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Archive: March, 2011
The Committee of 70 has filed an amicus brief in support of the three lawsuits trying to kick Councilman Frank Rizzo, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione off the ballot because they are enrolled in the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP).
Last week, Common Pleas Court Judge James Lynn ruled in favor of the candidates. Matt Wolfe, who filed the lawsuit regarding Rizzo, appealed to the Commonwealth Court.
Ellen Kaplan, vice president of Committee of 70, said that she expects that the lawsuits against Tasco and Tartaglione will be appealed tomorrow.
Check out the PDF of the amicus brief here.
Previously:
DROP candidates can stay on the ballot
DROP lawsuit will be filed to kick Tartaglione off the ballot
Ward leader files challenge to kick Rizzo off ballot
This article is part of our new, expanded coverage of this year's exciting election season. Grab this link for more "ElectionEar" pieces and look for the new column in our print edition.
In a budget hearing yesterday, Deputy Mayor of Transportation Rina Cutler revealed that plans are in the works for two new major north/south bike lanes, to complement the east/west lanes installed on Pine and Spruce streets last year.
I'm going to go ahead and make a wild prediction: grumbling — whining, one might say — and lots of it, from the usual suspects who hate bike lanes, hate bicyclists, and really hate the fact that the city seems determined to push ahead with its plan to become a truly bike-friendly city.
The grumbling, according to my prophetic vision, will include:
1. Complaints about bicyclists running red lights and riding on sidewalks.
2. Complaints about space being given over to bicyclists that could (or is) being used for more cars!
3. Complaints that bicyclists pose some kind of crazy public safety threat (when I last checked, in December, 2009, the ratio of people killed by cars versus bikes in the city over five years was 174:3).
4. Complaints that bicyclists are a small minority of residents and therefore are being accommodated disproportionately.
5.Complaints by Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky (I look forward to being proved wrong on this one, Stu).
Another prediction: These complaints will be as valid and as flawed as they always are.
Do bicyclists break traffic laws? Yes — and they should do it less. But most of us who rely on bicycles for daily commutiing are more concerned with safety. A broken collar bone, cracked rib, broken wrist and innumerable near-doorings taught this reporter caution long ago. I'll advocate for bicyclists' being considerate and cafeful all you want. But the more the city provides safe and intuitive ways for people to get around town by bikes, the less I'll need to. There are plenty of studies showing this: More biking means safer biking, and more accomodations like bike lanes mean more biking.
The grumblers may grumble, and that's their right, but bicycles are becoming viable transportation alternatives to driving in cities like Philly — not for everyone, but for more people than are aware of it now — and a bicycle on the street is one less car in front of you in traffic.
And you know what? They're popular — not always with old-timers, but, I'll wager, with young newcomers. And we need more of those in Philly: Bike lanes are a cheap, easy way to attract the kind of urban energy this city needs to grow. (This reporter's being able to ditch his car after moving here, for example, has resulted in much revenue for local bars).
City Council today passed (14-3) legislation proposed by Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller that prohibits most Philadelphia employers from asking about an applicant's cirminal history on job applications as well as asking about criminal history until after the applicant's first interview.
Among the members of the public tesifying in favor of the bill today was Michael Ta'Bon, the ex-offender who imprisoned himself in a home-made jail as a lesson for neighborhood kids. He also led a group of ex-offenders uninvited into a speech being given by Mayor Nutter to the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce to protest what he calls inadequate help for ex-offenders from the city.
Ta'Bon appeared with his son, wife, and what sure looked like a prison jumpsuit today.
"When ya'll knock that box off, you give me an opportunity to be a man, and to give my chld food and provide for my wife," he said. "I think a picture's worth a thousand words: this is the family of an ex-convict, for those who need to see it. It probably looks kind of like ya'lls. God bless you."
A resolution on tomorrow's City Council agenda, introduced by Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., calls for the Free Library to reconsider a "floating collection" policy it's considering.
Right now, if you borrow a book form Library A and return it to Library B, the book is re-delivered by truck to Library A.
Under the new proposal, the book would stay at Library B until checked out or requested via inter-library loan.
"The fewer times you’re moving a book or DVD around, the less cost it's going to be — and to a certain extent, from the administration's point of view, that makes sense," says Friends of the Free Library director Amy Dougherty.
The problem, as raised by individual branch Friends groups in a recent meeting, is that such a policy could scatter some of the individual libraries' special collections (the Independence Branch, for example, has the second-largest Gay & Lesbian collection in the country).
What's more, she points out, Friends groups have raised money to purchase books and A/V materials for their own branches — "It's kind of a slap in the face to the contribution they made to support their local branch."
Dougherty says she and other library advocates aren't necessarily against the policy outright, but want to work with the administration to find a way to code special collections and specially-purchased materials.
Is it possible to capture the soul of a city in a single digital image?
