News

South Philly Artist Sells Anti-PPA Gritty Paintings to Pay Her Parking Tickets

Plus, while Philly struggles to deal with rowdy teens at night, Ocean City simply shuts down its beaches.


south philadelphia artist heather vaughan creates anti-ppa gritty paintings on philadelphia parking tickets to pay for her parking tickets

South Philadelphia artist Heather Vaughan creates anti-PPA Gritty paintings on her parking tickets to pay for said parking tickets. (Photo courtesy Heather Vaughan)

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South Philly Artist Sells Anti-PPA Gritty Paintings to Pay Her Philadelphia Parking Tickets

When I received a parking ticket from the Philadelphia Parking Authority on Tuesday night — my first in ages — I promptly crumbled it up and tossed it into my glove compartment. To South Philadelphia artist Heather Vaughan, this would be a missed opportunity.

The 35-year-old illustrator, whose clients have included the Philadelphia Eagles, Disney, and the Los Angeles Times, creates anti-PPA paintings featuring Gritty on those PPA ticket envelopes and then sells the paintings to pay her parking tickets.

Her most recent batch of parking tickets for her 2010 Subaru Impreza (the car has a name: Ellen) yielded the three Gritty paintings seen here. All three depict Gritty in various stages of burning down the PPA, complete with one of those red gasoline containers and molotov cocktails, an idea I wholeheartedly support in the figurative sense.

If arson isn’t your thing, there’s also what appears to be Gritty puking all over the PPA parking ticket envelope:

anti-ppa art featuring gritty on a philadelphia parking ticket envelope

Vaughan, a UArts grad, sells the paintings for $50 each. In some cases, that covers the cost of the tickets. In others, it doesn’t, just depending on the violation and where the car was parked, since penalties increase in certain neighborhoods.

She doesn’t paint just on PPA ticket envelopes. Vaughan also collects paper trash off the street and uses whatever scraps she finds as backdrops for her work. She sells paintings through her online store and at occasional pop-ups at the East Passyunk location of Manatawny Still Works, which she announces on her Instagram page.

I was ready to buy one of the anti-PPA Gritty paintings above to add to my collection of weird Philadelphia artwork and ephemera. But Vaughan already sold them. She says she’ll likely have more soon, what with the PPA’s stepped-up enforcement efforts and all. Though I should probably use that $50 to pay my own damn PPA ticket.

Ocean City Cracking Down on Rowdy Teens

No one is quite sure what to do with the roving crowds of rowdy teens on Philadelphia streets, other than to suggest they go to their neighborhood rec centers instead of popular tourist areas. But officials in Ocean City don’t play those games. They just shut down the beach instead.

After claiming that local police responded to 999 (!!!) incidents in Ocean City over Memorial Day weekend — many involving “drunken” teens — officials announced that the Ocean City beach is closed to everyone and anyone starting at 8 p.m. each night. You can still walk on the Ocean City boardwalk after that hour, but backpacks are banned after 8 p.m. The curfew for minors was 1 a.m. Now? Eleven p.m.

“I understand that these new directives will affect many people who are not teens, but it’s important that we stop this type of behavior now,” Ocean City mayor Jay Gillian said in a statement. “In the end, protecting our reputation as ‘America’s Greatest Family Resort’ will benefit everybody in Ocean City.”

Ah, well. I never did like Ocean City. Could never get over the fact that you can’t bring a bottle of red wine to an Italian restaurant, since the town takes the concept of “dry town” to an extreme. Just seems sacrilegious.

Your Move photo courtesy of City of Philadelphia

Game Over

You know all those oversized game pieces outside the Municipal Services Building in Center City? That installation, called Your Move, has been around since 1996. But its days are numbered. The city has announced that it’s removing the installation, citing the costs and complexity of upkeep. Officials say part of the problem is that the materials used in the sculptures just weren’t durable enough to withstand the high traffic and elements.

By the Numbers

46 percent: Philadelphia school students who are “chronically absent,” meaning they were absent from school at least one-10th of the time. Yikes!

$10.9 million: Bail set for a Philadelphia man accused of using Facebook Marketplace to rob people who were selling Louis Vuitton bags and Rolex and Cartier watches.

522 pounds: Weight of a great white shark that was just tracked off the coast of Ocean City. No word on whether officials plan to use said shark to get those unruly teens in line.

And from the Gotta-Score-Runs Sports Desk …

The Phillies were Not Brilliant last night in the first of their three-game series vs. the Mets at Citi Field, wasting a fine outing by Ranger Suárez, who went six and two-thirds having given up naught but a singleton homer, a brace of singles and a walk. The only hit off Mets starter Kodai Senga was a single by Kody Clemens in the third, and that was it except for a pinch-hit single by Josh Harrison off reliever Dave Robertson in the ninth, unless you want to count one walk. Final: 2-0 Mets. This is not the way you get back to the World Series, folks.

Highlights? There were no highlights. Well, there was this.

They meet up again tonight at 7:10. Bryce Harper had a day of rest.

Meanwhile, in Union news, there’s this:

And this: They have a home game tonight against Charlotte F.C., starting at 7:30. And guess what? It’s free on Apple TV. Of course, it’s Charlotte F.C. …

All Philly Today Sports Desk coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.