PHILADELPHIA - Mayor John F. Street was among the first to get a coveted iPhone on Friday, waiting in line, on and off, for almost 15 hours and forced to defend the effort when a passer-by asked about the city's skyrocketing murder rate.
Street, who said he had been waiting in line outside a downtown AT&T store since 3:30 a.m., was among the first group to enter the store when the high-tech device officially went on sale at 6 p.m. He paid for his new phone with a credit card amid a scrum of media.
"It was worth the wait," Street said. "I'm a gadget guy."
The mayor said he was excited to get the phone. "If it works as good as it looks ... ," he said, his voice trailing off.
When he left the store, Street held the phone above his head to the cheers of about 100 people still in line. He then headed home to activate the phone.
The mayor said the iPhone replaces a top-of-the-line BlackBerry phone he purchased just three months ago.
Street's wait on the sidewalk outside the store was anything but uneventful. He wore large Bose headphones hooked up to an iPod Nano -- one of three iPods he owns -- around his neck while seated on a lawn chair.
He left his spot around 11:30 a.m., soon after a 22-year-old man sporting a mohawk asked him, "How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?"
The mayor replied: "I'm doing my job."
Street had planned to stay in line for most of the day, waiting for the cell phones to go on sale, though he said he would to step out to make some appearances. He returned to his spot briefly around 2 p.m., then again at about 4 p.m.
He spent the last hour walking up and down the line talking to the others waiting to buy the iPhone.
The mayor said he decided he wanted the new device because he loves trying out the newest technology. Already he has several computers and cell phones.
"It's just reflective of the changes that are taking place," Street said. "I used to sell encyclopedias. Now I have Google as my encyclopedia."
He said the new handheld technology would allow him to work some of the day outside of the office.
Art student Christian Hain, 19, said Street had every right to wait in line for the iPhone.
"He's not a robot. He can't be expected to work every waking moment," Hain said.
Leonard F. Johnson, 77, who got in line at 6 a.m. Thursday, said he was annoyed when some people passing by asked the mayor if he was taking a day off.
"Are they checking on him every day to see if he's at his desk 9 to 5?"
Larry West, the man who approached the mayor, returned at 3:15 p.m. to protest Street's actions -- only to find the mayor wasn't in line.
"In this climate, at this time in this city, you shouldn't be waiting in line for a phone," West said.
Philadelphia recently had its 200th slaying of the year. The city's murder rate is up from last year, the deadliest in nearly a decade.
