June 16: SEPTA’s brief strike, overnite subway service | Affordable housing funds | Lancaster Avenue Redevelopment Corp’s unraveling | Mander Rec cleanup | National Archives move irks
Welcome to the working week, Streeters. Here goes:
SEPTA’s regional rail workers struck in the wee hours of Saturday morning, but it was brief. By early Sunday service on SEPTA’s 13 rail lines was back up and running again thanks to federal intervention. The Inquirer explains that riders are relieved and workers will be compelled to keep working for 240 days as SEPTA and unions negotiate with a federal emergency board to resolve differences.
Meanwhile SEPTA’s overnight subway service survived the wee hours of Sunday morning without incident. The Daily News rode around with night owls who were experiencing SEPTA’s first overnight subway service since 1991, talking to riders, a train operator whose duties overnight include taking fares, and cops. Inga Saffron caught up with Conrad Benner whose petition nudged SEPTA to test the overnight waters again.
Every time a property is sold in PA there is a 1% realty transfer tax that goes into the general fund. Shouldn’t some of the real estate transfer tax help fund affordable housing? NewsWorks reports that there’s bipartisan backing of a bill in Harrisburg to shift a portion of the state’s 1% realty transfer tax to go toward home repairs, rental housing, and blight clearance.
Will Bender explores the unraveling of Lancaster Avenue Redevelopment Corp – a tale including unfinished development, mismanagement of taxpayer funds, revoked nonprofit status, property liens, and crooked political ties. It’s a messy one.
On Friday 225 volunteers will tidy, paint, and scrub Mander Rec Center and Playground in Strawberry Mansion and a new plaque will honor local hero Joseph Mander, the Daily News reports.
Philly’s National Archives center is relocating from its space in the historic Nix federal building at 9th and Chestnut for a warehouse in the far Northeast. The Daily News reports the move has upset researchers, students, and Philly’s history community.
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