December 4: SEPTA 24/7 and equity | $2B state deficit | Open streets days

Tom Wolf is inheriting a huge budget mess from ousted Governor Tom Corbett next year, and will need to plug a nearly $2 billion structural deficit.

In a big win for David Curtis and the 1700 people who signed his Change.org petition, SEPTA is adding more trips to Wilmington.

The PPA won’t crack down on new ride-sharing startup Tripda, which lets people rent seats in their cars for long trips. It’s only the short point-to-point trips PPA objects to.

Jake Blumgart rides the trains in the wee hours, and argues SEPTA 24-hour weekend service is shaping up as more of a boon for third-shift service workers and medical workers than drunk revelers.

Mass open streets days like Ciclovia have been taking off in some of our peer cities, but haven’t made it to Philly yet. This is one of the Bicycle Coalition’s agenda items in their Better Mobility 2015 platform. 

Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns thinks civil engineers need to be held personally liable for pedestrian injuries and deaths caused by auto-centric city street designs. 

City Paper created a huge searchable database of Philly restaurant inspections. The Nutter administration’s food inspectors say they have no intention of following the lead of NYC and LA in assigning restaurants letter grades, so it’s fallen to civic hackers to get inspection information to consumers in a way they can use.