Clout: In D.A. race, does GPS stand for 'goofy political stunt'?
PHILLYCLOUT HOPES against hope that a new era in Philadelphia politics was ushered in yesterday when Michael Untermeyer allowed a small black GPS device to be strapped above his left ankle.
PHILLYCLOUT HOPES against hope that a new era in Philadelphia politics was ushered in yesterday when Michael Untermeyer allowed a small black GPS device to be strapped above his left ankle.
Untermeyer, the Republican candidate for district attorney, promises to wear the device for the next 30 days to publicize his call for more nonviolent criminals to be removed from city jails and put into home detention - using the monitoring devices to make sure that they stay put.
The move would reduce prison overcrowding and save the city millions of dollars, Untermeyer calculates, comparing the city's $98-a-day expense for prisoners to the $8-a-day that Sentinel Offender Services charges for its top-of-the-line ankle bracelet.
Court administrator David Lawrence says that the city already is using GPS devices to track more than 750 people, and he wonders if it's appropriate for many more. "The public defenders' office is all over this," Lawrence said.
Regardless, for the next month, the entire world will be able to track Untermeyer's minute-by-minute whereabouts through Sentinel's monitoring software, accessible on Untermeyer's Web site, www.untermeyerforda.com (Click on, "Where's Mike?)
But, PhillyClout sees broader horizons. How about City Council members wearing the devices to demonstrate how hard they're working during their three-month summer recess? Or tracking Gov. Rendell's on-time performance record as his schedules spin out of control? Better yet, think what the devices might have done for Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Mark Sanford or other politicians who've gone astray looking for the Appalachian Trail.
Our mind is spinning.
Driving Vernon Odom
One of our PhillyClout correspondents recently found himself in Akron, Ohio, traveling down Vernon Odom Boulevard.
Why would Akron name a main thoroughfare for Philly's venerable "Action News" reporter?
It didn't. The boulevard is named for Vernon Odom Sr., father of both the newsman and Temple University journalism professor Maida Odom.
The elder Odom, who died in 1996, was honored with the street-naming for his civil-rights work and 28-year-long leadership of Akron's Urban League.
Political jazz man
Political consultant D.A. Jones will be jamming with his band, "Rented Mule," tomorrow night at Natalie's, on 40th and Market streets in West Philly, to celebrate the recent release of their second album, "X."
Jones, a drummer who has played with Bo Diddley, Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Gaynor, describes the group's sound as "jazz-rock fusion."
Asked if he ever writes songs about Philadelphia political intrigue, Jones laughed. "No, I haven't done that."
But he said that top clients U.S. Rep. Bob Brady and former city controller Jonathan Saidel have been known to cause trouble at his gigs.
"It's real fun to play when you have Bob Brady looking at you making faces," Jones said.
Who are those voices?
Ever wonder about the woman with the weird accent who announces "Doors closing" on the Broad Street subway? Or the guy whose mellow baritone announces the train arrivals at Suburban and Market East stations?
Wonder no more.
SEPTA spokesman Gary Fairfax gave us a run-down on those voices we hear when we take public transit.
The door announcement (pronounced as "doe-ahs KLOS-zing" and sounds vaguely Scottish) was recorded by an employee of the German company that provided the door-warning system a few years ago.
Fairfax says that the woman was originally from the Philadelphia area, but you sure can't tell from her accent.
Station stops are announced live by the subway operator.
That great baritone at the regional rail stations, meanwhile, belongs to Alvin Elliott, a station attendant who recorded every possible train and arrival time when SEPTA switched to an automated announcement system in 2000.
Sadly, the trend is toward computer-generated, digitized voices - robots - and that's what you'll hear on many bus lines and the Market-Frankford El.
Still worth hearing, though, are the station announcements on New Jersey Transit's RiverLine, which runs from Camden to Trenton. They're voiced by WXPN-FM DJ Michaela Majoun.
Staff writers Bob Warner and Gar Joseph contributed to this report.
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