Dec. 21: Juvenile Justice | The Number | Philly’s Bike Score | Lead legacy in neighborhoods

Good morning, Streeters. Is it doomsdsay? Maybe, judging by the torrential rain overnight. Here’s your Friday morning Buzz: the city’s new Juvenile Justice Center, what’s in a The Number, Philly’s Bike Score rank, and lead cleanup liability in River Wards.

The city opened the new Juvenile Justice Center at 48th and Haverford on Thursday, replacing the former Youth Study Center that was on the Parkway. The Daily News reports that the $110 million facility is a temporary detention center designed to hold 150 youths charged with serious offenses, but it is also education campus with high-tech classrooms, athletics field, and “healing garden.”

AxisPhilly’s Isaiah Thompson breaks down what’s in “The Number”– the implications of the total value of the city’s assessable properties – in a helpful Actual Value Initiative explainer. If you’re curious about what your new assessment will be, hit up their Map/Calculator to determine an estimate.

Bike Score ranked Philadelphia as the 9th best city in the nation for biking, the Atlantic Cities reports, and as MOTU noted, it’s the #1 big city for biking on this year’s Bike Score ranking. Where Philly falls short, according to the ranking, is for bike commuting.

As part of a USA Today (yes, really) series on environmental contamination left by “ghost factories,” is a piece about the frustration of Port Richmond and East Kensington neighbors met with Environmental Protection Agency representatives this year to discuss hazardous levels of lead in backyard soil – left behind by industrial sites like John T. Lewis-National Lead-Anzon – and learned that the government won’t be offering any help with cleanup. At the Lewis-National Lead-Anzon site the EPA says it is weighing remediation options, but told neighbors at meetings this year that most of the responsible parties no longer exist so cleanup would most likely be up to individual homeowners. At the former Thos. F. Lukens Metal Co. in Bridesburg EPA plans to test the surrounding area next year.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.