How Philly Moves is a public art proposal for SEPTA's 46th and Market station celebrating Philadelphia dance with photography by Jacques-Jean Tiziou and sculpture by James Peniston.

Our proposal has been selected as a finalist; it is one of five under consideration for funding. If selected, we will undertake a photographic survey of the way Philly moves and create a permanent installation of sculpture and images in the newly renovated SEPTA station. But we need help:

We're looking for dancers! Whether you're a social dancer, student or professional performer, all ages, styles and levels of experience will be celebrated. Sign up and be photographed! Email us at info@howphillymoves.org and show us how you move. You'll be able to use the photos afterwards.

Shoot dates:

• Fri., April 18 (evening @ Studio 34: Yoga | Healing | Arts)
  
• Sun., April 27 (daytime @ The CEC)

And if you'd like to help support this endeavor, email volunteer@howphillymoves.org.

Please help us spread the word!

For more information, see howphillymoves.org.

Here is the newest update regarding the Shut the Duck Up! campaign.

Shut the Duck Up! is a running campaign to quiet down those annoying Duck Tours that literally ruin the beautiful nostalgia in Philadelphia. On April 4th at 10 am, our campaign efforts will be shown through a large protest at the Philadelphia Ride the Duck Tours Penn’s Landing water entrance (Where Race Street meets the water).

Over the past few months the local Philadelphia community has positively responded with arms wide open. In addition to the public and community, the local media has shown an enormous amount of support. Our petition has received over 100 signatures, and since the release of the Shut the Duck Up! Documentary video on YouTube, there has been over 2700 views.

If you would like to join us in our fight to preserve our beautiful city of Philadelphia, and send those ducks back to their pond, please attend the Shut the Duck Up! protest. We will be standing strong and demanding hard so that this mission can be considered a success.

For more information as well as updates please visit the Shut the Duck Up! website at http://shuttheduckup.blogspot.com/. I hope you will help us get the word out!

Best,

Walt Sherman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpynoYuFEBw
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/shut-the-duck-up

Friday, November 9, 2007
8am-5pm
PA Convention Center

The time has come for us to stop talking about the problems in our neighborhoods and start acting. This year’s conference is inspired by the community activists and youth leaders who work hard to make our neighborhoods places of opportunities where people excel, ideas grow and dreams are realized. By bringing together young people ages 14-21 and adults from around the region, we will begin to create real solutions to the many challenges in our communities. Workshops and interactive sessions will empower youth to effectively address the challenges they face everyday and enhance adults’ capacity to nurture the potential of every youth. We invite everyone, both youth and adults, interested in making a positive and lasting impact in their community to “Step Up!” and “Be the Change”.

**This year’s conference will feature an exciting keynote speech by Ephren W. Taylor, CEO of City Capital Corporation and the youngest African-American CEO of a publicly traded company ever!**

*The conference will also feature a lunchtime comedy performance by Philadelphia’s own Keith from Up Da Block!*

For more information, or to register, visit us online at www.greatsettlements.org or call Amanda at 215-925-7875.

What Do You Do After You Pray:
The Church's Response to Gun-Violence in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, PA – With more than 250 murders after the first half of 2007, the city once known as the City of Brotherly Love has instead quickly become known as Kill-a-delphia, forcing many residents to live and operate in fear as a result of the gun-violence inflicting the city.

On Saturday, August 25, 2007, Philly Koinonia Ministries (pronounced koy-no-NEE-yah) will organize its initial effort dealing with this problem, the "2007 Gun-drive and City Fellowship". This will be an outdoor effort beginning at 10 a.m. taking place at the Dorothy Emmanuel Recreation Center, located in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. To effectuate a change in our culture, we must not solely rely on the power of prayer, but also take responsibility with our actions to address the stronghold embattling our city; for our actions speak louder than our words. The organization identifies fear as the stronghold that simultaneously creates gun-violence, and results from gun-violence, and therefore will focus using this effort to present an understanding of God’s love to combat the stronghold of fear dwelling in this city as a result of gun violence; for God is love (1John 4:16) and in love there is no fear (1John 4:18).

In addition to the gun-drive (individuals will receive a gift card in exchange for their gun), this effort will also include an appearance by Mayoral Candidate Michael Nutter; messages given by local Pastors, such as: Bishop Keith W. Reed, Pastor Kevin M. Aiken, Pastor Chandra I. Williams, Pastor Daniel Sutton, Pastor Larry Anderson, Pastor Eric Mason, among others; performances by local choirs and other guest artists; and also a nonprofit/vendor area featuring more than 30 tables of advocates, businesses, and non-profit organizations that offer programs and services related to the focus of this effort.

For more information, please visit www.PhillyKoinonia.org.

This is cross-posted at The Good Reverend.

