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Archive: December, 2011
A group associated with Occupy Philly held a press conference today to announce that they are submitting 10 different permit requests to the city "with the express intention of asking the city government to allow Occupy one park to set up tenting and continue their homeless outreach programs, including supplying shelter, medical and food services to the homeless citizens of Philadelphia."
The idea behind applying for 10 permits, says Adan X, an Occupier who spoke at the conference, is to give the city its own choice over where the proposed camp would be located.
Mayor spokesman Mark McDonald, however, says he is unaware of any such permit applications, adding that "We're not allowing tenting."
Several homeless members of Occupy Philly, including passionate letter-writter Paul Klemmer and Harvey Lockeridge — creator of Harvey's Homeless Reality Tour of Occupy Philly — spoke at the event, characterizing the city's offers of aid as insufficient.
They are among a small band of homeless individuals who have remained active in Occupy Philly and cite the movement as an inspiration to break one of the unwritten rules of being homeless and on the street in Philadelphia — no tenting.
Before and after the eviction of Occupy Philly from Dilworth Plaza, the city had sent homeless outreach workers to encourage homeless former Occupiers to enter the city's shelter system, which serves as an entry point to its various homeless services — some entered shelter, but others, like Klemmer and Lockeridge, say the shelters are unsuitable living places and that they want instead to be left alone to set up their own shelter — in tents, if need be. They relocated first to Conrail property; after being evicted by that company, they set up camp on PennDOT property, below I-95 — from which they were evicted as well.
Now, a few members of that group are living in an "undisclosed location," — some kind of previously vacant structure — while others have entered the shelter system or found temporary lodging elsewhere.
58-year-old Kenny Ogletree, who was featured in our recent cover story about the plight of Occupy's homeless, says he finally accepted the city's offer to enter a shelter — but left again after his first night there, telling CP he preferred to remain homeless than stay there.
At its worst Twitter is a lot like television news: sensational, no-context hysteria about sex, violence and sports. The trials related to Penn State coach and alleged sexual abuser Jerry Sandusky are one such lowly occasion, with all three subjects enticingly packaged into the perfect synthesis for bated-breath media thrill-seeking. Today, reporters are live-tweeting the graphic details of sexual assault. It is plain disgusting, does nothing to educate readers about the horrors of sexual violence and has zero journalistic merit.
Within days of the shooting of Darren Rogers, 46, on a normally peaceful block of Pine Street in Society Hill on Nov. 7, police had posted a surveillance video (after the jump) that clearly showed Rogers being assaulted and then shot by two white men. Now, more than a month later, Rogers is still struggling to heal from his extensive wounds — and the shooters are still at large.
Since the police haven't succeeded — and press attention has subsided — so neighbors are determined to do something about it themselves. They're trying to raise $4,000 for a reward and have been collecting donations from $15 to $500 for residents of the neighborhood. The organizer, who didn't want to give her name because she's afraid of being the next target, says, "I, and some other people in the neighborhood, feel that if you knew these people [the shooters], you would recognize them. So it's an incentive for someone to come forward."
The reward will be offered via the Ciizens Crime Commission, which puts out rewards for about 50 to 100 cases each year in the Delaware Valley — giving both incentive to report information, and a publicity push. John Apeldorn, the commission's president, says the anonymity offered to witnesses sometimes helps, but not always. "We have success stories," he says, "but not all cases are going to be solved."
A bipartisan group of Pennsylvania legislators wants to give the owners of private and corporate jets a $10 million to $14 million subsidy, according to a new report by the left-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (PBPC). House Bill 100, according to the report that you can read right here, would exempt the sale of private aircraft from the state sales and use tax.
“If you buy a car, a truck, a boat or any other vehicle in Pennsylvania, you pay sales tax,” according to PBPC. “But if you are one of the few in the market for a Learjet or a Gulfstream aircraft, you would get a pass on paying that.”
The folks over at the Fishtown.us forum have been wondering what, exactly, to make of an "Internet Cafe," that appears to be offering gambling, that recently appeared on the 1800 block of Frankford Avenue.
What it appears to be is one of the increasingly-notorious Internet "sweepstakes" cafes (it's tough to know which words not to put in quotes), that have been on the radar of state lawmakers recently.
A bill introduced in the Pa. House of Representatives by State Rep. Randy Volokavitch (Rep. Allegheny Co.) would make these so-called internet sweepstakes cafes illegal. It passed the House and is currently in a state Senate committee.
Apparently, these "cafes" represent a kind of loophole in many states' gambling laws. They sell "calling cards" that let gamblers play slot-like "games" (depending on how you define "game") online. This burgeoning little industry exploded in Florida, prompting some lawmakers there to attempt (and so far fail) to ban them. Businessweek has a great, in-depth story about that here.
Opponents of the proposed Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District were caught by surprise today when City Council took up and voted through the bill authorizing the NID — despite the fact that City Council Chief Clerk Michael Decker acknowledged in an official letter yesterday that opponents of the NID had delivered petitions with enough signatures to overturn it.
The proposed NID would levy a 7% property tax surcharge on all residents of the district, which is north of Chinatown and streches from Broad to 8th street. Neighborhood groups and individuals have testified both for and against it. But because Council members almost invariably defer to District Council members on matters in their neighborhoods, a single Council person, in this case 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco, can effectively create such a district, with the burden to overturn it falling to those opposed. To overturn it, dissenters have to collect the signatures of a majority of residents or signatures representing a majority of the total property value being assessed.
Yesterday, Chief Clerk Michael Decker wrote in an official memo addressed to members of City Council stating that opponents of the NID had passed both "tests" to overturn the district:
Under the first test, 51.9% of the affected property owners registered their disapproval. Under the second test, property owners whose property valuation amounted to 59.82% of the total property valuation registered their disapproval. (The property valuations were calculated for the Chief Clerk’s Office by the City’s Office of Property Assessment.)
Councilman Frank DiCicco did not immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment; but it seems apparent that the Councilman — or possibly, since no one CP spoke with is exactly sure how this works, the office of the Council president — intends to challenge the validity of the signatures submitted.
Because it is being passed in the last two weeks of Council, the bill will also require the mayor's signature to become law.
The most important item passed in City Council, at today's final session for the year, was undoubtedly the new zoning code — which will hopefully smooth the way for development in the city and obviate some of the zoning-by-ordinance that has so dominated Council's agenda in recent years.
But that wasn't the most controversial item on the agenda (not that you'd know it by the unanimous votes on almost all bills). Council also passed a bill requiring lead paint certification by landlords, and passed three bills clearing the way for a controversial mixed-use development at 8200 Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.
Meanwhile, Mayor Nutter sent back to Council as "disapproved" a bill, introduced by Councilman Frank DiCicco, that would have allowed for 7,000- to 10,000-square-foot wall wraps near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
Council also unanimously passed an ordinance creating the Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District — despite a neighborhood petition against it
It looks like a music venue just might make it to Richmond Street after all: Bill 110672 — the repeal of changes to the North Delaware Avenue Special District Controls that exclude nightclubs in the area — was held today, in the last session of City Council for the year. That likely means that development will proceed unchecked on this gritty block in Port Richmond/Fishtown.
Councilman Frank DiCicco, who had introduced both the bill allowing for the venue, and later the bill that would have repealed the zoning changes, had indicated he didn't want to leave office with the zoning in place if the venue's future was uncertain. As we reported previously, developer David Grasso had been running into technical issues with the site, and apparently had had financial concerns as well.
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