I’m downtown for the Broad Street Party and have spotted my first pole climber. #Phillies
Crowd still letting traffic by, barely. 😂
Tracey Ulrich-Matalon, 57, of South Philly, wasn’t living in the area in 2008, so this is her first Broad Street celebration in decades. She’s with her fam.
“This is Philly, this is brotherly love. Cities are going through a lot but it’s nice we can celebrate sports together.”
Keep dancing, Philly, but with each other now. You’ve earned it.
They are out here burning and ripping Padres rally towels in the middle of Broad Street. Also, do not sleep on this guy’s pants. They light up.
The puddles here are giving me festival flash backs. There are going to be a lot of wet people by the end of the night.
Maria Anderson, 37, of SW Philly drove her husband to work at the Double Tree tonight and got stuck in the party.
“It’s ok, I already cooked dinner and there’s plenty of love down here,” she said. “It’s nice.”
While she doesn’t follow the Phillies, “I am a fan of Philly.”
The party was going on just as hard outside City Hall, where people were chugging liquor bottles, doing the worm, and men in suits partied it up with fans in every Philly sports team jersey imaginable.
At one point, the crowd circled around trombone player, but drum beats soon stole their attention. A man parted the crowd and a drum line marched through. Picking up the rear was Philly Elmo. The party was officially underway.
Service has been really spotty in the crowd so bear with me if there are long pauses.
Cops are giving fist bumps to fans out here.
Sound on for the sound of Philly right now.
Fans are climbing Penske trucks and scaffolding. The driver was honking in celebration too until the cops told him to stop.
People in black ties at the Union League looking at the crowd. A clown gets dressed to join the party.
Dogs in Phillies jerseys appreciation thread.
Officer watching pole climber come down. Cops are generally being hands off not bothering people for open containers or pole climbing.
These sisters, Adele & Judy, left a black tie wedding at the Union League to join the party on Broad Street.
“We’d rather be here!! This is the best I’ve ever seen it for just the penant. It’s like the already won the freaking World Series. It’s wonderful to live through this!”
Someone’s in the street singing “I Want to Dance with Somebody.” ❤️
This guy has been atop the light pole at Broad and Sansom for at least 20 minutes and has caught and shotgunned at least seven beers. Cops are waiting for him below. Crowd is egging him on.
Police took one person in custody. I can’t be sure but it may have been for throwing a can to the guy atop the pole. Lots of them are going wayward at fast speeds.
Dedicated Fetterman staffer/volunteer out here handing out “Phillies fans for Fetterman” campaign signs.
“I’ll take one,” one guy said. “The only doctor we believe in around here is Dr. J!”
Cops blocking off crowd at Broad and Chestnut. At least 100 with mounted units behind them.
Cops now moving the crowd down South Broad. Fans shouting “Hold the line!” but are generally getting out of the way.
Cops forcing the crowd down South Broad past Walnut now.
Broad and Locust. Philly - thank your sanitation workers tomorrow.
Someone shouting at cops pushing crowds back: “This is not what Bryce Harper wants!”
Cop: “I train all day for this sh—.”
Philadelphian: “Yeah? What gym you go to?”
Just saw cops take a woman in custody. Not sure what for, but it may have been for not moving when they pushed the line.
Crowds seem to have been dispersed on South Broad. That’s it for me for the night. Thanks to those who followed along. Go Phils! Go Philly!
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Two weeks ago, I posted a thread on Twitter about a Philly community center that found a locked mystery safe and needed help (for free) getting it opened.
Today, because of the help of lots of awesome Philadelphians, the safe was cracked open and I was there (a thread)
The tip about the safe came to me from my colleague @ByChrisBrennan, who saw the Old Pine Community Center post about it on Nextdoor & sent the post my way.
"Saw this on the Nextdoor app and immediately wondered what a Farr report about this would read like," he wrote me.
I called the center's executive director, Mark Atwood, who told me they'd sought locksmiths to open the safe, but all estimates were out of their price range.
I offered to put the word out on Philly Twitter to see if they could find a volunteer. Atwood approved.
They were able to connect with people (keeping the who on the DL for the moment) to open the safe as a result of someone seeing my previous thread and DMing me a suggestion so yay for Philly Twitter!!!
Updates to come.
I feel like I should maybe bring a fake mustache with me in case I turn out to be Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's empty vault.
A Philly community center has an old-fashioned mystery on their hands and they're seeking someone in the Philly area with the knowledge and devices (blow torches? industrial drills?) who would be willing to volunteer their time to bust open a safe (a thread):
Staff at the community center (which for now shall go unnamed so people don't show up at their door with blow torches) discovered the safe in the back of a closet last month. Nobody knows how long it has been there. It'd been turned around so people couldn't see the front...
....so nobody knew it was a safe. They just assumed it was a rusted mechanical device with wheels they couldn't move for many years.
But when a junk removal company came in & a very large man finally got it to budge, the staff realized they had a mystery safe on their hands.
I’m at the @TheFranklin’s media event announcement for the Harry Potter exhibit and we all had to choose a house scarf when we registered and this may be the best media check in ever.
Benny F is already watching out for a little magic.
As promised, I'm going to do a thread of some of the amazing things I couldn't squeeze into Tom Garvey's incredible story of how he lived inside an abandoned concession stand at Veterans Stadium for three years. So hold on to your butts, here we go:
While Tom did initially keep the apartment a secret, as the years passed he'd share his story with friends and strangers whenever the Vet came up in conversation.
But very few people believed him.
"If I was telling a total stranger about this at the beer distributor, after a while I could see it doesn’t hold up against reality," he said. "I’d look at their faces & see the incredulity. I get it. I wouldn’t believe it either."
Adam McNeil, 34, rents out entire laundromats to allow Black Philly moms to do their family's clothes for free, and he gave away 25,000 diapers, 2 fridges and 2 sets of washers & dryers to Black Philly moms in the last six months alone (a thread):
Here’s the thing about about McNeil's program, SistaTalkPHL: It doesn’t have a fancy executive board or big donors — it’s just got McNeil, his unemployment checks, and donations from people who believe in his grassroots work.
McNeil himself has a hell of a story, having spent nearly a decade of his life in prison and having survived getting into a near-death car wreck.
"I have taken so much in my life," he told me. "Now, I just want to give."