
“Sale of the West Philadelphia High School to a private developer closed this February.” | Photo: Nathaniel Hamilton, for NewsWorks
- In the past two years, the School District has sold off a dozen shuttered buildings, adding some $42 million to its coffers in the process. NewsWorks explains how the nature of bond settlement and transition expenses prevented it from making $25 million more. That rate of return is also attributable to the noticeably smaller proportion at which former district schools are sold off to charters in Philadelphia than in comparison cities (about 20% and 40%, respectively).
- As SEPTA rolls out its new payment technology this year and next, Sic Transit Philadelphia urges city officials to subsidize public transportation for college students to the same degree that Pittsburgh does: attaching $180 to a year’s tuition fees that provides for “free” urban travel with a valid student ID. “Free transit for students and faculty,” argues the blog, “would radically change the incentives for housing and land use in West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia, where the first few blocks beyond the campuses are increasingly an academic monoculture, rendering them unaffordable even as entire neighborhoods suffer through disinvestment and neglect a mere half-mile away.”
- After a nine-month delay, the hanging of an art installation is underway at SEPTA’s substation at 13th & Mifflin Streets in East Passyunk Crossing. The Passyunk Post reports that artist Donna Backues’ five mesh panels—depicting the last four centuries of South Philadelphia’s history—“is just the first phase of plans to make this substation less of an eyesore.” Subsequent improvements will “include a mosaic band to cover the damaged terra cotta, planters to add greenery, and benches.”
- The Inquirer Editorial Board, reciting the usual litany of disparities in this the poorest city per capita of America’s ten largest cities, enjoins the next mayor “to do more than treat poverty’s symptoms.” Reminding its readers that the effects of a quarter of the population living beneath the poverty line trickles up, the paper prescribes reinvestment in public education in order to create jobs.
- Seeing as City Council “grabbed control of streets right-of-way issues from the Mayor’s office” in 2012, says Plan Philly, pedestrian safety has increasingly become the responsibility of individual Council members. Here are the empirically most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in each of the ten Council Districts.
Leave a Reply
Recent Posts
Ghosts Of The Abandoned Arch Street Subway Line
Harry K. takes us into the abandoned subway tunnels below Arch Street with the history behind Philly's unfinished plans for a grand underground transit system > more
Unlisted Philadelphia: Tourison Building
Ben Leech spotlights unique and significant buildings not listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places with his architectural illustration series, Unlisted Philadelphia. In this installment, an Art Deco delight fills the heart of Mount Airy > more
Old Iron Works In Logan Square To Face The Wrecking Ball
When the housing bubble burst and the recession hit in 2007, plans to convert Creswell Iron Works on Cherry Street into apartments tanked. The quaint collection of industrial buildings is now headed for demolition. Michael Bixler has the details > more
American Revolution Landmark To Be Auctioned Off At Sheriff Sale
Old stone home in Frankford with ties to the Declaration of Independence goes up for auction at a sherif sale in May. Harry K. has the news and history behind this threatened national landmark > more
Time Travel At Trader Joe’s Reveals Tuxedos & Snazzy Shoes
The Shadow makes a run to Trader Joe's where fine footwear and totally awesome 1980s tuxedos kept things classy at 2121 Market Street > more
Battered Brutalist School Awaits Neighborhood Plan
In Eastwick, powerful architecture battles trash and vandalism at vacant George Pepper Middle School. Michael Bixler takes a look with this photo essay. > more