Why you shouldn’t find love on SEPTA

Keith Collins might be an angry nerd, but he isn’t bitter toward love, just love found on a subway.

So many stories come out of Philadelphians’ SEPTA woes. But this Valentine’s Day, SEPTA must have been sick of hearing about the hammer attacks, stabbings over iPhones and transit police shootings. So, to lighten the mood a bit, they asked to hear your SEPTA love stories.

That’s right – the beloved people who run our fast, efficient public transportation system here in Philadelphia put together a Valentine’s Day contest. Since there are undoubtedly so many whose love first blossomed while packed like sardines into a hollow metal tube and engulfed by the lovely aroma of urine, this contest was necessary to sift through to find the very best love stories.

Appropriately, the contestants with the best stories will be stuffed into the Market-Frankford El and whisked through the most gorgeous section of West Philly on a subway train covered in the most awesome Valentine’s Day decorations imaginable. And I’m sure that at least for this occasion, the train will smell significantly less like armpits than usual. Afterward, the train will unload these lucky souls into a champagne reception, where the best of the best couples will be reveled and toasted. Because honestly, what could be more romantic than being toasted by a room full of SEPTA teamsters? Nothing I can think of.

In its infinite ingenuity, SEPTA named the contest “Moving Love Stories.” Get it? Because love stories are moving, and SEPTA vehicles move. Well, they move as long as the union isn’t on strike, and there isn’t a “snowpocalypse.” They move as long as all passengers have paid an ever-increasing amount of money for the off chance they’ll actually find a seat aboard a SEPTA vehicle. They move, but they might be a bit late.

All right, so maybe the contest should really have been named “Love Stories that are Unreliable and Expensive but Sometimes Moving.” Or how about, “Love Stories Dependent upon Whether the Transport Workers Union Local 234 Are Satisfied with Their Wages and Benefits”? But the best title I can think of to really capture the essence of this contest is, “Women Who’ve Met Men Aboard SEPTA and Weren’t Completely Creeped Out.”

Seriously, do we really need to be reassuring Philadelphians that the bus is an appropriate place to strike up a conversation with people they find attractive? Or stand awkwardly close to them on the subway? Or relentlessly hit on them on the Regional Rail? Sure, what everyone needs is a lot more insane people hoping to find love aboard SEPTA.

This really is the message being sent. They don’t want us to think about what SEPTA is in real life. They want us to think of it as the new coffee shop. They are saying, “Hey, if you’re having trouble finding a date for Valentine’s Day, now is the time to ride SEPTA. You might just meet someone who won’t try to sell you a pirated copy of Avatar.”

Keith Collins can be reached at keith.collins@temple.edu.

They found love on SEPTA

SEPTA wanted to know who found love while riding the trains. With its contest, SEPTA found that the Temple University train platform might be the new place to find the love of your life.

For some Temple students, finding a Valentine this year was as easy as riding the bus.

The age-old proverb says love happens when you least expect it. Sure, this cliché has proven true on the silver screen, but what if you met your soul mate on an everyday commute or weekend trip into Center City on a SEPTA vehicle?

Occurrences like these are surprisingly not rare. While the neon orange décor and fluorescent light fixtures do not evoke images from The Love Boat, scores of SEPTA users have reported finding someone special on the subway, Regional Rail, trolley or bus lines.

In January, SEPTA announced a contest to shed light on these love stories. Known as “Moving Love Stories,” the contest requires riders to submit their stories about finding Mr. or Ms. “Right,” or “Right Now,” or even reigniting a former flame while in transit.

SEPTA’s spokeswoman Jerria Williams said the judges wanted the most original, romantic or heart-warming stories.

The 14 “Moving Love” winners were announced Feb. 6. They will receive a ride on Feb. 14’s “Love Train,” which will be decked out in Valentine’s Day decorations, courtesy of the Mural Arts Program. The train will ride past the Love Letter project in West Philadelphia. A reception for the winners will follow.

One of the winning couples first caught eyes at the Regional Rail’s Temple station. Jared Remer, a 24-year-old senior American studies major, saw his now-sweetheart Gabby Shlyapok, a 24-year-old public health major, on the outbound side of the R3 to West Trenton last September.

