I was so passed out from being drunk and getting cold-cocked by a guy who picked a fight with for calling me a fat, overgrown Leprechaun, that I didn't see this reply until now.

I mean, the guy was right, but he still had it coming.

Charcoal or propane?

I once rode a trolley into 19th Street Station from West Philadelphia and noticed that after I alighted, it remained stopped in the station over a dispute between the operator and a passenger who was 'vaping'. The operator insisted that the passenger desist; the passenger seemed to be arguing that 'vaping' didn't count. I left before the situation was resolved.

I cannot myself imagine behaving so antisocially or defiantly as the passenger.

The design isn't too bad looking, although I would prefer that the 'towers' were symmetrical rather than two on one side and four on the other, but I'm weird like that. I'm not very enamored of the use of the building, but so it goes.

Why shouldn't it matter? It might not be the most momentous of occasions, but it's not insignificant given that there have been 142 Speakers prior to Johanna McClinton, but no women and only on other Black Pennsylvanian (K. Leroy Irvis).

If nothing also, given how prominent race has been throughout American history, especially in its politics, it seems naïve to think to feign its irrelevance. It's not making, "everything," about race to note the significance of somebody from a people who have been abused and oppressed throughout American history attaining a position of significant authority.

Does he have any leads in the case of the Communists who are trying to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids?

Ginkgo biloba tree.

I have preferred her among the likely or available candidates for quite a while. The principal causes for my attraction are that she has administrative experience in city government and has spent the last few years incisively scrutinizing it. It's a long distance from criticism to correction and I remain formally open to most comers, but I trust her more than I do anybody who has been on the City Council.

What's more she's come out in favor of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway and framed it in opposition to KoPRail. So that just about cinches my vote.

Candidate for Mayor Rebecca Rhynhart would appear to agree with you.

Welcome to the world of government consultants. They do the work, because the state doesn't have the ability to.

There's an old joke, probably rooted in reality, about contractors having boats or expensive automobiles called, "Change Order."

If I had an organ that was dedicated to cost benefit analyses... which I suppose would be my brain, so this sentence is off to a great start... it would explode at this point.

The Inquirer article about this recent development, a recent interview General Manager and CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICE OMFG SLAY QUEEN Richards and online discussion have all mentioned the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway. Whether it's entirely reasonable or not, a narrative might be emerging that casts it and KoPRail as in opposition. I think that this could be a good thing, because at the very least, SEPTA deserves to be smacked upside the head for its poor decision making about major capital projects. It's riders deserve the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway, but that will be harder, if more worthwhile, to deliver.

I will at least take satisfaction in fantasizing about how Jay Arzu, Representative Solomon and the remarkably effective movement that they have started for the Roosevelt Boulevard Line are giving the senior managers and members of the board of SEPTA ulcers. The best revenge, of course, will be that it actually gets built. (Some relatively encouraging news: Rebecca Rhynhart hasreportedly come out in favor of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway)

The most salient information provided by the article is this:

>Many transit advocates in the city say the $2.9 billion project wastes money better spent on more urgent needs.

This is the first time that I've seen it reported at more than $ 2 billion. I'm not sure where they found that number, but I believe it and.. yikes. If they build this stupid thing, it will probably end up costing $ 4 billion.

Meanwhile:

>The KOP rail extension would carry about 10,000 daily riders, according to SEPTA’s projections.

That's not a lot of people for $ 3 billion.

I still struggle to understand why SEPTA is fighting so hard to make this happen. Somebody must really want it or maybe everybody is just too embarrassed to admit that they've made a mistake and wasted a lot of time.

I'm very curious to see what the Federal Transit Administration rates this as and whether they agree to fund it through the Capital Investment Grant program. It's hard to imagine them giving it a 'Highly Recommended' and $ 1.45 billion in good faith and conscience, but if the fix it is in, the fix is in.

>thinking of Kenyatta fucking Johnson as Council President does me in.

If that happens, I'm going to find whoever wished upon a monkey's paw for Darrell Clarke to resign and clobber him.

Kenyatta Johnson as City Council President. Oh Heeeeeellllllll no! That's a nightmare scenario.

I would prefer that one of the members of the City Council elected at-large be made its President, because they are less beholden to the degenerate pathologies of the members elected from districts. That possibility seems unlikely to be realized.

I think that the city's political system needs to be radically reformed, but that is probably not practical.

It's unspeakably frustrating that SEPTA is exerting so much effort to build a transit line through places that are among the least amenable in the area to transit and that is likely to be very resistant to ever changing to accommodate it.

I've also gotten the impression that the malls, critical ridership draws, are not very enthusiastic about the project. I'm pretty sure that Lower Merion Township doesn't want it either. I don't really know who is pushing this project so hard, but whoever it is are a bunch of fools and real jerks too.

That $ 2 billion estimate seems to have been around for a while, so I suspect that it has risen significantly by now, while the projected ridership has not. (I think that the damn thing will cost nearly $ 4 billion if ever actually built.)

Continuing to dedicate attention and effort toward the KoP Rail project, which I'm beginning to suspect might be too inherently cost ineffective for FTA to agree to fund, while leaving a larger, more ambitious but actively ignoring far higher value project reflects rather other than well upon the 'powers that be' in Southeastern Pennsylvania, not that we didn't already know.

Meanwhile, SEPTA is having a twitter poll (yeah, yeah, big deal, Twitter isn't real life et cetera) on the most anticipated projects. Things could turn around in the last hour, but it doesn't seem to be going KOP Rail's way. (To be clear, the other three projects are good ones; I voted for Reimagining Regional Rail myself)

I guess that I never pass Van Leeuwen at prime trading hours or naybe I'm just still bitter about the loss of Capogiro Gelato.

If anything can prosper in those spaces, I'm glad of them.

I thought that the Boba King would never open. I haven't seen many people patronizing it, so I don't know how long it will last, then again I thought almost the same about Van Leeuwen, which hasn't closed yet.

I miss Grocery sometimes. It's funny how my first two years in Philadelphia, 2018 and 2019, sometimes almost feel like a lost youth.

That was neat; thank you. I walk past that building ever day and have always find it intriguing.

Too bad about the Jets, but thank you all the same.

Having endorsement from John Street and Michael Nutter might be quite a coup. Just imagine if she could get one from Ed Rendell for the hat trick. (I have no idea of how plausible or useful that would be, but it amuses me to ponder)

I think of Rebecca Rhynhart and John F. Street very differently. I've tended to think of Mayor Street has having run a crooked, populist administration, whereas I've understood Comptroller Rhynhart as a good-government technocrat. I really have no idea whether this endorsement has value, but it isn't unimaginable that would help to persuade a few voters and I suspect that it's a kind of help that Rebecca Rhynhart needs.

I'm happy that they will be implementing it in what I hope to be the immediate future, but this is ultimately just bringing SEPTA up to the state of the art of a decade or two ago, at least, of international standards.

I wonder if the timers will be implemented on only the Trolley Tunnel Stations or also the new surface stops to be built for Trolley Modernization. When Trolley Modernization will be implemented is another open question.

This does not seem like a particularly architecturally remarkable or interesting building; reconstructing the original façade will be a nice thing do to, but I'm incapable of feeling or thinking that the developers should have some duty to do so or be beholden to a bunch of busybody preservationists. They should be able to tell the Preservation of Alliance of Philadelphia to just shove their heads up their asses, which is probably where they usually keep them, and built whatever they want.