Some castmember of the reality show "Parking Wars."

I spoke to series producer Andrew Dunn and executive producer Dan Flaherty of A&E’s popular reality show “Parking Wars” for last Tuesday’s issue of Metro-Philadelphia.

The show, which has followed staff of the Philadelphia Parking Authority for two seasons, is back for a third, which will also include scenes from Detroit’s parking enforcement agency. Unfortunately, that piece only ran in print, not online, although the week before I had another story on the PPA that was put on the newspaper’s Web site.

Because of space limitations, my Q&A with those two producers was additionally slashed, leaving just a few questions with Dunn. Below, I share what Flaherty, the show’s co-executive producer, had to say.

Answers from Dan Flaherty, co-executive producer of “Parking Wars,” unless otherwise noted, and questions transcribed for, but not used by Metro

This season also followed members of Detroit’s parking authority. Why the change?

“Our first two seasons were shot exclusively in Philadelphia and in getting a third season, we said ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ And Detroit is Motor City. It’s all about cars and about parking there.”

What has your experience with PPA been?

“We’re on the street. Really the show is on the ground. It’s the day in and day out with the men and women who do the job.”

Andrew Dunn, series producer: “What impresses me with the ticketing and towing and the working in the impound lot are hard jobs. They keep a lot of good people there. Somebody has to do it. They do a remarkably good job training folks and having people be efficient. I wouldn’t want to be a ticket enforcer. I have a great respect for the doing the jobs.”

How did you guys select who was in the show?

“There are a lot of folks who work at the PPA. Before we engaged in full-time shooting, we just met with as many people as we could. We interviewed them, we spoke to them, we talked to them, and from there we thought who would be good, who could articualte their experiences and the normal experiences of someone with a job with the PPA the best.”

Anything you’d like to change with the first two seasons?

“One thing  you don’t ee as often on the show is get people who thank the Parking Authority. Those who enjoy watching the show and enjoy watching and learning, they’re yelling to say ‘hi.’ People come to the impound lot to take photos of these guys you see on the show. There are a lot of fans, and we don’t see that. We don’t get to show that as often as it happens.”

Do the PPA employees on the show get any perks?

“They get the personal satisfaction of being able to communicate that this is my job. This what is boring and what is difficult about my job. They are very proud of the work they do, and in terms of job satisfaction that is in a way  no different than anyone else with a job they like. Those folks are not just clocking in, and I think they like to share that with our viewers.”

It’s easy to get a ticket and think of the person who is writing the ticket is just a creature, but the show does a good job of humanizing them as people with a job and responsibilities.”

Below see a clip from an earlier “Paring Wars” episode.

Charisse Loving, with Ping Chong and others of Secret History performance, warming up before rehearsal.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend in Philadelphia, I know what it should be. My byline on PhiladelphiaWeekly.com about a performance commissioned by the Village of Arts and Humanities:

Secret History: The Philadelphia Story debuts this Friday at Old City’s Painted Bride Art Center. The play, written and directed by Ping Chong, a New York–based theater director, explores six teenagers’ first–hand experiences with conflict and violence. The catch? Some of them have never acted before. Read the rest here.

Read the rest, comment, buy tickets, go to the show, then come back and read below a Q&A with director Ping Chong that didn’t make it into the story.

CW: What does this story offer audiences?

Ping Chong: All of these teens deal with violence that are not heard about, at least not from their perspective. We just don’t hear them so much. You will in the performance. In other [Undesirable Elements] productions we might have projects about immigrants, any outsiders, like African Americans or Native Americans. We did one with children who lived through war. To hear those voices is to experience, if only for a short-while, their lives. This is the experiences of urban war.

CW: How have the kids, most of whom have no acting experience, developed since the first rehearsal?

PC: Them getting a sense of how this thing is, what it means. Some of them, just three of them have any acting experience. But really, it just happens that they have experience because this is less about a performance than it is about people. This is the 41st, or the 40th, at least 40th version of this [Undesirable Elements] project and with a couple exceptions, all have been done, and really, many done well, with non-performers. I think the audience understands, but in time so have these children.

