It must be a slow day in the City of Brotherly Love, because Mayor John Street spent a good part of the morning waiting in line for an iPhone:
Donning a white baseball hat and warmup suit — complete with an iPod strapped to his arm — a casual Philadelphia Mayor John Street patiently sat on a lawn chair on a South Philadelphia sidewalk, hoping to get his hands on the new Apple iPhone Friday morning.
Street said he was No. 3 in a line of about six people, but said he was sure things would pick up later in the day.
“I’m out here with the rest of the gang, and we’re all waiting for the iPhone,” said Street, a self-proclaimed technology advocate. “This is the latest and I’m going to have it.”
(…)
Street said he waited for most of the overnight storms to clear before securing his spot at about 3:30 a.m., noting that the two people in front of him were so sleepy they didn’t even recognize him.
Of course, not all of the good people of Philadelphia were happy with the picture of their Mayor spending the day at the Apple Store:
Friday morning, a woman confronted Street about why he was sitting in line for a phone when other city employees had to be at their desks to work.
“I get called around all the time. I have to be able to be anywhere. Fortunately, I can do my job wherever I am,” Street told her. “I can do my job where I am.”
But she was easy on him compared to this guy:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mayor John F. Street abruptly ended his wait in line for an iPhone Friday after a passer-by asked him about the city’s murder rate. Street, who showed up outside an AT&T store at 3:30 a.m., left shortly after a 22-year-old sporting a mohawk asked him, “How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site.
Street told the man: “I’m doing my job,” the newspaper said.
Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for Apple Inc.’s iPhone to go on sale at 6 p.m. When he left at 11:30 a.m., Street said he planned to return to his spot.
Heh
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:51 am
[...] least Philadelphia’s Mayor and the decency to wait in line. [...]