Breaking: Phila. Residents With Connections Get Perks

Back when Dan Rubin ran Blinq as a daily blog, everybody read his posts no matter how good or bad they were because he was, for better or worse, the Philadelphia paper of record’s official blogger. Then a while back they pulled him off the blog full-time and gave him a column. Now nobody under the age of 35 reads his stuff anymore, because while they know he writes one of the paper’s metro columns, they can never be bothered to find the thing on the website.

Well, well, well! Rubin wrote a column yesterday that quite a few people read. Specifically, police officers read his column. To be more specific, the kinds of police officers (and cop wannabes) who post on Domelights read his column. Don’t get too excited at once; the media in this town is still too terrified to write about any actual problems with our local cops. No, Rubin wrote about the free parking cops get at sporting events down at the sports complex.

Yes, cops, friends of cops, sons of cops and others with connections to people who run this city have gotten free parking down in South Philly for sporting events for years. Even I’ve taken advantage of it (through a friend; please don’t think that I have any actual power around here). But the sheer amount of work that went into this column is pretty sweet:

On a tip, I’ve dropped by this block during six games this season to watch the free-parking operation, which is controlled by the Philadelphia Police Department’s Traffic Division, and paid for by you and me. [...] It’s first come, first served, and at most games drivers who call ahead or say the right thing to an officer on duty are handed photocopied parking passes to display on their dashboards so they’re not ticketed.

Most of the parkers don’t look too official - the couples and kids in Chase Utley jerseys, the tailgating gray-haired men, and, on Saturday last weekend, the dozen young men who tossed back Natural Lights they had chilled in curbside coolers. At least that group didn’t leave the empties.

Lt. Frank Vanore, the police spokesman, said the free-parking tradition went back to Veterans Stadium, which, he conceded, had far fewer spaces to offer. A new stadium allows more professional courtesy, which, he added, is useful for law enforcement.

“The thing in this day and age,” he said, “is to know where the officers’ cars are to be able to get them out.”

Ah, he actually made a thinly veiled 9/11 reference to defend the free parking! Could things get any better? Actually, yes, if we just check the Domelights reaction thread:

WE also save the city and other taxpayers(we pay taxes too MR RUBIN, YOU LITTLE FAGGOT)MILLIONS, on cell phone charges!!! IS a little free parking too much to ask???

Please my brothers and sisters give “most” of the media NO COURTESY!!

IF you stop them for mvc violations, BANG THEM!!! IF they are DUI, even a block from their home, please arrest them!!!

We just buried one of our own, and this little fruitcake, who would s**t his pants in some of our districts has to bust ballz over this BULL s**t!!!

Thanks a lot, Dan. Now the cops are so mad they’re going to not let the media drive drunk anymore. Fortunately for us, a lot of journalists in this city are so underemployed that they can’t even afford a car. And, uhm, hopefully we’re all not driving drunk all the time — even near our houses.

But I digress. Yes, maybe free parking for those with connections — it’s not just cops, obviously — isn’t the best thing. But, uhm, this is Philadelphia. If you have connections, you can get free shit. Hell, people offer journalists free shit all the time in the hopes they’ll write nice things. People even send me books! Why shouldn’t the cops get to have nice parking spots so they can watch the Phils win a close one, then get out quickly to catch Osama bin Laden?

Daniel Rubin: Parking perk at Phils games is a foul that should be ruled out [Inquirer]
Photo by JaseMan, Creative Commons License