CW: Tell me about the process, how were these kids picked, how did you write their stories?

PC: I asked the Village [of Arts and Humanities, a community arts center in the Fairhill neighborhood of North Philadelphia that commissioned Chong to do the show] to bring me teenagers to interview [for nearly two hours each]. It’s a difficult problem for these kids to wrap their heads around. Some were reluctant to talk when they found it would get so personal. Some requested holding names for a variety of issues… But we spoke to the children and picked a team that complimented each other and wrote from that interview this piece… I’m exceedingly excited. The teens are working very hard. I really admire their bravery.

CW: Do you have a favorite moment or scene?

PC: When you live outside this world, your image of the drug dealers is that they’re part of the criminal class. But, you know, they are people. The reasons they do it is not jsut as simple as they’re bad guys. There isn’t other income in these households. The drug dealer is the person who can care for a family. Without giving too much away, there is a moment that shows this.

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The peformance is meant to connect disparate groups with the concept of violence.

“North Philadelphia is often stereotyped that it is very violent, so violence only affects people in this community,” says Kumani Gantt, the executive director of the Village. “That is not the truth. One of our missions at the Village it to connect our teens with other teens working with other organizations so they can learn that.”

Fri., Feb. 20, 8pm and Sat., Feb. 21, 3pm and 8pm. $10–$15. Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St. 215.925.9914  www.paintedbride.org

Additionally see a post I wrote on these Village Undesirable Elements performances for uwishunu.com.

Photo from and further biography at UndesirableElements.org.

Trudy Rubin is what’s left of the once glorious international presence of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

She just returned from another tour of Iraq, where she has further cemented her reputation as a top global-reporting force. Her Worldview column and her blog are musts for those following American presences in the Middle East (Subscribe here). Yeah, and she’s doing for the Inquirer, fo real.

On Tuesday, she fielded questions in an online forum and, along with politics and military, I was joined by others asking her thoughts on newspapers.

Find them below.

These are the questions relating to media. For the entire transcript go here.

How hard is it to get a press pass to embed? What are the channels you have to go through?

Trudy Rubin:  You need a letter from a bona fide newspaper saying you represent them, which you take to the military’s press center. That’s about it.

Is it easier or harder to report fresh, important content when there is less or more U.S. media? Can you compare your international experiences before this newspaper fallout?

Trudy Rubin:  I always think that more correspondents is better than fewer, because in a difficult environment more means a better chance of uncovering stories that will go unreported if there are only a few. That has been my experience in covering previous wars in the Middle East.

What is your opinion on Nouri al-Maliki, and how do you feel about his restrictions placed on the press?

Trudy Rubin: Maliki, about whom I’m writing a column today, is someone who is uncomfortable with democracy, even though he doesn’t want to openly oppose it. He comes from a small conspiratorial party that was underground or in exile under Saddam and he thinks in that manner. He is trying to convey the image of a strongman which the population really wants, and he has gained popularity by acting as a nationalist, and moving against Shiite militias, even though he is a Shiite.   However, he seems unable to govern or to provide the services and jobs that the population needs.

Why are many mainstream media pulling out of Iraq?

Trudy Rubin:  Chris, mainstream media are pulling out of Iraq because they are in deep financial trouble and keeping bureaus there is extremely costly. There is also the feeling that AMericans don’t care about Iraq any more, and that it’s time to move coverage to Afghanistan and Pakistan. I think this is a bad mistake, given the continuing importance of the Iraq story, but in a recession, money trumps.

What do you see happening to coverage of international issue — such as the war in iraq — by daily newspaper (such as the inquirer) given the financial pressure many newspapers are facing. Will these types of trips become increasingly rarer?

Trudy Rubin:  I’m hoping The Inquirer will continue to send me abroad, but nothing is certain in this economic environment. Many papers are shutting or consolidating foreign bureaus (The Inquirer already closed its foreign bureaus a while ago.) If readers like yourself want foreign coverage you have to make your wishes known to the publisher and the editors of the newspaper you read!

These are the questions relating to media. For the entire transcript go here.

