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Archive: March, 2012
A mysterious third-party group that supports school vouchers, which use taxpayer dollars to fund private and religious school tuition, has sent out a second round of mailers attacking West Philadelphia State Rep. James Roebuck.
The first mailer didn't mention vouchers by name, saying only that Roebuck, who opposes vouchers, "blocked parents from choosing which school is best for their children.”
The most recent attack is even more oblique—and unquestionably misleading. The mailer blames Roebuck for the controversies surrounding former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's ruinous tenure, high dropout rates, overcrowded classrooms, school violence and, once again, for the enrollment cap at the prestigious and University of Pennsylvania-funded Penn Alexander public school.
If you think that's bizarre, try this last accusation: Roebuck is blamed for what appears to be widespread cheating on standardized tests at Philadelphia schools. Many observers, however, blame the cheating on the very same school “reform” movement that is financing the pro-voucher campaign, which has pushed for high-stakes standardized tests to play an increasingly important role in teacher evaluation and even a school's very survival.
Philadelphia already doesn't have enough beds in domestic abuse shelters to serve a glut of demand, and Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 20 percent cut to state social services funding will make matters worse still, likely requiring shelters to reduce their services. Then, there's General Assistance, the $205-per-month, nine-month cash payout that abused women can use to help them get back on their feet after leaving their abusers. As CP's Daniel Denvir reported, the loss of GA to recovering addicts could make thousands homeless. The impact on abused women is just as terrifying: It could discourage them from leaving their abusers.
Elise Scioscia, strategic initiatives assistant at Women Against Abuse, which operates Philly's only emergency shelter, says GA is "a source of last resort for a lot of citizens, but especially women and children that are fleeing their homes and don't have the ability to take resources with them, or have the luxury of time to wait out other resources so they can start rebuilding their lives."
"[GA is] obviously not enough to live on to provide housing, but it may deter people from leaving. Resources are a big reason people stay with domestic violence perpetrators, so this could prohibit a person from being able to leave a very dangerous situation." Scioscia says given that their shelter is a 90-day program, and waiting lists for transitional housing are much longer than that, women and children are already vulnerable.
A newly formed neighborhood watch kicks off with, hopefully, hundreds of neighbors taking to the streets at a "night out against crime" tomorrow night. As we mentioned last week, RiverWards Crime Watch aims to be the first neighborhood watch to span East Kensington, Port Richmond and Fishtown, putting eyes on the street and combating both quality-of-life crimes and more serious issues across the police service area. The organizers hope a show of mass solidarity on city streets will send a clear message to would-be criminals: we're watching you.
As we report in today's City Paper, close to half a year after allegations of sexual abuse by Penn State's Jerry Sandusky broke, numerous bills designed to protect children and make it easier to prosecute predators have been languishing in committee. One of them, finally this week, made it out of committee and back onto the floor of the House. And it's a big one: HB 1264, introduced by Rep. Cherelle Parker (D-Phila.), to allow the use of expert witnesses in sexual abuse cases. The legislation had been in the Judiciary Committee since last June. Advocates say this is the very type of testimony that would be critical in prosecuting cases like Sandusky's. Of course, even if the bill becomes law, it will not apply to currently active cases.
State Sen. Larry Farnese (D-Phila.) has been fighting this battle since before the Penn State scandal broke. But last November, as the allegations against Sandusky sent shock waves across Pennsylvania, he was hoping that, finally, Republicans in Harrisburg might move forward with a smorgasbord of stalled legislation dealing with reporting and prosecuting sexual abuse of children. "This is an opportunity," he said, "for us to step back and say, as citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ' What do we want to do for our kids?'"
Almost half a year later — during which time a controversial voter-ID bill was enacted, abortion rights were restricted and a "Year of the Bible" resolution sailed through the General Assembly — Farnese's proposal to eliminate public pensions for municipal and state employees who commit sex crimes against minors is still stalled in committee.
A flyer attacking State Rep. James Roebuck for opposing school vouchers is hitting mailboxes throughout his West Philadelphia district.
“James Roebuck blocked kids from attending the schools of their choice,” is printed in big red letters above an unflattering photo of Roebuck with his mouth hanging open.
Perplexingly, the mailer also blames Roebuck, who has represented the 188th District since 1985, for the enrollment cap at the prestigious and University of Pennsylvania-supported Penn Alexander public school.
"It's obviously a really slanted piece. I don't support vouchers. I do support school choice," says Roebuck. "What we need to do is open up more options for students within the existing public school system so we don't divert money out of the system to the benefit of some kids and not the many."
A group of homeless individuals living below the Betsy Ross Bridge have 24 hours to vacate, according to a city official, apparently as part of an obscure city program called “Operation Quality of Life.”
