A community-based committee tasked with brainstorming ideas for the Saint Joseph’s University (formerly USciences) campus near the south end of Clark Park and other buildings scattered nearby presented initial ideas to the Spruce Hill Community Association last night.

St. Joe’s hopes to sell the entire campus, including stand-alone residential buildings dotting the nearby neighborhood, to a single developer in a process that will likely take years to complete. For nearby residents, that process began last fall, when the university agreed to fund a “community advisory committee” made up of representatives of local community groups – including Friends of Clark Park, neighborhood associations and residents from the West Shore neighborhood.

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Tomorrow is Election Day and here is some practical info to help you vote for Mayor, City Council, sheriff and judges – including the hotly contested race for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

A lot of information about the candidates for each office is out there. A good place to start is the Committee of 70’s voter guide, which allows you to look at a sample ballot and get info on all of the offices and candidates on your ballot. What you will find is candidates for Mayor, nine candidates for At-Large City Council seats (you choose up to five), candidates for your City Council District, Sheriff, Register of Wills, City Controller, three candidates for City Commissioner (you choose up to two) and a number of judicial candidates.

Each office in the guide has bipartisan information on each candidate and this year’s single ballot measure:

Should the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to create an Office for People with Disabilities to coordinate the City’s compliance with requirements to provide access for people with disabilities to City services and programs and to otherwise provide for incorporation of the Office into the City government?

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As you may have heard, Tuesday is Election Day in Pennsylvania. Locally, it’s kind of a big deal with candidates for mayor, the entire City Council, sheriff, a bunch of judges, controller, register of wills and four questions on the ballot.

It all can be a little overwhelming, so what follows is a slew of links to help you make sense of it. Remember that Pennsylvania has closed primaries, so you have to be registered in a party to vote for a candidate. But you independents can still vote for ballot questions.

Who’s running?

There is no shortage of info on candidates for mayor. One place to start to hear from the candidates themselves is the Committee of 70’s “Last Word” mayoral forum held on May 4. Billy Penn’s “Procrastinator’s Guide” to the election is also super helpful for info on all of the candidates from Mayor to City Council to Supreme Court.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a good analysis of the four ballot questions here. Continue Reading

The University City District‘s annual report released this week shows that an upward trend in construction that began in 2021 will icrease dramatically in 2023, with more square footage of commercial and residential development under construction than in any year since the report began in 2002.

The “State of University City,” a yearly snapshot of development trends in the area roughly bounded by the Schuylkill River to the east, 50th Street to the west, Market Street/Powelton Avenue/Spring Garden Street to the north and Woodland Avenue/University Avenue to the south, also shows a slight increase in public transit use compared to last year. But ridership is still roughly half that of pre-Pandemic levels on trolleys and the Market-Frankford Line. