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Archive: September, 2012
Shale Gas Insight, the industry conference for the natural gas industry, is at the Convention Center again this year, starting this morning. And so, Shale Gas Outrage, the protest against aforementioned industry. Since my press credential request for Insight was denied (perhaps, not so surprising), I can only report on the outrage. Which, at a kick-off press conference this morning featuring residents living near (and even on) drilling sites along the Marcellus Shale, was going pretty strong.
Carol French of Bradford County says she and her neighbors were pressured and threatened into signing drilling leases on their land. "We were told it was our patriotic duty. It would create jobs and opportunities for our county, and it would allow our country to be independent from foreign oil." Instead, she says, she sees higher unemployment among community members, a loss of natural resources in the form of timber she once used to heat her home and contamination of her water, which is a chalky white. She held up a jar, pointing out that "it's very sandy, and it gels." She gets a rash when she drinks it; her cows drink the water, used for milk that is nonetheless sold commercially.
What with being so busy circulating laws restricting abortion rights and requiring possibly extraneous voter photo ID cards, I guess this shouldn't be that surprising: The state has never, until now, bothered to regulate the tattoo industry. That's right: They license barbers, but not people who use needles to inject ink or install metal objects into people's skin. (Others have griped about this at greater length.)
That could change though: Legislators in Harrisburg have introduced a law allowing for regulations of tattoo and body piercing professionals. The law also bans tongue-splitting, or "The cutting of a human tongue into two or more [really, more?] parts."
One can see how this might not be popular among body artists in Philly, where practitioners already have to go through a pretty rigorous licensing process including apprenticeship, sanitation inspections and blood-borne pathogen training.
This afternoon, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a long-anticipated decision regarding Pennsylvania’s controversial requirement that voters bring state-issued photo IDs to polling places. But if you were expecting lofty speeches you were to be disappointed.
The issue at hand turned out not to be what either side framed it as being about — electoral integrity on the one hand, the sacredness of the right to vote on the other; the right of states to oversee elections as they see fit versus the historical need to protect citizens from targeted disenfranchisement; a principled offense over the potential for voter fraud versus a mathematical defense over the likelihood of disproportionate effects on poor, old and minority voters.
No, the main problem the court identified with Pennsylvania's Act 18, supported almost exclusively by state Republicans, was the very thing Republicans in general say they most despise: bureaucracy, government ineptitude and over-regulation.
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District Attorney Seth Williams was lauded as a progressive after his 2009 election. Today, he is pushing hard to ensure that Terrance “Terry” Williams, a man who, according to his lawyers, murdered two men who had sexually abused him, is executed on Oct. 3. It will be Pennsylvania's first execution in 13 years, and the first contested execution since 1962. This is something even Seth Williams' conservative predecessor Lynne Abraham never did (though she surely would have).
The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons voted to deny Williams clemency yesterday, with only three of five members voting in favor. A unanimous decision was necessary to make a recommendation for clemency to Gov. Tom Corbett. Notably, Republican Attorney General Linda Kelly was amongst the majority who voted to save Terry's life.
A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena around Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.
Columbus Boulevard between Vine and Water streets -- What a pathetic pile of shit. This particular piece of land has no excuse to be so empty. This thing was more occupied when it was half river. The past decade and some change marks the ONLY time this lot has been empty. Fucking horrible!!
This lot was one of the earliest settled areas of the city. Before there was even such a thing as Philadelphia, a few primordial Swedes called the western edge of this lot home. Water Street, on the lot's western side, was called that for a reason. Until the 1830s-'40s, Water was the closest street to the river and the lot was mostly river and small docks. Most notable among these docks was one called Mifflin's Wharf.
Once the land was filled in, the site held factories/warehouses and a row of residences lay at the northern edge. The lot was right next to the Vine Street Wharf, one of the most important piers in the city. Though this area was an important commercial distribution point for most of its life with plenty of its own interesting history, the really good shit didn't happen there until the legendary Dr. David Jayne died.
As PennDOT driver's license centers are staying open late to accommodate the rush of Philadelphia voters still trying to obtain the necessary ID to vote in November under new statewide voter-ID regulations, Philly Democrat and state Rep. John Sabatina has come up with his own solution: let state representatives and senators distribute the photo ID cards at their district offices. Sabatina is working to introduce a bill to that effect shortly.
