August 28: L&I has ‘money to burn’ | Pope rail tickets | Pittsburgh bike garage | Rethinking traffic | Department of Making + Doing closing | #prayersforthecity | PWD rap

Some news for a sweet late-summer Friday:

An investigation by the controller’s office found L&I is treating construction site safety like an overtime gravy train. “There’s money to burn,” a supervisor wrote in an email to an employee.

SEPTA still has a plentitude of regional rail tickets for the Pope weekend. The Daily News reports just 110,000 of 350,000 available tickets have sold.

SEPTA is earning some praise for its integrated look at bike-transit planning. Here’s an idea to steal from Pittsburgh: a new bike garage at one of its transit centers – a key amenity to help out multi-modal riders.

Instead of worrying about “fixing traffic,” Brookings’ Robert Puentes argues in favor of a more holistic approach that marries transportation with land use decisions, new charges for road uses to encourage more efficient use of our finite road space, and think about transportation as more than just cars.

We’re sad to share the news that the Department of Making + Doing is closing up shop. Technically Philly explains that the groups that partnered to share space at the Science Center plan to continue their work independently.

Do you have prayers for the city? Our colleagues at NewsWorks want to know. Submit your #prayersforthecity on Twitter and Facebook, or email them along via prayersforthecity@whyy.org. You can see these collected prayers and other Pope in Philly coverage here.

And lastly, a 1986 PWD PSA rap about hydrants to brighten your day. It’s as good as it sounds.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal