I was reminded by Philebrity’s commentary on the city’s recycling PSA posters that this week marks the beginning of weekly, single-stream, curbside pick up of recycling.  WHYY’s Bill Hangley did a story that ran on 91FM this morning about recycling that included information about the city’s Christmas tree recycling program:
City officials want 2009 to be [...]

Greater, Greater Washington’s Cavan Wilk posted a fantastic piece about the possible end of shopping malls that had me wondering what the changing economics of these staples of suburbia could mean for this region.  Wilk’s points to a recent piece in Slate that is among the first from outside of the traditional “urbanist” movement - [...]

Add this to the New Charter Watch file since we may end up seeing a lot of clarification and talk about how the current Home Rule Charter works:
Nutter: Wait for written ruling before appealing library closures
As Tom said earlier today, the library issue seems to have won Nutter nothing and in fact set him up [...]

…and it appears that the call center is getting quite a work out:
Philly’s new 3-1-1 information line received 3,576 calls within its first 24 hours of operation - with public-safety questions topping the list of requests.
The new 3-1-1 nonemergency call line formally kicked off just after 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Any bets on at when we’ll [...]

The piece in today’s Inquirer about the Ghost Bike movement brings to mind a lot of items that I’ve been reading on sites like Streetsblog (NY), Greater Greater Washington (DC), Philadelphia Bicycle News (Philly, of course) and elsewhere that attention is called on a regular basis to the difficulties of cyclists and walkers in this [...]

Not blogging today because of the day off.  Perhaps I’ll even go catch a glimpse of the Mummers parade.
Anyway, 2008 was one heckuva year for Philadelphia.  If you were “the city” what would your resolutions for 2009 be?  What do you think the city will look like on January 1, 2010?
Share your thoughts in the [...]

This morning’s Daily News included a new angle to the corruption trial of State Senator Vince Fumo.  According to Fumo’s lawyer, Dave Shapiro, the coverage of the case is “so pervasive” so as to influence the jury.  He’s asking the judge in the case to specifically question the jury to see if they may have [...]

The Daily New’s Dan Geringer put together this helpful guide to what government services and other amenities will be open and functioning tomorrow.  Of course, 3-1-1 will be available because it would be shame to tout something as 24/7/365 and then take the first day off.
If you’re planning on coming to town for that little [...]

By Bill Hangley, WHYY News
Click on the play button below to listen to this story or use this link to download.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
City controller Alan Butkovitz says he has a plan to save the city almost half a billion dollars.  City officials called his report more of a publicity stunt than [...]

In just one hour, Philadelphia’s 311 system will go from beta testing stage to full fledged operation.  A media advisory sent by the city yesterday gives a taste of what to expect:
The City of Philadelphia will begin operation of the 311 system on December 31, 2008.  Starting then, 311 will be the only number necessary [...]