Here’s her biography from the Inquirer:

Trudy Rubin’s Worldview column runs on Wednesdays and Sundays. In the past five years she has visited Iraq nine times and has also written from Iran, Pakistan, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, China and South Korea . She is the author of Willful Blindness: the Bush Administration and Iraq, a book of her columns from 2002-2004. In 2001 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary and in 2008 she was awarded the Edward Weintal prize for international reporting.

What would you have asked her? Will the void be filled that is left by fewer and fewer foreign correspondents from U.S. newspapers?

Name: JoAnne A. Epps
Title: Dean, effective July 1
Company: Temple University Beasley School of Law
Education: Trinity College, bachelor’s degree, 1973; Yale University School of Law, 1976
Career History: associate dean of academic affairs, Temple Law (1989-present); professor, Temple Law (1985-2000); assistant U.S. attorney, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1980-85); deputy city attorney, City of Los Angeles (1976-80)

What do you see being the biggest pending change in legal education in the coming years?

I think one of the big changes in legal education is going to be to ensure legal education fully prepares our students to be practicing lawyers. We’ve had the same educational model for nearly a century. All legal educators will be asking themselves how we can improve on that model.”

Do you think law schools need to add more classes to prepare students for the business aspect of practicing law? Or does that take away from legal education?

I’m not entirely sure that law schools must include a course on the business of practicing law, althoiugh I do think it is important that students do acquire that education. I am not against it, but I don’t think that it’s urgent or mandatory. I am of the view that what’s needed is more introduction to practicing law, not introduction to the business of practicing law, including the handling of moral and ethical dilemmas, understanding how to take our place as leaders in the community, understanding collaborative problem solving. For all of that law schools are ideally suited. Part of my hesitation in thinking of the business of practiing law is that we can intellectualize that topic and we can seek to help our students, but the practicing part will be a better teacher than we can.

What effect does the high cost of law school education, specifically the prohibitive loans students are saddled with, have on students making choices about which school to attend and what career path to pursue afterwards?

I don’t think legal education, when compared to other education, is particularly expensive. I think education in general has gotten costly, but, with that said, it is really clear that to obtain a legal education, one will need to expend substantial expenses, which effects both those choosing a legal career and those who earn a law degree and have to choose what to do with it. One advantage Temple has is we’re a true bargain. That’s something about which we’re very pleased. I also think, in general, the legal profession offers a secure job. So while legal education may seem costly, I think law students have a much better chance of paying back their loans than some students with advanced liberal arts educations.

What has been the biggest positive change in legal education since you joined the Temple Law faculty?

About Temple I can say the credentials of our entering students have never been better. We are teaching really bright and engaging students. A change in legal education is the breadth of opportunities that our sudents are able to pursue. The world has gone global; we have gone global. Fifty years ago, a law student might enter a small professional association, would work that job for life. That’s a completely different paradigm in 2008. The career options are extremely broad.

How has Drexel University’s new law school changed the competitive landscape locally in terms of trying to attract students?

Actually, thre are plenty of bright law students to go around, so we wish Drexel well and expect they feel the same way about Temple. I dont think that they’re a rival means we have to compete because there are a lot of bright law students.

Temple Law is known nationally for its trial advocacy program but still has not improved its overall rankings in U.S. News & World Report in recent years. Why? And what does Temple Law need to do to take its reputation to the next level?

I would like to say, that our international law program was ranked 16th. To be in the Top 20 is really an achievement, and we’re really proud of that. But, I don’t believe a focus on rankings is the way to go. I think it makes you crazy, but I do think that everyone is mindful of their existence. We want to continue to achieve national prominence and hope that our increasing reputation catches up to our work. I am focused on those programs, not rankings.

What are a few other main objectives you would like to accomplish as dean?

I probably have a longer list than you ‘d like to hear or can fit in your newspaper. I want to continue to attact top faculty… I’m very interested in adding a focus on two or three areas, like business, maybe health law, things I’d really liike to pursue. …I’d really like to think of us putting some emphasis on being known for three or four things not just two.

Your predecessor Rob Reinstein had served for nearly 20 years, how do you hope to differentiate yourself from his tenure?