On its face, it seems like a problematic approach, to take a specifically apolitical task like the distribution of voter IDs and put it into the hands of offices that answer to politically elected officials — especially if you believe those who say the law was necessary in the first place due to political influence on elections exercised by way of voter fraud.
However, Philly City Commissioner Stephanie Singer says it may not be a bad workaround, given the constraints we're already under —even if it does appear a little odd. "That quirk is forced on us by the law, which is really draconian," she says. And there are many more legislative district offices than PennDOT centers. Singer's office, though it administers elections in the city, is not allowed to issue state-approved photo ID cards; she says representatives' and senators' offices could be the next best thing. "This is a way around it. The law says that state-issued IDs are OK. The question is if IDs issued by the state are OK, then [can the law be interpreted that] IDs issued by state representatives offices are also OK?"
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Republican Gov. Tom Corbett will be venturing behind enemy lines this Wednesday to hold a “town hall” meeting at the Art Museum (8 p.m., 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway). Protesters will gather outside to voice their opposition to his conservative policies.
The protest, organized by Decarcerate PA and Fight for Philly, is demanding that Corbett cancel new prison construction, reinstate the General Assistance cash welfare eliminated in the 2012 budget, and restore cut funding to public education.
Andrew Gerson helped found the Philadelpha Mobile Food Association, and serves as its vice president. He also has a business, Strada Pasta, making fresh pasta with locally sourced ingredients. One thing this Philly food-truck evangelist doesn't have yet, though: An actual food truck. What with the outdated regulations currently governing the trucks in Philadelphia, he says it just doesn't make sense. "I haven't launched a truck yet, because it's very labor intensive. It's a 16-hour day, and if I can't sell enough volume in a day — which you can't at this point in Philly — it's not economically feasible. So I'm waiting another six to eight months to see what happens with this legislative change. It's very hard to make a living due to legislative drawbacks right now."
He may not have to wait too long. First District Councilman Mark Squilla says the city Law Department is reviewing legislation he worked on in collaboration with the PMFA and various city departments to clarify the rules around truck vending. He hopes to introduce a bill next month. "We're trying to work with the food truck association to come up with regulations and ordinances that the food truck vendors and the city all can agree on," he says. "We have no regulations from the Department of Licenses and Inspections on how they handle the food trucks. This will clarify a lot of the rules and regulations. I think it will be a big boost to the industry and also help the growth of the food truck market here."
Residents of Kensington and Fishtown had a number of complaints about the plan by the nonprofit Women's Community Revitalization Project to bring 25 units of ultra-low-income housing onto a site that now houses an old (but technically not historic) bank building at Front and Norris streets. It was too dense, they said. There were traffic concerns. And, most of all, there was no ground-floor commercial space on this vulnerable commercial corridor. They voted against the project. WCRP took it to zoning anyway. And zoning approved it.
Now, neighbors are fighting back with an appeal at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. But whether they win or lose, the question remains: Is a Front Street commercial corridor in Kensington even viable, or is it just nostalgic to think so?
"That district is zoned commercial," says Jordan Rushie, a Fishtown resident and lawyer who filed the appeal on behalf of nearby neighbors Karen Lewis and Carmen Bolden. At least one local civic group has agreed to file an amicus brief in support. "One of the things that really stuck out to the community is a couple blocks from there, there's a lot of vacant land in the area [of East Kensington] that's zoned residential, and in that case I think people would have been OK with putting in low-income housing. It just seemed an odd location to put it in a commercial corridor when there's so much vacant land just blocks away." He adds, "This is a burgeoning business community. The community view was if low-income housing goes right there it's going to hinder that development."
In our ever-escalating mission to promulgate the hardest of hard news, the Naked City presents this puzzle to our readers: what's up with this abandoned-looking pier on the Schuylkill?
It was photographed by yours truly, whilst aboard my inflatable kayak a few weeks ago, just north/east of Bartram's Garden, on the downtown side of the freight rail tracks that cross the river south of the Grays Ferry bridge. (More pics below)
The pier is abandoned now. but there's still a small booth at the end of it (with a rather charming lamp hanging over it). Above is what looks like a warehouse or factory, from which a deck juts out over the water.
Visible on the deck (and in the picture) were a fishing net and chair, which looked, for reasons I can't quite articulate, like they had been used recently. Not visible in the picture is a small American flag that someone had planted near the net.
So: anybody know what it it, what it was, or ... anything about it? Comment here, or hit me up on Twitter.
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