September 4: Group fights immigration’s access to city data | Building collapse wrongful death suit | SEPTA’s School Trip Planner | Prepping for 2015 mayor’s race | Drexel wants Bolt, Megabus to move | Avenue of the Arts property for sale

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An immigrant-rights group wants the city to stop sharing its real-time arrest database with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports Technical.ly Philly. New Sanctuary Movement wants the city to end ICE’s access to its real-time arrest database, Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System (PARS), which the Philadelphia Police Department uses. Because the PARS data sometimes includes an arrested person’s country of citizenship, New Sanctuary Movement says ICE has used the data to detain arrested individuals and begin deportation proceedings. “There’s no due process, there’s not even a chance to be found innocent or guilt,” the organization’s Blanca Pacheco. 

The family of a 24-year-old woman killed in the 22nd and Market building collapse has filed the first wrongful death complaint connected to the June 5 building collapse which killed six. The lawsuit filed Tuesday targets the building’s owner and the Salvation Army, whose thrift shop was crushed by the fallen debris. The demolition contractor, architect and crane operator are also listed as defendants in the 85-page complaint filed on behalf of the woman’s family.

SEPTA launched School Trip Planner, a new feature on their site that is intended to help students from closed schools figure out the best public transit routes to their new schools. The site is a take on SEPTA’s Trip Planner, but it saves students a few steps by auto-filling school addresses and listing the new school location for each closed school.  

In preparation for the Philadelphia mayor’s race (Yes, the race is technically in 2015), Committee of Seventy has released an explainer of a rule requiring city officials who wish to run to resign before running. This could be a series boulder in the way of the three members of City Council, including President Darrell Clarke, and the City Controller, who are reportedly considering the 2015 race. An effort to do away with the “Resign to Run” rule is underway. 

Drexel University wants Bolt and Megabus to stop loading and unloading on JFK Boulevard between 30th Street Station and Drexel’s campus. The two bargain-priced bus companies each serve some 4,000 riders a day and pay $7,500 each to board on the sidewalk. Drexel now wants the bus companies to relocate their stops, fearing their presence “will deter entrepreneurs and companies from wanting to locate their business” on the surrounding property, which Drexel owns.  

Space currently being used by the Art Institute of Philadelphia on Avenue of the Arts has come up for sale, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. Floors four through 17, totaling 209,095 square feet in the building at the corner of Broad and Chestnut streets is now on the market. Jones Lang LaSalle, the company handling marketing of the building, expects interest from buyers looking to convert the existing student housing into market-rate housing.

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