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Archive: January, 2012
First, Northern Liberties fails its best approximation of a celebrity chef. Then, we find out that even Piazza residents aren't willing to plunk down a grand per year to be seen in their bikinis. And now, one of several swanky but perhaps financially questionable condos to go up in the neighborhood in recent years is destined for sheriff's sale on Feb. 7. Given that the Northern Liberties condo building boom of the past few years was looking a lot like Center City circa 2006, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised if the bubble is primed for at least some deflation.
The building in question is DG Development LLC's Parkview Condos, at 926-32 N. 3rd St., overlooking Liberty Lands park. DG — which looks to be part of Miles & Generalis/MG Real Estate Group — been trying to move these condos since last summer, apparently with little success. Units are listed at $4,244,711, and range from 762 square feet to 1,750 square feet. Whether that's a bargain in NoLibs these days, you can decide for yourself.
I’ve written about Patrick Rodgers throughout every dark wave concert and dance party he promoted. I wrote about Rodgers when he began foreclosure proceedings against Wells Fargo — here he is on Colbert, with fangs — and not so very long ago when he hosted the first Uyghurian dinner in Philadelphia.
This time though, it’s a bit more serious as Rodgers’ pro-consumer/anti-bank credentials have caught the attention of the radical Ron Paul campaign. “They've asked me to run as Ron's delegate in the April GOP Primary,” says Rodgers.
Pause.
“I've accepted the offer and have already scheduled Ron's first fundraiser in Philadelphia, at National Mechanics. I am stressed, but excited to be doing something different — and something I believe in.”
We’ll have more on this as things progress. Here is his press release. This should be interesting.
Fifth District Councilman Darrell Clarke is the new president of City Council (check out my recent profile here).
But what, exactly, does that mean? Find out right here, in the first installment of a new Hall Monitor mini-series on the presidency of Philadelphia's City Council — how it works, what comes with it, and what it might look like under Clarke's leadership.
In between standing ovations at his State of the Union Address last night, President Obama expressed a fresh enthusiasm for fracking, and doing so on the nation's public lands. "We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy," he said. "Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.”
Pennsylvania environmental advocates who have been in the thick of the fracking fray for the past few years doubt that's possible, and worry that the President isn't getting the message on just how far-reaching the environmental and public health impacts of gas drilling may be.
Even the President's economics appeared to be off, noted Iris Marie Bloom of Protecting Our Waters, a local advocacy group. "Obama really needs to be educated about the severity and the extensiveness of the public health impact of fracking. For that matter, he didn't seem to have realized that the Marcellus shale estimates just dropped by two-thirds," she says.
No one loves an earnest attempt at spin more than us. Which is why we really got a kick out of the headline on today's press release from Pennsylvania Rep. Peter J. Daley II on House Bill 1100: "Daley stands up for job creation." It's a hell of a headline. Whether it fits the, er, bill is another matter.
The bill in question excludes from sales tax fixed-wing aircraft, parts, repair and maintenance. Detractors say it amounts to a tax break for corporate jets and the über-wealthy who purchase them, (as CP reported back in January), Daley argues "would open the door for the aviation industry to set up shop at Pennsylvania’s airports, with businesses that service aircraft, sell parts, perform routine inspections and even build and sell aircraft. We are looking at the creation of thousands of jobs right here in Pennsylvania.”
If passed, the legislation had better live up to that promise in a big way. After all, "it would have to create 6,500 aircraft jobs in Pennsylvania—double the current number of jobs in related industries—just to break even," warns Sharon Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.
As we reported previously, though, such legislation doesn't really tend to create jobs. What it does do is succumb to the whims of the aviation industry which "is out to commit economic robbery: pushing states to compete against one another, they hope that Pennsylvania will be freaked out enough by Connecticut, Maine and New York's recent exemptions that we'll hand over our cash."
The State House Judiciary Committee today postponed hearings on a bill that would effectively impose new financial burdens on municipalities and counties that pass regulations governing guns.
The bill (House Bill 1523) say supporters (among them the N.R.A.), is meant to prevent municipalities from passing laws preempted by state law and to prevent a patchwork of gun regulation.
Its opponents, however, say its purpose is to intimidate towns and cities that have passed or are considering "lost or stolen" gun ordinances.
While state law has preempted many attempts by local governments to impose added regulations on gun ownership or use, laws requiring the reporting of lost or stolen weapons have so far stood up to court challenges and remain on the books in 30 towns and cities, including Philadelphia, which requires that gun owners notify police within 24 hours if their weapon has been lost or stolen. The law is aimed at cracking down on "straw purchasers" who illegally purchase weapons for others.
But should those laws be overturned — either by a court or by the state legislature — HB 1523 could force cities to pay enormous legal costs. Hb 1523 would require any municipality or country that passes any law governing "ownership, possession, transfer, or transportation" of firearms," to pay the legal bills of anyone who has challenged that law within 30 days of its being repealed or rescinded, regardless of who won the case, as well as triple damages to the complainant if the suit was successful.
