If you are a home alarm owner, the annual registration fee with the City of Philadelphia is going up this year. The fee is now $50- up from $35 in 2008. But why register your alarm in the first place? The biggest incentive, from what I can tell, is that you won’t pay a dime [...]

Maybe you’ve set out this year to exercise more, lose weight, save money, quit smoking, lead a less stressful life or do something else. While resolutions typically are a personal thing, what should Philadelphia’s resolutions be? Mayor Michael Nutter and City Council probably have their own ideas for Philly in 2009. But what do you [...]

By Tom Ferrick
When it comes to Mayor Michael Nutter and the libraries, the phrase “more trouble that it’s worth” comes to mind.
The Urban Dictionary, a snide and funny web site of American slang, defines the phrase as follows: “high maintenance; requiring excessive investments of effort that may not be exceeded by the return.”
That sounds about [...]

Philadelphia’s plans to close 11 branch libraries remain on track. The affected libraries will close their doors for good this Wednesday, December 31st. Some of you have wondered if any of the services provided at the libraries will be continued. To get some answers, we contacted Sandy Horrocks at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Here’s what we’ve been able to find out [...]

 
In case you didn’t hear, chain restaurants and retail food establishments in Philly will have to post nutritional information for food and beverages starting January 2010. The new menu labeling law made headlines last week locally and nationally. NYC was among the first in the nation to pioneer menu labeling. But the Big Apple’s law is not as tough as the one the [...]

A neighborhood with overgrown and trash-covered vacant lots is a perennial issue often facing poor neighborhoods. So how does a community nip this sort of problem in the bud? In Philadelphia, one of the answers has been the municipally-funded Community LandCare (CLC) program. But it’s now at risk of being wiped out as part of Mayor Michael Nutter’s $108 million budget cut plan.
The Community [...]

In doing the reporting for her story below, WHYY’s Elizabeth Fiedler paid a visit to the Gallery at Market East and talked to patrons of the mall and folks who work nearby.  She wanted to find out whether people who frequent the Gallery or are regularly in close proximity would find themselves tempted to spend [...]

Philadelphia Weekly devotes this week’s cover story to rabble-rousing blogger and Southwest Philly resident Brendan Skwire, proprietor of Brendan Calling.  No one has been more unapologetically flame throwing than Skwire when it comes to the online critique of the Nutter administration’s budget cutting plans.  In fact, the Weekly’s portrayal of Skwire makes him seem like [...]

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia points out that the ZCC is soliciting people to take a brief survey to see “what works, what doesn’t, and how the Code can be made easier to understand and use.”
Like BCGP, we encourage you to take a few minutes and check out the survey.  In fact, take any [...]

Our nation’s economy is in the toilet. Philadelphia’s libraries and swimming pools are closing. We get it. Times are tough. On the personal level, folks are saving and spending less. Goodness knows, the bag lunch from home is gaining popularity. But once in a while, wouldn’t it be nice to treat yourself to a Philly Cutback Sandwich? You might be wondering, what’s that? [...]