Nerd Street Cred: Kerkstra nominated for Geek Award

Wear your nerd badge with pride, Philly. It’s Geek Awards time again.

Perusing Geekadelphia‘s nominees for year’s Philadelphia Geek Awards today, we were so happy to see that PlanPhilly contributor Patrick Kerkstra is up for “Geek Headline of the Year.” This journalism category “honors awesome achievement in covering stories in the local geek scene.”

Why Patrick? The nomination explains: A former Inquirer City Hall reporter turned freelance chronicler of the deep, seemingly intractable legacy shortcomings of city services in Philadelphia, from the multi-billion dollar pension bubble to the endless parade of tax deadbeats and blighted, vacant properties in our neighborhoods. He may be the city’s most respected public affairs journalist and reporter watchdog, writing regularly for Philadelphia magazine, PlanPhilly, the Inquirer and others. His geekdom lies in the deep, dirty details of how one of the country’s largest cities goes about its business. We’re crossing our fingers for our man Kerkstra, but his competition is stiff. He will have to beat out Derrick Pitts, the Franklin Institute’s Chief Astronomer and host of WHYYs’ Skytalk, as well as Fay Flam, who writes the Inquirer’s Planet of the Apes column and blog about evolution.

Check out the rest of the nominees in categories like Social Media Campaign of the Year, Indie Game Developer of the Year, and Viral Project of the Year.

Geekadelphia and the Academy of Natural Sciences will host this year’s Philadelphia Geek Awards Ceremony on August 17 at the Academy. You can purchase tickets for the event here.

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