Results tagged “housing”

Asshole of the Week

What a week for the morally bankrupt—get out your human hamster balls—the jerkface warning this week is in red alert. We're less shining city on a hill and more festering, partially drained swamp sinkholed between two slime-pollutant-intoxicated rivers.

  • A 17-year-old male knocked on the door of the security booth inside the lobby of the Queen Lane Apartments late Sunday. When the cop inside opened it, the young man fired one shot with an assault rifle, striking the officer in the left hip underneath his bullet-proof vest. Luckily the officer was able to immediately slam shut the door of the bullet-proof booth before the gunman fired twice more. The youth then ran off and Zahir Boddy-Johnson was arrested an hour later for the crime, and will be charged as an adult with attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery, firearms violations and related offenses. The officer is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.
  • Meanwhile, the Inquirer takes a closer look at a federal lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, implicating Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, a Bush cabinet member.
  • A federal lawsuit filed in December says that President Bush's housing czar, Alphonso Jackson, pressured the Philadelphia Housing Authority to transfer land worth $2 million to Kenny Gamble, a music producer turned developer, and retaliated when the agency would not knuckle under.
  • "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will announce this afternoon how much Philadelphia and other cities will get in grants to help the homeless." The grants are awarded on a competitive basis, and last year Philly saw its funding slashed because HUD felt the city's projects were weighted too much toward services. "This year, the city is asking for $27.9 million to finance 82 projects, including plans for a facility in Center City that would house street people with drug or alcohol addictions."
  • The Pennsylvania Turnpike has been closed in both directions between the Philadelphia and Willow Grove interchanges, and is likely to stay closed most of the morning, due to a fiery five-car accident earlier today involving a tractor trailer and a pickup truck. Thankfully, as of this writing, no fatalities have been reported. The Fort Dix suspects are asking to be moved Special Housing Unit at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia due to the fact...

    LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such as "Operation Any Booking," where the object was to arrest as many people as possible within a specific 24-hour period (some might suspect these cops can be found on HotChicksWithDoucheBags). The crazy stories continue in an interview with Brandon D. Christopher, author of Dirty Little Altar Boy, and a Santa Monica College Professor being blamed for the Burma web blackout.

    With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to.

    Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take her medicine and offered their own suggestions to how the city should capitalize on the local music scene. And everyone thinks that a suggested tax on bottled water is a great idea.

  • A shoot-out at a basketball game at the Athletic Recreation Center at 26th and Jefferson Streets in North Philadelphia left one young man dead and three others wounded, including the 22-year-old man believed to be the shooter. Police had feared there might be violence, and had undercover officers in the audience, which meant they were able to contain things quickly - although obviously not quickly enough.
  • Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.

    Hallelujah. Holla back, hipsters. It's the triumphant return of the Craigslist round-up.

    bolster multiple shops and restaurants is simultaneously mind boggling and and comforting. And, yet, if you wander down Sansom, between 19th and 20th, that's just what you'll find.

    We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists.

    Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico.

  • Two Philly Dems, State Reps. Dwight Evans and James R. Roebuck Jr., are proposing a $14 million initiative to get teachers into urban and rural districts in PA and keep them there.
  • Meanwhile, a lot of work needs to be done, and a lot of money needs to be raised, if they're going to get the Sister Clara Muhammad School and the Philadelphia Masjid at 47th Street back up and running again.
  • As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning.

    Do you like to bake? Phillyist sure does. While we admit that we sometimes do the brownies out of a box, the cookies are always homemade. Alas, though we love the process of baking, and the way the apartment smells with chocolate chips melting in the oven, those pesky New Year’s resolutions about eating better keep us from firing up the KitchenAid mixer too often. What's a baker to do?

  • Despite being named among the top U.S. leaders last month, the Philadelphia school district's chief executive, Paul Vallas, got raked over the coals on Friday by the School Reform Commission for the district's $73.3 million deficit.
  • Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for?

  • Hey, a lot of shops in Reading Terminal Market are open on Sundays now (although obviously the Amish shops are not included). Nice!
  • Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up.

    DVR is supposed to make TV viewing quicker. So when it takes nearly two hours to watch a one hour show, we're thinking something is wrong. Comcast says they'll replace our cable box, but we lose everything saved on our DVR. And that sucks. But hey, at least Comcast doesn't do our internet. And their commercials are at least moderately amusing.

    - It probably goes without saying by now - but if you're planning to fly out of Philadelphia International Airport, you're going to want to get there very early and watch what you pack in your carry on luggage.

    - The Philly Sound is concerned that the housing boom is taking away our community gardens, and links to the Green City Strategy.

  • The race for a Democratic nomination to a PA state House seat is really going down to the wire. In fact, things are so close, it'll almost certainly take a court case to settle it. The main two contestants are a 25-year-old housing counselor named Tom Payton Jr. and a Philadelphia Parking Authority employee named Emilio Vazquez. Amazingly, Vazquez's strong showing comes in spite of the fact that he was left off of the ballot - all votes for him were write-ins. Of course, whoever wins doesn't exactly have smooth sailing ahead - he then has to defeat Republican Troy L. Bouie in the fall election.
  • Over the Hedge is a computer-animated family film from a large Hollywood studio (in this case, DreamWorks), so you know pretty much what to expect: a bunch of anthropomorphized animals voiced by a bevy of celebrities, spouting amusing jokes laced with pop culture references, who go through a series of wacky adventures that splits them apart, but then ultimately brings them back together again, closer friends than ever, and everybody learns a valuable lesson about love and togetherness or something. And indeed OtH does not disappoint in this regard - it fits the formula exactly. And yet somehow it takes all the painfully familiar elements and manipulates them so expertly that you'll hardly notice you've seen it all before. It's a highly entertaining film, and even manages - in the spirit of the comic strip upon which it's based - to include some clever satire on America's food-centric suburban culture, as well as some moving lessons about family. Ben Folds helps in both of these aspects, contributing to the soundtrack a new version of his song "Rockin' the Suburbs" with re-worked lyrics skewering the suburban lifestyle, as well as a number of Randy Newman-style ballads about friendship and so forth.

    Although I could make this a big gender issue, I won't. The fact of the matter is that men are usually stronger than women, but not always. I actually have plenty of female friends fully capable of carrying much heavier loads than several of my male friends. So the following, very brief, "Monday Manners" post is meant to be a universal plea for kindness:

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