have a heart?

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

Happy Holidays!

We're so happy that the fall season has started up. Of course, it's putting a real strain on our productivity across the -ist-a-verse...

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery.

Breaking
the law, breaking the law. We -ist folks love us some crime, and no
misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week,
join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged.

Gothamist gets us started with
"Law
& Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking
pictures on the MTA. So, why
are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a group
of Asian men was attacked
by a group of white guys in Queens. Finally, Boy
George reports for his court mandated community service. Sweet.

Londonist brings us the tale
of poor Bob Hoskins, shaken
at his near-miss with terrorists. Meanwhile, Interpol
sweeps in to reclaim a lost Peruvian artifact. Then, there's the
slasher
who claims he got his weapon from President Bush. Ouch!

Phillyist's bus system, SEPTA,
is fighting
crime in a whole new way, and it would be a crime in and of itself
for you not
to read this story about Oreo the cat. Oh, and can
we agree that requesting "Piano Man" at a piano bar should be
illegal?

Torontoist's thorough
coverage
of the XVI
International AIDS Conference, doesn't fit into the "crime" theme,
but it's too great to pass up. But we're back on track with their href="http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/08/toronto_bike_po.php">post
on bike rack vulnerability and an
interview with a controversial crime fighter.

DCist brings us a murder
that gets more mysterious by the day, and we're considering a life
of crime ourselves, if it'll allow us to dine
out like DCist. And if it's not illegal to sell
soiled mattresses, it should be.

SFist muses on the negligent behavior of a public transit employee, covered the
questionable confession of a man arrested for the murder of
JonBenet Ramsey, and delineated the highway robbery that is the Bay Area real estate market.



Shanghaiist brings us this
video of "one
of the worst cover bands we have seen in China", which isn't
illegal, but should be. We're unclear on the legal status of an "invisible
monster cock", and we'd prefer to stay that way. Price
gouging on drinks is a criminal act, in our opinion.

Chicagoist gets thrown in the
hoosgow by readers
who hate the Annual Air & Water Show. Should bottle service be illegal? Chicagoist's commenters debate that,
too. And the criminally overdiscussed (and we say this even as we
trotted this out as a theme last week) gets the Chicagoist
commenter treatment, as well.

LAist exposes the questionable ethics of 's marketing, tells us how to make the
criminally tasty Moscow
mule, and creates
a criminal amount of garbage.

Houstonist blows us away with
the announcement that they
wear pantyhose. Someone call the fashion police! Houston's city
council takes a bite
out of shoddy newspaper rack crime. The only real criminals in
Houston seem to be flying
roaches. (No, not those kind.)

Those miscreants at Bostonist
take their shot at our
newest public enemy number one, Mel Gibson. Public enemy number
two? Gold
bricking spammers. Number three? Bad
mergers.

Seattlest gets a
photo of missing person Bettie Page, breaks some laws of their own
by getting "drunk
on clandestine vodka, and yell(ing) at passing cars." When is
domestic violence kinda understandable? Now.

Austinist's lovable rogues
tell us about issues in their
state's gubernatorial race, eagerly anticipate the arrival of the
criminally hilarious Onion, and bemoan
the firing of a teacher who committed the crime of (gasp!) partial
nudity.

The back of the bus gets to your stop at the same time as the front - so unless you're getting off in two stops or less, move away from the doors to make room for your fellow riders. (And if you're getting off in two stops or less, maybe you should consider eschewing the bus all together. Walking is excellent for your cardiovascular health.) And while we have your ear, might we also suggest:

biggest breeding ground for poor manners that we can imagine. For instance, on an absolutely packed #42 bus, an older gentleman began yelling at the other passengers standing in front of him: "Somebody's got to get the hell out of my way so I can get the hell off of this goddammed bus." People were moving, but it was a tight squeeze, and the man continued to yell, well past the time that he was safely standing on Walnut Street.

We don't know if there's something in the water, but (not to put too fine a point on it), "poo" seems to be a running theme on Philly blogs this week:

Phillyist has already told you how we feel about using cell phones on public transit. But there are other times when cell phone usage is, if not completely inappropriate, utterly irritating. What follows here is a partial list of bad times and places to use your cell phones, as well as suggestions to how to handle calls if/when they’re made. It’s not a full list, by any means – but trying to do that, this column would never get finished!

It feels like a broken record around here: SEPTA is still on strike, commuters are still pissed (and sometimes stranded), and the union and management aren't on speaking terms.

Dear SEPTA Management:

A SEPTA strike is looming in the City of Brotherly Love. For those of us who have lived through a SEPTA strike and rely on public transit, the idea is vaguely terrifying. Bike riding on city streets is a gamble -- the vast majority of city drivers refuse to share the road with bicyclists or pedestrians, and many of the side streets are giant pot hole-infested bike wreckers. And dishing out cab fare plus that extra 19.4% PGW rate hike means many of us will be living the life of a very poor hermit shortly.

On Wednesday, we posted about a Google hack for SEPTA, but now we have a new map to not utilize.

Rather, we seek a respite from the oppressive heat and humidity that's been making us cranky. We need peace. We need tranquility. We need...a trip to the Japanese House and Garden in Fairmount Park.

Dear cell phone users who take public transit:

.

Phillyist urges you to be careful when riding SEPTA - a 24 year old woman was brutally raped and beaten early yesterday morning at the Chinatown Broad Street line station. Her attacker has not yet been caught.

Or in this case, the grisly dismembering.

I couldn't make sense of things Thursday morning. I had been running late (as usual) and barely had a chance to glance at the news which was insistent that terrorist attacks had rocked London. Saddened and confused, I tried to convince myself that couldn't be right. Live 8 had just rocked London...and Wednesday's news that they won the 2012 Olympic bid had probably done it's fair share of rocking. But not bombs. Not London. Not now. No. Scratch that. Not Anywhere. Not Ever. These were my thoughts as I sat on my bus Thursday morning, juggling my coffee in one hand, texting and emailing everyone I knew who might be directly affected by the attacks with the other. It didn't occur to me for a second to be nervous about my own public transit commute until my bus passed 30th Street Station, which was surrounded by news vans, all of them with their broadcasting atennas high in the air.