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Archive: December, 2011
Intrepid CIty Paper staff writer Dan Denvir has been nominated for the prestigious Philebrity Award, category: "General Excellence in Writing for a City Publication."
He's still behind the first place candidate, and the polls close at 3 PM today.
So vote Dan! As a colleague, competitor, and campaign manager, I'd like to make the case that the guy has earned it this year via some great reporting — among many other notable pieces, his breaking the news that schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman was using the school comminications team as a personal PR machine.
As if a more compelling case was needed, check out this absurd and hastily-made video expressing above sentiments.
CP just got word that opponents to the proposed Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District successfully defeated the measure by collecting signatures of owners of a majority of the total property value that would be assessed an extra 7% fee for neighborhood services.
According to Philip Browndeis, who's helped collect signatures opposing the district, the City Council Chief Clerk will deliver notice to the Council President that the signatures opposing the NID represent nearly 60% of the total property value included. More than 50% was required to defeat the measure.
Tomorrow is the final session of City Council for the year — and the last period for outgoing Councilman Frank DiCicco, who sponsored the bill that would have created the NID, and which could have come up for a final vote tomorrow. It seems likely now it will simply not come up for a vote and therefore die.
The proposed improvement district has been controversial within the changing neighborhood for various reasons. One was its seeming-connection with a proposed park on the defunct Reading Railroad viaduct. While the bill's supporters had language referring to the viaduct removed and pledged that the money wouldn't go to the park in the NID's first five years, opponents correctly pointed out that the NID's origin had been directly tied to the viaduct park and that several of its main supporters were also proponents of the park.
But the viaduct park itself was perhaps a stand-in for a larger conflict: while supporters of the NID insisted they had done everything they could to reach out to fellow residents — including printing materials in Chinese — it was also true that, because the NID could be created legislatively and required no proof of local buy-in. Its implementation would have assessed a not-insignificant extra tax burden on an unknown number of people who did not wish to pay and felt that they were not represented by those who would have administered the money.
The expected happened in the Pennsylvania Senate this afternoon: Senate Bill 732 — requiring abortion providers to meet the standards of ambulatory surgery centers — passed out of the chamber and will be sent on to Gov. Tom Corbett to be signed into law.
"Don't kid yourselves anymore. This is not about [Dr. Kermit] Gosnell. And it's certainly certainly not about helping women or helping women gain access to reproductive health services," Sen. Larry Farnese said. "It's completely contrary to that.... It's about limiting women's access to health care, and specifically limiting access to abortions."
The costs associated with the bill are expected to be severe enough to drive some independent abortion clinics out of business. That would leave the options of either costly hospital abortions or the use of illegal clinics.
Sen. Vincent Hughes described a process in which a once "great bill" had been amended solely to protect "the special interest groups out here. And now we're going to put women's health in jeopardy."
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation that will require abortion clinics to spend millions of dollars on renovations that are not medically necessary or shut down, and the Senate is expected to follow suit today before breaking for the holidays. The transparent bid to drive abortion clinics out of business would require them to meet the standards of “ambulatory surgical facilities” that perform far more complicated and risky operations.
No medical association supports the legislation and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes it. This bill is unambiguously about the political movement to criminalize abortion.
Pennsylvania Republicans have delayed trying to pass new voter identification requirements until 2012, when (and just in time for a big election) they will again attempt to combat the (almost) nonexistent problem of voter fraud with legislation that just happens to overwhelmingly affect people who tend to vote Democrat.
Why is voter fraud an almost-nonexistent problem? Because there's virtually no evidence it happens — especially in Pennsylvania.
Just ask the U.S. Department of Justice which, at the behest of president George W. Bush, conducted a five-year investigation into voter fraud and found a whopping total of 120 cases nationwide — and chose to prosecute only 86 of them.
So non-existent is the problem of voter fraud in Pennsylvania that PA Senate State Government Committee Chairman Charles Mcllhinney, who's helped lead the charge for new voter ID laws, admitted to Fox News that "He has seen no proof that people are casting ballots illegally," as mentioned in this article from thinkprogress.org, — and even as Mcllhinney pushes anyway for restrictions that *lots* of evidence says will suppress the votes of elderly and poor people — especially poor people of color.
Who tend to vote Democrat.
A brief by the New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice points out, among other things that:
* Restrictive voter identification policies - especially those that require state-issued photo ID cards - threaten to exclude millions of eligible voters.
* As many as 10% of eligible voters do not have, and will not get, the documents required by strict voter ID laws. For some groups, the percentage is much higher.
* ID requirements fall hardest on people who have traditionally faced barriers at the polls.
* ID requirements are not justified by any serious or widespread problem.
* There is no reason for states to implement burdensome ID requirements.
* States that do require proof of identity at the polls should permit an expansive range of proof.
The best job in Philly? It just might be maintenance worker at Philly's Free Library, where you can get hours of overtime pay from the comfort of your home.
