Observations of a Center City worker
 

I find amusement in the simplest of things...a ongoing collection of Cliff Clavin-esque thoughts of my new work environment (the heart of Center City Philadelphia--16th and Market).

--I've seen the lack of a 13th floor in many hotels. And while our building has a 13th floor (it's one of the 9 floors we currently have at 5 Penn), there is no 14th floor. 13 is the last floor in the first set of elevators, and the next set starts with 15. Weird.

--Thank God I'm on the east side of the building. Being on a lower floor, other buildings easily block out the sun. However, the east side overlooks LOVE Park, which is one of the few open spaces left in Center City. The sun generally pops into my window to say hello around 9 each morning.

--I REALLY feel sorry for those on the south side of the building. Even if you're on 36 (the top floor of our building), you're still dwarfed by One and Two Liberty Place (two of the tallest buildings in the world at 945 and 848 feet, respectively). 5 Penn Center is "only" 490 feet tall.

More later...

I'll bet there *is* a 14th floor, but not for you. Check out the stairwell.;)

Re: Observations of a Center City worker
 

Are you low enough to clearly see the streetfights, gang killings, carjackings and angry homeless folks?

Bruce, can't use the stairwells except in emergencies...the stairwell doors are tied to the alarms.

Slang, the first three incidents occur only very rarely. Not a whole lot of crime in Center City, other than occasional incidents of car vandalism and harrassment by bums. But most of the homeless folks in our area are docile...I haven't seen a really crazy one yet. There only seems to be one permanent one around our building--a mascot, if you will. He tends to hold court in the outside stairway that connects our building and the underground Concourse--haven't seen him harrass anybody yet.

I did see an interesting homeless situation Friday--I was going into the Concourse to go to McDonalds when I saw a homeless guy sleeping right there in the hallway that leads to Four Penn Center and Suburban Station. He wasn't trying to hide himself off to the side or anything...he was just laying there in the hallway, taking a nap in plain sight. Guess he just wanted to get indoors. He wasn't really in the way, and wasn't hurting anybody...plus nobody was giving him any trouble. *shrugs* Leave him be...

I partied up in NYC for Halloween last weekend, and we came across a really odd homeless scene while walking through the village at 4 am.

We saw a homeless guy curled up in an entry way, wrapped in garbage bags and a few old towels. Nothing unusual - until we got closer and saw a woman laying next to him, who was dressed as if she just walked out of the club right next door. Black pants, black shirt, looked pretty clean. We started laughing - I guess if you ever need a place to crash, just find a bum, hook up and make some space on the concrete.

I think the weirdest homeless situation I've seen was last winter, during my first tour of duty for my current employer.

I was walking over to Market East Station to catch a train...I believe it was just before Xmas. It was about 7pm or so, and I see this guy sleeping on top of one of the grates that dot the sidewalk along Market Street. So, there he is, in the middle of the sidewalk at 10th and Market, sleeping on a grate, trying to stay warm. Funny, but really sad. It was rather cold out that night...no one should be on the streets in that kind of weather.

If you're curious you can put something in the window on the 13th and 15th floors the go out in the park and see if they are one over the other or there's a floor in between. My guess is the 14th is for "mechanical systems" and can only be accessed by building maintainence people.

Syc's bullshittin' yah ... every night's news starts with the litany of killin's and woundings.

In fact, as of this past August, the Inky projected highest murder rate since 1998.

Speaking of crime


Some local guy was shot 13 times last friday while picking up his kids for visitation. 13 hits from head to mid torso. I think they rolled him to RPH in a white van, he was soo dead. The x father-in-law was the shooter. By coincidence, he's a new york state asshead.

There goes our near zero violent crime rating. (new yorkers really cant be trusted with handguns anyway)

The problems are the outsiders ... mebbe they should get the militia up there on the border watching fer New Yorkers heading south?

Of course, this is an intra-family crime, and it's likely that father-in-law wasn't just after him for his wallet. There's probably an interesting story there ... no justification, but an interesting story.

Right...usually in North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, Grays Ferry, Southwest Philadelphia, West Oak Lane, Kensington, Logan, Fairmount Park and/or Frankford.

But not very often in Center City. If anything big happens in Center City, it's usually a bank robbery...or lately, the FBI seizing documents from city offices. The PNC Bank at our old building (400 Market St.) seemed to be popular with robbers...but that's Old City.

And you're right...I found that out last week.

I've never seen this anywhere else that I've lived or visited...

I'll be waiting for the train in the morning or in the afternoon, and people will be standing around having conversations--to the point that they seem to be friends. But then, as they get on the train, one will sit down and be like, "Well, I'll talk to you later." The other will say, "Okay, see you later," and head to another part of the train.

Now maybe it's just me...maybe these people are just acquaintances or co-workers or whatever, but this seems to happen a lot--at least on the train I take (SEPTA's commuter train between Center City Philadelphia and Trenton). It's like, "Well, you were good enough to talk to for a bit, but now you need to leave me the fuck alone."

I'm amused by the littlest things...

Philadelphia really needs to change it's nickname from "The City of Brotherly Love" to "The City of Isolated, Morose, Motherfuckers."

But what's the greek for that? "The City of Brotherly Love" isn't really the city's nickname, it's just a literal translation of "Philadelphia".

After you ride the train for awhile you know what car will be closest to the exit you want, when it stops.

As irritated as I get with Philadelphia and its people, I put it in perspective like this:

--I now make over 2 times what I did in my last full-time job in St. Louis.

--I make 40% more than I did when I first moved here in 2000.

--Had I never moved here, I probably would have never found Cellar.

In DC, I knew just where to stand when I would get on the Green Line at West Hyattsville in the morning. And I knew it was best to get in the front car on the ride home, b/c it let you out right by the escalator to the exit.

It's not so easy to do with regional rail here. Perfect example: This morning, the train came in on the inner track. And when it comes in on the inner track, it stops about 15 feet short of its normal stop (b/c you have to board at the wooden planks). But I pretty much know where to stand at night at Suburban Station to assure myself a good seat.

Tonight's commute just sucked though...

I finally scaled my hours back this week (after working over 40 hours a week for the past 5 or 6 weeks), and was waiting for the 5:11 express train to take me home. Well, apparently something happened to it, b/c next thing you know, there's an announcement that it's 20 minutes behind schedule. And the R7 is always packed at rush hour...and now there's going to be a delay into the next train...crowds will begin to mass...people will grow angry...fuck it. A coworker I ride with on occasion and I took the El to Frankford, Rho met us there and took us to our cars at Cornwells.

Maybe I'll drive tomorrow...

2 or 3 mornings a week, I'll stop at the cardiac cart outside our building for breakfast. It's simple yet delicious and fulfilling: A turkey bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and a bottle of chocolate milk, $3.85.

But the best part about getting breakfast is...when I walk up to the cart and they see me, they automatically begin fixing my breakfast. I don't have to say a word. That rules. :)

Think of those clogged arteries ... although turkey bacon is pretty damn tasty.

I got a cheesesteak off the cart at UPenn the other day when I was near Drexel. If I move to Philly next month like I plan to, I'm going to become such a fat shit.

I go through cycles. This week, it'll be 4 days of cart eating. Recently, it's been 2 or 3 days a week. Before the first of the year, it was like once or twice every couple of weeks.

Since my job moved to Center City, I can honestly say that I've never eaten lunch from any of the carts...only breakfast. And there are 4 carts on our block...there were 6 when I first got there in September. When I was down in Old City, I usually ate lunch at the carts at least once every week or 2. (The cart right in front of KYW makes a fairly good cheesesteak...even if he is the Cart Nazi.)