This is Reason #516 why I don’t have a car… While we understand why Parking Authority agents have to be coldhearted when someone comes rushing up to an expired meter, crying, “Please don’t ticket me! I was just coming out to put in more money…” we also think there has to be a few seconds of grace period between pulling up to a parking meter and being ticketed. But apparently not here in Philadelphia. [More]
philadelphia
Regional Sports Channels Highlight Problem With Comcast/TWC Merger
By 4.29.14
When Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal questioned Comcast and Time Warner Cable execs about how the merger of these companies would impact regional sports programming, the two cable operators shrugged it off as a silly question. But it’s not, and here’s why. [More]
Famous Philly Eatery To Pay $8.5 Million For Short-Changing Servers’ Tips
By 2.21.14
More than 1,200 current and former employees of a well-known bar/restaurant chain in Philadelphia are going to share in an $8.5 million settlement over allegations that the eatery’s owner illegally demanded servers’ tips and also failed to pay minimum wage and overtime to tipped employees. [More]
“Saving” A Shoveled-Out Parking Spot: Your Hard-Earned Right Or A Jerk Move?
By 2.20.14
Readers who’ve only lived in warm climates or areas with ample parking don’t understand the special hell that is going through the effort of digging your car out of a plowed-in curbside parking spot, knowing all the while that said spot will soon be occupied by someone else’s car. That’s where some people employ the controversial practice of using chairs, traffic cones, handmade signs, trash cans, and apparently ironing boards, to “save” their shoveled-out spots for later. [More]
Comcast To Flip Off Philadelphia Skyline With 1,121-Foot Skyscraper
By 1.15.14
The conversion of Philadelphia to Kabletown continues. Comcast’s relatively new headquarters already dominates the city’s skyline, pointing into the clouds like a giant USB drive. Now comes news that the Lords of Xfinity are set to erect an even taller middle finger to all the people of Philadelphia (myself included) who would much rather have another cable and Internet provider. [More]
Amtrak Train Headed For NYC Ends Up In Philly Suburbs Because Aren’t Surprises Fun?
By 11.20.13
Passengers aboard an Amtrak train that departed Harrisburg, Pa. were probably looking forward to taking in the sights of New York City, considering that’s where everyone on the locomotive thought they were going (do they still call them locomotives or did my grandfather just take over my brain?). But never mind the Empire State Building, aren’t the Philadelphia suburbs charming? [More]
Philadelphia City Councilman Pleads With Sriracha Makers To Relocate Factory There
By 11.1.13
With the makers of Sriracha chili sauce feeling the heat from folks in Irwindale, CA, who say the Huy Fong factory is releasing a smelly, stinging odor into the neighborhood, one Philadelphia City Council member is calling on the company to relocate its saucy operation to the City of Brotherly Love. [More]
We Live In A World Where The Deep-Fried Twinkie Burger Is A Real Thing
By 10.29.13
If you were to make a Venn diagram showing the overlap of bacon, frying oil, cream filling, and “perpetual-adolescence wish-fulfillment,” you’d find the Deep-Fried Twinkie Burger. [More]
Mayors Beg DOJ To Pretty Please Let US Airways/American Airlines Merger Happen
By 10.23.13
While US Airways and American Airlines have had to indefinitely postpone their nuptials because the Justice Dept. decided the union might result in problems for consumers and the airline industry, the mayors of those cities that would be most positively affected by the merger are now pleading with Attorney General Eric Holder to see that these two companies obviously love each other and should be allowed to be together. [More]
Verizon Tests Same-Day Delivery Of Phones For People Too Busy To Go To The Store
By 10.16.13
Are you a Verizon Wireless customer who wants a new phone but A) doesn’t feel like waiting for delivery and B) doesn’t feel like going to the store to buy one in person? If you also happen to live here in Philadelphia, you might be in luck. [More]
Man Pleads Guilty In Scheme That Scammed $2.4 Million In Free Comcast Service
By 10.2.13
Last year, police in Pennsylvania busted a ring of scammers — including some former Comcast employees — who had talked nearly 6,000 people into paying upwards of $200 to permanently have their Comcast cable bills reduced. Now the man described as being “second in command” of the ring has entered a guilty plea. [More]
Family Faces Lien On Home Because City Doesn’t Have Time To Look At Building
By 9.11.13
Here in Philadelphia, buildings with multiple apartments must hire private trash collectors to haul away residents’ garbage or face fines. But one family says it’s been having a dilly of a time trying to convince the city that they are the only tenants of the building and that they shouldn’t face a lien over $1,197 in fines that should never have been assessed. [More]
Comcast: We Are Not Relocating NBC To Philadelphia
By 9.9.13
In the last few years, a lot of people (including yours truly) have fled New York City and headed 100 miles down the road to Philadelphia. At the same time, Philly-based cable colossus Comcast was buying NBC, apparently sparking rumors that it would take the broadcaster out of its longtime home at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan and insert it into the mammoth, gleaming USB drive that is the Comcast tower. But it just ain’t so, say the boys from Kabletown. [More]
Here’s Video Of A Car Crashing Into A Dunkin’ Donuts
By 7.18.13
Starting to feel the midday drag? Here’s a little video to wake you up, and make you glad that you were not the driver of the car that crashed into a Philadelphia Dunkin’ Donuts yesterday. [More]
Gas Company Places Lien On Philly Mayor’s House Over Unpaid Bill
By 6.20.13
Philadelphia Gas Works apparently doesn’t care who you if you’re not paying your utility bill. Just ask Philadelphia Mayor Michael “Yes My Last Name Is Actually” Nutter, who saw PGW place a lien on his home after his gas bill apparently went unpaid. [More]
Man Who ‘Foreclosed’ On Wells Fargo Now Suing eBay For Mistakenly Shuttering His Store
By 5.30.13
If you can remember back to 2011, you might recall the story of Patrick Rodgers, the Philadelphia homeowner who successfully sued Wells Fargo over an error in his mortgage servicing — and then “foreclosed” on a neighborhood Wells branch when the bank didn’t make good on the judgement. Now Patrick’s back in the news with a suit against eBay, which he claims shut down his seller account over a case of mistaken identity. [More]
Megabus Oversells Tickets, Driver Calls Cops When Passengers Refuse To Give Up Seats
By 5.21.13
When a an air carrier sells too many tickets on a particular flight, it usually asks for volunteers to take later flights (in exchange for travel vouchers and other rewards, of course). What the airline doesn’t normally do is call the cops when it can’t resolve its own screw-up. Unfortunately, the airlines aren’t running Megabus. [More]
Trying To Pay Your Cab Fare With Marijuana Will Probably Not Go Over Well
By 4.2.13
Many people who have taken taxis regularly enough have had to face that dreaded moment when you realize you don’t have enough cash — or you lost your wallet — and you won’t be able to pay the fare. There are ways to handle this, but offering the driver marijuana as barter is probably not the best idea. [More]
