December 15: Diaz in | Logan Square holes | Wage tax history | #ChangingCities

Nelson Diaz, a former city solicitor under Mayor John Street, says he’ll definitely get in the Mayoral race this January.

PennDOT will replace seven aging bridges over 676/Vine St starting in February. The state is still refusing to release an estimate of the cost of capping all the holes around Logan Square.

A bill that would have exposed shelters for domestic abuse victims – whose locations need to be kept secret – to a community zoning process is hitting a brick wall in City Council, and won’t see a committee hearing.

When Michael Nutter took office in 2008, he said he wanted to increase Philly’s population by 75,000 people within 5 to 10 years. With a big assist from international immigrants, the population has increased by 105,000 people, exceeding that goal. AxisPhilly took a hard look at Philly’s immigration numbers earlier this year. 

MM Partners plans to invest another $60 million in Brewerytown, on top of the $45 million they’ve already put into projects in the neighborhood.

Ariella Cohen reflects on Next City’s experience working out of a storefront office in Brewerytown in a post introducing their #ChangingCities photo project.

Christopher Wink looks at the history of Philadelphia’s local wage tax and the efforts to shift the tax responsibility away from highly mobile capital and labor and onto less mobile land and buildings.