Here in Philadelphia, the metropolitan transit company, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Septa), is extensive and fairly popular, but it's not the nicest system in America. For starters, the buses and trains come less frequently than is probably optimal, and even those times at which they do come are not entirely predictable, despite published timetables. It's also quite dirty, both on trains and in stations, compared to newer systems like Washington's or the Bay Area's and also older systems like the New York subway. But perhaps the biggest problem is that, if you leave out buses, which are not very speedy, and the regional trains, which are only good for going to suburban areas, and scrape beneath the surface to look at the heart of the system—the subway—it's not very extensive at all.

Septa has only two proper subway lines, each following a straight shot down the city's east-west and north-south divider streets (the Market Street route also continues as an elevated train into the more suburban, near northeastern part of the city, while the Broad Street line has one short spur that provides some variation to get to another part of Center City). There is a third line, operated by the port authority, that provides a few central stops and heads across the Delaware into New Jersey. And there are five trolley routes that run on above-ground tracks through West Philly before diving into a tunnel and running as small subways under Center City. But that's it: if you're going through the center of town in one of the cardinal directions, or if you are going to New Jersey or West Philly, you are set. If you are going anywhere else, it's going to be a schlep.

It would be nice to have more nonbus public transit routes. Tourist or occasional ridership—coveted because it alleviates the effect of inefficient peak rush-hour periods—would probably increase if visitors and consumers could get on the subway in Old City and get off at, say, the Art Museum, South Street, or the Italian Market. But it's hard to find the money for such projects in part because, evaluated in and of themselves, they are not cost effective at all.

SEPTA Watch is sharing developments... is there an opportunity for protest?

More at Phillybits and Brendan Calling.

Oh hold me back from worshiping at the altar of Philly developers. How on earth did we ever exist before they made their money?

What’s got the fur up on my back (not literally-cat analogy- I'm not Flordo the bear down the street- the fur on his back would rise up but I digress) on this damp ass Sunday morning? An article on the Inquirer website (my friends have too much time on their hands and keep e-mailing me stuff )

One thing clear from the article and it’s prominence is that folks are sucking up to new paper ownership and potential investor group members.

So there is this ginourmous article on that guy who builds on old factory sites or whatever: O’Neill. Don’t know the man. Never paid much attention to yet another philly Trump kinda guy, there seem to be so many. But this article is such a fluff piece that I can’t shut my yap about it.

It is offensive. He’s not the second coming of Christ for Christ’s sake....he BUILDS things. He’s one man. Apparently he loves to build big huge tall things where there aren’t big huge tall things. How do I, a mere mortal relate to this? Sheesh, I actually have to work for my Manolos. REALLY hard. So it's like a splurge...anyway,I'm not that Inga lady. Hope he paid his PR guy or gal a really big bonus.

So I read the article. A lot of it focuses on some tower being built in charming Newport Rhode Island. I’ve spent time in Newport, so I know where the site is. Ok, it’s better than a decrepit factory building, but why so urban looking? People go to places like Newport to escape urbanism....

It’s cool that this guy is so self made, and frightening that he’s like one of the largest employers in Newport, and probably around here too. But he’s a developer, not god. Where are the articles on the slowing housing and condominium market? Where are the articles on the simple economics of this area? As in who lives on credit cards versus real money? The working poor inPhilly? Why can’t Philly get big businesses to stay? Who is going to live in all these new buildings in Philly that aren’t sold out no matter what some shark or a realtor tells you ? ( I was told that recently on a little tour of a new building a friend was looking at. As soon as they infer jump now or you’ll be left out, it is time to look at the next building. )

Whatever, read the article and decide for yourselves. At least this guy seems to give back to his communities - you can’t say that about most of them...last question? How long will this post stay up before someone has a coniption about it? Here’s an excerpt and link:

Philadelphia Inquirer/
Expanding His Horizons
By Henry J. Holcomb
Inquirer Staff Writer

NEWPORT, R.I. - Philadelphia real estate developer J. Brian O'Neill spotted customers he didn't know on the way to a lunch with Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Join us," O'Neill said to Richard and Laurie Kulbieda, new members of the private club that O'Neill bought last July. Kulbieda, executive vice president of Key Bank in White Plains, N.Y., protested that he wasn't dressed properly.

...The scene offers a glimpse at how O'Neill has made friends and charmed investors on his way to becoming one of Philadelphia's most successful real estate entrepreneurs. At 47, he has a track record of creating value out of real estate with issues that add too much risk for others. Now, he is expanding to Newport County, a seaport known for its yacht builders and multimillion-dollar summer homes built for the Astors, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.

"He made us feel very welcome," Rich Kulbieda said of the lunch with O'Neill. Later, O'Neill showed a different side, blistering his staff for changing the table arrangement for the evening's banquet. He stalked the tent in a profanity-laced tirade over how far some customers would be from Gorbachev.

O'Neill, who often talks about how he never finished high school, attributes his success to getting up earlier and working harder than most....

His goal is to become the nation's best and biggest developer of both super-luxury and affordable housing.

