March 17: Scuttled corruption sting | Tajdeed advancing | Revival at Cynwyd Station | Possible Carpenter Green | Library Wi-Fi use

Welcome to the working week, Streeters. We wake to yet another snowy commute, so be safe and take your time out there. This being St. Patrick’s Day, we offer you a traditional toast:  “May those who love us love us. And those that don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we’ll know them by their limping.”

Did PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane improperly drop a corruption investigation targeting Philly politicians? The Inquirer investigated the story, in which several Philadelphia Democrats allegedly took cash (and failed to report it) in exchange for votes or contracts from Tyron B. Ali. Ali was a little known lobbyist who was actually wearing a wire, working with investigators after being arrested in a $430,000 welfare fraud case. Kane’s staff and FBI agents reviewed the sting, but Kane opted to drop it finding it too flawed to prosecute. Was it entrapment? Maybe. Was the investigation racist? Kane says so. Any way you slife it: State Rep. Ronald Waters, State Rep. Vanessa Brown, State Rep Michelle Brownlee, and State Rep. Louise Bishop four Philly Democrats who were allegedly were willing to take thousands in cash. Former Traffic Court Judge Thomasine Tynes admits to receiving a Tiffany bracelet. But the four representatives denied knowing Ali. In the end the sting that failed to sting might just raise more questions than it answered. 

Is Arab American CDC proceeding with its South Kensington development? Naked Philly checked in and found a zoning notice indicates that the property at Oxford/Cadwallader/Bodine streets was consolidated, in part through eminent domain, and will be considered at an upcoming Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting. The development, dubbed Tajdeed, is mixed-use and with 42 residential units.

The historic and long-vacant Cynwyd train station reopened Sunday as a sustainability-themed soda fountain and teahouse. The Inquirer looks into the public/private reuse effort and the station’s new role as a trailhead for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

Passyunk Post offers a peek at three conceptual designs for Carpenter Green, a future community-built park planned for the corner of 17th and Carpenter. South of South Neighborhood Association has a lease on the lot (owned by the Redevelopment Authority), the support of Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, but funding for the park is not yet in place.

Which five libraries have the highest Wi-Fi use? Parkway Central, Independence Branch, Northeast Regional Library, Northwest Regional Library, and the Frankford Branch. Technically Philly shares the findings of the Free Library’s study.

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