December 3: Congress’s status quo transpo bill | Community development on N3RD Street | Sound of Market

Councilwoman Cindy Bass’ Vision Zero bill passed out of committee this week, says Randy LoBasso, tacking an additional $5 fee onto vehicle registration to pay for stepped up street safety improvements. The new fee was made available to counties by the Act 89 transportation funding bill, and must be used for transportation purposes.

Ben Leech, former Director of Advocacy at the Preservation Alliance, reports on the work the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) has been doing over the last two years to lay the groundwork to preserve closed Philly school buildings. 

Housing sub-markets in West Philly, University City, Kensington/Frankford and South Philly all saw double-digit price appreciation over the past year, reports James Jennings. “Values in University City and West Philly are up over 21.8% and 20.8%, respectively,” he writes.

Angie Schmitt at Streetsblog says Congress’s 5-year transportation funding plan, the first “long-term” funding bill to pass during Barack Obama’s Presidency, mostly extends the status quo to 2020.

Susan Richardson talks to Alex Hillman about Indy Hall’s community development work on N3RD Street. 

OCF Realty spies a zoning notice on the Sound of Market building at 15 S. 11th Street. The building was designated historic in 2013, and is owned by Brickstone Realty.

Andy Pry catalogs the surface parking blight that welcomes visitors to Philadelphia along the 15th Street gateway off I-76. 

University City Science Center spruced up the bland two-block stretch of pedestrian walkway on 37th Street, reports Todd Bookman, rebranding it as Innovation Plaza. We’re looking forward to seeing UCSC’s public space ideas for the massive uCity Square project.

Amiko Atherton of the national Complete Streets program tells the Post-Gazette “the commitment of Mayor Bill Peduto and other [Pittsburgh] city leaders to the Complete Streets concept is a big advantage compared to other areas the coalition has worked, where there has been disagreement.”