Philly biz journal reports on some drivers getting angry at other drivers in the whole taxi/uber/uberX mess in the city. Whatever. Besides for work, we wonder how many Townies actually make into Philly. We've met people that freely admit they "never" go down there. (???) Then again, we've met South Philly people who freely admit to never going to Center City (except for Mummers, we guess. Anyway, the point of all of this is: we probably don't worry too much about urban Uber upsets, because Uber and UberX have been carting us Delco types around since 2014. We've been surprised to learn how many of the local teens have Uber accounts on their phones. Makes sense, though: working parents, non-driving students, daily transportation needs. That's some Irish practicality, right there! We haven't used Uber or Lyft yet. Have you? What's it like? Seems like the opportunity for drivers here is pretty good, with all the kids needing rides. LINKS Uber getting sued, but we can't really tell who is suing them Super secret UberOps since Fall 2014 Photo Credit: Bob Mical on Flickr … [Read more...]
Restaurant happenings we don’t really care about
When longtime beloved dive diner Hanne's at Darby and Eagle closed, it was replaced with Havertown Grille. Both charming in their own ways, we were happy to see another diner take that space when it was left empty. It's still a regular on our breakfast rotation. We haven't yet tried the old-Irish-Shop now McKenna's but we hear good things. Kettle is always a fave, of course. That Kettle Omelet or the Veggie Scramble. Yum. Today the Main Line Times has some news about Marc Vetri selling his restaurants (except Vetri) to... Urban Outfitters? (Anyone else think that's weird?), about SNAP pizza (which is awesome for Celiac's as well as you omnivores) getting more space even FARTHER away from H-Town, and one other food-business happening that doesn't matter. We've already forgotten about it. We like dining out, of course, but the restaurant scene in H-Town has upped it's game so much in the last few years, our jeans don't fit. Edgewood is excellent and would impress anyone (we don't care who you are). Slice It Up pizza regularly burns the "gluten-free" fries but everything else is great (try the wings!). Brick N Brew... Kaffir Thai. We hear the Thai takeout place near the "ghetto" Rita's on WCP is killer, too. The best place to see our own little restaurant wars is the Havertown Community Facebook group. Lots o' opinions there, as you can imagine. And apparently there's this one Townie old guy who is Yelp Famous. Has a huge following and everything. We contacted him for an interview but he snubbed us. We aren't Yelp famous, I guess. We aren't even HavertownieHQ famous. Whatevs. Yelp's a cesspool anyway. So there. Anyway, here are links. We're kind of over big, blue, underlined links interrupting our reading flow. Our brain voice hums along, reading normally, then IT HAS TO SHOUT because: hypertext. The really annoying practice was probably invented by Yelp. Main Line Times, droning on about some food stuff Havertown Community Facebook Group – Use at … [Read more...]
We made the papers. This time for something good.
Haverford Township (remember - there is no official "Havertown" - That is a US Post Office shortening of Haverford Township [better than "fordship" or "Havership" or "fordtown"]) makes the Philly news every once in a while. Usually the news isn't so great. This article, from today's Philadelphia Inquirer, talks about the efforts volunteers have made toward brightening up the place. (If we could only do something about Eagle Road from Darby to WCP!) Proud residents are splashing it all over social media. So here you go: Haverford Twp. experiencing a civic reboot Mari A. Schaefer, Staff Writer Posted: Saturday, January 2, 2016, 1:07 AM Ten years ago, Haverford Township was known for its political infighting, tired business areas, and status-quo Civic Council. Then an election brought three new township commissioners; fresh blood energized the Civic Council - an umbrella group of local organizations - and grassroots volunteers got to work. The impact is visible: new streetlights, improved sidewalks, better parking. The township boasts a popular music festival, a new recreation center and YMCA, and a diverse restaurant scene that includes Mexican, Thai, modern Irish, Italian, gastropubs, trendy breakfast spots, and earthy coffee houses. "All these things send signals to consumers, businesses, and investors that this place is getting better," said Donald Kelly, vice president for the nonprofit Haverford Partnership for Economic Development. "We are excited about the direction our community is going." It hasn't been easy. Haverford faces a unique challenge - nine separate business districts in a 10-square-mile township. "You can't just put your money in one place," said Commissioner Mario Oliva. "We are spread out all over." About 48,000 people live in the inner-ring Delaware County suburb, flanked by Upper Darby and Radnor Township, sliced by West Chester Pike and bounded by, among other things, City Avenue and Darby Creek. The … [Read more...]
