2004-03-18 - 10:22 a.m.
Shoplifters Of The World, UNITE
It's very dispiriting to live in a city obsessed with sucking. Philadelphia has done it once again. After re-electing a snoozer of a bureaucrat, losing the latest Super Bowl bid, and continuing to chase away residents and business leaders alike with outrageous taxes, you'd think it couldn't get any worse. Well, it just did.
Philly's proud unions got press twice this week. Once for barely averting yet another transit strike. The second, and most embarassingly public incident involved, of all things, The Real World. Seems producers of everyone's favorite early 20s drunken whore travel monologue show were fed up with union protests and just left town. They took with them millions of dollars in revenues for the city and priceless PR. Yeah, it pretty much sucks.
While I wasn't looking forward to having their new sure-to-be syphylitic, alcoholic and illegally-inclined cast barfing all over the sidewalks of Olde City, I wanted that exposure for the city. Every season showcases the cool things about the city they are living in, and there are few places that need that kind of sweetheart treatment the way Philly does. Now that has been lost, years of work by the local film people erased in four days by union reps with a thuggish entitlement mentality.
Philly thinks of itself as a loser city, and it's this deep-seated fixation on the pursuit of mediocrity that will always stand in its way. This is a great town with a lot of fun, interesting, vital elements in it. No one on the outside can see that though. The town manages to get press, sure, but Philly always manages to screw things up on the national stage. The local obsession with "the way things are done in Philly" and keeping the status quo continues to ruin the future. And our reputation as a mean town was confirmed again this week as every report I read about the new Eagles guy, Terrell Owens, mentioned how terrible the fans are. Great press guys!
I'm going to rant a little about the unions. I agree that they once served their purpose, and still do in some cases. But not here. The local unions involved with real estate development and construction in this town are a veritable mafia, dedicated to stalling progress. They do everything possible to make it difficult to do business here. They have been the cause of more than just MTV boycotts.
The convention center issue hits home for me, as dealing with the various unions meant headaches for my small, two-hour reception that were utterly ridiculous. Not being able to hang my own signs, having the coat check person's union rep flip over some schedule thing, and then having union members asking me for free Flower Show tickets and pens at the event they were working at? Unprofessional doesn't even begin to cover it.
As the granddaughter of Teamsters, this is a weird position for me to take, but I think unions are too powerful now. There is no law that a company doing business has to necessarily hire union, and in making business harder to complete, they are only encouraging it to go elsewhere. You'd think that on a small job such as renovating a little building, they would let the non-union preference of an out-of-town production company slide. Especially when other big union towns like New York, Boston and Chicago had done the same. For the good of Philadelphia. Hell, for the future of their union wages on gigs brought in by the exposure. But no, they couldn't do that. They had to protest over a tiny job that was almost done. And with this stunning failure, now word has surfaced of other productions that the city has lost for related reasons.
And where was our great mayor during all of this? Nowhere. Because no one loves the status quo quite like John Street. Even in the aftermath he seems to be in a fog and unwilling to address the union cause. As a lame duck, you'd think he would at least have some cojones and try to make a positive change for the future. But no. Philly wants to forever stay in the basement of major American cities, the drunken, foul-mouthed uncle you didn't want to invite in the first place who plays craps outside your wedding reception and cheats your new in-laws, triggering a massive brawl during the cake cutting. I'm sick of it.
You know, eventually Philly is going to stop hemmoraging good citizens and businesses. Why? There won't be any of us left to bleed.
Dream Watch 2003: More Sopranos nonsense. Why aren't any other compelling shows on right now? I'd rather dream about The O.C.!
What I'm Listening To: Preston School of Industry. Mopey emo stuff, perfect for this crap blizzard weather.
What I'm Reading: Reports on bombings and shooting and ambushes in Iraq. Can we take a freakin' holiday from the violence people? Killing innocents is not what anyone's idea of God is about. Do something constructive, like participate in the rebuilding of your country. And foreigners causing trouble should take a hike. The Iraqi people are having enough troubles without you blowing them up indiscriminately to make a point about the US.
What I'm Watching: Gilmore Girls. It's a good show, but Lorelai needs to bring the stream of consciousness babbling down a notch. I don't really laugh at loud while watching it, but it's charming enough. The parents are the best part. Emily and Richard Gilmore rule!
