|
|
|
Archive: November, 2011
Representatives of Occupy Philly held a press conference this afternoon in response to Mayor Michael Nutter's litany of complaints against the 40-day-old protest outside City Hall. Not surprisingly, their side of the story differed substantially from the mayor's, on everything from communication to sanitation, to police responses to reports of crime.
"The mayor's news conference is an attempt to shift the focus away from the real problems impacting our city," said one Occupy member, who called the move an "intentional effort to divide and weaken our movement."
Jody Dodd of Occupy Philly's Legal Collective said that the city had distributed misinformation and ignored repeated requests to open lines of communication and for information about permitting, electricity and water availability at Thomas Paine Plaza or other sites. She said that the demonstrators' vote last Friday not to relocate from Dilworth Plaza — despite the city's request that they move to make way for scheduled renovations — was based in part on the fact that the city had failed to provide that requested information. "We got not answers, so when the General Assembly had to vote on Friday night they were voting based on the information that they had," she adds.
Further, representatives of Occupy Philly's Women's Caucus accused the police of withholding support in situations of sexual violence: "We asked police for help with the eviction of a sexual predator. The police said, 'It's not our problem. Get your men to handle it.'"
While the Mayor noted the abundance of emergency calls to the encampment, the Occupy representatives said the bulk were due to hypothermia, not any kind of violence. They also rebuffed his complaints that their food preparation was unsanitary and invited him to inspect the kitchen and perhaps join the Occupiers for a free lunch.
The group didn't rule out reconsidering a move, but demonstrator Michael Plas said that no matter what, he won't be leaving. "Of course I'm staying," he said, though others might move to a new site — adding, "I don't think I'm going to be arrested."
This morning's arrests at Occupy Oakland cap a weekend of evictions, including raids in Portland and Denver. On Sunday, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter issued a long press release demanding that Occupy Philly vacate Dilworth Plaza ahead of a scheduled reconstruction project. Two days prior, protesters voted to maintain their City Hall encampment.
Mayor Nutter, like other mayors, has cited reports of filthy conditions and incidents of violence and sexual assault. Unlike other mayors, however, he has largely cooperated with the movement and refrained from the sort of police violence witnessed in New York and Oakland. Plus, the construction project will create an estimated 1,000 jobs, improve handicapped accessibility and, well, just make the place nicer.
If there's one thing Philly developers hate, it's zoning overlays. (If there's two, it's the crotchety community groups with whom they have to negotiate when they want to build in locations where overlays are in place.) Philly's shiny new business-friendly zoning code was designed to, among other things, make the current patchwork of overlays unnecessary. But the code, which is up for adoption before City Council adjourns for the year, went through a few tweaks by Council. And Council opted to keep the overlays, termed special controls districts, in place for East Falls, Lower and Central Germantown,Overbrook Farms, Fairmount Avenue and North Delaware Avenue Area.
Now, the proposed preservation of that last special controls district — the site of a controversial planned music venue — is spurring a fresh debate in the neighborhood over whom zoning should serve: incoming businesses, or the existing community.
The New Kensington Community Development Corp. is pushing to eradicate the overlay, urging local businesses to campaign against it.
Yesterday, Mayor Michael Nutter said that Occupy Philly has "changed."
Following a vote by Occupy Philly to remain at their chosen site, on Dilworth Plaza, despite the city's request for them to leave so that a major construction project can begin, Mayor Nutter issued a remarkably long — epic, you might say — press release that seemed to mark the end of the good times between the movement and the city administration.
A few snippets (full pres release here):
On the movement itself:
[...] "Occupy Philly is fractured with internal disagreement and disputes. The people of Occupy Philly have also changed and their intentions have changed … "
[...] We’ve seen the rise of new groups as a part of this movement like the Radical Caucus, which is bent on civil disobedience and disrupting city operations;
Many of the people that we talked to in the beginning of this event and activity are now gone. They are no longer on the site. They are no longer on the scene. And Occupy Philly has refused to engage in active, regular discussions with us. This change in behavior is no accident. It is a direct result of the fact that this movement has changed and the people have changed.
On Sanitation and Safety:
[...] What’s abundantly clear now is that Occupy Philly is in violation of the terms of its permit, which requires it as an organization to observe our city ordinances.
[...] Into this highly combustible environment – with tents and wooden pallets, bedding and waste – we know that some are using cooking stoves, candles, lanterns and of course there has been widespread smoking with the potential for fire and tragedy.
[...] In spite of the presence of porto-potties, the problem with public urination and defecation remains a significant health threat. In short, conditions there are unsanitary and that also includes food distribution.
