It’s Christmas in April for transit advocates as SEPTA reveals its capital improvement plans for 2010. Among the big ticket items on the list are more hybrid diesel-electric buses which, according to SEPTA “emit 80 percent less carbon monoxide and 31 percent less particulate matter, and get 29 percent better mileage than standard diesel buses.” [...]

I wrote more extensively on Unobstructed View about the benefits for cyclists of Lower Merion’s efforts to connect to the Schuylkill River bike path via the Manayunk railroad bridge. It’s great for recreational and commuter cyclists as well as pedestrians in Lower Merion and Manayunk who want to explore each other’s various shops and restaurants.
But [...]

I have never been one to mask my ire at the level of discourse that takes place in the comments section of our city’s arguably most trafficked online news source. So when I saw a story about a lawyer/tax deadbeat making racially tinged complaints about the city’s (and specifically the mayor’s) attempts to go after [...]

PlanPhilly reports that Frank DiCicco successfully pulled of a meeting of this city’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys - the Central Delaware Advisory Group and developers and owners of land along the Delaware.
Unfortunately, CDAG, a group that was born out of the most public of processes and committed to a level of openness not [...]

I just spent about 45 minutes going through the 200 or so blog posts that my Google Reader had for me this morning and was struck by the number of otherwise well respected blogs who choose to take part in these stupid April Fool’s Day efforts.
If, and it’s a big if, I came across one [...]

We’ve already heard that Philadelphia didn’t capitalize on the wave immigration that helped revitalized and grow population in other “more successful” cities nationwide, but now I’m wondering if we’re also missing out on the newest indicator of success, which was noticed by a blogger at The 13th Floor on a recent trip to Baltimore:

I awoke [...]

Tina Trenkner at The 13th Floor (a great blog for policy wonks and followers of “best” practices nationwide) found this humorous - or horrifying depending on your perspective - plan by several cities to deal with some minor infrastructure repair.
Fast-food chain KFC is offering to fix four cities’ pothole problems in a public-private partnership designed [...]

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by noted author and vaccine inventor, Dr. Paul Offit. Offit, probably most well known for his book Autism’s False Prophets was in town to raise money for a group that aims to vaccinate every child in the world and he spoke about his [...]

WHYY has been all over this story like sweet on honey so before we get to what the other news outlets are doing, here’s the latest from our own dynamic duo of MacDonald and Fiedler:
Elizabeth Fiedler:
Nutter budget reflects citizen input
During his budget address today, Mayor Nutter mentioned by name a handful of residents he talked [...]

More thoughts and reactions to the mayor’s will follow shortly but first a quick reaction to what most would consider a throwaway line that the mayor delivered in response to a call out from the crowd.
As the mayor went through his list of his “visions” for Philadelphia, a voice from the crowd shouted, “what about [...]