Suspicious flyer put in mailboxes
An unsigned "mimeographed" (<-tee hee) flyer has shown up in area mailboxes. This obviously fake "Amazon Logistics" letter is in the photo. Click on it for a closer look. It's an obvious scam. Amazon would never: Use door-to-door "outreach" Use paper for first-line communication Need random customer feedback for logistics Ask for customers' access codes Send a person out to collect delivery preferences Not sign a letter with a name Use random capitalization (Our Business partner) Use photocopied paper Here at Havertownies HQ we received one of these flyers. When we asked @AmazonHelp, they assumed we were talking about an email phishing attempt. They were unfamiliar with this letter. We called the police and handed over the letter. Not all the neighbors received one so perhaps there is a leaked list of Amazon customers somewhere and this scammer got a hold of it. When posted on Facebook, another Townie thought she saw a while male, 30s, in black pants and shirt, driving a tan sedan distributing these flyers. This is just a guess, though, so take that under consideration. Our thought is the plan is this: Step 1: Distribute the flyers. Step 2: Send an official-looking person with stolen Amazon logos on his shirt and a clipboard to knock on doors. Step 3: Fish for information like where packages are left, whether or not doors are open, and if there is anyone home during the day. The Haverford PD said there are no permits issued right now for solicitation in the Township except for maybe the Natural Gas sellers. So no matter what, don't open the door to anyone you don't know and aren't expecting. Call 911 for any solicitors, even if they seem legit. To keep up with stuff like this, make sure to join and follow the following groups, pages and websites (starting with Havertownies.com, of course!) Havertown and Drexel Hill Community Network on Facebook. Closed group. You will need to wait for approval to join. Nextdoor.com … [Read more...]
Kinks in Haverford School Lunch Accounts
Seems like Haverford School District (HSD) is making a change in the lunch account system. Parents who are trying to log on to the present system, myschoolaccount.com, are getting errors. A password reset attempt eventually produces this email from the site: It appears that Haverford School District is making a change. They are no longer active within our system. Therefore, the parent accounts under this district are no longer active. You will need to contact your school directly for more information. Keep in mind that if your students have a current balance, those funds are at your school. Thank you for using myschoolaccount.com.support@myschoolaccount.com A call to Gerry Gannon, HSD's Food Services Director, told us the new system, ParentOnline.net, is still being tested. We asked if we had missed an announcement, and Mr. Gannon said no. Announcements on the change will go out after complete testing is done. (Thinking summer might have been a good time for this, but hey... whatevs, as the kids say). If you had money left in your child's account from last year, your pre-existing balance is still active. Your student can use that money. Also there is always the cash option (but this doesn't work out so well for the little ones, who tend to promptly lose their change at recess. Every once in a while at Chatham an old guy comes out with his metal detector and combs the fields. He probably has already recovered the price of the metal detector). If you go to ParentOnline and register your child (you'll need the 5 digit ID number), you can add more money to the account, monitor purchases, etc. The official announcement of the change will come sometime in... let's take bets. January? We have a feeling Mr. Gannon probably isn't paid enough to be fielding all the phone calls he's been getting about it. So, spread the word. Leave Mr. Gannon alone and hang tight. It'll work itself out eventually. … [Read more...]
Local cheater-mcgeeter numbers
The respawned Patch paper has a data scientist or two looking through the hookup website Ashley Madison hacked info for IP addresses that are assigned to Delaware County and its surroundings. Havertown: 1686 registered users Haverford: 343 registered users Ardmore: not listed So let's round it off and say 2 grand of our 40,000-sh residents had logged on to the site at least once. That's 5% fodder for juicy Townie gossip. Or is it? Deeper analyses of the Ashley Madison user data are taking over the web. Gizmodo pointed out that almost all the real (actual human) accounts on the site belong to those who identified themselves as men. 5 million accounts belonging to women are now thought of being fake. So the site was a big ol' sausage fest spewing out (allegedly fraudulent) claims that their users had affairs within a few months of signing up and that there were plenty of women on the site. The truth: Most of the real accounts had no activity on them. So don't go looking for your neighbor's name. Even if his name is on there, it doesn't mean much. You'd have to dig down and see if he was active on the site and then figure out if he conversed with anyone. It's not worth all the trouble, seeing that the data is unreliable. Still need to sate that insatiable curiosity? Go over to The Truth About Deception and sort through some of articles with infidelity statistics, or read this (a bit sexist & skewed toward women) Woman's Day article about men and cheating. Also, sociologists will tell you that we find our romantic partners (including illicit lovers) from the pool of people we know (or the people they know). Almost all of our connections are contained within the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend circle (i.e. 3 degrees away from us). So the myth of a "cheater's website" is a convenient one to distract us from an uglier truth: if your spouse is cheating, they are cheating with someone you know. It's kind of a similar myth of the online sexual … [Read more...]
Bee the Soda…
Saw this on Haverford today, in front of Ardmore Beverage: Would this be soda for bees? Or soda made out of bees? Or, more of philosophical command, a la Caddyshack: Let it happen. Beeee the Sodaaa. … [Read more...]
