Staff Blog
The next time the PPA wants to ticket you for blocking a fire hydrant …
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
posted by Drew Lazor
categories Parking Wars
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| Photos | Drew Lazor |
... remind them about this morning in Old City, when I watched a Philadelphia Fire Department engine scream down Chestnut Street in response to a call, only to find a PHILADELPHIA PARKING AUTHORITY VAN blocking the hydrant just before the intersection of Second Street. (Thankfully, the call appeared to be a false alarm.)
The visibly perturbed firefighters politely asked the PPA agent — who sprinted back to her vehicle with the quickness once she realized how terrible she was about to look — to move the van, to which she responded something along the lines of, "I was only there for a second, I'll move it right away!" Strange, I feel like I've heard that somewhere before.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by citypaper: Next time the Parking Authority wants to ticket you for blocking a fire hydrant, remember this: http://tr.im/H3LP...
Where I’m from the firefighters will knock out your windows and run the hose through your vehicle OR they will simply ram the thing out of the way and have it impounded later.
Long story short, if there was a real fire, the fire debt would blow out the windows of that van. however, I don’t know how they could “easily” attach the hose since the van sides are blocking the fire hydrant and the windows are pretty elevated. but if you look at the picture of the background thank God there’s no fire. people seem to be going on with their daily lives so most likely a medical emergency was called on.
it’s quite common to send a fire team to a site for medical emergencies before the paramedics arrive.
PPA is the worst! They live to make life a nightmare. I had a situation where I got two parking tickets with in 2 minutes apart. Luckily I saved my parking receipts, wrote a letter of appeal to the Bureau of Administration Adjudication and they administratively dropped the tickets. Both tickets tickets combined were for $160. Either way it was a nightmare waiting to see if I had to go to the courthouse to try and work something out had they not dropped the tickets. Either way PPA sucks!!!
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a “Parking Authority van.” Seriously. What is that? Did someone just think it up so that they could create this awkward scenario?
If you get a ticket, look online to verify that the meter was inspected. If it expired, the ticket will be thrown out in court.
F the PPA.
@Manhattan Parking Authority Vans are what they use to drop the meter
maidsattendants into a neighborhood.I’d like to use more of my screen, thanks.
@skeeto - seriously, what an awful website layout.
@skeeto - maybe they think you need to shrink the site contents into a single thin column so it will render correctly on those tiny smart phone screens.
@skeeto @ashtray @staid - sometimes the cache misfires and stores the mobile version. That is all.
Join my group on FB:
‘The Philadelphia Parking Authority Must Be Stopped!’
@Marc Steel
If your cache is misfiring perhaps you should change it’s spark plugs?
@Marc Steel
I am now on the non-mobile site and its not much better. 50% of the screen is this blog, the middle has an annoying “The Clog” bar and the far right is advertisement central. Better luck next time
Typical Philadelphia - starting with the Mayor and working down. Philadelphia: The city that made stupidity a virtue!
PPA practice what you preach and enforce.those employees should be charged with dereliction of duty.those hypocritical fuckheads asses ought to burn.
what are these clog bars and ads you speak of? I just have white screen with a strip of blog in the middle…oh yeah, and F the PPA
D’ya think this will make it on “Parking Wars”?
FARK teh Firefighters ! Bunch of Over paid pyromaniacs
tubs of lard.
I love the PPA. You morons who hate it just need to stop breaking the law.
Someone at the CityPaper, please contact me so I can help you build a new website. this page is ridiculously narrow.
The website works fine. http://i49.tinypic.com/saxxlz.jpg
@ Amy’s Sax teacher
it was not a parking meter.
it was a fire hydrant.
try to pay attention.
Woman driving the van, wow big surprise.
No matter if the van’s windows would be broken or if the van was rammed away from, the plug the Philly taxpayer takes the hit for it.
Where is the Clog Bar? I need a drink.
They even have a show at http://www.aetv.com and they have no problem phucking with people all day — Its from the city selling the street to a private company - they get deputized and now can do w/e they want
“(Thankfully, the call appeared to be a false alarm.)”
Someone really wanted to expose the FFA… well, he/she did it!
search for “Jimmy Justice” on YouTube. Clips of his battles with the NYC parking authority as he confronts about the same stuff. It’s a riot!
Forgive my ignorance, I’m not from the US, but why are your fire hydrants designed with the connector on the street side that can be so easily blocked? The water already has to do a 90degree turn so why not just put it (or an additional one) on the side parallel with the sidewalk allowing the pipe to run under or around any obstacle? Surely this would be much quicker than breaking windows or ramming a car out of the way?
They are also 20 feet from the curb, another bogus ticket people always get from PPA. Apparently it’s “hard to turn around those cars” and “blocks emergency traffic”.
yeaaaaah….
[...] this pic isn’t nearly the catch made by MealTicket editor Drew Lazor when he caught a PPA truck parked next to a fire hydrant – during a fire alarm – but it’s not [...]