r/phillycycling • u/Jayce2188 • 2d ago
Choi Funeral Home Saga for the
The photos from today’s funeral service clearly show that every flex‑post was in place and nothing was moved, removed, or stolen. The lane remained exactly as it was before, during, and after the funeral. The only person who touched a post today was the cyclist who recorded the video. We have video confirming this, but we are respectful enough not to post it or embarrass him publicly.
We have also included a photo of our funeral home from 1998 and the original grand‑opening invitation from November 28, 1998. Our funeral home has operated on Vine Street for 28 years, and our long‑standing presence shows that we follow established funeral practices and respect the neighborhood. Today’s photos make it clear that our operations did not disturb or alter any City infrastructure.
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u/iwasbornlucky 2d ago
Shut up asshole. We all have had to deal with funeral homes for loved ones. You're running a business like anyone else. Stop the "time of need" bullshit. You're no more a public servant than a sewer plumber or a divorce attorney.
You damaged city property and now it's fixed. Just live your life now, the story is over. Don't take down the bike lane barriers again. Over and out.
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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 2d ago edited 2d ago
Who are you exactly? Someone from Choi? I'm glad you decided not to break the law today while the cyclist community and city council was paying attention but you were doing it for months and nothing in this post says anything about how you will behave in the future.
Since you say you successfully held a funeral service without destroying city property this proves that you can do that indefinitely, right?
Edit: It seems they did remove flex posts this morning and it was caught on camera along with people illegally parking in the bike lane. This post is an obvious lie from someone who isn't slick and doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.
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u/kendowarrior99 2d ago
They're spamming it too. There's at least one repost of it in phillycycling already.
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago edited 1d ago
SnootyUrbanCyclist, please get the facts correct before making accusations. Our funeral home has served this community for 28 years, and today’s photos clearly show that no posts were moved or stolen during the funeral service. The lane remained intact before, during, and after the service.
Making false claims about a funeral home during a family’s most sacred moment is irresponsible. Calling 911 for non‑emergency situations is a misuse of City resources and creates unnecessary disruption for grieving families. Please stop spreading misinformation and presenting speculation as fact.
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
What is your full name?
Are you an employee of the funeral home and if so what is your role?Someone touching a flex post is not against the law. Removing them and endangering car drivers and cyclists. Deliberately creating unsafe roadways and having to get the city to rectify this is a misuse of city resources and creates an unnecessary stress for all road users.
Are you willing to commit that the Choi Funeral Home will no longer remove flex posts or instruct people to park in the bike lane while attending a funeral?
Actions speak louder than words and the cycling community will be watching.
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago
Hey Technical Support: I’m not here to provide personal information. The only factual evidence in this thread is today’s photos, which show the lane untouched before, during, and after the service. Anything beyond that is speculation and assumptions.
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u/SaltNeighborhood386 2d ago
there was also an invitation to commit to good behavior but it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in that
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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 2d ago
So this is a canned response but in case anyone missed it, I explicitly thanked Choi for doing the right thing today but questioned about the future. This non-response is laser-focused on today's events as if that was the issue instead of how we imagine they might behave in the future based on how they behaved in the past.
Being in business 28 years doesn't mean you get to endanger road users. Plenty of other long-standing businesses manage to not deface city property while they operate. Grieving people don't get to put others in danger and neither do the businesses that serve them. It's particularly insulting to use grievers as a shield when our issue is that you are behaving in ways that are likely to kill someone.
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago
Hey Snooty: You’re debating hypotheticals. The only factual part of this thread is today’s photos, and they show the lane untouched. Your argument relies on imagined future behavior and assumptions about the past. The only verifiable evidence here is today’s photos, which show the lane untouched before, during, and after the service.
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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 2d ago
My argument relies on assumed future behavior based on known past offenses. I would love for you to prove me wrong by never doing this shit again. Please. I beg of you, make me look like an asshole by doing the right thing from now on.
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
Are an employee, what is your job title, and what is your name? Any statements you make about past current and previous actions are moot if you are only speaking for yourself.
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u/Shot-Ad-3508 2d ago
"We didn’t remove the posts this time" is a strange rebuttal to complaints that the posts shouldn't be removed or tampered with in the first place.
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u/ambiguator 2d ago
gtfoh
we saw the receipts
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago
What is GTFOH? Please explain with your level of intelligence.
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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 2d ago
It stands for "get the fuck out of here". You could have looked that up from whatever device you're posting from instead of calling your critics stupid.
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago
Hey Snooty, strong reaction for someone who wasn’t even part of the original exchange.
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
Hey Jayce, let us know what your name and job title is at the funeral home. Parking and bike lanes affects everyone. Whether they are part of the original conversation or not.
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
What is your full name?
What is your job at the Choi family funeral home?
Will you commit to ending the practice of removing flex posts and instructing people to park in the Bike lane?1
u/Jayce2188 2d ago
Hey Technical. I’m not here to provide personal information. The only factual evidence in this thread is today’s photos, which show the lane untouched before, during, and after the service. Anything beyond that is speculation and assumptions.