He achieved unbelievable accomplishments, achieved wonderful heights, so I don’t feel like there is anything about him that I need to differentiate from. But, I see the world from different eyes. You can look at us and see how different we are in background… So I’ll follow different directions, set different priorities, but not because I am seeking to differentiate myself.

Reinstein also served as senior vice president for international programs and grew up Temple’s law program in Beijing. Do you hope to expand on Temple law’s international presence?

He has really put Temple on the international map and for that the law school is extremely grateful. And yes, I do intend to not only continue our involvement but expand it. There is a limit to the number of full fledged programs any institution can absord, otherwise to best grow internationally, we’ll need partnerships, like what we have with a university in Ireland. There are two places I most want to expand: South America and Africa. …Given the profliferatin of Hispanic peoples in this world, it is our responsibility to provide more opportunities for our students to learn about these cultures and… to bring more Hispanic students to Temple. And we have a legacy in Africa. We had a program in Ghana before it was stopped because of some political instability there. But it seems to me, given our connection with that country and what that means as a developing nation and region, it provides our students that legacy, that type of experience. … If we could establish those and have programs in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa I would be very proud.

Do your professional successes take on more meaning because there are so few black women leading major law schools like yourself?

I think inevitably I do, although they are not front and center in my consciousness. I recognize the responsiblity that I have. I recognize that I have a relatively unique position I will be assuming, and I understand that others, and perhaps others more than me, will see not just a dean, not just the dean of the Temple Law schoool, but [Temple’s] first women dean and an African-American dean, so I bring all of that to any encournter. I understand it and accept it. I don’t walk into a room with that on my sleeve.

What can the city’s law firms do to improve recruitment and retention of minority law students?

Those are two different questions that require two different strategies. The recruitment strategy I think is not specifically where law firms are failing. I think they’re doing a good job recruiting. I think the work on the recruitng end needs to start in junor and senior year in high school. I don’t challenge them for recruiting an inadequate number of minority students because there are an inadequate number of law students of color. The retention is entirely in their ability to resolve. I do think there they have to decide how sincerely it matters to them. I don’t, in that comment, mean to imply a lack of sincereity on their part. If you want something that’s hard to get, you have to ask yourself how much you want it. I think law firms really do want law students of color, but they need to figure out just how important it is to them. Their assocaites are different, so their success strategies have to be different. Not the critieria, just strategies, and be willing to support those differences.

Your first job was as a cashier at Temple’s bookstore. What does that mean to you?

I think there’s a wonderful sense of being at home being here at Temple. But I also think what I would say about that full circle is that I started at a job of service. I really loved being a cashier, helping people from getting what they wanted and getting out the door. My mother was a secretary [at Temple], so she taught me that message… I think being a law school dean is a job of service, with a product of tremendous value. In many ways, it’s the same job, different place.

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

I am currently traveling. This was forward-posted on May 6.

Name: Joseph P. Campbell
Title: President and CEO
Company: Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania Inc.
Education: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute, associoate’s degree, 1966; University of Florida BA and BS in corporate finance, law and secondary education, 1970
Career History: Royal Bancshares general manager of real estate division in Chester County (1970-1981); Royal Bancshares board of directors (1982-1991); Royal Bancshares managing director (1991-1999)

1. The bank has been owned largely by the Tabas family since 1980, when the name changed from Bank of King of Prussia to Royal Bank. How has that affected its development?

It was the smaller of two banks owned by two brothers… we were looking for a vehicle to get into the banking industry and wanted something that, as I like to say, already had the cash register ringing. We walked in the door and applied our management style to it. It was positive from day one… We gave it a larger regional scope, in moving branches from King of Prussia to Philadelphia. We wanted to make it a larger bank… we took our business model, our biggest asset that we knew what the other side thinks. We are not bankers by training, we came into it another way. We’ve stayed with what we knew, real estate, and grew in new ways.

2. You started as a bus boy at Tabas family hotel in Downingtown 40 years ago and became president and CEO. How has that experience affected your view of business today?

Dan Tabas was really my mentor, and there’s no greater ladder to success than having a great mentor… We’ve always looked at our business on a family basis. Every shareholder meeting I go to, I say… your employees are your greatest asset. Everything in life is a people business. Success or failure can be tied to how you treat people in business. The teller downstairs has a more important job than I do. I can be out of the office on a Wednesday… and no one would know. If that teller was out, she’d be missed.

3. Why did the company decide to add Royal Asian Bank in 2004? What has it brought to the company?

We’re not traditional bankers. We’re looking for other ways to serve the community and our shareholders. We have a leasing company, a capital marketing company, a tax lean division, different things. Something I loooked into was the Asian market. In resarching I found the Asian community was good to lend to. They come and learn the language, know the value of educaiion… They might operate a dry cleaner and live above… You look at default rates, and they’re lowest of all ethnic groups. When you have all of that you have a good borrower… [That type of bank] goes to population centers, rather than expanding like a donut, like we do. They serve that ethnic pocket. They’ve been very successful. They started as a divison of Roayal Bank. Now they are stand alone bank on their own. It’s been a great success.

4. How has the fact that the bank generates such a large percentage of its revenues from real estate lending affected it during the recent credit crisis?

It slows down; there’s no question about it. …with a slow down in lending, it affects our current performance, by taking additional reserves than we would originally. That’s the immediate impact. For future earnings when things are slow, people think ‘Jees should I do this expansion to my shopping center…’ that’s lack of confidence in market. That’s some of the reason I’ve tried to diversify our interests.

5. Does Royal Bank need to generate more non-interest income to deal with the prolonged flat yield curve that has made it harder to generate profits from deposits and loans?

Non interst income has become more important today in the current climate. Fortunately, we had the wisdom of seeing that coming two years ago. We would have loved to know four years ago though, but we’re on the right track. When we went into the leasing business… we weren’t interested in owning 100 percent of a company. Our model is a little different… we are entreprenuers; they are entreprenuers, not employees, so we own only 60 percent. We can be the big brother, have the availability to fund their success. They own 40 percent. We’re parners, not employers and employees.

6. Why did Royal Bank have the accounting problems that led to the delayed third and fourth quarter earnings reports?

Basically what we decided when the market was turning was we wanted to reevaluate our loan practice. We wanted an outside consultant… it becomes extremely hard when you have that many groups working together, the time lag that is invoved.. We had to wait for the process to work out. So we were sitting back for these reports. The outcome of it was good but we were waiting for info from outside accounting firms so things could match with our internal auditors. It became a process. … It was worthwhile.

7. Many of your clients are local developrs, how are you working with them and their difficulty with the recent credit crisis?

You have to work with them. They’re your customers. It’s nothing they necessarily did… We’ve seen some positive signs in the rental market. The interesting thing is what we have to overcome is more perception. People have to feel comfortable making decisions. You can have the best product in the world and it won’t matter otherwise. No it’s a cycle. Everything in real estate is cycle… That is something we understand. Maybe we have a developer. The problem is they can’t get a mortgage. That’s a product that we can give them, that’s something we’ve never done before. It’s one important ingredient we can offer to help our clients, not bad financing, but those that deserve it.

8. Banks had terrible third and fourth quarters. How long do you see this credit issue affecting banks and what can they do to combat it?

A lot of the bad third quarters will be related to good first and second quarters a year from now. …It’s putting money from your left pocket to the right pocket. The idea is in time the economy gets better and you’re going to get back that money. Some looked and everyone is taking a bath third and four quarter, so it’s time for some scrubing. All the banks did a lousy job in earning. But, they fortified their balance sheets, and will recover a lot of that money in future quarters.

9. Is the local banking world too crowded? Do you suspect we might see some consolidation in the next year or two?

That’s a model for banks. Some get into banking, and they only plan on being in for 5 to 7 years. Its a regular model, as other people want to expand and get into market, there is always that potential. You want to grow your bank, what are you options? Turn into an area, buy branches, commit $50 million in Bucks or Berks County, or I’m gonnna buy a bank that already has a foundation there, same money, less work.

10. Where do you see Royal’s niche in the local banking world and how does it distinguish itself from other community banks?

On feedback from exisiing customers – I ask the customer, what I think is somewhat irrelevant – lenders and management have been in place for years. Our lenders’ average experience is 20 yeas in real estate.. Not just all the brains in the world but day to day experience. W analyze. We can deliver the product. We have a local presence. We can have an answer faster than any regional bank.

Name: E. Robert Levy
Title: Executive director and counsel & executive director of legislative and regulatory information & legislative regulatory counsel
Organization: Mortgage Bankers Association of New Jersey & Mortgage Bankers Association of Pennsylvania & Pennsylvania Association of Mortgage Brokers
Education: Rutgers School of Law in York, Boston University (started undergrad) and Farleigh Dickinson (graduated undergrad),
Career History (most recent first): Private practice in law; deputy commissioner to New Jersey state Department of Banking and Insurance; Attorney general and counsel to New Jersey state Department of Banking and Insurance
Home: Livingston, N.J.

1) What are the major differences in the mortgage crisis between New Jersey and Pennsylvania?

Well, the differences are probably fairly negligible, depending upon what data you look at. Overall, the negative impact on both states, or on either state, is far less than what you find in other parts of the country, California, Florida, Nevada. As far as foreclosure rates are concerned, they are affected by the nature of the urban parts of the state, which get hit harder than others as there is some evidence that non prime lending was more prevalent in those markets.

2) How are the state legislatures and executive branches in each state approaching the problem differently?

Not substantially differently. The legislatures in both states are very concerned with the market and consumers. Frankly, I think both are acting responsibly. Legislators have expressed concern but don’t want to overact and hurt the market and the very consumers they’re trying to help. There are bills to license loan solicitors – requiring pre license education and continuing education – in both states. All the organizations I represent are fully supportive of those bills, and I have participated in drafting them. We’re hoping to get those bills passed some time in 2008.

3) Do you see product offerings, particularly in the sub prime and Alt A areas, from lenders changing? If so, can you give examples?

There are a lot of changes in the sense that certain products are now available to only the most worthy consumers, with a lot higher interest rates being required by some lenders. Really, the market has returned to the standards of a few years ago. For another, a second example, it’s very difficult to do a piggyback, second mortgage today because no one wants to purchase those. These nontraditional mortgage products, all the exotic products, so called, are pretty much unavailable now.

4) A lot of banks have predicted 4Q financials will be down due to their investments in the sub prime market. How do you see the overall effect of this on the economy in 2008?

Well, there’s no question that this is going to have a negative impact on the economy in the incoming year. It will obviously weaken the economy. Some think a recession. It is hard to predict, but to the extent that you can do it, I think it is going to be a period of six to nine months, more write downs, more foreclosures, of course housing prices coming down some what. Then, at that point six to nine months from now, we’re going to see a bottoming out and it might resurge.

5) Mortgage bankers dropped more than a quarter of their licenses in Pennsylvania in 2007. Is that a trend you see continuing this year or have lenders completed their cutbacks?

I think there will be an easing of that trend, but there will be a continuation of it for some time. You’re gonna have some failures yet to come about, also some firms searching for niches in the market, consolidating, mergers and some general downsizing for a period of time. Probably mid-year, we’ll see a stabilization, then from there we can move forward and see a better market in 2009.

6) Is the foreclosure crisis and the so-called predatory lending that some think had a hand in precipitating it having a negative impact on how the industry is perceived?

I don’t think there is any question that the industry, that the image of the industry has been harmed by the media attention given to these issues, some of which is justified, a lot of it not, the result of just a lack of understanding of how it all functions.

7) Are the mortgage bankers associations or individual banks doing things to combat negative perceptions?

The first stage of our work is to deal with regulatory and legislative proposals that are out there, not dealing with negaitve perceptions. I think it‘s pretty clear we have a pretty good system so let’s not muddy it up with needless legislation. That’s the primary responsibility we have to our members, to deal with those regulatory and legislative concerns. It’s not to get focused on how the public perceives the industry because, well, the public is what it is, and no amount of money is worth a media campaign to say, ‘disregard all this folks, we’re really nice guys.’

See other examples of my reporting here.