Slide the City Definitely Won’t Be Coming to Philly 

Slide in the City | Photo via Facebook

You can officially make new plans for August 6th because Slide the City definitely won’t be setting up their 1,000-foot slip ’n slide in Philly that day. Yesterday, it looked like Slide the City was still going to try to make it to Philly, despite issues with obtaining a permit. But later that afternoon, Lauren Hitt, spokeswoman for Mayor Kenney’s administration, smashed any hope they might have by telling Philly.com that a permit for Slide the City would not be issued.

Her reasoning? “We just felt like they weren’t great partners.” And I mean, this makes sense: Slide the City sent out a press release to the media saying they were coming to Philly before actually getting permits for the event granted. That’s a littttttle shady, if you ask us. And when Billy Penn asked Slide the City co-founder John Malfatto why, exactly, they would do that, he called the move “typical.” Considering they’ve canceled a number of events in other cities in the past due to permitting issues, you’d think they’d make a habit of getting all their ducks in a row before announcing to a city of 1.5 million people that they are coming. But nope.

As Jolene Nieves Byzon, spokeswoman for Councilman Bobby Henon, who was working with Slide the City on permits, told Billy Penn, “That press release, if anything, highlighted the fact that they’re not a good partner to us.” Also, Hitt told Philly.com that other parties had already reserved picnic and pavilion areas where Slide the City was planning to set up that day, anyway. Womp, womp.

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