The Daily News can’t decide who’s more to blame:
… A Democrat familiar with the discussions said Democratic National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz felt “she could more easily control the convention” by awarding it to Philadelphia rather than New York, where Mayor de Blasio is trying to make a name for himself as a national leader on liberal issues.
The source also cited the chairwoman’s longstanding political ties to former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a major champion of the Philadelphia bid.
Another source familiar with the bid also raised the issue of Wasserman Schultz being leery of being upstaged by de Blasio, and said she seemed at times “dismissive” of New York’s pitch…
The chairwoman said the finalist cities, which included Columbus, Ohio, all made strong offers, but Philadelphia’s package stood out for “the proximity of their arena and venues to the hotel rooms — you know, when it comes to putting on a convention, delegate experience was a very, very important thing for us.”…
De Blasio, who congratulated Philly on the win, also reiterated that he did not feel his own very public tensions with the NYPD had cast a shadow over the Brooklyn bid…
Silly New Yorkers, it’s just that everybody hates Brooklyn hipsters. Even the Brooklyn hipsters themselves!
Seriously, I don’t do much travelling, but the Philadelphia airport stands out in my memory as the worst one I’ve ever visited… and that includes a layover in Houston where I unwilling crossed paths with a fundamentalist missionary convention. I hear the Amtrak station is very nice, though…
Don K
Yes, 30th Street Station is awesome, and yes, PHL is pretty much a dump, but then it’s the bones of a late 50s terminal overlaid with new concourses and ticketing areas in the 60s and 90s. If we were there i could point out where you can see the outlines of the old terminal from the street. Now that Detroit built its entirely new terminals, PHL wins the award for the worst airport experience in the country.
Kryptik, A Man Without a Country
I hope I’m not the only one that really hopes that DWS gets replaced soon?
David Koch
Thanks Obama
Mike J
Houston sucks, in part because of the statue of Bush the smarter I flipped off every week when I had to walk past it. Dulles used to be the worst in the country but they’re finally getting rid of the stupid buses. (note that in 2090 if technology keeps me alive I’ll be saying that it’s about time that they finally got rid of those stupid things 80 years ago.)
seaboogie
I think I was in the Philly airport once….is it the dismal brown one with a kind of grungy 70’s vibe and randomly placed rocking chairs on the concourses….kind of like hell meets Cracker Barrel (I know, one and the same)?
seaboogie
@Mike J: St. Louis is the worst airport I ever visited. Definitely one of the circles of hell…
Morzer
Are DNC delegates really going to be asked to live in hotel rooms like.. gasp.. the proles?
ruemara
They could have had NYC and they chose Philadelphia? Ok, now I firmly believe DWS should go.
Tree With Water
OK. Hold the convention in Philly, but put a Buckeye on the ticket by selecting Sherrod Brown as the party’s vice presidential candidate. It’s a win-of-sorts for both states, and couldn’t hurt at the polls come that November, either..
Morzer
This is clearly a cunning plan to lure a wild Atrios out of hiding and into the DNC’s heffalump trap.
seaboogie
@ruemara: @ruemara: I’m guessing she still has it because she’s a “joiner” and nobody else wants it.
srv
Even Rahm didn’t want this convention.
I guess it’s better than Detroit.
Mike J
@seaboogie:
I only ever went through it to and from school. I had to commute through Dulles though.
St Louis did lead to what seemed like a close call but probably wasn’t. Climbing out out, engines go from full thrust to idle. At first I think they’re just throttling back as they always do, but rather than leveling off, we start descending. Then the engines roar back to full and we climb a bit, then level. Pilot says we lost an oil pump and have to return. Caught the airport bus in Columbia at 5am, got into Boston sometime after midnight. All around hellish day.
David Koch
NH Poll (Bloomberg News)
Clinton 50 Bush 29
Clinton 48 Baby Doc 35
Clinton 51 Walker 30
What is hilarious is the stunned, shocked, and incredulous reaction of the beltway media to Jebbies anemic 29%
humanoid.panda
@David Koch: From the writeup at Bloomberg:
Quotes like this do make one doubt the value of universal franchise, no?
Morzer
@humanoid.panda:
I suspect Mr Liu has confused Rand Paul with an honest, moderate American.
