Textizen results | Pennypack Creek Bridge honors | UC KIZ starts Emerging Technology Collaborative | skate ban expansion | Roxborough demo update

Textizen worked best with transit riders, reports NewsWorks. As part of two district planning projects, the City Planning Commission solicited public input via text using Code for America’s Textizen tool. For the Lower Northeast plan Textizen helped gauge interest in rapid transit along Roosevelt Boulevard (97% said yes), and in Center City planners asked open-ended questions about making Center City more kid-friendly and ways people use recreation sites. “The fact that we were able to have, admittedly, a brief conversation, but a conversation nonetheless, with more than 700 people is pretty exciting,” said planner Clint Randall.

The Pennypack Creek Bridge, the oldest stone-arch bridge in America, will get its own blue state historical marker in October, PlanPhilly’s Alan Jaffe reports. The bridge was built in 1697, Washington and Rochambeau’s troops marched on it en route to Yorktown, VA in 1781, and now it carries 17,000 vehicles daily as part of Frankford Avenue in Holmesburg.

Pennsylvania awarded the University City Keystone Innovation Zone $172,500 to help grow fledgling companies in the district, reports the Business Journal. The Emerging Technology Collaborative will support young enterprises by helping write grants, offering micro-grants to develop prototypes, running a mentoring program, and providing funding information.

City Council is considering legislation that bans skateboarding on public art and memorials and would raises penalties for scofflaws, reports the Daily News.

Owners of the historic Bunting House at Roxborough and Ridge avenues say they’ll consider a demolition delay and options put forward by concerned community members, reports Amy Z. Quinn for PlanPhilly/NewsWorks. Giovannone Construction has permits to demolish the Bunting House and three similar neighboring 19th century buildings, none of which are listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. If negotiations don’t work community members plan to appeal the zoning appeals and seek a court injunction to prevent demolition.

 

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