Raises in a time of recession

It was a busy October, and nothing has really caught my attention quite like the current SEPTA strike, which has left all city buses, trolleys and subways inactive. Fortunately for me, I either ride my bike or walk pretty much everywhere, and have a car for when I need to travel longer distances. But for anyone within the city itself, sans car or bike (i.e. the elderly, students, many young professionals), you're pretty much out of luck. This is shocking to me on multiple levels. First, after visiting New York City this weekend, I can't help but think that something like this would NEVER happen there, or in most major cities. Not in a million years. It is unfathomable that an entire public transportation system could shut down in the middle of the night, with hardly any warning.

But more unfathomable are the circumstances surrounding WHY services are being shut down. According to several reports, the average SEPTA salary after four years is about $52,000. Maybe I don't know about all of the qualifications that go into becoming a SEPTA employee, but I'm pretty sure that there aren't a whole lot. So, these workers are making about $4,333 per month, I assume pre-tax. That's nearly $25 per hour, and they turned down an 11% salary increase. I am sure that each position has its ups and downs and drivers would say that they have the toughest jobs, dealing with riders, and mechanics would say that theirs are the hardest, doing more manual labor. But come on. I just did the math and see that I make less than $12 per hour as a graduate student, working at least 40 hours per week, no over-time, and I will never have the opportunity to make more than that. There is no union and there are no raises. The federal government said, "This is how much money we will give to your university for student stipends, and you will allocate it accordingly." Period. There is no strike, you just learn to live within your means.

You could say that maybe I should get a better-paying job. Heck, work for SEPTA, as I would currently make more money. But the real issue here is that people are unwilling to accept the fact that we are in a recession. With NYTimes headlines stating that Ford just cited huge quarterly earnings, it's not surprising. People think that they're making money again. But call your credit card company. Interest rates are still high, it's impossible to get once-standard fee reversals, investments are still floundering. How could people possibly think that it's time to ask for a raise? And if SEPTA has the money, if definitely shouldn't be going to its workers.

Ring in the New Fall

Holy god, it's already First Friday again and I am wondering: where did the last month go?... because, for better or for worse, I remember very little of it. This will probably be the last good First Friday (September's was amazing) since it's going to start getting cold outside, so I would check that out if I were you. Then, on Saturday, I would check out the Fall Fest on Sansom Street. I went last year and it was a really good time. Pretty sure there was cheap beer being sold (or even given away?) on the street.

Taking over Philly one signpost at a time

The picture out front of the Khyber on Friday night after the Barred for Life Alley cat/ Fun ride. Pretty amazing utilization of one signpost for about a dozen bikes. I was obviously across the street in my black cut-off denim jacket.

This Is Only a Test

There he is. Mayor Nutter inaugurating the new bike lane on Pine Street yesterday as he made his way to work in the morning. Since Sunday, I have gotten a better feel for the lanes, and have mixed feelings. Yesterday morning in Old City they were great to ride on--hardly any cars driving in them. Then came the 5 o'clock rush hour near Broad Street, and that was a totally different story. Cars drove in the lanes like they weren't even there, and one cabbie even yelled out, "This is not a bike lane!"... which it was. I will just never understand why drivers are so aggressive in this city. Actually, as someone you does totally run that yellow light when I happen to drive, I take that back. It's because I can. Plain and simple. I know that there will be no consequences, so I do it. I wish that someone, somewhere out there would start ticketing for these traffic offenses because they just make things less safe for everyone, pedestrians and other drivers included. Check back in November as the city assesses this pilot program and decides its ultimate fate.

Know Your Neighborhood

Just picked up one of these for the new, currently unspecified, apartment. The company who prints these, Ork Posters, has produced maps for all the big, liberal U.S. cities, so you'll probably find your hometown, or your future hometown. There's also a print of my favorite organ, the heart, that's totally awesome. Christmas present, please.

A Place to Call My Bike Lane

I must say, I'm a little shocked. As I continue to hear mixed stories about the status of the budget, I never thought that the city would go through with its plan to install across-town bike lanes on Spruce and Pine Streets. And yet tonight, as I found myself walking through Center City, I saw the lines. Two solid white lines painted down the right side of Spruce Street. It took me a good 10 minutes and so much staring that I walked straight into a pile of sidewalk dog excrement in order to figure it out. The middle line is simply covering what used to be the dashed line separating the two lanes of automobile traffic, with about two feet between that and the line delineating the bike lane.

Why this middle line was painted I can only guess, because line removal seems so much more appropriate. And sadly, though not at all surprisingly, it appears that drivers have already taken it upon themselves to make the bike lane into another lane of parking, leaving the maybe 2-foot "buffer lane," containing no markers, to its left. I really, really hope that it was not planned this way because having ridden in this pseudo-lane tonight, it felt about 10 times less safe than before. Now, rather than being entitled to an entire lane of the road, a biker is expected to fit between 2 lanes of cars, in an absurdly narrow space.

I looked into the requirements for bike lane width and there doesn't seem to be any government standard, just some suggestions presented in reports by various nonprofit organizations. The typical bike lane width is set at 5 feet, which is likely the width of the lane I saw tonight. But the "buffer lane" to its left was just absolutely no where near what is necessary. The width of combined parking and bike lanes is suggested to be 12 or 13 feet, though I would guess that the one the city has created is maybe 8. I honestly just see really bad things happening for bikers who feel pressured to stay in that lane when cars are parked in the true bike lane, being jammed between cars moving at regular speed and stationary vehicles, whose doors could open out onto them at any time. We'll see what happens once more signs go up and they finish painting the little stick figure bicycle men into the lanes, but right now I'd say someone really jumped the gun on this one.

Grab a lawn chair, a drink and some sod

Let's hope for some sun tomorrow during Philly's second installation of Park(ing) Day, a national event whose aim is to raise awareness of the need for green space in urban areas. To get their point across, area businesses and advocacy groups will be setting up their own parks along the curbs of some of the city's most traveled blocks. This year there will be 33 different stops throughout the city, including PennDesign City Planning (3400 block of Walnut St.), several architectural firms (900 block of Walnut St., 1218 Arch St.) and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (20th & Arch Sts.). Despite the worthy message, it's impossible to tell what sort of effect this type of thing actually has, but hey, I'm going to make the rounds because that's a really nice logo they have there.