And Before You Know It Philly Will Be No Fun At All...
So you may have heard: New Jersey has kidnapped the 2010 Dad Vail Regatta. Well, more like bought. Why Rumson, NJ has an extra $250,000 to throw around, we don't know. But what we do know is the Dad Vail has been raced on the Schuylkill River every year since 1953. Over those 50+ years it has become an integral part of Philly sports culture. To take it off the Schuylkill and move it into New Jersey is like taking the Bike Race out of Manayunk. Like defacing the Rocky Statue. Like imploding the Spectrum. Oh wait. We're actually going to do that.
Slowly but surely all that lends fun and character to the city is being destroyed. It started last year when there almost was no Mummers Parade. This year hometown movie star Kevin Bacon and his musically inclined sibling Michael are doing their best to give us the big, fancy, comedic, string band and booze-filled, parade we all know and love. The Bacon Brothers Benefit Concert: Save The Mummers Parade is slated for December 5th at the Electric Factory. But what happens next year when the city's still in the red? Will the Bacons save our (eh-hem) bacon yet again? Or does the grand Mummers tradition wither and die?
Taking away Dad Vail, the Mummers, the Spectrum—it's like ripping the heart out of Boat House Row, Broad Street, 2 Street, the entire South Philly Sports Complex... Might as well close Fairmount Park (hey, hey, Doomsday Budget), too. And just for shits and giggles: send all the Tastykakes to Pittsburgh, destroy our murals, and ban cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, running up the Art Museum steps, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes. We get the city has no money. We don't know how to get it more. But somebody sure as hell better figure it out before all the fun is sucked out of town. We do elect people who are supposed to do that right? Cause we'd like to keep our Philly traditions, please. It'd be real cool if we didn't end up like Detroit.
Filed in Miscellaneous and tagged Bacon Brothers, Dad Vail Regatta, Fairmount Park, Manayunk Bike Race, Mummers Parade, Rocky Statue, Schuylkill River, Spectrum, Tastykakes, tradition
Nice post, but manayunkbikerace.com is a link farm, not associated with the race at all. Just sayin'
Pro Cycling Tour might be better.
Opps. Thanks for the tip Pete.
I just moved to Philly from DC, and all the excitement appears to be headed out of town. What's next?