If he sounds cocky at times, O'Neill insists that he is not. He keeps a huge model of the Titanic in his Newport home....A short time later his temper flared over plans for illuminating his future condo tower on Narragansett Bay, next to his Carnegie Abbey Club. "You can't see it! I'm not going to spend $125 million on a building and hide it," he told a meeting of architects and lighting consultants.

The experts countered that people don't want light shining in their condos. "I've put 500 art lights in this house," O'Neill roared back. "I can light up a dime and leave the area around it dark. Are you lighting experts or not?"

The lighting plan for the base of the building triggered another explosion: "Those lights look like sex toys... people nickname buildings. I'm not going to build a vibrator building!"

Problem 1: The Parkway, the Art Museum Area and Fairmount are poorly served by public transportation. I know, of course that huge swaths of the city are poorly served by an organization which at its best serves poorly – but for the areas mentioned, there seems to be a solution. Which brings us to problem 2.

Problem 2: The abandoned rail line, starting at the abandoned Reading Viaduct near 11th and Vine and ending under Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks past the art museum. Most of which sits either recessed below or completely under the street. The dead line blights everything around it.

So what’s the plan?

I sent this complaint to SEPTA last week and I've yet to get a response. After reading something like this, you'd think they'd at least take a minute to send me a form letter apologizing for my inconvenience etc., but I don't even get that. The deafening silence coming from SEPTA speaks volumes.

(Before I’m accused of being overly negative, I’d like to say that my beef is with the small number of drivers with attitude, not the majority who have to put up with all kinds of crap I’d never have the patience to deal with.)

To whom it may concern--

I do. The people who use mass transit care about it. They care about dedicated funding so that their costs aren't too high and so that they have enough service routes that it makes it worthwhile to use the bus(or train/subway/trolley in Philly). However, in Reading, they are contemplating cutting BARTA service up to 30% to deal with a lack of funding, despite rider increases over the past few years. People are using bus service in Reading more often, and so they will be greeted with a scaled-down, more sporadic system on top of an already iffy system they HAVE been using. The lack of sense this makes is amazing. Even SEPTA isn't this bad.

Now, one solution is to charge the elderly during off-peak hours. The elderly are a large percentage of customers, and charging them even a quarter a ride would help. The current fare system lets them ride for free. While noble, there is no dedicated funding so we must get funding from anywhere possible. However, the major priority is to get some funding, whether it is part of the gas tax, or out of general funds, or whatnot, to get this system up to snuff so that more riders will want to use the system and then the dedicated funding won't be needed as much.

In the market for a used sedan, an SUV, or maybe even a forklift? SEPTA is holding an auction this Saturday at the Midvale Yard facility.

From their website, here's a list of available vehicles and equipment:

Paratransit Mini-Buses, Diesel 4x4 Pick-Up Trucks, Utility and Sport Utility Trucks, 4x4 Suburbans, 6 Passenger Van, Police Cruiser, Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria Sedan, Passenger Cut-A-Way Buses and many more items.

Heavy Equipment 40 Ft. Bucker Truck, Forklift, Backhoe Loaders, Diesel Tandem Axle Tractors and more items. (source)

The auction will take place tomorrow, starting at 10 a.m. at SEPTA's Midvale Yard facility (4301 Wissahickon Avenue). Registration will start at 9 a.m.

Prospective buyers can inspect auction items today from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.

Visit the SEPTA announcement page or www.capitalautoauction.com for more info.

Have you ever wondered who makes those SEPTA boarding announcements in the Market East / Gallery station? You know the deep voice that says "The next train to arrive will be the 4:40 R2" and things like that? I saw the secret today. A woman in SEPTA uniform was standing at one of the conductor's stations on the platform. She had opened a panel on the wall in front of her. The screen inside had three columns. One was a list of expected trains, one said arrival, the other said boarding. She used a stylus to select the incoming train and whether it was arriving or boarding. Within seconds the announcement came over the intercom. As each train boarded it scrolled off the top of the screen. Just one more of life's little mysteries explained.

The strike ends, thankfully, just a week after it began. Reports have full service being restored by this evening's rush. From Philly.com:

The seven-day SEPTA strike is over.

At 5:30 a.m., a beaming Gov. Rendell, flanked by union leaders and SEPTA brass, announced a tentative four-year contract agreement.

The buses should begin rolling soon, and SEPTA Board Chairman Pasquale T. "Pat" Deon said he hoped the transit system should be in full swing by the afternoon rush hour. ...(source)

With the upcoming elections next Tuesday, the most popular topic in the Philly blogosphere has been ... SEPTA. There may be city charter changes as well as issues of judicial retention under consideration, but when the buses, trolleys and subway cars come to a grinding halt in the City of Brotherly Love, not much else is going to register in the city's most opinionated minds.

There have been hundreds of blog mentions of it, but here's a small sampling of what some Philly bloggers have been saying over just the past couple days:

There's a concise overview of the situation five days in at Philadelphia Will Do. Also Nicole Wolverton's collection of posts at Phillyist provides a nice running tally of events so far. (And there's much more past the break)