Bathroom scrawl bomb threat in HHS found to be not credible
Dr. Nesbitt, principal of the Haverford High School, sent out a robocall this evening to all HHS parents. The message states that a pencil-scrawled threat of a bomb going off in the high school set to detonate tomorrow at 12 noon was found in a bathroom stall today. Dr. Nesbitt made a note of the misspelling of "school" as "scool," seeming to indicate the lack of seriousness of the threat. Nevertheless, Haverford Township Police thoroughly scanned the building and deemed it to be safe. School will be conducted tomorrow. (A full day for all Haverford public schools - except the middle school that has a 10:50 am dismissal for conferences this week - as opposed to Lower Merion SD which has a half-day.) Listen to the message: Photo Credit: Oteo on Flickr (This is not from the high school) … [Read more...]
Haverford Trails events coming up
Here's some info from the Friends of Haverford Trails: Bike the Haverford Heritage Trail Saturday October 25, 1:00 – 4:00 PM Combine our local history with a bike ride! We will meet at the bottom of the steps at the Beechwood-Brookline station of the SEPTA Norristown High Speed Line, on Karakung Drive near Mill Road. The history-themed route covers the historic sites along the Haverford Heritage Trail loop and includes the Darby Creek Trail (currently 1 mile paved; future section is an unpaved trail with a few rough surface areas and walk-through sections). A mix of mostly on-road, some trail and some off-road, with some hills. Off-road sections require 25cc tires or wider (hybrid, touring or mountain). The distance is 14 miles, and we will stop at each historic site. For Haverford Heritage Trail details see hht.havtrail.com. Last 2014 Karakung Drive Traffic Closure Sunday October 26 This Sunday will be the final Sunday closure of Karakung Drive to motor vehicle traffic for 2014. Why not get out and take advantage of it? This annual action, taken by Haverford Township with the cooperation of PennDOT, is the most well-received and popular initiative of its type in the western suburbs. "Walk & Talk" at Haverford Reserve Sunday November 2, 1:00-3:30 PM By popular demand, Rich Kerr will repeat his well-attended "Talk and Walk" presented by our township Parks and Recreation Department. The “talk” portion, held in the CREC building in Haverford Reserve, is an illustrated presentation called “The Railroad Branch, Haverford Reserve and Darby Creek in Haverford.” It covers the historical highlights of the old railroad line, the remnants that remain today up around "the Reserve" and the history of the land there – “Brookthorpe Farms,” the “Brookthorpe” estate and foxhunting in Haverford, the Atwater Kent “Foxcroft” estate, the Haverford State Hospital and finally the Haverford Reserve park. It is peppered with relevant, insight-yielding quotations about these … [Read more...]
Update on burglary investigations
The letter below has been making the rounds on Nextdoor.com and local Facebook pages. It is from Lt. Charles Moore from the Haverford Township Police Department and addressed to his boss, HPD's Chief Carmen Pettine. It contains information about the ongoing investigation of the burglaries that have plagued H-Town as of late. We here at Havertownies have substantiated the letter, its contents and the sender and receiver. It's legit. Remember, please call HPD to report any suspicious activity, even if you are only just a little bit wary. Don't talk yourself out of your instincts if something doesn't seem right. Just call 911. Another crime deterrent: know your neighbors. Keep in contact with them. A strong network is the best defense. ______________________ From: Lt. Charles Moore Date: July 24, 2014 at 7:52:32 AM EDT To: Carmen Pettine Subject: Burglaries Chief, While investigating the burglaries that have been happening in the Ardmore section of town a suspect was identified. This suspect sold several of the watches that were taken from one of the burglaries on Bryn Mawr Ave. to a Jewelry /Pawn shop located in Upper Darby Twp.( Some of which have been recovered). On Tues. 7-22 Upper Merion Twp. Arrested a Keith Morrison B/M age 24 for a burglary/home invasion that had occurred in their town. The characteristics of the burglary were identical to ours and the male arrested was the same person that we have identified as selling the watches in Upper Darby Twp. Our Detectives responded to Upper Merion Twp. and spoke with their detectives and interviewed Mr. Morrison. As a result of the interview and evidence already gathered we are preparing an arrest warrant charging Mr. Morrison with the Two burglaries on Bryn Mawr Ave. Although it is very likely that he is responsible for the other burglaries as well, (due to the timing and proximity to the Rt#100 line) we will continue to give extra attention to the area and follow up on all leads. Also, Mr. … [Read more...]
Cars hitting houses
CURB APPEAL Over on his blog Abominations, local author and college prof Marc Schuster tells of an SUV knocking the hell out of his rock retaining wall. It is the second of such incidents that we've heard about this Spring. Go on over to Marc's blog to read between the lines and hear the angst that came after the BOOM. Then wander around his blog to see what one of our more literary residents gets up to these days. … [Read more...]