Ya know - I've waited in line for tickets to concerts. I've slept in freezing rain with either bottles of Southern Comfort or with female friends to stay warm.
For once in a lifetime events.
Like umm... the first day showing of Star Wars A Phantom Menace (sleeping out - great - the damn movie....).
But for the purchase of a consumer device? Something that will be in stores most likely the next day?
Part of me doesn't blame my fellow geeks, I have techno-lust for the iPhone as well. I mean, damn this will rock. And we have the Apple geek here in Philly. And let's be honest, the chance to hang out with so many folks of like mind is fun (hence the sleeping out for tickets) - it's a straight up cultural event (I guess that qualifies it as a once in a lifetime event doesn't it?).
But for a Mayor of a city - which is in crisis - it seems irresponsible at best. Unattached to the concerns of his city at worst. And a straight up slap in the face to fellow city workers who can neither afford such a device, nor be permitted such liberties with their schedule to purchase one.
Good going Mayor Street. You always make Philadelphia proud and are a shining example of leadership for us all to follow.
Inquirer: Street to critics: Hold the phone!:
Mayor Street, a self-described gadget lover, was so keen to get his hands on Apple's much-hyped new iPhone that he parked himself outside a Center City store at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. Only two other enthusiasts got there ahead of him - for an item that wasn't to go on sale until 6 p.m.It didn't take long before passersby and nearly every media outlet in the city began to ask: Shouldn't the mayor have something more important to do?
"With all due respect, what the hell are you doing?" a WYSP radio host asked the mayor in an on-air interview. "Seriously. You're the mayor of Philadelphia. You're standing in line for a toy, basically."
And that from a guy who calls himself Vinnie the Crumb.
Street seemed stunned by both the extent of the media interest and the negative reactions. He said he had been working throughout the day from the alley, using his Blackberry to write e-mails to his chief of staff and to call City Council members.
"For those people who say, 'Why isn't the mayor at work?', they fundamentally don't know how work is done in the 21st century, with all these communication devices," Street said as he waited outside the shop at 16th and Ranstead Streets.
"This is not a whole lot different then if I were doing some neighborhood activity and not in City Hall. I'm in touch then and I'm in touch now."
Street's fellow technophiles agreed. Most of those waiting in line with him praised his interest in technology.
But they were in the minority. Most Philadelphians interviewed yesterday seemed to think that the mayor's cell-phone vigil trivialized the problems confronting the city, such as the surge in murders, now at 200 for the year.
Several criticized Street in person. One was Barbara Jendrzejewska, a 61-year-old retired Law Department clerk from Port Richmond, who weighed in as she walked past him.
"When I was working for the city," she sniffed, "I would have been fired if I left the building to go to the Dollar Store."
