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In my daily commute to work, I briefly experience four neighborhoods. To come home, I leave work in Abington by boarding a bus. This bus goes to Logan. There, I descend underground to enter the subway to Center City. Under 15th and Broad, I transfer to another rail service and exit north of Penn's campus. At both ends of my underground journey, "hack" cabbies offer sketchy rides. I have never understood their service; regular old taxi cabs pass both the 40th and Market and Broad and Olney areas fairly frequently. Since they drive unmarked cars, they stand outside. Since they're cab drivers, they have lots of cash. Since they're in a city, they keep their cash on them. Since I'm a daily commuter through this space, the hacks don't chant their spiels as I walk by. But they're right there; I walk in between them to get to my bus or to go down the stairs.
Friday night I got out of work late. Thank goodness. As the bus pulled toward Olney, it stopped and several police cars flew by. Between the two sets of stairs to the subway, someone tried to rob the drivers. The police confronted the robber, but the robber shot one of the policeman with a gun he had concealed in his coat pocket. The police shot the robber. The policeman died of multiple gunshot wounds; the robber has undergone surgery and has survived so far. All of this apparently happened while our bus was stopped, waiting in the traffic to get to the stairs. To be clear, I was probably still several blocks away while the gun fight occured, based on the reported time that the shooting occured.
We walked through a corridor of police tape to get down our stairs, hearing rumors that a cop was dead. People stopped and stared.
The transfer under City Hall was less dangerous. A man was involved in a drug purchase and a domestic dispute at the same time. The woman stomped away and sat down on my bench. Actually, on my duffle bag. He came over and jawed with her and knocked her earring off. The entire time, I was assuming that this was a scheme to distract me and steal things from my bag. Fortunately, I only had tissue paper in the bag, so it wouldn't have mattered. She tried to tell me which trolley to take.
There were no cabbies at my exit at 40th and Market. Could have been the news of what happened at Olney; could have been an earlier incident. Apparently that day one of the hacks picked up a girl and raped her.
The hacks were back at work today, peddling their services on the same corners.
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| | Posted 2/16/2009 10:33 PM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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