Buses, budgets, and bargaining go up in flames
No. 53 | Monday, June 9, 2025
City News
Mayor Parker and City Council just agreed on a new budget, nearly everything Parker wanted made it in. There’s no new money for tenant protections, the POWER Act, schools, crisis response, or reproductive care. But business tax cuts? Those are locked in for the next 13 years.
A three-alarm fire erupted at SEPTA’s Roberts Yard, destroying 40 buses and prompting air quality warnings for Nicetown and surrounding neighborhoods.
AFSCME District Council 33, the largest municipal workers union, is preparing a strike vote as tensions escalate over a contract proposal they say guts healthcare, overtime protections, and sick leave, despite Mayor Parker touting a $500 million pot for raises.
After emotional testimony from tenants and pressure from the landlord lobby, the Parker administration convinced Council to stall the Safe Healthy Homes Act, forcing DSA Councilmember Nic O’Rourke to leave his newborn in the NICU to fight for it. Two of the three bills were shelved, and a promised $10 million boost for housing inspections was quietly scrapped just two days later.
Some residents of Pine and Spruce streets are suing the city over the creation of new loading zones as alternatives to double-parking in bike lanes. Like a broken record, when a law inconveniences the rich, they feel entitled to hire lawyers to challenge it on a technicality.
An awkward internal email thread, sent to all City Council offices, revealed just how deep the divide over Kensington runs. Councilmember Lozada, who authored a controversial law limiting mobile harm-reduction services in the neighborhood, lashed out at an invitation to a documentary screening, mistakenly thinking it was about the services she had helped restrict.
Despite years of tension with the Democratic machine, Larry Krasner won a crushing victory in his primary, thanks in part to a ward system that still knows how to turn out votes when it wants to. In a low-turnout race, committee people and sample ballots may have mattered more than anything else, and the DA's ground game outmaneuvered the establishment's challenger.
A trans woman was hospitalized for serious burns after she was attacked in West Philly with what appears to be acid.
State News
In an editorial, the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board suggested Senator John Fetterman should either do his job or resign. Fetterman called the editorial a “smear.”
ICE has abducted almost 20 Norristonians over the past two weeks. Montgomery County Commissioners remain under pressure to enact a welcoming-county ordinance that would limit police and other local government cooperation with ICE.
The ACLU is suing Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran over his partnership with ICE, arguing that the agreement would divert the local department’s resources and lead to civil rights violations.
DSA members and our elected socialists joined the Transit For All coalition for a rally at the Capitol building in Harrisburg to demand that the state legislature fully fund public transit and save SEPTA from its death spiral.
Pennsylvania's Latine working class is shifting right, with the GOP filling that vacuum with fear and culture war, while Democrats seem content to hope the trend reverses itself with no help from the nominally left-wing party.
For years, residents of Grove City have fought to keep a toxic landfill shut down. Now they're up against the full weight of the fracking industry, which wants to dispose of fossil fuel waste and sees working class communities as dumping grounds.
Under socialism, there will be no paywalls...until then, use this.
Hot Girls 4 SEPTA: Go down the shore in style this summer with one of SEPTA’s brand new swimsuits. Maybe they’ll get enough preorders to close the funding gap.
Amid heightened ICE activity nationwide, we urge our readers to stay vigilant and know your rights. To ensure clarity and avoid unnecessary alarm, please share only verified information about potential ICE sightings. If you witness what you suspect to be ICE activity, report detailed accounts using the SALUTE acronym to Juntos (215-218-9079) or New Sanctuary Movement (215-279-7060).
Size: "around 10 law enforcement officers and 5 unmarked SUVs"
Activity: "harassing random people on the street"
Location: "Philly, west side of City Hall, on Market St"
Uniform: "dark blue uniforms that say 'Police ICE' on the back"
Time and date: "12:45 PM May 9"
Equipment: "they have helmets, vests, and batons"
Together, we can protect our community by staying informed and responding responsibly.