TS
@David Koch:
“Not sure” won the independents and tied for 2nd with the GOP voters
Morzer
@David Koch:
I am amused to see Rick Perry and Carly Fiorina both achieving a big old Texas-Californicating 1%. Ooops!
Morzer
@TS:
I’d pay good money to see “Not sure” win the NH primary. I wonder how long it will be before Rand Paul discovers a desire to rename himself to snap up those valuable, puzzled GOP voters.
David Koch
@Morzer: for all his huffing and puffing, Piyush Jindal only gets 2%. And given the poll has a margin of error of 4.9%, his actually poll number could be a negative 3%
Morzer
@David Koch:
Bobby Jindal – Twice As Popular As Rick Perry.
What an epitaph that would be.
Anne Laurie
@Don K: The “dumpiness” was bad enough — this was some years ago — but what iced the urinal cake was the unrelenting “I hate my life & intend to make all y’all pay for that” behavior from every.single.employee in the terminal. They were just gleeful about all the little & big indignities, yelling at pregnant women who couldn’t find the restrooms, slamming gates in peoples’ faces at the food stands… Our flight home was delayed “until further notice,” and one agent greeted a stranded man juggling his luggage, a tiny baby & a bottle warmer with, “It don’t matter to me what you need, I’m going off shift and it ain’t my problem.” And of course the guy coming on shift just shrugged and grunted that he didn’t know nuthin’, he’d only just got there…
BillinGlendaleCA
@Don K: Obviously, you and AL have never been to San Antonio. That is the ugliest airport that I’ve ever seen. For bonus points, when I got off my flight and went out for a smoke while waiting for my luggage: I got to see a drug bust. Welcome to San Antonio!
JMV Pyro
@Kryptik, A Man Without a Country:
You’re not. I don’t think she’s exactly popular within the party either, but no one else seems to want that position right now.
And before anyone says it, Howard Dean isn’t coming back. If we want to revive or emulate the 50 State Strategy, we’re going to have to find someone else.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
To flip things around to a more optimistic mood, the most impressive airport I’ve seen was Shanghai. It manages to combines the freewheeling aesthetics of Augustan Rome with the modest, self-effacing demeanor of Ramesses the Great.
The nicest airport I’ve experienced so far has been Sapporo Airport. Incredibly polite, comfortable, efficient – and some pretty darn good food.
Most annoying airport: London Heathrow on my last trip. The security lines took forever and the number of pissed-off, egomaniac “I am an American citizen” jerks trying to bluff their way to the head of the line was embarrassing. I really thought we were going to have an eyerolling, quietly ironic insurrection of Brits on our hands.
Mike J
@David Koch: Those Republican v Clinton numbers are getting very close to the magic 27%.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: One of my favorite airports is DIA. I’ve not seen Inchon, the last time we flew into Seoul; we flew into Kimpo.
NotMax
EWR.
It’s in New Jersey.
It’s in Newark.
Three strikes.
Origuy
The waiting area in Sheremetyevo where I waited for my flight out of Moscow was standing room only, and by that I mean there was no room to sit on the floor anywhere. The flight was late taking off and the gate crew, in typical Russian fashion, didn’t see the need to tell anyone what was going on. That was after I practically ran there, freaking that I would miss the flight and be stuck in Moscow when my visa expired.
seaboogie
If any y’all want an awesome airport experience, fly international into Vancouver. When I was there there back in the day, I would relish the return home over the floating concourses encased in glass and glide down the long escalator with the water running down the river rocks and huge Haida welcoming figures at the bottom before I went through Customs…best NA airport evarrrr….
Jewish Steel
Does Jonathan Chait have a brain tumor or something? Christ almighty.
(I know this was covered below. Just wanted to register my exasperation)
magurakurin
Philly airport is much better than it used to be. They were working on it for like 30 years or something. I fly back home every summer, and each summer it gets a wee bit better. Some half way okay places to eat now. JFK, now there is a real shithole of an airport. Shocking the state that place is in. Charles DeGualle is shitty too, and surprising the food on offer is mostly crap, not sure why because everywhere else in France seems to have a super high standard for food. And best airport in the world in terms of food is Kansai International in Osaka. Very decent quality and reasonable prices. Okonomiyaki, takoyaki, udon, ramen, soba, curry rice, rice bowls, bento boxes, and of course sushi places.