That's the finding from the city Controller's Office, which only in the wake of a Fox 29 investigation looked into the matter. Controller Alan Butkovitz reported that workers were not monitored and that no standards had been established for how long a project should take. Which … was really convenient for workers who logged overtime while spending hours at home during the work day. Full press release follows:
Burglaries are up 12 percent citywide, according to Philly Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who swung by a 26th District police town hall meeting at the request of Fishtown and Kensington neighborhood groups last night. But, he admitted, "property crimes are just not treated as seriously as violent crimes in our system."
That might have something to do with why, in the 26th District's Police Service Area 3 alone, there are at least 57 known active burglars living in the neighborhood, according to Capt. Michel Cram. He estimates that "90 percent [of burglars committing crimes in the neighborhood] live in PSA 3, and most are repeat offenders." In fact, 24 of the 57 have 11 or more arrests on their records.
Because perpetrators are known, stings aren't difficult to plan — but the extraordinary manpower required is often more than the district can spare. Plus, Cram said when he does manage to make arrests, repeat offenders picked up for theft and burglary are often released back onto the streets. Said Assistant District Attorney Angel Flores, "It's a conscious decision by the court to prioritize."
The Pennsylvania House GOP has posted it's new proposed Congressional districts for the state; the ones for for Southeastern Pennsylvania look kind of like a jigsaw puzzle on speed. Let's just say it: They're gerrymandering the hell out of greater Philadelphia. Montgomery County state Rep. Josh Shapiro tweeted that what lawmakers are doing is "the epitome of gerrymandering" — and a look at the pterodactyl-shaped (or perhaps French poodle-shaped?) districts on the map seems to support it.
As we noted previously, this redistricting is especially vital because it could define how things shake out when Pennsylvania loses a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, due to population decline recorded in the most recent census. Based on the new maps, it looks like Monroe County Democrat Rep. Lou Barletta's district could be the one to go.
Unless the laws of physics and/or councilmanic prerogative cease to apply between now and City Council's final session on Thursday, it looks like Bowman Properties will get the three ordinances it needs to go ahead with its planned mixed-use development at 8200 Germantown Ave. The development is to include a Fresh Market and eight townhouses, along with retail, condos and parking, on the site of a former car dealership. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) gave the plan its approval this afternoon, over the vehement objections of a few nearby neighbors, who have been circulating petitions and said they've collected 2,000 signatures (600 of them from within Chestnut Hill proper).
Part of the PCPC's decision doubtless relied on the fact that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's amended bill — which brings the overall height down to 60 feet from 70, reduces the square footage, adds setbacks and requires landscaping and other changes — got overwhelming approval from the Chestnut Hill Community Association's (CHCA) board last night.
The problem with that, as neighbors pointed out, is twofold: First, the CHCA board may not be representative of the community, given that a third of the board allegedly lives outside the neighborhood, as do many of the (less than 200) voters who installed them. Second, as nearby neighbor Terry Halbert argued, "the community association had a gun to its head" in the process, given that the neighborhood would have no say at all if the ordinances were passed without a community agreement in place. She said 73 percent of nearby neighbors had signed the petition, and that they felt "railroaded" by the CHCA giving in with only minor tweaks. "It was presented to us a fait accompli," she added.
Joseph Syrnick, one of the City Planning Commissioners, said a certain amount of resistance is inevitable. "That's the nature of being a developer and trying to get 10 pounds of sugar in a five-pound bag," he said before making a motion to approve.
Remember the controversial proposed neighborhood improvement district (NID) in Callowhill? The one that would impose a property assessment surcharge on the residents of Callowhill to be used for neighborhood improvements?
If its opponents are right, it may be dead.
Yesterday, Anthony Radwanski of the City Council President's office confirmed that opponents to the controversial improvement district had delivered "a lot" of signatures from residents opposing the bill.Those signatures are now being counted and assessed by Council's technical staff, Radwanski says.
If they amount to more than 50% of the proposed district's residents, or more than 50% of the total property value that would be assessed an extra fee, the NID is dead on arrival. Opponents to the NID beleive that they have indeed collected enough signatures — about 55%, according to Philip Browndeis, a resident who's helped organize against the NID.
A brief recap: In April, 1st District Councilman Frank DiCicco introduced a bill that would create a "neighborhood improvement district" in the Callowhill/Chinatown North neighborhood. Everyone in the district would be required to pay a 7% property tax assessment to the district, which would spend that money on neighborhood improvements that proponents of the bill say their neighborhood needs.
But many residents of the neighborhood — including, but not limited to many Asian-American residents and business owners — oppose the bill, saying they would be paying an extra "tax" to a group that does not represent them and their interests.
Because of how the state law allowing such improvement districts is structured, once Council DiCicco had introduced the bill, the burden to stop the creation of the NID fell to those opposed to it.
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