Last night WHYY aired the fifth It’s Our City TV program profiling city leaders. Our guest was the city’s Managing Director Camille Barnett who is introducing the new 311 phone system which is designed to provide quicker answers for the public. In addition, she’s added the PhillyStat program which is designed to help set performance [...]

Tuesday night Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter spent nearly 2-1/2 hours taking heat for his recently announced budget cuts.  The forum held at South Philadelphia High School was the first of eight planned town hall meetings scheduled around the city over the next three weeks. At the City’s request, WHYY has agreed video tape the proceedings [...]

One of our readers Laurie Burras recently posted some questions on our site about Mayor Michael Nutter’s budget cuts. One of her questions includes “Can we make the money to keep our libraries open through bake sales, dinner shows, etc.?” To help answer this question, we contacted Sandy Horrocks. She’s Vice President for Communications and Development at the Free Library [...]

Sometimes you can get lost in the numbers and I encourage you to do so.

Appended is a data set on usage of public library branches in Philadelphia. They compare total circulation by branch in 2004 to the same numbers in 2008. Total circulation means the number of items people checked out – books, CD’s, [...]

Private foundation steps in to keep 3 Phila city ice rinks operating
City Controller says SEPTA student ride tickets contributes to crime rate
Suburban counties also facing smaller budgets
290 Phila police officers to assist in Obama Inauguration, feds will pay not city
Ex-ACORN worker sentenced for voter registration fraud

It’s Our City will post a video of last night’s meeting later today
The City of Philadelphia was expecting 500 people, the number looked closer to about 300 who turned out at the mayor’s first town hall meeting at South Philadelphia High School. With seven more town hall meetings it’s too soon to say whether the [...]

 By Tom Ferrick
 After a few weeks of getting beat up over city budget cuts that target libraries, fire stations and pools, the Nutter administration has finally gotten its mantra down.
What people must realize, Mayor Nutter has said, is that many of these facilities and services were created for a city of 2 million.  Today, we [...]

More than 50 people rallied last night in front of the Fumo Family Library in South Philadelphia along Broad Street. The crowd waved signs, chanted ”Heck No We Won’t Go” and solicited honks from passing cars. The Fumo branch is among 11 libraries on the chopping block under Mayor Michael Nutter’s proposed budget cuts.

What stuck out about this rally was [...]

It’s Our City and our sister blog It’s Our Money will be covering tonight’s Philadelphia Town Hall meeting on the budget cuts. Tonight’s meeting begins at 7pm and will be at South Philadelphia High School. We’ll have analysis and video of the entire event available tomorrow morning on this site. 
If you won’t have a chance [...]

Mayor’s series of town hall meetings to discuss his budget cuts begin tonight. Video avail on this website tomorrow.
Deal struck to keep 3 Philadelphia ice rinks open.  An official announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Young Philly Politics blast Free Library for suggesting library cuts
Former CBS3 anchor sentenced to 6-months house arrest and 3-years probation for email [...]