A win for Brith Sholom tenants
No. 11 | Monday, August 19, 2024
The Philly Thorn is a weekly roundup of local political news compiled by members of Philly DSA.
City News
The Philadelphia Housing Authority offered to buy the Brith Sholom senior housing complex in response to a campaign from tenants organizing with Philly DSA’s Renters Justice Collective. Seniors at the 360-unit building are fighting slumlord owners who created fake charities to buy dozens of low-income apartments and squeeze tenants for profit by cutting costs on maintenance and skimming utility payments.
Activists with POWER Interfaith and allied organizations successfully pressured the Gas Commission to step away from a proposal to ban community groups from meaningful engagement with PGW budgets. DSA-endorsed City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke organized 10 councilmembers to sign a letter urging the Commission to scrap the proposed rule.
Activists delivered a petition with more than 5,000 signatures to City Hall demanding safe streets for cyclists and pedestrians. The petition calls for protected bike lanes and for restoring funding for Vision Zero, the city program aimed at reducing traffic fatalities, which was slashed by half from Mayor Parker's budget just a few months before a car struck and killed a cyclist on Spruce street.
Amid a fiscal crisis, SEPTA is reinstating parking fees at lots and garages to increase revenue. The transportation authority had offered free parking during the pandemic in an effort to boost slowing ridership.
Ten Philly schools are getting air conditioning thanks to funding from Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. But there are still 63 schools citywide without adequate cooling, in part because school buildings lack the electrical service necessary to support the required window units. Philanthropy for the win!
The Parker administration is considering offering pet insurance for non-unionized city workers, a “perk” ostensibly designed to woo younger workers and fix a longstanding staffing shortage. The administration apparently still intends to continue to require the entire municipal workforce to work in-office full time, despite objections from D.C. 47.
State News
Vice President Kamala Harris is leading former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and two other swing states, according to new polls from The New York Times and Siena College. Pennsylvania Democrats are also beginning to see an uptick in voter registration.
The National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday is trying to get a federal court to end an almost two-year strike and put Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers back to work while their union continues to negotiate a new contract. An administrative law judge ruled last year that newspaper management had broken federal labor laws and was not bargaining in good faith.
Reading could become the third city in Pennsylvania to ban ghost guns, a rare win for advocates in a state where strict preemption laws have stopped local governments from passing gun regulations.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear arguments in October that life without parole for felony murder is cruel and unusual punishment and therefore in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
The Weekly Rose
