Results tagged “michaelnutter”

• Former State Senator Vincent Fumo is set to be sentenced today. Even though Fumo's defense team passed along more than 250 letters of support from various political figures, he is widely expected to face prison time.
• Creative Steps rejected the Valley Club's offer to return to the swim club. Additionally, the summer day camp announced plans to sue the club.
• Barry Mescolotto has been caught double-dipping. Mescolotto, a member of the Board of Revision of Taxes, sent e-mails to SEPTA representatives conducting business in his side-venture which is selling train parts to the transportation authority.

• Despite the tanking economy, Philadelphia's homeless population has declined in the past year. But don't start celebrating yet.
• 35 state parks might need to close because of budget cutbacks.
• PECO users in the Philly suburbs will soon pay 11% less in usage charges. No word on when city residents get a similar discount.

• The Sestak vs. Specter smackdown begins! Rep. Joe Sestak has decided to run against Senator (and former Republican) Arlen Specter in the Democratic primaries.
• Protests against torture and the Inquirer's employment of John Yoo begin at 4:30 today. Scheduled activities include a free waterboarding demonstration!
• Nutter's chief planner resigned yesterday and is headed to London.

Every day, in addition to "Yo, Philly in the News," Phillyist will be bringing you "Extra, Extra," an afternoon round-up of stories in Philly and Beyond. Have a news tip? Send it to tips@phillyist.com for consideration!

I know it's difficult to imagine wanting to walk/jog/bike/blade/streak along the Delaware River on a snowy morning like this one, but bare with Nutter Butter for one minute because he kinda made a big announcement yesterday. Fresh off giving the old Penn's Landing Corporation a good spanking for its lethargy and corruption, Nutter called a press conference on Sunday to announce the first major public space project in the implementation of the PennPraxis Civic Vision for the Central Delaware.

Since we know you are all well-informed Philly-loving citizens, you are well aware that the City of Brotherly Love has tripped and fallen into a pit of budgetary fire and brimstone. Last fall, Mayor Nutter announced that the City had to cut $1 billion from its budget over the next five years, so $200 million each year, effective immediately. And he did so primarily by closing 13 libraries, all but a handful of the 70+ public swimming pools the city operates, and a number of fire stations as well. He also made general cuts all around, to programs that many Philadelphians hold dear, such as the Mural Arts Program and Philadelphia Green.

• Mayor Nutter and his administration are taking additional steps to proivde transparency for his budget process. The transparency comes from complaints surrouding how he and his advisers handled the first $1 billion defecit. The administration is paying greater attention to how their work is perceived and is doing more to shape public opinion.



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Some of you may have read the article in last Friday's Inquirer by Inga Saffron, the best/only reporter who covers planning and design issues in the mainstream media, about the Mayors' Institute on City Design. MICD is essentially an annual conference on city design only open to U.S. mayors in which design professionals teach top city officials about the value of planning and design in an informal and confidential setting. Mayors can rub elbows, trade secrets, and exchange valuable knowledge in a safe space where they don't have to worry about parsing their words.

It takes an awfully dysfunctional organization to make the Mayor of Philadelphia blush. But it happened this past Friday morning, when Michael Nutter disassembled yet another corrupt combination of former mayoral appointees, this time the board of directors of the Penn's Landing Corporation (PLC). After apologizing for his tardiness, he dryly noted, "Since the board has not had a meeting in more than two years, what's another 10 or 15 minutes?"

While we all wait with bated breath to see how our new Lord and Savior, Numero 44 himself, is going to save us from further economic peril, we thought we'd give you a preview of the action Philadelphia might be seeing when the Obama Economic Stimulus Package kicks into high gear. President Obama has made it very clear that he sees infrastructure revitalization as the key to the country's success in the 21st century. Investing in the very systems that keep society running—roads, sewers, transit, buildings... basically anything that needs to be constructed—will give cities like Philadelphia a boost they could never get as tax revenue continues to plummet. And it creates jobs while building the structures needed to keep current job centers alive and thriving.