For weeks, Remer only stared from afar and could not muster the courage to introduce himself.
In October, weary from the situation, Remer knew he had to act soon, he said, if he wanted romance to spark. Shylapok beat him to the punch.

“She definitely tested my masculinity,” Remer said. As she exited the R3 at her usual stop, Shylapok passed him a note that said, “Say ‘hi’” and gave Remer her phone number.

“The rest is history,” Remer’s submission letter read. The two went on several dates throughout the month, sharinga hot coffees and cold beers.

“The relationship grew serious around the holidays,” he said.

“I never thought I’d meet someone at Temple, or on a train, for that matter,” Remer said. “When we tell people how we met, they definitely find it unique, but they also tend to appreciate that uniqueness.”

Other Temple students have also confessed to finding romance on the train, like Naomi (whose name has been changed), who has been dating her SEPTA sweetheart for five years. Between the Broad Street Line’s Oregon and Spring Garden stops, she “kept shooting him looks and coy little smiles” but felt nervous, she said, as she was only in high school and he was a student at the Community College of Philadelphia.

They fatefully exited the train at the same stop, and she rushed to keep up with the 6-foot-3-inch hunk, “just to be near him.” When he finally noticed Naomi, his greeting – “Yo!” – turned her off, but she knew there was something special about him and went for it. Both eventually ended up as Temple students and are still happily in love.

Freshman pre-medicine major Rich Shur also has a smoldering love story that began on the R5 with a beautiful girl holding a birdcage. He said the finches’ sweet song directed his attention to her and eventually engaged her in conversation.

“Our romance blossomed during that ride,” he said. But like their ride on the R5, their short-lived romance came to an end, leaving Shur with only fond memories.

Sophomore sociology major Matt Lachs said he owes Temple’s half-time success to his lucky train ride. Halfway through the Temple’s game at Villanova, Lachs hopped on the northbound train back to Temple. There, he met two fellow female classmates. One gave him “a very good kiss goodnight at Girard,” he said.

Both students agreed to leave their romance on the train and have not seen each other since, but neither one of them harbors hard feelings, Lachs said.

Not all Temple students are so open-minded.

“Oh, I’ve found cute boys,” freshman film major Bridget Siegfried said, “but I don’t feel comfortable approaching them on the train.”

“If it’s true love, the circumstances of how you meet don’t matter,” said Stephanie Catrambone, a freshman French major. “Personally, I wouldn’t be open to the idea of starting a relationship with somebody who sat across from me [on SEPTA].”

Perhaps some people are destined to find their other half online at Match.com, at McFadden’s singles’ night or in the office. Maybe finding that someone special will take weeks and endless compatibility reports. But for a lucky few, love only requires two tokens and a destination. The rest is an adventure.
SEPTA will post all 14 stories on its Web site Feb. 10.

Alexis Sachdev can be reached at asachdev@temple.edu.

Midnight strike

After six days, the SEPTA strike ended just as it began – in an abrupt overnight decision.

In its third strike in just more than a decade, the approximately 5,000 members of the city’s Transportation Workers Union Local 234 halted work last week and with it, nearly all of the city’s trolley, subway and bus lines.

Today marks one week since the largely unanticipated move took effect at 3 a.m. Nov. 3, exposing deep and bitter rifts between SEPTA management and TWA members over workers’ contracts.

They reached a tentative agreement early Monday and went back to work for the morning commute.

Mayor Nutter’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the resolution.

Many Philadelphians were unprepared last Tuesday morning when they woke to learn most public transportation lines would not be running, forcing them to rapidly make other arrangements for their morning commutes. Although Regional Rail lines remained in operation, SEPTA reported widespread overcrowding and delays.

The union’s tactics and apparent lack of cooperation had those at City Hall livid.

“It’s very disappointing that the union leadership would walk away from negotiations at a time when other Philadelphians are losing their jobs … taking pay cuts, taking furlough days and worrying about losing their pensions,” Luke Butler, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said shortly after the strike began.

“To inconvenience their fellow Philadelphians, who are trying to get to work or get around the city, in such a way is, frankly, outrageous,” he added.

