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Archive: March, 2011
Thanks to reader Matthew LeTourneau for this tip on last week's cover story, "The Wasteland," about a run-down and drug and crime-infested railroad track running through the heart of the city.
The tracks, it turns out, make a brief appearance in Rocky II!
Comments Matt, "Maybe [Rocky] could be an avenue for funding to help with the issues faced by the neighborhood."
Unfortunately, the best videos of the scne I could find on YouTube had embedding blocked (do you care, Mr. Stallone?), so you'll have to go about 2:30 minutes in.
The Daily Local News in Chester County published an article yesterday in the wake of Japan’s devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake; some locals think it may be time to revisit a study done last year by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on seismic activity and its effects on current U.S. nuclear power plants.
According to the NRC, there are two nuclear plants within two hours of our dear city on the list of the top 10 plants with the highest risk of earthquake damage. The third on the list for most at risk is Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station, located a mere 45 miles away in Limerick, Pa (just east of Pottstown). At number 10, the infamous Three Mile Island sits just 100 miles from Philly.
That means, of the 104 nuclear plants throughout the country, we have two of the riskiest (in the event of an earthquake) right in our backyard. That’s not to say the risk is high: The study also says the odds of the Limerick plant being damaged by an earthquake are 1 in 18,868 (these odds fall near the possibility of winning $100 in next week’s Powerball). The odds of an earthquake affecting the Limerick plant are worse than those of finding a four leaf clover on the first try (1 in 10,000).
Thanks to Adam Lang of "The New Commonwealth" blog for this one.
The nominating petition of 5th District Councilman Darrell Clarke has been challeneged by former State Rep. Andrew Carn, husband of Suzanne Carn, who is Clarke's sole challenger for re-election in the 5th District.
According to the docket, the case should be before the City Commissioners on March 19, 2010 — which may present temporo-astro-physical problems for all parties invovled.
This Saturday, more than 40 activists came out to City Hall to celebrate International Women's Day — and they included a motley crew of blacks, whites, Latinos, women, men, grandmothers and children.
The ralliers' causes seemed to be just as diverse as they were: Some were fighting the city's Department of Human Services (DHS), arguing that it unfairly removes children from families; some were advocating for the rights of older people; and others were there to stand in solidarity with Wisconsin workers. One person even yelled out, "Stop fracking!"
Many of the protesters were a part of DHS — Give Us Back Our Children, a local group that claims that DHS breaks up low-income, black families. The activists say that children are often put in foster care simply because their parents are poor, and so they make a bold demand to the city: Take the money that funds DHS and give it to poor mothers instead.
"Every mother is a working mother!" the group chanted. And then: "Fighting DHS is a full-time job! Living in poverty is a full-time job!"
Pat Albright, a member of the Every Mother is a Working Mother Network, said, "They need to end financial incentives for DHS to take children and keep them in care."
Last year, the Daily News published a story about the group's fight againast DHS.
Karen "Kind Essence" Thompson attended the march to rally for a similar cause. She says that the city unfairly takes away older adults from their families.
Meanwhile, Ann Agee, a member of the Granny Peace Brigade, was at the protest to voice her opinion about war. She said that the Brigade, which has a chapter in Philly, is currently fighting to curb the recruitment of high schoolers in the military. She added that she is working to gain the support of an unlikely comrade: the Tea Party.
"We can at least agree on one thing — less funding for war," said Agee.
Though he recently said that he’d be announcing his presidential bid in May, Newt Gingrich was spotted this afternoon outside of Buddakan pan-Asian restaurant. The former House Speaker was chatting with some businessfolk and with passersby as they stopped for a handshake and picture.
Gingrich has already indicated that his announcement will be made at Independence Hall, as he aims to gain the support of his fellow Pennsylvanians (Gingrich himself was born in Harrisburg).
Mayor Nutter and Parks & Rec Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis announced today the beginning of an improvement project for the stretch of the Kelly Drive recreational path connecting Falls Bridge to City Line Avenue.
This is cool for few reasons but the main one is ... connectivity! Oh yeah.
Right now, the average bicyclist, jogger, or other user of the path would reach Falls Bridge and see stretching before him or her a strip of uninviting sidewalk that constutes, for some reason, the only connection between Fairmount Park, the Schuylkill River Trail — which extends past Valley Forge and will someday connect all the way to the Appalacian Trail, and the Wissahickon Valley: the great triad of free, lovely Philly recreation.
"Clearly, this crappy strip of sidewalk proceeding north isn't meant for me," he or she might say, then turn around and miss the great riches to be found ahead.