Obviously, yes. But there's more than one way to do it.
Every week, the same thing happens: I forget to ask for pics, then sit down on deadline day, and realize that I'm going to have to lean on the reliably awesome photographers who reliably submit photos for our Photostream column.
Which is just fine. But the more the merrier.
So please submit! You can submit them by submitting them to CP's Flickr account -- flickr.com/groups/philadelphaicitypaper -- or (as of this week) by email (in case you care not to deal with Flickr or create the requisite yahoo account.) at photostream@citypaper.net.
If submiting by email, please keep it down to one or pics per week, and include any credit and title information.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), in conjunction with the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) and the City of Philadelphia, lost a case to the South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) this morning; a case that could cost tax payers.
The NakedPhilly blog reports today, and CP has confirmed via electronic court documents, that the appeal case between the country’s fourth largest public housing agency and SOSNA has been settled.
Over a year ago, an appeal was filed by SOSNA to stop construction on a zoning board-approved two story home for seniors and the disabled. Plans for the site at 1003-1011 S. 20th St. were first appealed by the neighborhood association because it was skeptical of the lack of code-ordered parking facilities, plans for the loading and unloading of residents, and aesthetic imbalances with the rest of the neighborhood.
The appeal was denied several times in court before today when the judge granted the appeal and the variance by the Zoning Board of Adjustment, hereby requiring the property be vacated.
The PHA-built residency must now undergo renovations to bring it up to code and be in accordance with SOSNAs requests, or it will have to be leveled by the PHA (both options will require an unknown amount of tax payer money to complete).
Common Pleas Court Judge James Lynn ruled today (at almost 7 p.m.) that Councilman Frank Rizzo, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione can stay on the primary ballot. In three ballot petition challenges before Lynn, a group of Philadelphians argued that because the aforementioned candidates are enrolled in the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), they're ineligible to run for office.
The challengers included everyone from Stan Shapiro, the former chief staff attorney for City Council, to Matt Wolfe, a Republican ward leader.
City solicitors have argued in the past that public officials can remain working while enrolled in the program by collecting a giant sum of cash from DROP, “retiring” for a day and then running again.
Republican ward leader Wolfe, who filed the petition challeneg against Rizzo, says, "Judge Lynn listened carefully to the arguments made on Friday and certainly seemed to understand our argument. He disagrees with our core assertion that 'irrevocable' means 'irrevocable' and that 'rehire' and 'reelect' are two separate and distinct terms with separate meanings."
Wolfe said he is considering an appeal to the Commonwealth Court.
Read the judge's decision in its entirety here.
This article is part of our new, expanded coverage of this year's exciting election season. Grab this link for more "ElectionEar" pieces and look for the new column in our print edition.
A while back, we wrote about a local filmmaker stumbling upon the murder of an activist fighting mining in El Salvador.
His film is screening tonight at the Bryn Mawr Institute, 7:30.
You can also see it on Hulu.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment has granted its approval for a proposed "penal" project at Grays Avenue and 52nd Street, in Southwest Philly.
Last month, City Paper reported on the battle over the project. Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and some neighbors support it. The developers call it a "day reporting center," where ex- and non-violent offenders will receive services (and sometimes beds) in lieu of being sent to jail. The supporters of the project argue that it will save the city money and reduce recidivism rates. Some other neighbors who are opposed to the development, however, call it a "prison" and say it's too close to a residential area. According to the city's zoning code, it is a "penal" project — however, it should be noted that the code has not been rewritten since the 1960s, and according to judicial sources, day reporting centers did not exist then.
No matter its name, the Zoning Board has granted a needed use variance for the project.
The developers, Ronald and David Watts, still need to win a contract from the city.
"We're very happy to receive the use variance. … Another hurdle has been crossed," says David. "We realize we have not gotten to the finish line yet."
Marsha Wall, president of the Southwest Community Advisory Group, says that neighbors will continue to fight the project, and will soon be filing an appeal against the Zoning Board's decision.
Read about another proposed "penal" project in the area, which many of the same neighbors oppose, in this week's A Million Stories.
This article is part of our new, expanded coverage of this year's exciting election season. Grab this link for more "ElectionEar" pieces and look for the new column in our print edition.
For a few weeks now, controversy has been simmering over a bill sponsored on behalf of Council President Anna Verna that would impose a one-year moratorium on construction of buildings higher than two stories in Point Breeze.
The purpose of the moratorium, the legislation says, is to "give Council the opportunity to explore ways to preserve the uniformity of the streetscape and the current scale and density of the area."
The proposal comes amid ongoing tension in the neighborhood over gentrification. A moratorium on buildings higher than two stories would, presumably, halt many or most new development projects. It also comes amid a hotly contested battle for Verna's seat on Council as she prepares to retire — a battle in which racial neighborhood dynamics will likely play a significant role (the ticket features 2 black and 3 white candidates right now).
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