Butler said the city offered what it considered to be a “very fair” package Nov. 2. While wages would not be increased this year, the contract included a $1,250 signing bonus for all TWU members. Annual raises, meanwhile, would have resumed next year, ultimately amounting to an 11 percent increase over the contract’s five-year duration.

The average SEPTA worker earns $52,000 annually, according to an Associated Press report. The report did not, however, offer a figure on annual TWU members’ salaries, as opposed to non-union workers.

The deal provided for increased pension spending, although it would have had workers increase their contributions to the fund. All this would have taken place without any increase in healthcare charges, which currently account for 1 percent of each member’s salary.

But TWU President Willie Brown apparently found these terms unacceptable. The strike began three hours after he walked out on contract negotiations. Those hoping for a quick resolution lost an ally Sunday, with Gov. Ed Rendell stepping out of negotiations to return to Harrisburg.

An anti-strike rally on Market Street just east of City Hall, drew half a dozen protesters Sunday, all angered over Brown’s tactics.

Protester Till Alaya said the stirke caused her commute to work to last more than an hour a day, and noted that many more may have attended the demonstration had transportation been available. She urged passersby to write a message to TWU leadership on a poster.

Most comments were inflammatory and some explicit. One read, “Be glad you have a job,” and another, “You can be replaced by the unemployed.”

Chris Galanti, a 2004 Temple graduate and protester, was somewhat less infuriated.

“I’ve lived in Philly for a while,” he said. “I’m used to strikes.”

Another demonstrator, blogger and graphic designer Larry West, 24, said the union was well within its rights to strike, but thought the decision was unwise on its part.

West blamed Brown for the strike. He accused Brown of “holding the city hostage,” and held a handwritten sign reading, “I’m not anti-union – I’m anti-Willie Brown!”

“They’ve been working without a contract for some months, and I sympathize with that,” West said. “But [Brown] waits until the World Series to threaten a strike. Now he’s trying to pressure the city to get the deal he wants.”

Unlike many others, West admitted that he would rather see the strike go on than Brown rewarded with an unfair deal, calling him a bully.

“I think they got a very generous offer, especially with the recession, when unemployment is over 10 percent,” he said.

West is not alone in his sentiments. During a time of drastically decreased revenue for the city, SEPTA officials said, the contract’s terms were exceptionally generous. But TWU leadership addressed this assertion in a newsletter to members last month, pointing out that increased ridership raised fare revenue by 30 percent. After taking state funding and federal stimulus money into account, the union argued, the city could afford wage increases.

Also of great concern to the union was SEPTA’s disregard of “picking rights” – the ability of workers to choose what equipment they work with based on seniority. Additionally, a TWU newsletter sent out to its members last month cited “discrimination” against union workers. Union leadership did not respond to requests to elaborate on that allegation.

A temporary deal brokered early Monday morning put workers back on the job. The contract is expected to pass an at-large vote next week, with the city allowing the union to reopen negotiations on health insurance payments in the future if President Obama’s healthcare bill passes the Senate.

For Thomas Davis, a union representative at Fern Rock Transportation center, pension funding is a major issue.

“We’re getting an 11 percent raise over the next five years, but we’ll also have to pay 2 1/2 percent more on our pensions each year,” Davis said. “Suddenly, the 11 percent starts to look like a lot less.”

Davis also pointed out that, unlike SEPTA management, which has 90 percent of pension contributions matched, workers only receive 50 percent.

Davis and the other picketers at Fern Rock expressed mistrust of City Hall, which is juggling contract negotiations with several other unions. They want the budget to be independently audited by a third-party firm.

Regardless of tensions that may continue, Samantha Salley, a sophomore psychology major, was glad to hear the strike ended Monday.

“It’ll be so much easier getting around the city now,” she said. “I don’t have anything against unions, but striking seemed a bit extreme.”

At six days, the strike did not last as long as its two predecessors – a 1998 strike lasted 40 days, and one in 2005 lasted a week.

Don Hoegg can be reached at donald.hoegg@temple.edu.