This is good news, but less great is the fact that this means that you'll have to detour around the area until at least June, 2011, when the work it supposed to be finished.
The city is recommending that bicylists use Ridge Avenue, which will be marked with "sharrows," — arrows, but for sharing, and "share the road" signs. And be careful: Ridge isn't ideal for bikes.
Get more info on the detours at the Bicycle Coaltiion's website.
Gloria Gilman, the chair of Neighborhood Networks, tells City Paper that she's filing a lawsuit tomorrow against City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione to kick her off the ballot. She argues that because Tartaglione is enrolled in the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), she's ineligible to run for office.
A legal loophole has allowed Tartaglione and other public officials to remain working while enrolled by collecting a lump sum of cash from DROP, "retiring" for a day and then running again.
Republican attorney Matt Wolfe filed a similar lawsuit on Friday challenging Councilman-at-Large Frank Rizzo, as CP reported, which argues that Rizzo can't run because he's enrolled in DROP. And Councilwoman Marian Tasco is now facing a suit that makes the same argument.
Gilman says Stan Shapiro, who was chief staff attorney for City Council for more than 20 years, is also joining her as one of the suit's plaintiffs. Their attorney is Joseph Doherty, from Spector Gadon & Rosen, who is also representing the two people filing suit against Tasco.
These suits mark the first time that city solicitors have been challenged in court over their opinion that elected officials can be enrolled in DROP and run for reelection.
"The city solictor has come up with a tortured argument that you can somewhow fully retire by leaving for a day and then coming back," says Doherty. "I'm fully confident the court will see it [our] way."
View galleryI have what I call a “red thumb,” — the complete opposite of a green thumb when it comes to caring for anything plant-like. But that didn’t stop me from visiting the world’s largest indoor flower show last night at the Convention Center.
Based on the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts “Springtime in Paris” theme, guests were greeted upon entering the show by a large-scale replica of the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. Then, there were the flowers – and I mean flowers. I’ve never seen so many in one place, at one time. Hundreds of people (from what I’ve been told, this was a manageable crowd for the show) were milling around the more than 60 full-scale garden exhibits.
Of course, by the time your feet get sore from all the walking a picture-taking, there’s the vendors. Over 160 of them provided great shopping – that is, if you can keep the plants you buy alive. Everything from $2 cacti to $100+ exotic flowers and trees, it had it all. I bought myself a small cactus. I know, my red thumb. But I’m hoping since it requires little care, it will stay alive for a few weeks.
Sunday is the last day of the show if you’re thinking about catching it this weekend. Maybe you can stock up on four dozen roses for $20 – it’s a sweet deal, trust us.
Councilman-at-Large Frank Rizzo has seen better days.
Not only has Rizzo lost the backing of his own party, but Republican ward leader Matt Wolfe has officially filed a petition challenge to try to kick Rizzo off the primary ballot. He's arguing that because Rizzo is enrolled in the city's politically-poisonous Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), he is ineligible to serve.
A legal loophole has allowed Rizzo and other officials to remain working while enrolled by collecting a lump sum of cash from DROP, "retiring" for a day and then running again.
Heard in the Hall first reported on Wolfe's intention to file the suit, but Wolfe hadn't done so until today. Wolfe says he originally intended to file the challenge on Wednesday, but ran into "logistical problems" with the City Commissioners' office.
According to Wolfe, he tried to obtain copies of petitions from the office on Wednesday, but he says they told him they only had so many copy machines and thus couldn't get him the documents until Thursday afternoon. Then, he asked if the office could scan them, and he says they said no: Apparently, the office doesn't have a scanner. "When I got them on Thursday, they were on legal-sized paper, printed on both sides and the back of each petition was upside down," he said. "Each of these things makes it more difficult to scan them into the PDF document needed for electronic filing."
Wolfe further mused over the phone, "Nevermind that scanning them would be cheaper for the city," and then gave a plug for his candidate of choice: "All this will change when Al Schmidt becomes Commissioner."
The challenge's hearing is scheduled for March 30.
David Brown sleeps on a subway concourse below City Hall. He also has AIDS. On this week's (fully subscribable) podcast, Philly From Scratch interviews Brown, as well as Jose DeMarco, an activist with ACT UP Philly — the group that recently interrupted the mayor's budget address and which is fighting for funding to end the waiting list for housing for people with AIDS.
(Philly From Scratch, a scrappy homemade podcast that soon to be more frequently posted than it is now, is fully subscribable!
Click here to subscribe using iTunes; click here for the raw RSS feed.)
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