November 4: Election night round-up | Verdant Temple | Bainbridge Green parklet | Amazon store

As expected, Jim Kenney won the Philadelphia Mayoral race handily, and Democrats took the five At-Large City Council seats. The race for the two minority-party Council seats is still too close to call, says Holly Otterbein, with former Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce director Al Taubenberger possibly edging out Denny O’Brien. Taubenberger is ahead by a few hundred votes in the latest count, but around 2000 absentee ballots are yet to be counted.

Dave Davies, who has known Kenney since 1988, has some sage advice for the Mayor-elect. “It’s scary to delegate things that can sink you, but the government is too big for you to run. Mayors that don’t share information and power find that stuff stops moving,” he writes.

The Daily News staff looks at who’s rumored to be in line for top positions in a Kenney administration. They expect Mike DeBerardinis, currently the Deputy Mayor for environmental and community resources, will become managing director. That’s significant because Kenney is expected to jettison the Deputy Mayor system created by Michael Nutter–a move that would vest a lot more power in the managing director. 

Temple University released the completed Verdant Temple Landscape Master Plan by LRSLAstudio yesterday, reports Angelly Carrión, with prescriptions for additional open space, upgrades to pedestrian zones like the Liacouras and Polett walks, campus gardens and courts, street redesigns, and opportunities to better utilize some overlooked spaces.

Did you check out the temporary pop-up parklet at 4th and Bainbridge this past week? Friends of the Bainbridge Green closed off one of the turn-arounds for cars and put in some planters, tables, and hay bales. They’re asking neighbors to email Councilman Mark Squilla with their feedback.

Representatives filed over 270 amendments to the House transportation funding bill, to be heard this week. Angie Schmitt at Streetsblog flags three promising ones. 

Sandy Smith rounds up the best of this tranche of federal TIGER grants for multi-modal projects.

Megan Garber reviews Amazon’s first store, which she likens to a public library. “Amazon Books is a store doing the work of a public space.”

Via Greater Greater Washington, a bluegrass band made up of Denver transit professionals called TSUB Analysis cut a video for their song “Movin’ On”–an ode to the nation’s transit agencies.