The group, some of whom are the same individuals who made an exodus from Occupy Philly to live beneath an I-95 overpass in Port Richmond, have been living there for approximately four months since they were evicted from that location. One of the residents is Harvey Lockeridge, well-known during Occupy Philly for his "homeless reality tours," and who's kept in touch with CP over the past few months. Lockeridge had been worried about being kicked out from beneath the bridge not by the city, but locals who the space for fishing and drinking beer, City officials, he told CP a few days ago, had seemed content to leave the homeless camp alone.
Apparently, something changed: Yesterday, the group received a notice on letterhead from the Office Of Supportive Housing. Titled “OPERATION QUALITY OF LIFE,” all caps, it explained that the City of Philadelphia would be “conducting Operation Quality of Life and clearing” the area. (Read the letter transcribed verbatim below)
Signed, “Anthony (Rocko) Holloway, Director of Emergency Assistance Response Unit / Logistics," the letter states that the city's Office of Supportive Housing, which oversees homeless services, would offer drug, alcohol, and mental health assistance — and it cautioned that the city's Streets department could "confiscate items on city streets and in public areas.”
And what, exactly, is “Operation Quality of Life?”
It's a program, he said, "where we dismantle homeless encampments” around the city, as they pop up. Asked why I'd never heard of the program before, Holloway said he's been in charge of the program for three years, and that a homeless encampment is dismantled under it every couple of months, “usually around Center City.”
If folks don't want to leave, Holloway says, “Then it becomes a police matter,” Holloway said, adding that Project Home would have an outreach team there to offer space in the city's shelter system (an offer some of these folks vociferously refused in the past) and that "in three years, we've never had an arrest."
Oddly enough, the only other reference to “Operation Quality of Life” City Paper could find on the Internet or in LexisNexus is a single 2007 Inqurier article, which mentions the apparent program as an aside:
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
OPERATION QUALITY OF LIFE
March 26, 2012
ON Thursday, March 29, 2012, THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA WILL BE CONDUCTING OPERATION QUALITY OF LIFE AND CLEARING THIS AREA.
THE OFFICE OF SUPPORTIVE HOUSING (OSH) WILL BE PRESENT TO OFFER ASSISTANCE FOR HOUSING AND/OR CONNECTION TO DRUG/ALCOHOL OR MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT.
We have no proof that Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey does, in fact, enjoy the occasional vinyasa session. But if he does, we can only assume it's while enjoying the sounds of YouAreListening.to/Philadelphia. The website plays two tracks at once: Philly's citywide police scanner, and ambient music from SoundCloud. Other cities, including New York and Los Angeles, got similar sites from California-based technophile Eric Eberhardt last year; now it's Philly's turn. The resulting mix of music and background chatter is eerily enjoyable — at least, until the dispatchers call out an address near your block.
A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena in Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.
Didn't happen.
The 4600 block of Market Street. This would have been a pretty badass development if it ever got its ass off the ground. This complex of buildings could have renewed energy in an extremely sorry area of the city, but it just never happened. To be fair, an extremely down-scaled version of this might actually be built, so not all hope is lost.
For an estimated 1,000 to 4,500 recovering addicts in the city on any given day, the only option for getting clean in Philadelphia is checking into one of more than 300 informal recovery houses scattered across Kensington, Frankford and North Philly. It’s a fragile network, administered mostly by former addicts and funded largely through residents’ welfare dollars, in particular the nine-month, one-time General Assistance (GA) payments offered by the Commonwealth.
In Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, GA is eliminated altogether. Advocates say that the impact could be devastating, affecting 34,843 Philadelphians (including people with disabilities and survivors of domestic violence) who receive GA money and pushing thousands of addicts out onto the street.
“If you cut all this, the bottom line is that the streets are going to overflow with people,” says Anthony Grasso, co-owner of the Next Step recovery house in Frankford. “Do you know how many people are going to commit more crimes to get what they need?”
Recovering addicts are typically awarded medical insurance and food stamps; the rest of their benefits come in the form of GA. It’s not much money: $205 monthly, unchanged and unadjusted for inflation since 1990.
“When looking at this year’s budget, the state is facing significant challenges,” says Corbett spokeswoman Kelli Roberts, who argued that the governor made “tough decisions” to “preserve core services.” In this case, Roberts says that eliminating GA — cash assistance she says only 19 states provide — allowed the commonwealth to preserve the Medical Assistance available to the same groups.
Hundreds of Philadelphians echoed back speeches delivered under Love Park's iconic sign after organizer Chris Norris opened the rally with an Occupy Wall Street-style “Mic Check!”
“I decided to come with my wife to stand for justice in an unjust situation,” said Stan, a 55-year old from Montgomery County carrying a sign picturing a check list that read "Skittles, iced tea, hoodie, black" through the largely African-American crowd. "Black" was double-checked. “We needed to come out to speak for those who don't have a voice any longer.”
“It's wrong what they did to that little boy,” 18-year old Shanese Dutton, a student at Germanton High School tells City Paper. “We want justice.”
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