That was fast

Philadelphia is an impressive city in many ways. The latest pleasant surprise is the speed at which a noise problem in my neighborhhod was rectified.

About a month ago, a diesel generator roughly the size of 3 minivans was parked on the corner near my apartment building in Old City. It had no identifying information.

The constant hum was loud enough that neighbors complained to each other and I was forced to wear earplugs to bed. Some business owners were also annoyed, but many shrugged it off as somehow necessary.

When I couldn’t take it any longer, I filed a complaint online with the city streets department.

It was just three days later that my cell phone rang while I was on Thanksgiving vacation in Florida and a young man from the Philadelphia health department informed me that he was going to take a noise reading and let me know the results.

First of all, I was amazed he was working on the day after Thanksgiving.  But when he called back to say the utility company was getting a citation for what was clearly a noise violation, I was very impressed.

However, the kicker was returning from vacation to find the hulking menace gone; replaced with a smaller, noticeably quieter generator. The new model was even labeled, “Whisperwatt.”

There is a school of thought among my newsroom colleagues that being a morning anchor on the radio was a factor in how quickly the problem was resolved. Another school says living in Old City also helped.

So here’s the question: Did Philadelphia quickly remedy this situation based on its merits or am I being ridiculously romantic about my relatively new hometown?

Tell me what you think.