John Street In Revenge Of The Nerds

Earlier this week, I read an excellent column from The Star-Ledger about Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Booker is alerted on his Blackberry anytime there was another homicide in the city. He also is willing to go to jail to protest the pointless War on Drugs. (The only war currently going worse than Iraq!™)

Our mayor, John Street, is similar in a lot of ways. He, too, has a Blackberry. And he is willing to wait in line for an iPhone on 16th Street. He’s been there since 3:30 a.m.

“I want to know the kind of things that are on the market,” Street told KYW 1060. “I believe that we are a city that’s leading the way in many respects in the use of technology. We got a late start in this city but we’re trying to catch up…. I might be able to learn something here with the use of this technology that might help us in the city.”

That’s right: John Street is going to fix the city with his downloads of White Stripes MP3s. Of course, the mayor has to do things like, oh, I don’t know, be the mayor of the city, and the iPhone doesn’t go on sale until 6 p.m., so he’s going to be signing all his important papers (or whatever the hell a mayor does) while waiting in line for his phone.

He also has to leave for a few events during the day and will have someone sit in his chair. Please, please, please let it be a homeless guy I’m friendly with so I can steal his seat. Actually, wait: There’s Wi-Fi there, isn’t there? I could blog from John Street’s folding chair. Well, maybe not. Either way, Street will be cutting in line since he has to leave to go cut ribbons.

“We live in a geeky little world here,” Street said to Mike DiNardo. “Times have changed dramatically. It used to be the people seen as geeks were kind of looked down upon. But not anymore!”

Hm. I’m a little torn here. I do think the mayor should have better things to do than wait in line for an iPhone. However, if I were mayor — I had photos of all the other candidates with Shetland ponies who were not their wives — I’d totally get an iPhone. I might work on that homicide problem, too, though.

Update: Photographic proof.

Mayor Street in line for iPhone [KYW 1060]