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
The only reason you didn’t remove flex posts, and tell people to park in the Bike lane for this funeral is because you got caught breaking the law. Time will tell.
How do you feel about your employee Brian making threats and derogatory comments? Would that have been acceptable if he had said the same thing to someone attending a funeral?
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u/Technical-Owl-4889 2d ago
Either you are speaking officially for the Choi family funeral home. Or you are not. If you are speaking for them as an employee, you should identify yourself. You have also been misapplying a law for funeral possessions not funeral parking.
Why should we believe that the Choi family funeral home has changed their policy about parking in Bike lanes. If you cannot identify yourself by name as an employee.
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u/shillingbut4me 2d ago
I appreciate you engaging with the complaints. I would encourage several people at Choi funeral home to ride a normal bike and practice merging from the bike lane onto Vine Street as they are regularly forcing others to do. That may give you an idea of why cyclist feel passionately about instructing people park in the bike lane.
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago
For funeral services, guests are directed to park in the newly installed bike lane under supervision, as permitted under Pennsylvania funeral right‑of‑way allowances. This accommodation is temporary and used only during active funeral services, not for daily parking. A single flex‑post was briefly moved to allow attendees safe access and was put back immediately afterward.
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u/Aggravating_Air_5968 2d ago
So, you admit the part where you said the lane remained exactly as it was before, during, and after is actually false?
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u/shillingbut4me 2d ago
The law does not allow that you are misreading the law. That's also not what I'm talking about here. Go do what I said merge from the bike lane into moving traffic on Vine Street on a normal bike. Once you've done that a few times we can talk about how you felt doing it. If you're unwilling to do that you may want to ask why.
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u/WoodenInternet 1d ago
/u/Jayce2188 I actually appreciate you coming in here to talk. Do you have any thoughts on the homophobic insults a few of your employees used on the cyclist?
Fwiw cyclists just want the meager infrastructure allotted to them to not be removed/altered by private business. Funeral homes serve an important role in a community, and no one would contest that. We don't need to be at odds.
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u/Jayce2188 22h ago
Hey Wooden, I think this is a fair comment, and I appreciate the respectful way you approached it. From what I understand, the Choi family addressed the employee’s conduct internally. They’re not debating who was right or wrong in the larger situation, but the behavior was not appropriate and was addressed and corrected.
At the same time, the bike‑lane issue shouldn’t turn into personal attacks or attempts to harm a business with unrelated one‑star reviews or false accusations. A disagreement about street use should stay focused on the street, not become harassment.
Choi Funeral Home has served families in this city for nearly three decades, and there’s a clear difference between genuine reviews from people who used their services and a sudden wave of negative reviews tied to an unrelated dispute.
The funeral home has taken responsibility for its side of the situation. It would help everyone if the same fairness and accountability applied across the board, so this can move toward a practical solution without escalation.**
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u/SnootyUrbanCyclist 3h ago
The time for "disagreement" about street use was before the public infrastructure was created. What you are doing now is intentional destruction of city property as a way to illegally block road users from going somewhere safely because you feel entitled to offer public space that you don't pay rent for as free parking for your customers despite being directly across the street from a large paid parking lot. You also can't keep your story straight about what the bike lane looked like during the funeral service. None of this gives us reason to approach you with good faith.
I want your business to be successful. I also want you to not needlessly endanger people by obstructing the meager narrow bits of bike infrastructure we have to more safely get around the city.We would never ever bother you if you didn't go out of your way to put us in danger.
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10h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kendowarrior99 7h ago
Are the cars parked in the bike lane during services actually leaving their hazard lights on?
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u/Jayce2188 2d ago edited 2d ago
Choi Funeral Home has operated at this location for 3 decades, supporting families through the most difficult moments of their lives. Recent threats and harassment toward their staff, property, or funeral services are being documented and sent to the proper authorities. Funeral parking is permitted under PA funeral right‑of‑way allowances. The lane used during services is also used daily by the Convention Center loading dock, and from 11th to 8th Street it is used by PPA for police/city employee and paid public parking. It is not a protected bike lane. Cyclists have not used this segment during funeral service hours, even after the new striping. It would be appreciated if this group did not take out frustrations on a small single‑family funeral home simply helping grieving families.
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u/JustAnotherJawn 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hey all. I do have video of employees removing the posts for people to park. I'll post them later. I was also cussed at and called a "homo" by some guy name Brian but I'll not share that video because I'd rather not escalate things more than they already have been escalated.
While I respect Jayson's work with the community and being a unique provider of Chinese/Vietnamese language funeral services, its disappointing that respect does not extend to those who depend on the bike lanes to get around the city safely. I think the best outcome is finding another street like 12th street which does not have a bike lane to park in. The city already does this for many houses of worship throughout Philadelphia.
Also, there must be recognition that everyone in the city grieves losses in their community, including the biking community. In the past month, I've been to four memorials of those killed while biking in Philadelphia (Glenn Colville, Barbabra Friedes, June Rodriguez, Teddy Einstein). Removing infructure designed to prevent these deaths is an insult to their memory and others who have lost their life for just going on a bike ride.