“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.
About the author
Stephen Currall recently received his BA in history from Arcadia University. Before beginning doctoral studies, he is pursuing his interest in local history, specifically just how Philadelphians engage their vibrant past. Besides skimming through 18th century letters, Steve is also interested in music and travel.
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