Joining the Eagles parking lot ‘church’ at 3 a.m. | Mike Newall
Also, the measles outbreak and more.
Every Sunday, Mike Newall brings you a preview of the big stories defining Philly this week and an inside look at how we got there.
Big Carm couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t even 3:30 a.m., and already the Lincoln Financial Field parking guys were already giving Green Beard grief.
Ten hours before kickoff today, Carmen “Big Carm” Conti was taking his responsibilities as president of the newly-formed Philadelphia Association of Tailgaters as serious as fourth and inches in the Super Bowl.
If you haven’t been following the drama in Parking Lot F, my colleagues Ariel Simpson and Conor Smith have the play by play. In short, longtime tailgaters fumed last month when Comcast Spectator and Sports Complex parking management officials announced new restrictions and extra parking fees for oversized vehicles and said tailgaters could no longer play savesies with their favorite spots in key lots. The new rules were set for Sunday’s home game against the Rams. It was all for traffic flow and safety, the team explained.
Philadelphia tailgating culture is doomed, tailgaters argued. By limiting space and directing tailgaters to new space, the rules would threaten larger tailgate bashes like Conti’s, which have become a gameday staple.
Conti, 48, a DJ and dad of four from Washington Township, and a longtime tailgater who organizes a regular 100-person gameday bash, recognized his moment, and met it.
“Our goal is to get a seat at the table where tailgating is discussed,” Conti wrote in a Sept. 22 Facebook post. By last week, the tailgaters had an attorney, official letterhead, and a closed-door meeting with stadium bigwigs.
On Friday, Comcast Spectator buckled, announcing concessions and promising more during a joint stadium press conference. Flanked at the podium by Comcast Spectacor chief operating officer Phil Laws and Swoop the Eagles mascot, Conti wore a giant, dangling, custom-made Acrylic Eagles necklace. He sported a game-winning grin.
Sunday would be the test, he said.
I had to see for myself.
Forgoing his usual 3 a.m. stadium setup time, Conti camped out overnight in his Eagles-logo wrapped Dodge. First in line, as always. 11th Street was eerily quiet. Crickets. Opossums the size of poodles. And a growing line of antsy tailgaters.
Big Carm’s tailgating dream had grown from few friends into a pregame happening with rotating DJs, pop-up bars, sponsors, and visitors from all over.
He wrote about all of it in a 42-page fan memoir he self-published, entitled, The Ultimate Fan Experience: Big Carm’s Tailgate.
“It’s not just food and drinks — its identity,” he wrote.
The parking lot is essentially church for them. And Comcast Spectator is playing fast and loose with that sacred space. What I find so charming about Conti is that his devotion seems rooted in a basic tenet of Philadelphia pride: an utter and total refusal to see ourselves the way mostly everyone else sees us. The world may see brutes in green. But Big Carm and his crew are proud of the welcoming subculture they’ve created. Comcast should be too.
“I call it a neighborhood,” Conti said, of his tailgating community.
There in the darkness, his phone lit up. A text from Green Beard, who had parked his SUV trailing a custom smoker further down 11th Street. He was preparing a pork belly breakfast for his fellow tailgaters, when a parking lot official in a golf cart told him under the new rules he would have to move.
“I’m just telling you,” the parking lot official said, before eventually relenting.
Conti had come prepared, with a motorized scooter he could ride to monitor stadium lots for emergencies like this. He excused himself and scooted into the darkness to help his pal Green Beard. He had tailgaters who needed him.
At 6 a.m., the gates finally opened. Things went slower than usual. And there were some rough patches that would need to be addressed with the team this week, ahead of the Eagles next Oct. 18 home game, Conti would tell me later Sunday morning.
“Not happy, but content,” he said. But the tailgaters survived.
Data deep dive
With the state likely to surpass 1000 cases next week — and a fifth confirmed measles-associated death — Pennsylvania has the largest measles outbreak in the United States. And officials believe cases are likely being undercounted. Inquirer health reporter Aubrey Whelan has been all over the outbreak since the first cases hit Lancaster County this winter and then began surging in Chester County this summer. Here’s what to know, in her words:
This is the state’s biggest measles outbreak since 1991 — and certainly the deadliest.
Measles is an extraordinarily contagious disease. Nine out of 10 people who are unvaccinated and exposed to it will get it. So scientists say you have to vaccinate at least 95% of the population to prevent it from spreading.
Measles was effectively eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 because of herd immunity. Now large amounts of people are not vaccinated in certain communities. Public health experts will say it’s because vaccination rates are declining across Pennsylvania.
More parents are opting to forgo vaccinations for religious and philosophical reasons — and that’s really easy to do in Pennsylvania.
There are pockets of vulnerability in Pennsylvania. There are measles outbreaks elsewhere in the country. But we are ground zero.
The state has been setting up vaccination clinics in hard hit areas — and health providers are giving out more shots than usual. Parents in the Philly area should talk to their providers about their recommendations on how to protect their children, Whelan advises.
The state is encouraging parents to vaccinate infants as young as six months in affected counties and to speed up vaccines for older kids. The Inquirer also has a handy database where you can look up vaccination rates at your children’s schools — and better understand vaccine coverage in your community.
A look ahead
Drexel and the Academy of Natural Sciences may be heading toward a split, report my colleagues Susan Snyder and Peter Dobrin. Meanwhile, City Council hearings on the closure of the beloved dino museum are scheduled for Oct. 7.
Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner says the federal judge who accused him of potentially breaking the law should remove himself from a controversial post-conviction case.
The battered Eagles bitter loss to the Rams will take longer than a week to swallow. So why not plan to wash it away with fish and chips and pints during next week’s 9:30 a.m. start, when the Birds take on the Jaguars at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
