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Archive: October, 2011
A series on under-the-radar stories worth reading.
The century-old Horace Furness High in South Philadelphia has seen its student population decline by half in the past decade, to just 600 students, as neighborhood residents select charter or magnet schools. Now, the beloved neighborhood high is an example of the difficult cuts that will be made across the school district, as a "rightsizing" plan is formed to close and consolidate schools across the city, eliminating 40,000 empty seats. The Philadelphia Public School Notebook toured the high school to examine the impact those cuts could have on the school community.
A contest of hackers, coders, designers and other creative types, the Philly Startup Weekend that wrapped up Sunday was pretty much guaranteed to produce some interesting material. This year didn't disappoint, even if the winning design — Eff the PPA — did perhaps pander to the parking rage of a hometown crowd. The app offers help finding a parking space, remembering to monitor the meter and battling tickets in court. Technically Philly has details plus the full roster of intriguing also-rans.
Occupy Philly’s critics say there’s no clear message, or malign the protesters as trust fund hippies. They yell, “get a job” out of their car windows. They don’t stop by for a conversation.
These three videos sent in by our readers show the diverse and articulate Occupy Philly you will find if you decide to make the trip down to City Hall. Before you decide to be a hater, take a few minutes to watch.
View galleryI hadn't been back to the site since day two and, wow, the population has definitely grown. What are there, 50 tents now? More? I got there around 10 p.m. on Friday night, just in time to catch a mic check with somebody, I think, from the tech crew. Spirits were high, as the clouds were gone and the day of rain had given way to a clear night sky. Very brisk. Some cardboard signs were stuck to the granite benches and railings, molten with rainwater. There's not a lot of litter, but the place is starting to look lived in. I met a guy from Norristown who'd been homeless for two weeks but found a home at Occupy Philly in the last few days. He wouldn't be staying long as he just landed a job. I also met a social services grad student from Penn. She pondered how smooth the transition will be if and when the city decides to move the settlement to a new site.
After several hours of debate during its nightly general assembly meeting last night, Occupy Philly voted as a group to accept the Mayor Michael Nutter's invitation to meet and discuss the city's request that they move.
However, they also voted in favor of an amendment specifying that they would not agree to the 6:00 P.M. meeting requested by the city. They intend to come up with their own list of issues (the amendment mentioned undercover police, police taking pictures, and morning walk-through by police).
Jody Dodd, a member of the Occupy Philly legal committee clarified to City Paper that the group does intend to meet with the mayor but had wanted to make sure it was "a two way conversation."
Katherine Martin of the Mayor's Press Office dismissed the importance of tonight's meeting and said the city has an "open line of communication" with the protest.
While the city has reiterated that Occupy Philly is welcome to stay, the tension between the two has been slowly growing. The city has told the group it will have to leave in advance of upcoming construction on Dilworth Plaza, and has recommended the group move across the street, to the Municipal Services Building. It's been clear from the group's meetings, however, that there is no small number of people wary of complying with the city's request.
In case you need a break from logging long hours at Occupy Philly, here's what else is going on this weekend.
OCT. 14. State of Young Philly wraps up tonight with a presentation of findings from two weeks of panel discussions and other events. Young Involved Philadelphia brings in speakers including Mayor Nutter,
Jamira Burley of the National Peace Alliance and State Rep. Kevin Boyle. A reception follows.
OCT. 14-23. Learn about streetscape design, traffic calming and local businesses at Better Blocks Philly, a week-long series of events that include an opening party tonight from 6-9 p.m. at 1701 Christian St., Blocktoberfest tomorrow, street mural painting on Sunday, and speakers and art-making through the week.
So-called bandit signs — the roofing, buy-your-house-quick, junk cars, buy-your-diabetes-test-strips offers plastered over utility poles around the city — aren't just ugly, they're illegal. Not that calling 311 about them seems to accomplish much. So, East Kensington resident Christopher Sawyer launched an alternative: BanditProject.org. The reporting site for illegal signs went live this week, and Sawyer is hoping to roll out an accompanying iPhone app within a week or two and a Droid app after that. Using the site or apps, citizens will be able to log photographs and details of signs to be transmitted to the city.
There are a couple sites that compile the various Occupy live video feeds, but they're often overloaded. So here's a list of some of the Livestreams I've come across. They're not all active all the time. Look for the little red "live" button under the screen to make sure you're not watching a highlight reel. Right now the stream to watch is probably Denver, as the evacuation order is still being violated by some stalwart protesters. (Here's a live stream from a Colorado news site as well.) The New York channels are hopping too, as the Zuccotti Park clean-up/evacuation order was postponed earlier this morning. I have not caught any action on the Philly stream yet; not sure it's active.
Occupy Philadelphia doesn't have a website, but it does have a Facebook group — or did, anyway, until about an hour ago, when someone posting as an administrator announced that all other administrators had been kicked off, that anarchists had infiltrated the protest in order to cause disruption, and ... well, a number of other allegations, some of which are frankly hard to decipher.
The post that seemed to set things off, posted by user "Occupy Philadelphia," identifying him/herself as Jay, reads as follows:
To the people of this fanpage, I(Jay) have removed all other admins for the time being. Truth is Philly there's a major issue happening at City Hall. A national anarchist committee have integrated themselves and attempt to control the peaceful movement through violence. Please educate yourselves on Cindy Milstein she isn't from Philadelphia she does not know the violence we endure everyday in our neighborhoods. This group of anarchist commit themselves to prey upon movements like ours. Please research. Again I willingly removed all other admins to preserve our movement in the purest form that it should remain.
A number of users have posted asking that other administrators be given access to the site.
A more recent post, apparently from someone else identifying as "Jon Laing" says: "Jay, I beg you to bring this up at the GA, not Facebook. The FB is for introducing people to the power and solidarity of the movement, not for airing out dirty laundry."
Anybody know what's going on?
If you've ever tried biking in the city's outskirts — City Avenue, say, or Island Avenue — then you know the meaning of sheer terror. The new Philadelphia Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan — the reason for those traffic cones on Market Street and JFK Boulevard — will hopefully alleviate some of that adrenaline-pumping excitement, by providing a continuous bike path network throughout the city. Phase two of the plan, which covers West and Northeast Philly, is now in the community comment phase. Toole Design, which is spearheading the project with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, has already taken an inventory of all the city's sidewalks, listing 85 miles of missing sidewalk in high-priority areas around schools, parks, public transit or senior centers. And, they've outlined proposals for designated "bicycle friendly streets" — like Thompson and Belgrade in Kensington; a Fishtown bike route linking Penn Treaty Park to bike lanes on Lehigh and Aramingo; bike lanes on Belmont Avenue, Lindbergh Avenue, State Road and Bustleton Pike; and segregated bike tracks where space allows. (Market and JFK could also get buffered bike tracks with grass medians; that was part of the Phase I plan.)
Proposals will be uploaded here for public review and comments. The planning should be completed by next year. The sad part: It could be 10 years (or more) for the guidelines to be enacted.
There are two more public meetings on the proposal: Oct. 25 at CORA Services, Inc., 8540 Verree Road, 6-8 p.m. and Oct. 26 at Juniata Park Older Adult Center, 1251 E. Sedgley Ave., 6-8 p.m.
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