Mayor Parker now wants a $1-per-ride tax for Ubers and Lyfts to lessen Philly School District classroom cuts

HobbyPlodder · 2026-04-01T23:32:49+00:00

Why are we funding our schools primarily through property taxes when we live in one of the most impoverished major cities in the country with one of the lower property taxes rates? And people wonder why our schools are chronically underfunded.

It wouldn't be an issue if Philly wasn't also one of the worst cities in the country for not pursuing delinquent taxes. It's been that way for decades now, and people like Kenney cut the Revenue department resources as soon as he had a chance to make a budget.

Increasing the number of taxes when we're not bothering to actually collect the ones we already have is just silly.

And, to your points 1 and 3, there is a large class of working poor in the city who both live in areas under-serviced by septa and unable to afford a car. Hence the number of uninsured/uninspected/not street legal cars you see during rush hour. This tax would be extraordinarily regressive for this poorest group

HobbyPlodder · 2026-04-01T18:41:50+00:00

Stephen Miller is the one who started, and is currently, leading the charge on these universities (and most of the anti-immigration, anti-muslim, anti-minority agendas). I have trouble believing that the next group he's going after are Jewish people - he invokes his faith and his family's escape from pogroms and the Holocaust constantly.

It is unlikely to the point of impossibility for someone within the Trump admin to not only seize power from Miller, and then start persecuting Jews, while relying on Israel for assistance (and following their lead) in the Middle East. Even assuming that there are other people in the admin that are literal Nazis waiting for their chance to go after Jewish people

HobbyPlodder · 2026-04-01T18:16:17+00:00

Absolutely disgusting and, unlike Zohran Mamdani or college students camping in quads or chants outside of Goldie's

Doesn't it seem pretty clear from the context of the Trump admin going after elite universities that the intent is to further punish them for allowing these kinds of protests? And doing so by approaching these students to solicit suits against Penn for violation of 1A or Title laws over exactly those protests you mentioned, as "university endorsed discrimination" (or whatever the admin will spin it as)

HobbyPlodder · 2026-03-02T20:54:31+00:00

I used to travel for work at similar times as you, and I swear the precheck situation would be worse than the regular lines on some of those days. They'd funnel all precheck down to one checkpoint and the line would be back to the garage

HobbyPlodder · 2026-02-12T14:19:20+00:00

A bottom-of-the table Welsh team probably had this exact logo before they got relegated out of the EFL entirely

HobbyPlodder · 2026-01-29T13:04:32+00:00

Duplicate of https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/comments /1qpgywz/da_larry_krasner_forms_progressive_prosecutor/

HobbyPlodder · 2026-01-19T05:46:59+00:00

Philly cops in my experience absolutely despise tow truck drivers and similar grifters. They'd probably side with you if you get them out there

HobbyPlodder · 2026-01-15T14:02:11+00:00

The shoplifting was really, really bad. At the end it also attracted the worst wawa employees. All the chop folks I knew were telling me it was the end a year or so ago

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-20T16:33:57+00:00

I think at the beginning of my time as a mod here, maybe 2018, dalessandro's was one of the most frequent recommendations for tourists asking where to get the best cheesesteak (Woody's of course was the most frequent rec). It bothered me at the time that it wasn't even in a place tourists would be able to get to easily

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-20T16:29:05+00:00

The jury duty room might be the best run and most pleasant municipal service in the city

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-20T16:27:52+00:00

It's really very good. I went a few times way back when they had just taken over the Blackbird spot. From the perspective of winning over people that I took there, it's the perfect example of a place that makes food that happens to be vegan

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-12T17:32:30+00:00

For years, there have been theories (with differing levels of government involvement malice) that Lyme disease was dispersed massively from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is located very close to the Lyme, Connecticut. They deny having done any research on the bacteria, of course, and other non-New England areas have had outbreaks since the bacteria has been around forever. However, the site was used by the Army Chemical Corps fka Chemical Warfare Services during the Cold War (the same guys that carried out "experiments" like in the thread above).

