April 23, 2008

Sixers Get Gov. To Rename Highway

Fresh off a stunning win in the first game of their first round series against the Detroit Pistons, the 76ers play Game 2 tonight at 7:30.

And, to celebrate, the 76ers got Gov. Rendell to rename the Schuylkill Expressway "I-76ers":

the team is requesting that travelers in the Greater Philadelphia Region refer to the Schuylkill Expressway by its proper name (I-76) and add "ers" to the end. The team hopes this will spread and people will immediately begin calling the popularly traveled highway "I-76ers."

"It's playoff time and we want to get our fans revved up for the postseason," said Sixers Senior Vice President Lara Price. "As patrons utilize I-76ers every day to get to work, they’ll think of us and support our run in the playoffs."

I-76ers is 25.2 miles of highway that extends from the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Valley Forge through Downtown Philadelphia to the Walt Whitman Bridge.

A friend of mine pointed out the proclamation from Ed Rendell noted the team "faces the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals." This is only the first round of the quarterfinals? Man, the 76ers have been out of the playoffs for so long I forgot over 300 teams qualified for the playoffs.

SIXERS ASK FANS TO PROPERLY CALL “SCHUYLKILL” BY IT’S REAL NAME (“I-76”) AND ADD “ERS” TO THE END FOR FIRST WEEK OF PLAYOFFS [Sixers.com]

Posted by D-Mac at 05:54 PM | Comments (4)

January 12, 2007

I-76 To Be Law-Free Zone?

In just one day, you -- yes, you -- will be able to be ticketed for speeding on the Schuylkill Expressway! Well, you would be able to if anyone was actually able to travel more than 30 miles per hour on that road.

Tomorrow state troopers will begin patrolling for speeders on I-76 in Philadelphia, freeing up Philadelphia police to go stop homicides or something. (Good luck, guys!) The difference is that state cops are the only ones allowed to use radar, and it saves the city something like $6 million a year. State troopers will eventually also begin patrolling I-95 and the Vine Street Expressway by 2008.

The city's police force, of course, isn't happy about being forced to fight actual crime.

The Philadelphia police union opposes the use of state troopers on interstates inside city limits, and plans to file an unfair labor practice action and seek an injunction early next week.

Sweet. There's going to be a chance nobody will be patrolling the road at all, and then we can speed, cheat, lie, steal and sell firecrackers on the Schuylkill without any chance of being caught!

Pa. State Police To Start Patrolling Schuylkill Expressway in Phila. [KYW 1060]

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November 29, 2006

Traffic On I-76 Somehow Gets Worse

Hey, are you just getting in? Then you didn't take the Schuylkill this morning, or else you'd probably still be in Bala Cynywd right now. A crash between a tractor-trailer and (what else) and SUV snarled traffic on the Schuylkill, forcing everyone to get off at Route 202 and then into the King of Prussia Mall parking lot (probably).

Fortunately, no injuries were reported. Also fortunately, you weren't on that road. Or you're reading this via Blackberry.

Fiery Crash Slams Traffic On Schuylkill [NBC 10]
Traffic Alert: Overturned Truck, Car Fire on Schuylkill near Valley Forge Tolls [KYW 1060]

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September 26, 2006

Public Art With Sprinkles And Kreme

Philadelphia public art tends to come in three flavors: Excellent, absolutely hideously awful and Rocky. It runs about 50-50 if you ignore Penn's campus (in which case it shifts heavily in favor of hideously awful).

Regardless of whether you like the clothespin, you'd have to admit that most of the public art in the city is situated so as to attempt to make already nice places look nicer. Actually, I don't know if that's true, but let's assume it is, or else I have to go back and rewrite.

There are a few places in this city uglier than the stretch of I-76 under 30th Street Station. It's ugly, it's dark and it reeks of exhaust. Well, not quite, because at certain times of the day it also reeks of donuts. Sweet, glorious donuts. (It's from the Dunkin Donuts in 30th Street, but I prefer to think of it as some sort of city smell beautification program.)

Still, although it smells nice most of the day, the donut spot still could use a little touching up visually. Phillyblog user wysong comes through in the clutch:

So, my friend and I were talking about this Amy Guttman talk tonite about linking Center City and Univ City. I mentioned how the city should install some linear public art along the schuylkill exp. where it runs under 30 st. sta. and the post office in order to make it look nicer from the river trail and tie the banks together. So she said, "how bout an interpretation of the donut smell on the exp - wafting little donuts on breeze-like swirls". so i photoshopped a crude drawing in 15 minutes and voila.

The finished product, an edited photo from phillyskyline (click to enlarge):

Love it. I'm not much for activism over here, but I urge you write to your lawmakers and demand this be built immediately.

Interpretive Donut Art [Phillyblog]

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May 02, 2006

Get Your Kicks On I-76

I haven't checked in on everyone's favorite consumer advocacy columnist, Herb Denenberg, in a while, so I figured it was time for a look-see.

Today, The Evening Bulletin scribe laments the quality of local television news with the standard cracks: the coverage is slanted toward fire, weather, murder, etc.; you don't learn as much from watching a newscast as you do as reading a newspaper; they bow to advertisers and so forth. Oh, he also says TV news attracts the stupid.

It's a long tradition of print writers to hold television journalists in contempt. It's also a long tradition of alt-weekly writers to hold everyone in contempt. It's a shorter, but no less firmly held, tradition for bloggers to... shit. I don't really know what we do. Perhaps we're in the same boat as alt-weekly writers.

Anyway, either way, yes, I don't necessarily disagree with anything Denenberg wrote today, but I must take umbrage with this passage:

I remember when the Schuylkill Expressway was being partially closed for repair. The station I was at then hyped the story to give the impression that there would be near universal gridlock and a collapse of the transportation system as a result. In fact, the closure created hardly a stir and everyone got to where they wanted to go very nicely.

No. Just no. You can't go drive through a construction-free Schuylkill at 3 a.m. without feeling as if you could kill every other driver around you and it would be justifiable homicide. No way construction suddenly makes everything peachy keen all of a sudden.

The Slow Death Of Local TV News [The Evening Bulletin]

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January 23, 2006

Monday + Rain = MAYHEM!

If there's weather in this town, people are clearly going to go crazy. When it snows, people buy up all the bread in the ACME. When it's 100 degrees, people act as if they're on the surface of the sun. And when it rains, people drive like a newly-licensed 16-year-old at the wheel of a Corvette.

As such, the morning rush hour is a disaster! The westbound Schuylkill Expressway is closed in Center City and there's a gaper delay on the eastbound side (in addition to the usual traffic). According to TV (Good Day Philadelphia, natch), there are "big tow trucks." Let's hope they open it before 8:15 p.m. this time.

Additionally, South Street between the bridge and 27th Street is closed due to a "giant hole." Hooray for weather!

Schuylkill Closed, Rain And Icy Mix Falling [NBC 10]
Jan. 18: Apocalypse Philadelphia: The Xylene Spill

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