1 to 10 of 204
Archive for “City Hall” news
Don’t Forget To Vote on Tuesday
By Joel Mathis 5/20/2013
Comments 0
Time to see what the city's creaky election machinery can do in an off-year primary election: Tuesday, Philadelphia voters—we're presuming at least two—will go to the polls to decide the Democratic nominee in the city controller's race. Since this is Philadelphia, Tuesday's winner is all but assured of winning the general election, whenever that supposedly happens.
NewsWorks' Dave Davies breaks down the race:
It's a three-way race to be Philadelphia's elected financial watchdog, but the nastiest stuff is being traded between two term incumbent Alan Butkovitz and two-time challenger Brett Mandel.
Mandel's TV ad questions whether Butkovitz is responsible for Philadelphia's school funding
Bill Green Basically Calls His Job a Waste of Time
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/16/2013
Comments 0
According to the Daily News's math beat reporter, at-large Councilman Bill Green has missed 15 of 16 budget hearings in the last two months. Brian O'Neill and Marian Tasco came in "second" and "third" in the absentee wars. Green's rationale?
"The entire idea of waiting four hours and asking 15 minutes of questions is just not a good use of anybody's time."
Combine this with his weird "no" vote on Jim Kenney's gay rights bill, it appears Green is trying to pull a "Costanza," in which doing the least popular thing possible nets him the most popular support. The man might be
Pew: AVI Shifts Tax Burden to Homeowners
By Joel Mathis 5/14/2013
Comments 1
A new study from Pew Charitable Trusts shows that—surprise!—the city's tax burden will shift away from businesses and to residential property owners under the new AVI assessements.
NewsWorks reports:
Report author Emily Dowdall said all Philadelphia homeowners will be paying $72 million more in property taxes next fiscal year than in 2013, if Mayor Michael Nutter's administration keeps its pledge to raise the same amount of revenue from property taxes under the new assessments.
At the same time, owners of commercial properties, including Center City offices, will be paying $55 million less. And owners of residential properties that have 10-year tax abatements will
Philly Has Its Very Own Crime-Fighting Cory Booker
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/13/2013
Comments 0
Finally, in the form of District Attorney Seth Williams, Philadelphia has its very own vigilante crime-stopping Cory Booker doppelganger:
Williams was driving along the 500 block of North 63rd Street in West Philadelphia Sunday evening when a car zoomed past in the wrong lane, according to his office. District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson says the DA’s security detail took chase and attempted to stop the car, but the driver, identified as Chanae Morris, continued to speed along the road.
The driver, 24-year-old Chanae Morris, proceeded to crash into another car. The DA's office has slapped her with a DUI, along with
Hundreds of Philly Students Walked Out Of School Today. Here’s Why.
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/09/2013
Comments 4
Protesting looming cuts to school programs and staff that many have described as disastrous, hundreds of Philadelphia students marched to City Hall, and then up Broad, to School District headquarters today.
Mayor Nutter, meanwhile, was at a high school in South Philly this morning, rallying for $300 million in education funding the School Reform Commission needs from Council, from the state, and from union concessions to close the district's budget shortfall. Some council members seem irked that he chose to do it while they were in session, suggesting the mayor was trying to send a message. Council President Darrell Clarke, meanwhile,
Butkovitz: AVI Assessments Worse Than Old, Bad Property Tax Assessments
By Joel Mathis 5/08/2013
Comments 0
CBS Philly reports that City Controller Alan Butkovitz has declared the city's new AVI property tax assessments —designed to more fairly tax owners on their property values by making the assessed value line up more closely to the property's actual value—is, in fact, not accomplishing th
“There’s no question the old numbers are bad, they’re very bad. But they’re not as bad as the new numbers,” Butkovitz said.
Butkovitz, who is running for re-election, commissioned the $27,000 study to have nationally known tax expert Robert Strauss, an economics professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, analyze the numbers.
Strauss (at right in photo)
Swedish Royals To Visit Philly
By Joel Mathis 5/08/2013
Comments 1
NBC 10 reports:
Local residents are preparing for a royal visit this weekend. A delegation of senior diplomats from Sweden and Finland will visit Philadelphia, Chester and Wilmington this weekend to celebrate the 375th Anniversary of the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley. Among those visitors are King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden.
The King and Queen will first stop by at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philly Saturday morning. They will then travel to Mother’s Arc in Chester before heading to Wilmington for several events in the afternoon and night.
Philadelphians can prepare for the royal
So There’s An Actual Socialist Running for Controller
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/03/2013
Comments 0
Since 2008, there's been a lot of loose talk in Washington about the socialist imperatives of a certain Kenyan president of ours. But even in heavily Democratic cities like Philadelphia, nobody ever seems to accuse lefty politicians of blasting "The Internationale" from their speakers. If anyone in Harrisburg wants another excuse to cut funds for Philly, they might consider blasting City Controller candidate Chris Hoeppner, a proud and avowed socialist.
Philadelphia Weekly, which has carved out a niche interviewing fringe party members, quizzed him. Here's what we know:
He's a mechanic who used to work with Allied Steel.
He wears a tweed blazer and
Council Approves Sale of Digital Ads on City Property
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 5/02/2013
Comments 0
Today City Council voted 15-0 on a bill to approve digital ads on city-owned property. Bus shelters, garbage trucks, heck, public schools. You name it, Philadelphians can soon be treated to holographic Wawa ads and endless "Big Bang Theory" promos wherever they go. A consultant for Council has estimated the measure could generate as much as $8 million in new revenue for the city, and the Nutter administration is into the idea. Request for proposals for trash truck ads may go out as soon as next week. As long as City Hall doesn't get plastered with a giant "Bimbo" banner
Philly’s War on Outdoor Dining Begins
By Simon van Zuylen-Wood 4/29/2013
Comments 0
It's an annual rite of spring. Restaurant and bar and cafe owners plunk down tables on their sidewalks, legally or not, and the city vows to crack down. This year, the city's Streets Department has announced a concrete (get it?) plan to commence monthly inspections on all those miscreant businesses. Things that aren't allowed in the public "right-of-way."
Signs, sandwich boards, banners, “feather” signs, as well as café seating beyond the City-approved licensed limits.
Penalties include a potential "confiscation of signs, tables, and/or chairs." Which leads to the tantalizing question: Where will the city store them? Will there be a dungeon for
