Category: Pennsylvania

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Transit action today / Reflections on the State and the City

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

SEPTA is, again, in crisis. The projected deficit for the next fiscal year is well over $100 million dollars. To close that deficit, SEPTA will have to institute both fare increases and service reductions of about 25%. This would be an economic and social disaster for the city and the region. Little is being done in Harrisburg to address the crisis. The Pennsylvania Transit Coalition, on whose steering committee I have sat since its founding, is conducting a leafleting campaign today at 4:00 pm at both Market East and Suburban Stations. We will be targeting suburbanites getting on their trains and will give them leaflets that ask them to call their state Senators and Representatives. I hope a lot of you can take an hour or so and attend this event. If you plan to do so, contact info@patransit.org and we will tell you exactly where in the stations you… Continue reading

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A Regional Tax swap?

  By Economic Development, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Taxation

One of the major problems with politics in Philadelphia is that it is focused just on Philadelphia. However many of the most important problems we face are regional in nature. Our public transit system is clearly a regional problem. So is economic development and job growth. It is not just Philadelphia but the whole region that has been growing slowly. And many environmental problems, especially the loss of open land, are regional as well. Continue reading

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The transit crises continues and the PTC is back.

  By Pennsylvania, Transportation

The Money Is Running Out In the spring of 2005, thanks in large part to the efforts of everyone who worked with the Pennsylvania Transit Coalition, Governor Rendell transferred (or, in transit-speak) flexed, hundreds of millions of dollars of federal highway funds to save public transit in Pennsylvania. The money runs out in December 2006. Continue reading

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Some wins and losses: update on SB862

  By Casinos, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

A little while ago the House adopted an amended version of SB 862 by a vote of 161-30. Some of the most objectionable features of SB 862 have been removed. Under the bill, the Gambling Control Commission will not be able to give away riparian rights to casinos and Philadelphia codes governing building, fire, water and sewer (but not smoking) will remain in force. The new zoning rules proposed in the Senate version of SB 862 have been eliminated. Instead, the Philadelphia zoning code as of the passage of Act 71 in July 2004 will remain in effect. The bad news is that the bill still preempts the city’s authority to revise and enforce zoning regulations. Continue reading

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Help stop SB862

  By Casinos, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Those of us who care about the Delaware riverfront have been saying for years that we need a comprehensive plan for its development. After a long delay, Mayor Street recently created a good planning process for the Delaware Riverfront, that includes both community representatives and one of the best team of planning professionals in the city. However, that planning process may become moot because the future of the Delaware Riverfront may be determined in the next five legislative days in Harrisburg when Senate Bill 862 is considered by the House of Representatives. And it looks like the sponsors of SB 862 have had a plan for the waterfront all along, to recreate the Las Vega Strip on it. If we all act now, we can stop it. Continue reading

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Take action to repeal Act 193

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

About two months ago I blogged about Act 193. Now is the time to take action to repeal it. Act 193 threatens the rights of Philadelphia community groups to protect our neighborhoods from harmful development. Community associations—and city-wide groups like SCRUB and the Preservation Alliance—rely on zoning to prevent bad development that undermines our quality of life. We fight zoning variances that would allow new developments that is out of character with our communities. And, if we lose at the Zoning Board of Adjustment, we appeal their decisions to the courts and win there. Continue reading

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Neighborhood Defense.org kickoff

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Urbanism

Press Release Neighborhood Defense.org kicked off its effort to repeal Act 193 today at a press conference at City Hall. Neighborhood Defense.org is an alliance of Philadelphia community associations and civic groups working to protect their longstanding rights to appeal decisions of the Zoning Board and other city agencies that regulate land use. On Monday, Neighborhood Defense.org launched a website where individuals and community organizations can register their support for the repeal of Act 193. The website will be used to fax and email state representatives and senators and create local networks of community activists who will contact and lobby their legislators. Continue reading

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Mad dogs and Democrats

  By Pennsylvania, Progressive Politics

Some of the folks who commented on my post endorsing Casey for Senate made interesting arguments to which I want to res pond here. Albert pointed out that the process that gave us Casey will go on if we don’t stop it. And Liz said that the first rule of dog training is don’t reward behaviors you don’t want. These are arguments well worth reading and considering. But I think they both miss a key point about how our party works. Ask yourself, who is in control of this process we want to stop? Whose behavior do we want to stop rewarding? Continue reading

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Against Independence

  By Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Political Organizing, Politics

This post is occasioned by the entry of Michael Nutter into the Mayor’s race. But it is not meant to be a critique of Nutter, who is someone I like in many ways despite my doubts about his ideas on taxation. (I’ll write about him and other Mayoral candidates soon.) It is, however, a critique of a style of politics that Michael Nutter, more than any other Mayoral candidate, exemplifies. You might call it the politics of independence. It is a style of politics that I grew up with, and that is important for some people in Neighborhood Networks. But it is a style of politics that I have come to distrust and that I hope will play less and less a role in Neighborhood Networks and other progressive circles in future. The politics of independence has an ideal for candidates and an ideal for voters. Continue reading