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CP in the Community
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Don't make us do it. We totally will. |
It's your last chance to vote for Isaiah Thompson as best city writer in Philebrity's awards thing. Voting ends at midnight. I suggest you do it now.
[...] previous Vote for Isaiah or the kitty gets it. [...]
Congratulations!!
i hooked it up.
Isaiah Thompson, who is just one man, is engaged in a tight race with Team Illadelph in the Philebrity Award for General Excellence in Writing for a City Publication.
Let's take a look at what Thompson wrote for today's paper:
First, in the Naked City lead, Isaiah takes a look at the federal stimulus funds being allocated for homeless programs and how the efforts are just not doing much to address the issue of chronic homelessness.
When the economy cratered in November 2008, Mayor Michael Nutter forced city departments to make deep cuts — and the Office of Supportive Housing (OSH), which administers the city's homeless programs, was no exception. Loath to eliminate beds, OSH directed its shelters to cut even more resident services — including what was left of case management —instead.
But with the stimulus, things were looking up. The city was awarded about $21 million in stimulus money over three years — a little less than $7 million a year. That's hardly chump change. OSH's total annual budget is $100 million, about $38 million of which comes from the city. In October, the money began flowing in.
It was with some surprise, then, that most shelter operators learned they wouldn't be getting much of that assistance — and neither would many, if not most, of the shelters' residents.
It's a thoughtful look at a problem that doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.
And then, in his wildly popular Man Overboard! column, "167 Seconds," Isaiah takes on the bike/car battle (another problem that also doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon
I'm getting all lawful lately. Not that I was some terror of the streets before, but suddenly I find myself sitting at empty intersections, on my bicycle, waiting for every single light. Like I'm a car. It hurts, but not much — waiting at every light costs me 167 seconds of my 20-minute commute to work. And you can have those seconds, Philadelphia drivers. But only if you stop acting crazy.
And "crazy" is the word for it. Following two recent deaths of pedestrians at the hands of bicyclists, long-simmering anti-bike sentiments exploded, taking shape in the form of aggressive laws proposed by Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco, which include such reasonable measures as a fine for wearing headphones that's nearly three times that of blowing a red — in a car! If only there were such a thing as double-italics!
The councilmen say they're just starting a "conversation." Good idea, but don't start by spitting. The past two weeks have seen much foamy-mouthed anti-bike whining, embodied by the Daily News' Stu Bykofsky, who — apparently because his own commute utilizes Pine and Spruce streets, which now host the only two east-west bike lanes in Center City — seems hell-bent on getting revenge for cars having to share the road with bikes. If anyone deserves revenge, it ain't drivers. In the last five years, 174 people, including 18 cyclists, have been killed by cars in Philly, according to the Bicycle Coalition. The number of pedestrians killed by bikes over the same period? Three.
Thompson's reporting the shit out of the city. He's taken on bikes, homelessness, casinos, soccer stadiums, union heads, library funding and scrap collectors, for starters. We think you should give him your vote.
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Our very own Man Overboard! Isaiah Thompson has received a nom for a Philebrity award in the category of General Excellence in Writing for a City Publication.
Who's the competition? It's stiff!
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So get on over to Philebs and vote early and often for Isaiah. Polls close on Wed., Dec. 9, for the award ceremony on Dec. 10 at the Trocadero featuring BC Camplight, Secret Pants and Blood Feathers, with the pay-what-you-can admission benefiting the Free Library Foundation.
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| Little White Bag: Joey Ryan (behind cloud) hits Necro Butcher with a bag of "cocaine" in a November Ring of Honor bout. |
| Photo | Neal Santos |
As a companion to this morning's cover story by Shaun Brady on the South Philly indie wrestling scene — there are no less than four independent promotions working The Arena — we had our vid-man Neal Santos and intern Scott Yorko head down to the Nov. 5 Ring of Honor show to take some pics and record some audio to give a better sense of the scene.
Watch and enjoy.
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| Photo | Lucinda Lunacy |
| Frank and Charlie and CP |
Received a flurry of texts/tweets/fb messages last night informing me that our dear newspaper had a cameo in last night's episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
I get all my Sunny on Hulu these days, so I've got a seven-day wait for the full episode featuring Carolyn Huckabay's May 28 cover on the lovely and talented T. Desiree Hines. Molly Eichel has the deets over on Critical Mass.
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Schimmel's panel mates will be:
- Matt Golas, Managing Editor, PlanPhilly
- Joey Sweeney, Editor & Founder, Philebrity.com and
- Sandra Shea, Editorial Page Editor, Daily News
The discussion will be moderated by WHYY's Executive Director of News and Civic Dialogue Chris Satullo.
The discussion, scheduled or 6-7:30 p.m. at the WHYY Civic Space at 6th and Arch, will attempt to answer such questions as:
- What is the state of the current crisis in Philadelphiaâs news industry?
- Where would you get your local news if the Inquirer and the Daily News ceased to exist?
- How has social media already begun to change the way we receive our "newsâ?
Fittingly, you can RSVP for the event on Facebook.
Yesterday our own contributing sports editor E. James Beale sat down with Daily News sports editor Josh Barnett on Marty Moss-Coane's Radio Times to talk about the World Series. Listen below.
[audio:http://stream.citypaper.net/music/radio_times-10-27-09.mp3]
CP contributor Andrew Thompson was featured in a WHYY piece by health and science reporter Kerry Grens about the travails of the uninsured.
Grens: Up to what limit are you willing to pay for insurance?
Thompson: I would say that $150 is the maximum I would pay.
That's $150 a month. Few, if any, plans available to individuals are that cheap — especially for someone with pre-existing conditions.
Listen to Grens' report.
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| Jon Solomon |
I'm not sure whether newspapers can have sister stations, but we think of WPRB like family around here. Aw. It's true, the free-form commercial-free radio oasis up there in Princeton does so much we like — especially on Wednesday nights when Jon Solomon keeps score at home.
Solomon — who hosted CP's Local Support podcast, back when we could afford such a luxury — is always turning me on to new music, and setting aside blocks of time for in-studio live sets by artists from the Philly-NJ-NYC area.
Tonight, WPRB starts its annual membership drive. I recommend you tune in — Solomon goes on at 7 p.m. with guests/music by like Obits, Jennifer O'Connor, Danielson, Screaming Females, The Spinto Band, Caterpillar, Bitter Bitter Weeks, Rebecca Gates and Tim Midgett — and consider sending some money to keep the station rocking and pick up a sweet t-shirt.
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| Michael T. Regan |
This just in from longtime CP photog/recent Los Angeleno Michael T. Regan via his Bucket of Ashes blog:
It's official, Tom Waits has chosen five of my photographs to appear on the live album he's releasing this fall. Tom Waits: Glitter & Doom Live is a collection of songs taken from his recent tour through the US and Europe. ANTI- records has informed me that one of the images will run as a full 12" panel on the inside of the gate fold LP jacket.
Knowing Regan like I do — the guy is a passionate Tom Waits fan and a collector of Waits vinyl — it's hard to be any happier for him. As he says in his blog: "This is an innocent dream. Tom Waits has had a huge effect on my creative development .⦠As a collector of his vinyl LP's, being included in the history of creative album photography from 1971 - the present is a tremendous honor."
The shots are from a photo essay Regan did for Phawker from a show in Columbus, Ohio.
This is just really awesome news. Congrats, Mike.
More photos and commentary at Bucket of Ashes.
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