I am (Urbina) legend
What is the deal with Ian Urbina’s pieces in the New York Times? He seems to have cornered the Second-Prize-Is-Two-Weeks-In-Philadelphia beat for the Gray Lady, with his byline attached to a series of glass-half-empty dispatches, including:
- “New Philadelphia Mayor’s Top Task: Fight Crime“
- “Boy Scouts Lose Philadelphia Lease in Gay Rights Fight“
- “Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade As Internet Providers Pull Out“
His latest offering in this vein, “Philadelphia Streets Unsafe for Manhole Covers,” even presents a multimedia smorgasbord, detailing how manhole covers are apparating off Philadelphia streets at twenty-five times the previous annual rate.
Yes, we have do seem to have a problem with stuff being lifted off our byways. Bob Driehaus and Ken Belson are credited with reporting the story for the Times, but nowhere is Sandy Bauers of the Philadelphia Inquirer given a hit tip for breaking the original story several weeks ago. It’s all there: Fred Feoli and Francis McConnell of this city’s Water Department, the pockmarked streets of Kensington (laughably captioned in the Times photos as “the Kensington area [sic] of Philadelphia”).
Curmudgeondom is part of the lifeblood of Philly, so far be it from us to deny anyone else its acerbic pleasures. But let’s not pretend New York is completely unacquainted with the concept of a street that can suddenly drop innocent bystanders into a deep, filthy slimepit simply because someone stripped away protective devices in order to make a quick buck.
The key difference: the New York version receives federal bailouts.
