Posted on 06/30/2007 8:12:14 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By RUBINA MADAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 29, 7:18 PM ET
[Philadelphia, PA] -- Mayor John F. Street was among the first to get a coveted iPhone on Friday, waiting in line, on and off, for almost 15 hours and forced to defend the effort when a passer-by asked about the city's skyrocketing murder rate.
Street, who said he had been waiting in line outside a downtown AT&T store since 3:30 a.m., was among the first group to enter the store when the high-tech device officially went on sale at 6 p.m. He paid for his new phone with a credit card amid a scrum of media.
"It was worth the wait," Street said. "I'm a gadget guy."
The mayor said he was excited to get the phone. "If it works as good as it looks ... ," he said, his voice trailing off.
When he left the store, Street held the phone above his head to the cheers of about 100 people still in line. He then headed home to activate the phone.
The mayor said the iPhone replaces a top-of-the-line BlackBerry phone he purchased just three months ago.
Street's wait on the sidewalk outside the store was anything but uneventful. He wore large Bose headphones hooked up to an iPod Nano one of three iPods he owns around his neck while seated on a lawn chair.
He left his spot around 11:30 a.m., soon after a 22-year-old man sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?"
The mayor replied: "I'm doing my job."
Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for the cell phones to go on sale, though he said he would to step out to make some appearances. He returned to his spot briefly around 2 p.m., then again at about 4 p.m.
He spent the last hour walking up and down the line talking to the others waiting to buy the iPhone.
The mayor said he decided he wanted the new device because he loves trying out the newest technology. Already he has several computers and cell phones.
"It's just reflective of the changes that are taking place," Street said. "I used to sell encyclopedias. Now I have Google as my encyclopedia."
He said the new handheld technology would allow him to work some of the day outside of the office.
Art student Christian Hain, 19, said Street had every right to wait in line for the iPhone.
"He's not a robot. He can't be expected to work every waking moment," Hain said.
Leonard F. Johnson, 77, who got in line at 6 a.m. Thursday, said he was annoyed when some people passing by asked the mayor if he was taking a day off.
"Are they checking on him every day to see if he's at his desk 9 to 5?"
Larry West, the man who approached the mayor, returned at 3:15 p.m. to protest Street's actions only to find the mayor wasn't in line.
"In this climate, at this time in this city, you shouldn't be waiting in line for a phone," West said.
Philadelphia recently had its 200th slaying of the year. The city's murder rate is up from last year, the deadliest in nearly a decade.
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
Ha! Ha!
See a news video of Mayor Street confronted by hard working, tax paying, Philly residents!
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=952695&cl=3202261&src=news
City of Brotherly Love bump!
Frankly, I can’t get too worked up about this. If the guy wants to wait in line for an iPhone, big whoop. He’s right that these days you can transact business pretty much anywhere. At least he’s not one of those elites who’d have a city-paid “assistant” waiting in line for him. Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Del Gadillo comes to mind.
Why can’t he sit there? If it were up to me, Americans would see a lot more of their representatives. Because I would ban all travel using luxury means. Reps should be required to take the subways, buses and commercial air in coach seats.
And out come the apologists.
I’m sorry but he is a grown man, the mayor of a major city with a skyrocketing crime rate and he sits in line all day for a FREAKIN’ TOY, like some kind of addict.
I’m with you.
Street listens to his iPod while Philadelphia burns.
Apparently, neither of you have ever managed anything. Competent managers set the aganda, delegate responsibilities, and remain available for contact re developments.
No doubt, the Mayor had his Blackberry with him. IOW, he was effectively "at work" while standing in line.
Your disdain for Apple and its latest development is very thinly veiled, indeed. Grow up.
People are getting what they voted for, where’s the beef?
“Your disdain for Apple and its latest development is very thinly veiled, indeed. Grow up.”
“Thinly veiled?” I’m not working hard enough, then. What’s not thinly veiled and quite obvious is the obsessive cult-worship some people have for any toy with a lower case ‘i” in front of it.
Funny you suggest I “grow up” when I chastise a grown man, an elected official on the taxpayer’s dime, for sitting in line all day waiting for a toy.
For you info, I recently started a property management company, which I care about. I prefer to be there because I actually give a damn, unlike this POS “mayor”.
Could have used that toy time to work on an answer for the skyhigh crime rate in Phila.
I guess the toy was more important, just like the law about serving tras fat.
I don’t think he would have a positive outcome on this no matter what he did. If he sent one of his staffers out to stand in line, he would be criticized for that. I guess he was in a no win situation. Mayors have the right to have some time off. Did he work the past Saturday to take the day off. He may have. I know I will be blasted because he is a democrat but these stories are just ridiculous. Now we have nonstop coverage about Romney and his dog on top of the car in 1980’s.
ping
Well, then he could go to a ball game every time the Phillies are at home and do city business there. On the off game days, he could go to a bar and conduct city business there. Hell, he could go to the Bahamas, sit on the beach and send his 40 emails from there.
But you’d vote for him...again, wouldn’t you? Anyone but a conservative.
This country is becoming more and more an Idiocracy.
Story left out the part about the two policemen Street had saving his spot in line in the middle of the night.
“He said the new handheld technology would allow him to work some of the day outside of the office.”
What? No laptops in Philly?
I guess it would be totally unreasonable to suggest that he just wait a couple of weeks when he could walk right into the store and buy his Iphone in about 5 minutes.
Philadelphia has a legendary antipathy toward entertainers and athletes, but for the political class which is the lowest of the low, they are pushovers. Cheering a political hack buying a iIphone, somewhere Chwissy Mathews is smiling. Philadelphia ain't my kind of town.
Yeah.. riggghhhhttttt...
Give up the Blackberry, which is a fully functional PDA with the ability to synchronize email, calendars, contact and tasks with the city's systems to keep him connected and up to date and effectively do his job, with an iPhone which, while a cool gadget, will get his POP3 email if he's lucky? Yeah, that will be a good trade off.
Come to think of it, if only we could get Congress to waste more of their time waiting in line for gadgets, then they won’t be passing any stupid laws.
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