May 10: Kenney’s Streets Commissioner on leave | Huge new South Philly community center | Open data at PPD

Streets Commissioner Donald Carlton has been placed on unpaid leave from the Kenney administration, following reports that he was arrested Friday for “punching an unidentified man ‘multiple times in the face’ at a house party’ in December, reports Claudia Vargas, Chris Brennan and Chris Palmer. Deputy Commissioner Mike Carroll will take over as acting Commissioner in the interim. 

The Inquirer editorial board calls for the city to step up the Indego roll-out, and “embrace the additional urban planning needed” to make the streets safe for new riders. “Expanding cycling through Indego will make it even more imperative to address reckless drivers who act as if the streets are theirs alone.”

A $42.5 million facility combining a primary care center, community health center, a Free Library branch, and a recreation center is open at S. Broad and Morris, reports John George. The public-private partnership between CHOP and the city, was funded in part through the federal New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) program.

Juliana Reyes says the Philadelphia Police Department’s release of stop-and-frisk data has wider significance for the culture of open data in city government. The release was noteworthy both for the level of political controversy surrounding the subject matter, but it was also “the first example we’ve seen of the city attempting to use data to tell a story, to reclaim a narrative. Instead of just publishing the raw data, the PPD used Esri’s Map Journal tool to provide more context around the data,” Reyes writes.

“[A]re preferences of advantaged groups for segregation—segregation that we know is harmful for lower-income people and people of color—just another legitimate interest that we need to weigh against the interests others might have in desegregation?,” asks a skeptical Daniel Kay Hertz, in a post about a recent paper on low-income housing siting. 

Pittsburgh Councilman Corey O’Connor introduced a bill authorizing the Urban Redevelopment Authority to pilot “opportunity spaces,”reports Lexi Belculfine  Under the plan, select URA properties and tax sale properties would be rehabbed as low-rent starter work space for new businesses. 

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