The End of Hallwatch

Hallwatch.org's Ed Goppelt hangs it up.

by Isaiah Thompson

Things That Annoy Council

For eight years, Ed Goppelt has rankled public officials with his quirky-but-useful Web site, hallwatch.org, and its mission of making public information accessible. On the Philly Web, Goppelt — who refuses to talk about his private life with reporters — is something of a mysterious folk hero.

Last Friday, a small notice appeared on the front page of Hallwatch announcing that the Web site will close on Feb. 26, 2009 (at 11:59 p.m.). I spoke to Goppelt about the site's evolution. True to form, he said little about why he's decided to shut it down.

City Paper: One of the earliest features of Hallwatch was the "Fax Bank," which lets you fax your elected officials at the click of a button. How many people have used it by now?

Ed Goppelt: Oh, tens of thousands. I created the fax bank to improve communication from citizens to City Council. One of the things that Fax Bank did is you typed in your address and it figured out who your officials were — and that may sound silly, but a lot of people don't know.

CP: Besides publishing raw data, you use Hallwatch as a platform for investigative citizen journalism. What are some of the best stories Hallwatch has broken?

EG: Once, we got a libel threat from Councilman DiCicco's office and I did a little bit of digging and I discovered it was a lawyer who had sent me this letter, that he had sent a series of letters threatening libel action to people who had either offended Senator Fumo or one of his political allies. And that turned into a big story.

Hallwatch was the one that figured out that SugarHouse [casino] needed riparian rights ... and it turned out to be a huge problem for them.

CP: Why quit now? And who's going to fill your place?

EG: You know, I did this for eight years. Eight is enough. I think in the life of a community you have people who move the ball forward for a while, and I was honored to be one of those people, and for whatever reason they have to drop out of the game and it's time for someone else to carry the ball.

CP: You're known for being tight-lipped about your private life, and you've never told a reporter what you do for a living. Care to tell me?

EG: I'm afraid that policy remains the same.