Max Nacheman, director of CeaseFire PA, says the law's intent is to threaten municipalities who have passed these laws or are considering it: "The idea is trying to get a town to repeal the law before a court decides one way or another," he says.
As for the argument that local laws would create a patchwork of regulations, Nacheman says his group would be happy to see the local laws trumped — trumped, that is, by a statewide lost or stolen gun law.
A weekly series of foulmouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other development and design phenomena in Phladelphia. Find more stories like this at philaphilia.blogspot.com.
Northwest Corner of Broad and Race Streets
This right here is an empty lot that didn't start getting much attention until fairly recently. This undeveloped hole used to be able to hide and be unnoticed before the Convention Center Expansion, but now has come back into full fucking exposure.
On Dec. 22, 2011, Philadelphia Police officers arrested Ed Coffin for passing out animal-rights leaflets in front of the Whole Foods on South Street.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleges that Philadelphia police frequently make illegal arrests at protests, and claims that officers are not provided with First Amendment training. Instead of facing those issues in court, the City of Philadelphia will pay Coffin $15,000 — a sum that he couldn't turn down.
"Of course we're going to take it, but it's basically the city's way to shut down the conversation," says ACLU attorney Mary Catherine Roper. "The complaints we have gotten over the years" have been "basically nonstop."
The ACLU will continue to advocate that police adopt free speech training measures, says Roper, and they represent a number of defendants with similar allegations.
If the Philadelphia School District were looking for a barometer to measure just how great the demand is for above-average public schools in the city, the scene at 43rd and Locust last night and this morning would have been a good place to start. This morning was the registration start for kindergarten at Penn Alexander, the West Philadelphia grade school where slots have become highly coveted, driving up property values in the catchment for determined parents who see the school as an alternative to charter school lotteries and pricey private school education. And after several tense hours of detente — which involved parents sitting outside the school in their cars, waiting to see who would make the first move into the bitter January cold — the first mother dragged out her lawn chair before 9 a.m. yesterday, a full 24 hours before registration would open.
How fast did the line form? Parent John Herrmann got the news quickly, having set up an email chain with parents in the same day care class. "I had a friend who was much further ahead. But I thought, 'Well, I have time to shower.' So I was No. 41, and everyone else in my group is up in the front," he says.
By the evening, there were more than 70 parents in line — most of whom evidently had been able to secure child care. (Though there were a few bundled-up children along for the night.) Several pointed out that the system favors those with strong neighborhood networks, as well as two-parent households or those who can afford to wrangle a last-minute sitter so they can go wait out in the cold. "This is ridiculous," Herrmann admits. "But we're obviously going to camp out to get our kids in: that's the system we were given."
Herrmann came equipped with a camp chair; others brought fire pits, outdoor heaters, tents and even a flat-screen TV rigged to show the football games out of the back of an SUV parked nearby. Someone came by with donuts for everyone; later, someone else brought samosas. The joke was that it was "Occupy Penn Alexander."
Kris Love, who secured a parking spot nearby on Friday and with his wife started the early line-up, has his son in first-grade in Penn Alexander and wanted to make sure his daughter would be able to go as well. "Everyone knows there's a very limited number of spots, about 50 to 60, we're not sure exactly. So you sacrifice one night for your child's education. There's great parent involvement, it's a great school and that's why we got here so early.... Everyone has to do something crazy or out of the ordinary at some point in your life, and if it's for your child so be it."
But the party atmosphere was decidedly lacking down at the back of the line, where Rahul Pandey was huddled at No. 71. He already has a daughter in first grade at Penn Alexander, but he had no idea the line would be forming this early. He had walked past the school on his way to the grocery store, seen the line and canceled his plans for the afternoon to stand in the cold and cross his fingers that 71 spots would be made available. "I have to be optimistic. What else can I do?" he says. "If I don't try I won't get. But I don't feel this the right thing. But that is how it's going on."
Asked if he felt it was lucky that he'd happened to come across the line-up at all, he frowned. "It's not lucky. Lucky will be if I get a spot."
Currently, food stamps (SNAP) are available in Pennsylvania only to families who make $22,350 or less — and even so, the program is significantly undersubscribed. Which is one reason why Gov. Tom Corbett's announcement that Pennsylvania would begin asset-testing for food stamps — locking out individuals with $2,000 in savings, or $3,250 for those 60 or older — has drawn outrage from the city as well as advocacy groups. A bill introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate this week by Anthony Williams would block penalties for savings or motor vehicle ownership; the legislation hasn't yet posted to the General Assembly records, but William's press aide says that it's currently referred to the Committee on Public Health and Welfare.
“With so many Pennsylvanians suffering long-term unemployment, implementing an asset limit makes their situation doubly cruel,” said Williams in a statement. “It is inhumane to invoke fear upon people who are trying to get back on their feet by telling them their safety net will be snatched.”
Now, it remains to be seen if Williams' bill can make it past Pennsylvania's Republican legislature.
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