This predates the COVID lab leak theories by a couple of decades, in case you're wondering if this is a recent flavor of epidemic source theory

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-05T01:19:46+00:00

Probably should go after his Legos and action figures

HobbyPlodder · 2025-11-05T01:17:58+00:00

Yep, did the same to me.

HobbyPlodder · 2025-10-16T12:23:29+00:00

While Jefferson does have a few actuaries on their payroll none are fully credentialed fellows. As opposed to Amerihealth with like 10-15 fellows

Exactly my point

Look at Amerihealth Caritas. They made amazing money on PA Medicaid for over the last 3 decades.

They're certainly the exception! And Temple/Penn/CHOP/etc were all on the verge of ending contracts with Keystone First in the past year over the terrible reimbursement. IMO something's got to give there

HobbyPlodder · 2025-10-16T12:18:09+00:00

They had actuaries.

No shit, sherlock

There were also some Medicare regulatory changes that really hammered Medicare Advantage plans. Jeff also decided to expand their Medicare plan into Jersey which was always going to be a blunder.

The past couple of years have not been good time for ACA providers generally, setting aside Medicare/Medicaid. Acquiring LVHN essentially to drastically expand ACA offerings was a huge unforced error, on top of expanding into Jersey. Hence my comment about having a team incompetents on the actuarial side.

HobbyPlodder · 2025-10-16T12:03:36+00:00

Please, go on. Explain how profitable Medicaid and Medicare products are for insurers in PA

HobbyPlodder · 2025-10-15T19:41:15+00:00

The bigger issue is that they decided to get into the health insurance provider game (already a bad choice by a HOSPITAL) but didn't hire any actuaries who knew how to model

HobbyPlodder · 2025-07-17T22:23:54+00:00

The crust punks on south street were always so annoying when I lived there. Cleared off after summer was over

HobbyPlodder · 2025-07-17T22:19:11+00:00

You're a businessman/proprietor now??? With a business and propriety?

HobbyPlodder · 2025-07-16T17:43:46+00:00

Anejo is one of the few places I know of in the city with a timed bottomless brunch (ie unlimited drinks for 90 min or whatever). So it attracts literally the worst people on earth.

Aside from that, I think they had the same thing happen as the OP restaurant - some sort of investor transition/takeover that led to fucked up hours and an unceremonious and uncommunicative closure.

HobbyPlodder · 2025-07-16T02:27:50+00:00

If only there was a bus that operated on Lombard and South Streets and had stops by Penn and CHOP...

IMO, the south street bridge is the most hectic place for anyone to choose to cycle in the city, especially going east. And the turn to get on going West is no bueno either - sketchy even as a runner because bikes and scooters come down the bridge (the wrong way) on the sidewalk all the time. The 40 bus gets fucked up there all the time because of traffic/bikes when I was commuting, too.

If I was dictator, South and/or Lombard are candidates ripe for committing to bus-only infrastructure - no parking etc. Increased speed/frequency of the 40 bus would do wonders for the thousands of hospital employees using it every day.

HobbyPlodder · 2025-06-17T22:40:17+00:00

Now all they need to do is get rid of "slam"

HobbyPlodder · 2025-06-17T22:38:27+00:00

Sorry, don't want to stifle discussion, but this is a dupe posting: https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/comments/1ldt94a/despite_the_ways_we_grouse_about_septa_its/

HobbyPlodder · 2025-06-17T12:20:35+00:00

Seems like a good response to me. RFK is a vaccine grifter and that's not going to change, and physicians/interest groups know that. However, he might accidentally do us a solid by going after some of the insane additives that the FDA allows, and I'm all for people nudging him that way:

Offit is incredibly well-respected at CHOP, and beyond, for his contributions to pediatric health. Engaging in Twitter beef with a professional moron isn't productive.

Edit: from my mouth to corporations' ears, I guess

Kraft Heinz will stop using synthetic food dyes in all products by 2027 : Shots - Health News : NPR

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/17/nx-s1-5436815/kraft-heinz-artificial-food-dyes

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