Feeling the ripple effects of SEPTA strike

Abdul Kabir Hill may have given up SEPTA when he bought a car, but he still remained affected by the strike, which ended early yesterday morning. Since last Tuesday, Hill had been playing taxi driver for his daughter, her mother and a friend.

“It’s been a little hard,” he said outside his home on 15th and Dauphin streets Sunday morning.
After bumming rides off his own friends during the 1998 and 2005 SEPTA strikes, Hill said he decided to get a car, among other reasons.

“I have children and I couldn’t depend on SEPTA,” Hill said. “They always go on strike and it’s kind of rough when you depend on somebody and then they go strike and they only care about themselves.”

Hill’s brother-in-law is particularly dependent on SEPTA. A non-unionized bus driver, he was not getting paid and was forced to ride out the strike by picking up part-time work.

“He’s kind of upset because he wants to get paid,” Hill said, running his fingers through his dyed red beard. “He’s got a mortgage, you know.”

Noting the city’s reliance on a single transportation system, Hill proposed an alternative.

“They should have two bus systems,” Hill suggested, remarking that SEPTA’s fares are one of the highest in the country next to the Washington D.C. metro. “Let SEPTA keep the trains and then have another bus system running each route and then we’ll see what happens with the competition.”

Before word that the strike had ended hit the news, Hill said SEPTA’s Transit Workers Union Local 234 union President Willie Brown was forcing the city to play to the whims of his needs and wants.

“[Willie Brown] is being selfish because we don’t have any money as it is, and he’s only looking out for himself, not his members,” Hill said, adding that Brown acted without the support of the city.

“They’re utilizing Philadelphians’ time,” he said. “Philadelphians aren’t on the union’s side.”

Ashley Nguyen can be reached at ashley.nguyen@temple.edu.

As government steps up, SEPTA stays still

SEPTA remains an unreliable city fixture even after ending its strike after less than a week.

On again, off again – the soap opera of the SEPTA strike had our city in a traffic-congested frenzy. Our Center City streets, laid out in a day when the horse and buggy combo were the main means of travel, resembled something of a military stalemate come 5 p.m. – and for days, no one was budging.

Surprisingly enough, our governmental institutions reacted appropriately, working around the clock to ensure a swift end to this bitter strike, which ended 12 a.m. Monday morning.

So if our government functioned at its highest potential, at who could we angry Temple students and Philadelphians, robbed of our World Series title and left sitting on the curb at neglected bus stops for six days, direct our dismay?

For those of you not keeping track, the latest strike was the ninth time SEPTA workers took up picket signs since 1975. That averages out to approximately one strike every four years. So even though it may seem fruitless, someone should have stepped up and skewered SEPTA workers along with their Local Transporters Union 234 leader Willie Brown, the self-proclaimed “most hated man in Philadelphia,” for the disarray they caused during the past week.

Call me a scab if you want, but I stand incredulous as to how this type of reprehensible union strong-arming of our city was permitted. Granted, SEPTA’s service is an invaluable commodity in Philadelphia, the withdrawal of which has crippling effects on our infrastructure. But we as a city have to draw the line somewhere.

After all, TWU Local 234 rejected a deal drawn up by Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter that was scrimped and squeezed from Philly’s budget, even though funds are undoubtedly tight. In fact, Gov. Rendell went as far as to call the deal “sensational,” especially in a recession, adding that “the union leadership walked on a victory last night. They just didn’t know when to declare victory.”

As a liberal Democrat who comes from a long line of working class union members, I still have to call foul on SEPTA’s employees for not accepting a completely reasonable deal from a city being crushed under heaps of debt in the current economic downturn earlier than the stroke of midnight Monday morning. It may indeed be time to de-unionize such vital organizations or at least refrain from giving in to their outrageous, hard-line demands.

Senior public relations major Katie Crandley, a daily SEPTA user, shared my discontent.

“The strike has definitely made my morning commute far more difficult. I can’t wait until the thing is resolved, to say the least,” she said during the strike.

It appears, though, there is another entit y to receive its due commendation as well, because when asked how she was currently getting to campus Crandley responded “the shuttle.”

