Monday, January 03, 2005

Philly - Birthplace of Freedom, Home of the Blind


Daredevil Wins!
Originally uploaded by steakbellie.
There are alot of blind people in Philadelphia....ALOT. I was out for 30 minutes today at lunch and I saw 2 blind people walking the streets scraping their sticks in front of them. There's a blind lady on my trolley most nights, and I've seen them down in the subway. Only once did I see one with a dog, the rest prefer those sticks. Theres a blind kid in my neighborhood, and I dont recall not going more than a day without seeing one at a street corner.

I dont remember seeing ANY blind people in Manahattan when I worked there, and certainly not walking precariously close to the edge of the subway platform.

I have acouple of theories:
* Philadelphia Makes People Blind
* People in Philadelphia Drink Unfiltered Vodka (See The Vodka Diaries)
* Somebody from Manhattan gathered up all of their blind people and let them go in Philadelphia

I've only been working in this city for a few months, but I guess it's an aweosme indicator as to:

* The Usability of Phillys Public Transporation - Despite all the bad press about SEPTA, it's obviously easy enough that a blind person could navigate from place to place...change trains...ride buses.
* The good will of the people of Philadelphia - somebody always snags one of these guys by the arm and offers to lead them out of the Terminal or to their next train. They throw Snowballs at Santa Claus, but treat each other with care and respect.
* The balls of these people to get up every morning, and dodge everything the sighted world can throw at them. They are badass.

1 comment:

d.K. said...

Could they be faking it?