Morzer
@magurakurin:
JFK is bad, that’s for sure. Every time I’ve had to go through that place I’ve wondered just why Americans seem willing to put up with this sort of nonsense. And then I remember that Bush was re-elected and I have to accept that there are an awful lot of gullible, lazy morons out there with no pride in their country unless it involves hatred of someone else.
R-Jud
I like Schiphol when it’s not under construction.
Haven’t liked it in a while.
Zinsky
@seaboogie: St. Louis has one of the worst airports, etc…..
I shouldn’t even be talking about it on a public blog but a friend and I used to smoke a ton of weed and go out to St. Louis airport and drive his pickup through a hole in the fence at the end of one runway. We’d park at the end of the runway, below grade, lay in the bed of his pickup, look up and feel the “rush”, literally and figuratively, as the jets took off over us. This was early 1980s, pre-9/11, of course. Good fun!
Morzer
@R-Jud:
Schiphol’s a bit large and shiny and impersonal for my taste. Also, rather expensive. I know, I know I am just an aging hipster who wants a boutique airport like the one George Washington knew, but still…
Mustang Bobby
Both DFW and ORD win my most-loathed airports award, not because of any architectural flaws but because I used them as connectors to other places and inevitably when I had a close connection — less than an hour — the arrival and departure gates were as far apart as possible, but when I had a couple of hours between flights, the gates were right next to each other.
For sheer coolness and fitting in, the Albuquerque airport with its New Mexico tiles, colors, and homage to adobe, wins. When you arrive there, you know you’re in New Mexico, whereas just about every other airport seems intent on being the same.
As for the choice of convention sites, the immortal W.C. Fields played a character who was being led to the gallows. He was asked if he had any last requests, replied “I’d like to see Paris before I die… but Philadelphia will do!”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mustang Bobby: Ah, so true re DFW. I had to fly there often back in my days as Satan’s minion. The wife and I flew through there on the way to DC, landed at one end of terminal 2 and connecting flight was at the other end of terminal 3.
raven
Tan Son Nhut sucked.
TheMightyTrowel
Hmmm airports…. I’m actually a big fan of Sydney – friendly staff, decent facilities, fast security lines. Melbourne sucks balls. Adelaide is great. Brisbane is the only international airport in a developed country where i’ve seen tens of people walking around barefoot. Perth is kinda blah. Canberra is embarrassingly tiny for the national capital but stunningly well appointed. For transit airports I like Hong Kong lots and HATE HATE HATE Dubai (except that the food in the Emirates lounge is DELICIOUS and they have Moet). No British airport is nice – the staff are horrendous, the facilities are usually over priced and the toilets are inevitably dirty. I love Dublin airport – if you fly to Europe, go via Dublin – nice people and not too crazy, also Aer Lingus is typically cheap and cheery.
For best airport though? Copenhagen, hands down. Beautiful, efficient, nice friendly people, lots of free wifi and fantastic tasty food.
My worst flying experiences are (in order): Atlanta, LAX and O’Hare.
BillinGlendaleCA
@TheMightyTrowel: I love LA, but avoid LAX like the plague. Though I’ve heard the new expanded Bradley terminal is nice.
ETA: If I fly domestically I fly out of Burbank, much nicer.
TheMightyTrowel
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s not.
raven
@TheMightyTrowel: When I flew to Sydney on R&R in August of 69 we went through Darwin. We got there and we ushered into a bar where we were primed to parrrrty! We all got a couple of beers and suddenly the bar was closed and it was back on the plane. None of us really really knew we had a 2500 mile flight ahead of us!
TheMightyTrowel
@raven: it’s a big fucking country with very few people in it. the bars are open later now, though. ;-)
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: You could walk to my sisters house from LAX!
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: We got our beloved Wendy(the previous Cocker) from a breeder near LAX.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Aww!
raven
@TheMightyTrowel: Yea, this had nothing to do with the bar closing hours. They were just whetting our whistles for 5 days of debauchery in Kings Cross!
geg6
Or maybe there’s another very liberal but not so in the spotlight as DeBlasio Dem whose state they want to highlight? It’s not making national news but our new governor has been in office less than a month but has already been governing the furthest to the left that I’ve ever seen in my 56 years as a citizen of the Commonwealth. The only other politician besides Tom Wolf who has made me this happy to have worked to get him elected is Obama.