Indeed, Temple enacted a comprehensive plan to lessen the transportation burden on its students and faculty by introducing reduced parking rates that encourage car pooling, as well as a litany of additional shuttle routes and stops – all serving to replace shutdown transit lines.

It’s reassuring to know that even when the city’s infrastructure was cracking and crumbling on account of some bad eggs, we could still put what modicum of trust we have left in city government, and even in Temple. And you know what? Don’t be afraid to restore your confidence in the Phillies next season, as well.

Chase Miller can be reached at chase.miller@temple.edu.

Smelling SEPTA

SEPTA union leaders have been inconsiderate of their city peers.

Philadelphians woke up for work and school last Tuesday morning to find they had no way to get there, as, in an underhanded manner, members of SEPTA’s Transport Workers Union 234, announced at midnight that they would officially walk off the job in three hours.

Unions, the entities created to protect the rights and welfare of employees, aren’t the problem – as long as they don’t abuse their power. TWU 234, however, hasn’t done the best job of convincing Philadelphians they deserve what they demanded.The message SEPTA’s union leaders put forth loud and clear is that they don’t care about the everyday people of Philadelphia who constitute their ridership.

There have already been reports of SEPTA riders berating transit drivers, but riders should think twice before taking their anger out on SEPTA workers. Let’s not forget SEPTA employs non-union workers, helpless to union action. Likewise, while union workers benefited from their leaders’ negotiations – each worker will receive a $1,250 bonus derived from $7 million in state money – not every member agreed with the 3 a.m. wake-up call.

If anything, we should be disappointed in Gov. Rendell’s decision to pony up $7 million in state funding to quell union leaders’ requests, which came off as particularly selfish, especially when the nation’s unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent and the average SEPTA employee earns $55,000 a year.

For the governor to put $7 million of much needed state money on the table – Temple’s $180 million state appropriation is still lingering in the Capitol as students face a possible spring tuition hike – seems reckless. Gov. Rendell may have helped to solve the city’s crisis, but he did so at the expense of many taxpayers whose income stands at $0. SEPTA workers certainly do not deserve additional compensation when so many other Pennsylvanians are suffering.

Gov. Rendell also pleaded for the strike to be postponed for the Phillies to play Game 5 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park. People paid hundreds – even thousands – of dollars for World Series tickets. Realistically, those who could afford tickets that high in price would probably spring for the $12 parking at the stadium, so holding off on the strike until the end of Game 5 made no sense.

When New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority went on strike Dec. 20, 2005, a judge slapped the union with a $1 million per day fine for walking off the job, pushing workers to call off the strike just two days later. Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell should have taken a lesson from them to end the senseless, selfish neglect of Philadelphians by SEPTA’s union members before it extended longer than a day.

SEPTA strike ends as it began

The SEPTA strike is officially over, having shut down transportation for six days throughout Philadelphia. Transit Workers Union 234 officials and SEPTA officials said they reached agreement on the contract.

It will include a 2 percent raise the second year, and three percent raises the three years after that. Union members’ contributions to their pension funds increased from 2 percent to 3 percent, and the ceiling for pension contributions per year went from $27,000 to $30,000.

Buses and subways are expected to be fully functioning for the Monday morning rush hour. At six days this strike is one day shorter than the 2005 SEPTA strike and 34 days shorter than a 1998 strike.

TTN Video: SEPTA strike hits the brakes on Philadelphia

Video by Joshua Fleury, Matthew Petrillo and Sartaj Phanda

Edited by Joshua Fleury and Sartaj Phanda

Reporting by Matthew Petrillo

Stealing Spotlights

SEPTA and its union are are choosing the wrong time to brush bumpers.

Gov. Ed Rendell created a pact between SEPTA’s leadership and its largest union not to strike hours before a second deadline was to expire Saturday, Oct. 31. Rendell’s pact was simple and effective. If either party did not stay at the negotiating table and allowed a strike to occur, Rendell would withhold state funds to the groups in the future. Rendell’s efforts to avoid a strike during the World Series, both as a former Philadelphia mayor and as a Pennsylvanian, should be commended.

The fact that SEPTA and its union, which represents about 5,000 employees, have not settled on a contract after seven months is troubling enough. But that they would use the World Series as a weapon in their disagreements is inexcusable.

