July 25: Tim Kaine, urbanist | Silverliner stress tests | South Street embezzlement

It’s time to welcome the DNC, Philly. Stay tuned to NewsWorks’ Decision 2016 page for all things convention week.

Wondering who Tim Kaine is? An urbanist. CityLab lays out Hillary Clinton’s running mate’s record as mayor and governor, particularly around combating sprawl, connecting land use and transportation issues.           

Former Inquirer columnist Karen Heller pens an affectionate Washington Post feature profiling the Philadelphia we know in 2016. She hits the tired tropes; touches the linguistics of jawn, yo, and hon; nods at bike lanes, beer gardens, and blue laws. In acknowledging that even though ours is a city hamstrung by problems related to poverty, Sister Mary Scullion tells Heller we’re not a “silo city. There are plenty of places where people can work together, play together with all these public spaces that people share.” Mostly it’s nice to see Heller writing about Philly again.

SEPTA is conducting stress tests on Silverliner V equalizer bars, reports Jason Laughlin. Engineers are attaching sensors to a car and running it without passengers along the Marcus Hook, Norristown, and Trenton lines to create a map of stresses on the bars along with a map of track conditions, which will be used to inform testing of replacement parts.

The Daily News reports that South Street Headhouse District’s former chairman has been accused of embezzling $1.4 million from the special service district to float his own businesses, Copabanana and Redwood, and then returning the money. Dan Christensen received one count of wire fraud.

In a piece titled “The 35 Best ‘Bad’ Neighborhoods to Buy a Home In” Bloomberg declares our 19146 neighborhoods backhanded winners. Thanks.

The Temple News has an update on the planning process for a new stadium, noting that an additional $250,000 has been allocated for the feasibility study with a focus on parking and traffic in order to better address community concerns.

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