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Archive: November, 2011
Ready to be inspired? Tomorrow just might be the day. A cross section of Philadelphia leaders — representatives from the Philadelphia Water Department, Olin architects, SEPTA, Philly Student Union, Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement, Code for America and more — will converge at Temple Performing Arts Center Tuesday for TedXPhilly. Tickets are $100, but the price includes access to more than two dozen speakers all collectively brainstorming on how to solve the fundamental challenges of urban life. In addition to Philly's own home grown gray matter, other speakers include Haas & Hahn, the ingenious Favela Painters.
Mayor Michael Nutter has allowed the Occupy Philly encampment in front of City Hall to continue more or less unmolested. But he has made it clear that the protest tent city must move in the coming month when construction to rebuild Dilworth Plaza is slated to begin. But protesters have debated whether to comply and last night, a group called the “radical caucus” put forward a proposal to vote on whether to stay put in Dilworth for good.
It’s possible, says organizer Chris Goldstein, that the proposal, like many others, will be tabled or amended. And he says that whether people stay or relocate will in the end be a personal choice since the General Assembly (GA) isn’t a governing body. It’s just a space to build consensus — or something close to it (the rules call for an overwhelming super-majority).
Lawyer Matthew Wolfe is the Republican Leader of West Philadelphia’s 47th Ward and a lead activist in the campaign to overthrow Philadelphia Republican Party boss Michael Meehan, whose family has controlled the city’s party for three generations.
You are a Republican activist living right on Clark Park, West Philly’s verdant left-wing front lawn. How does that work?
We get a lot of people at the University of Pennsylvania. We have some of the most conservative Republicans in the city and some of the most liberal Republicans in the city. And we ran more candidates than the Democrats in the 27th Ward last year.
Who is this person named Al Schmidit? Well, he’s not Al Schmidt, the anti-machine Republican running for City Commissioner. But that’s how recent sample ballots in the Inquirer and Public Record misspelled his name, an error that is sparking accusation and confusion on Facebook and beyond — primarily between Schmidt and the City Commissioners office, the office that he is running for and that manages elections.
“Ahh, the rush of pride when you see your name on the official sample ballot … misspelled by the City Commissioners,” Schmidt posted on his Facebook wall.
“The official election materials such as the absentee ballots, pink sheets and machine sheets are all correct and have Al Schmidt on them the correct way,” City Commissioners official Timothy Dowling commented back. “The Philadelphia newspapers altered the CORRECT proofs without permission for spacing needs … Grow up be a man and admit you are wrong.”
In case you missed CP's own Isaiah Thompson on WHYY's Radio Times yesterday, the MP3 of the episode is online now. He joined Reading Viaduct Project co-founder John Struble and Friends of the Highline co-founder Joshua David to discuss the potential for development of the disused Reading Viaduct into a public park. When it comes to the creation of a Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District — with a controversial accompanying special tax — "the park is a bit of a red herring," Thompson told host Marty Moss-Coane. Listen to the entire episode here.
At an ill-attended (and somewhat disorganized) press conference at her Market Street campaign office yesterday afternoon, Cheri Honkala once again outlined the platform of her bid to become Philadelphia's next sheriff: "If I'm elected, I'm going to refuse to throw families out of their homes."
Like that message or not, what followed, an illustration of the many ways Philly families are losing their homes, shows there's plenty of reason to worry. Honkala called on her sister Ann Patterson, who spoke about losing her house a year and a half ago, after having lived there for 15 years. "We got talked into an [adjustable-rate mortage] and a balloon payment]" that became unaffordable when Patterson's husband lost his job. She says when all measures had been exhausted, she and her five kids had no choice but leave the house, but the bank refused to take it back, instead continuing to pile on bills.
Glenn Davis, a father of three, says his house has been in foreclosure for over a year. The problem was that his mortgage was sold, and then increased from under $500 to $1,400 a month. "Every time you get into these programs, you think you're safe and you think you can work it out, and then they put you back into foreclosure."
Then, there's Althea Ricks, who fixed up an abandoned house with, she thought, blessing from the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA). "I lived in the house for 10 years, and now the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. wants to put me out of the house," she says. She says they want $80,000 for the house in northwest Philadelphia.
Former schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman may be gone, but education controversy is on its way back. The School Reform Commission (SRC) will tonight unveil a list of recommended school closings at a special 5 p.m. session following the regular 3 p.m. meeting.
Parents at South Philly’s E.M. Stanton Elementary School will be there. “It shouldn’t close because it’s a high performing neighborhood public school,” says James Wright, parent of a sixth grader at Stanton, which he believes the District will propose consolidating with Chester A. Arthur School and perhaps closing. “We have 15 partnerships, including with Art Sanctuary and University of the Arts. We have a dance instructor and a drumming instructor. It’s so successful where it is — any kind of movement will disrupt that.”
The number of students attending Philly public schools has shrunk over the years and the District has plans to close, consolidate and reorganize schools to save money. The 2010 Census showed a slight population growth in Philadelphia for the first time in 50 years — after the exodus of a quarter million people. That, along with declining birth rates and the growth of publicly funded and privately managed charter schools, means fewer students. The District has an estimated 70,000 empty seats, and has lost 11,000 pupils in the past five years alone.
Montgomery County Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf has announced that he will seek the Republican nomination for president. Yes, of the United States of America. He joins a few dozen other randoms, alongside the dozen “serious” candidates (44 candidates total!) that round out a Republican field that is already mighty difficult to take seriously.
Though Greenleaf, who has zero name recognition outside the state, acknowledges that he has absolutely no chance of becoming the Republican nominee, he seems to betray — nay, broadcast — an equally narcissistic ambition. Something is missing from the current debate, according to his statement, that only he, a humble public servant, can add:
“Seeking the office of the President isn’t Greenleaf’s goal. Greenleaf seeks to add to the debate in New Hampshire and stimulate a real and robust discussion on eliminating our national debt and making it unconstitutional for future Presidents and Congresses to pass unbalanced budgets in the future.”
So where, exactly, does Mr. Greenleaf get off? Here’s the curious thing: according to Terry Madonna, Director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College and a ubiquitous commenter on state politics, Greenleaf has never been much of a showboat.
Yet another senior (former) army officer has affirmed that City Council candidate David Oh did not misstate his military credentials, contrary to several news articles and attacks by accusers suggesting that Oh's campaign materials were misleading in saying that Oh was a Special Forces officer or a "Green Beret."
(Oh was designated a Special Forces officer while serving in the Maryland National Guard and was assigned a Green Beret; the term Green Beret, however, now refers to offices who complete rigorous specialized training to become "tabbed" or "qualified" Special Forces officers, which Oh was not)
Yesterday, a piece on this blog cited various members of local veterans groups defending David Oh's military record and stating that they felt the recent controversy over supposed misstatements by Oh were part of a political "smear campaign" to bring the candidate down.
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