BillinGlendaleCA
@geg6: (flicks ashes in my soda)Thanks Obama.
OzarkHillbilly
Worse airport I’ve ever been in was the bus station in McAllen TX.
Karmus
@magurakurin:
I was stuck there for something like 26 hours last year because of bad weather. Didn’t have the funds or inclination to venture out, so I took a walking tour of the place, other than some terminals I couldn’t get to except by bus or something IIRC. I really liked it. It could have used a couple more all-night joints, but there was enough to keep me going and some interesting exhibits (it could use more of those, too). Also, the airline in question did annoy me by refusing hotel vouchers, but at least one employee went out of his way to help me, and I appreciated that.
Ben Cisco
@Jewish Steel:
Just a bad case of assholeitis.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Morzer: He says he was not a booster, but he made a good case for Philly over Brooklyn even on the big picture demographics scale.
Here’s hoping the Philly cops are kept on a short leash this time (see BooMan’s 10 AM post yesterday).
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who really dislikes being limited to 3 links per post.)
Jado
Philly airport is perfectly cromulent – certainly not luxurious, but functional.
The trip into center city, however…
Crossing the bridge over the sewer treatment plant is an olfactory experience not to be missed.
Welcome To Philadelphia!! Have Some Sewer Stink!
zmulls
Wow, Philly gets the Convention and my Balloon Juice friends can’t do anything but dump on Philly? How….late-night NYC comedian of you all.
Yes, Philly is not one of the great airports of the world but it doesn’t suck anymore. They’ve done the same “upscale mall” treatment that all the other airports are getting and there are decent places to eat and hang out now. And yes, the ride into the city goes by the car crusher — the airport is way at the southern tip of the city, near the water, and you go by South Phily (and the stadiums). But you can certainly hop the Airport rail line and get right into Center City if you want.
Philly is a great town. It’s either a big Small City or a small Big City. One of the world’s great art museums (plus the Barnes is in the city). An incredible restaurant scene (we have an Iron Chef and two Top Chefs, as well as Marc Vetri). Historical sites second perhaps only to Boston. An easy walking city.
Plus we have the Mutter Museum.
This is a great place for the convention, and yes, we’re not New York, but that’s actually one of our selling points. ;-)
Suzanne
This makes me smile, because my old architecture firm is one of the biggest aviation design firms in the country, and we worked on many of the airports named here. When you go through LAX, think of me, and how I hated working on it even more than you all hate flying through it.
Jay C
I think what sank NYC’s bid for the DNC next year wasn’t so much that it was in New York, per se; but that they were planning to have it held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: which, as a sports venue is OK: but as a convention site left a lot to be desired: i.e. that it would have been a transportation and/or security nightmare to have to shlep a couple of thousand delegates from Manhattan (where most of the hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. are) and back from Brooklyn without creating Traffic Hell (like NYC is on a normal day).
tt crews
Aaahh, Philadelphia “atty-tude” for all the world to see (again). This song about sums up Philadelphians’ reaction to the whining.
Mike E
@tt crews: Hilarious…I concur.
Linnaeus
I spent about a month in Philadelphia doing research at the American Philosophical Society’s library and archive. I thought the city was great.
Epicurus
As a long-time resident of New York City (OK, I actually live in Queens), I applaud this move. The only thing worse than having a convention here next summer were Bloomberg’s absurd plans to hold the Olympics here. Take my word for it; this city struggles just to move its residents around every weekday; what the hell good would be accomplished by dumping another million (hundreds of thousands?) of people here for two weeks? I also bitterly remember the last GOP convention held here, and the “Free Speech Zones,” etc. Absolute bullshit. Good luck, Philly, you’re going to need it.
HelloRochester
Philly is a shit hole. I moved here from Rochester goddamn New York and I can still say it’s an overrated shit hole. Maybe the convention will be used to highlight America’s crumbling infrastructure. Or our continued undeserved high opinion of ourselves. Both of those Philly has piled in large steaming heaps.