Philadelphia doesn’t often get a chance to bask in the national spotlight, and the World Series is one such opportunity. Instead of pulling together to showcase Philadelphia to the country, the union and SEPTA are choosing to bicker and threaten.

The use of the World Series as a ploy to grab headlines in the contract negotiations displays a troubling lack of concern for Philadelphians and their needs. Less than 10,000 fans are expected to use the system for transportation to the World Series, but 800,000 Philadelphians use the system regularly.

The union is failing its obligations to transit users by neglecting the needs of the vast majority of riders for the chance to pressure SEPTA officials with embarrassment during the Series.

SEPTA officials, on the other hand, are failing their duties to transit users by waiting to really take negotiations seriously until a major threat looms. Why does it take the threat of a strike for negotiators to work into the early hours of the morning to settle a contract?

To be fair, there are substantial differences between the union and SEPTA. The union is asking for an 18 percent raise over the next five years, while SEPTA wants to give a 9 percent raise, with no increase the first year.

If increased wages are so important to union members and keeping costs low is so important to SEPTA, then SEPTA and its union should understand the potential damage they do to Philadelphians and the city when they threaten to affect its livelihood so callously.

Solution needed as weak bridges crack onto the priority list

One-hundred-eleven SEPTA and Amtrak bridges in the Philadelphia area are in dire need of repair, but without a financial backing, the city is left hanging.

Don’t look down, Philadelphia.

The spindly stretches of bridges and railroad tracks crisscrossing this great city, woven into our highways and spanning our waterways, are in need of some serious first aid. And trust me when I say a simple band-aid won’t do it.

Miles of creaking, century-old structures of rusty steel and crumbling stone bear the burden of about 120 Amtrak and SEPTA trains a day. These tired bridges and railways release an almost audible grunt as they strain under the weight of heavy cars, packed tightly with a daily average 16,000 Philadelphians.

A recent Amtrak inspection rated half the company’s 302 Philadelphia-area bridges “poor” or lower, with many near failing.

Paul Nussbaum of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sept. 20 that, as a result of the Amtrak inspection, “111 local bridges have been put on a priority list for repairs or replacement, with an estimated cost of $19.4 million,” a tall order considering Amtrak’s dwindling $38 million nationwide budget.

While Philadelphia’s ailing bridges will remain on the priority list, the prospect of any temporary relief is disheartening to say the least. The repairs might even be ready in time for the Phillies’ next World Series win.

“Many of those [bridges] will wait years for attention because of a lack of money,” Nussabaum said, destroying any possible glimmers of hope in Amtrak’s administrative bureaucracy.

Financially stunted, Amtrak should not be solely responsible for covering these repairs. The always magnanimous, overly efficient city government should be doing something to ensure the safety of its citizens.

If I said the lives of “voters” are at risk, it might finally garner some type of response from the city council. To date, its current major transportation arteries and railways have survived the Industrial Revolution, the Depression and two world wars.

Lucky for us, our own Sen. Arlen Spector has swooped in to the rescue, ready for this political throw down with a newly embroidered “D” on his chest. On Sept. 21, Sen. Spector stuck his open palms out to Vice President Joe Biden, asking for a pittance left over from the federal stimulus package in order to complete the necessary repairs.

Whether the money will come in time to upgrade our deteriorating infrastructure – which will include a high-speed railway corridor proposed by the Obama administration, carrying 125-mph trains – no one knows.

Senior Matthew Harrigan, a commuter on SEPTA’s R2 and pre-med student, expressed a disdain for the lack of concern for Philadelphia-area users of public transit.

“Philadelphia is doing a great injustice to their citizens by putting them at risk,” Harrigan said but added that he’d pick the possible danger of a catastrophe over driving in the city.

“I would rather risk the train than deal with parking and the monstrosity that is Broad Street traffic,” he said.

Unlike Harrigan, many Philadelphian commuters find their hands tied, with no other means of transportation besides the regional rail trains. It’s about time city council does something to ensure the safety of these people, before they find their credibility collapse beneath them.

Chase Miller can be reached at chase.miller@temple.edu.

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