November 16: New SEPTA app | Sanctuary City update | Mandating affordable housing

Good morning, SEPTA app! At 10pm Wednesday night, SEPTA rolled out the app’s first major update, “built with customer comments and feedback received in mind,” Technical.ly Philly’s Roberto Torres reports. A key feature: the new app provides real time updates on regional rail trains’ most recent location.

Sanctuary City update: federal judge Michael M. Baylson ruled that the Department of Justice can’t withhold federal public safety grants from Philadelphia based on Sanctuary City status, WHYY News’ Bobby Allyn reports. Why? Because Philadelphia is not defined as a Sanctuary City by the Trump administration’s terms. Allyn goes into further detail on the Kenney administration’s approach to share data with ICE and attempting to relieve the immigrant community’s fears.

Mandatory inclusionary zoning: does Philly need it? Unlike our peer cities that have mandated subsidized housing, Inga Saffron writes, Philadelphia already has some of the cheapest housing stock of any big American city. Saffron gets Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez’s take as well as concerns voiced by developers and neighborhood groups. Saffron proposes one alternative to mitigate the changing market: imposing a fixed developer impact fee.

Thinking, buying, and eating locally: food business can be structured to address immigration, fair wages, sustainability, education, and poverty, say Philadelphia chefs Marc Vetri, Jose Garces and Valerie Erwin. The Philadelphia Citizen recaps their discussion at the recent Restaurants and Social Impact event.

On preserving a piece of Philadelphia culture: the Philadelphia History Museum has adopted four of the stoops from artist Kaitlin Pomerantz’s installation at Washington Square Park, PMN’s Tommy Rowan writes. The temporary installation was one of twenty in the Monument Lab series, which all comes down November 19th.

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