On the City's plan:
[...] We do not seek confrontation with Occupy Philly. We prefer cooperation but these issues of public health and public safety must be addressed, and addressed immediately.
Misconduct is not about free speech, and the behavior we’re now seeing is running squarely into the needs of our City government that also represents the very real 99 percent. As Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, I represent the 99 percent also.
[...] I have asked Police Commissioner Ramsey to increase the uniform police patrol in the area where Occupy Philly is as well as establish structured and strategic positioning and deployment of officers on a regular basis in that location as well.
Colonel Christopher Larsen of the Army Corps of Engineers is one of five officials (the others being the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware, the member states of the Delaware River Basin Commission), who vote Nov. 21 on whether to allow fracking in the Delaware River watershed, a.k.a Philly's drinking water. A coalition of environmentalists is heading to his office today — or, to the 'spacious lobby' of the Wanamaker Building — at noon to ask for a "no" vote on behalf of the Obama Administration. Seems like as a good a way to spend lunch hour as any.
Full press release below.
View gallery
A series on under-the-radar stories worth reading.
The Philadelphia Public Record has an odd story on an attempt to steal Bo De Buddhist Temple at 13th and Washington right out from under its 150 worshipers. A former member reportedly transferred rights to the property, valued at $300,000, to another Buddhist group. "On close inspection, the deed was missing the necessary stamp from the temple. Furthermore, temple records do not show the deed transfer was voted on by members as required by the bylaws," the Record notes. A hearing on Dec. 5 will hopefully restore the Temple to the community — but as CP has reported in the past, deed theft remains a critical problem in the city.
If you thought people in Northern Liberties were fired up about SugarHouse Casino coming in, just try to take away a public street for the purpose of putting a three-story outdoor party deck up on Finnigan's Wake. Since we mentioned it last, neighbors have been organizing, and have gathered 448 signatures within a week — more than they had to block the casino, says Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association president Matt Ruben. (The petition is online here.)
Ruben says neighbors are disturbed not only by the prospect of three floors of jagerbomb-soaked fun, but also by the bar's longtime use of the alleyway as its own garbage area (apparently without recycling), and by what they say is evident political deal-making. "The owners of Finnigan's Wake have been politically connected for many years. They host a lot of Democratic Party events there," he says. Which might be why Bob Brady's Democratic City Committee agreed to set back its new headquarters next door by a few feet to make way for the party decks — and in fact built those setbacks into plans that have been in place for some time already. "The Democratic City Committee's architectural plans included a setback. They coordinated the design of the project uwith the assumption that the outdoor deck would be put in place and the street stricken. Anyone who wants to know if they coordinated on this: there's your answer."
Ruben says DiCicco has pledged to hold the bill for now to make time for more dialog between the bar and the community, but he hasn't withdrawn it. "I don't want our neighborhood to have to negotiate with Finnigan's with the street-striking hanging over their heads," he adds.
The interstate Delaware River Basin Commission will vote Nov. 21 on the adoption of new regulations for gas drilling in the river's watershed. Environmentalists are none too pleased. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pushed to rid the DRBC's rules of redundancy, thereby reserving more regulatory power for the states. And it looks like they're about to get their way.
"It’s stunning that the DRBC has issued these substantially revised regulations, without any opportunity for public input, that essentially make a bad draft of half-baked regulations worse. All the same fatal flaws that existed in the original draft are intact, and some sections have been made even weaker; unfortunately it seems we can more clearly than ever see the heavy hand of politics and special interests in these unacceptable proposed rules,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, in a statement.
Here are the chief complaints, according to a statement by a coalition of environmental advocates.
Top Ten Mistakes in DRBC Revised Gas Rules
1. They reduce the setbacks of gas well pads from a stream, water body, or wetland from 500 ft to 300 ft (greater of 300 ft. from wellbore or 100 ft. from nearest disturbance) exposing streams, rivers, and public surface water supplies to greater pollution. 500 feet is not adequate and 300 feet is even less. Setbacks recommended by commenters to DRBC were in the thousands of feet, not hundreds and are to be measured from the end of the horizontal wellbore, not the vertical well bore or surface disturbance.
Occupy Philly continues to debate whether to move their protest tent city when construction to rebuild Dilworth Plaza begins later this month. A “radical caucus” put forward a proposal to stay put for good that will be decided at tomorrow night’s General Assembly, and it reads like so:
"Occupy Philadelphia will stay at Dilworth Plaza at the anticipated ‘start of the Dilworth Plaza construction.’ We also intend to expand to Thomas Paine Plaza. If this proposal is adopted Occupy Philadelphia will issue a public statement and a list of demands."
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
