Philadelphia is the new Brooklyn

Now before I give a little out shout out to all my wonderful fellow bloggers that I met tonight at the brew pub - aka name dropping and trackback hunting - forgive me while I rant for a moment about the travesty of public transportation that is the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

The problems of the system are well documented so I won't go into them here. However, why on a Wednesday night is it nearly impossible for me to get on the Market Frankford El from the most central location in the city? I left the bar and headed down to the station only to be confronted by locked doors and closed barriers. After backtracking several times and resurfacing to the street to go in another entrance, I finally I dropped my token in the slot (very analog) and managed to get on a train heading home. Now I ride the subway every day, so despite the annoyances this entire adventure wasn't too difficult. But for a new rider of the train, or a visitor to our city - like Jake - this would have been nearly impossible. I know there are a multitude of problems plaguing SEPTA from simple mismanagement to naked hostility from the Republican lawmakers who rule the state senate, but do we have to also be plagued by locked doors and poor signage?

phew.

Anyway, lots of fun was had, quite a few beers were drank, and a nice little list of URLs was typed into my Treo at last night's Phillyist and Philly Blogger Meetups. I got to meet Karl from Philly Future, Albert from DragonBallYee, Mark from The Long Cut, Scott from Blank Baby, Becky from Good Grief, Howard from the smedley log, Dan from Blinq, and many others whose names were wiped away in a torrent of Gothamist purchased beer. Can't wait to do it again.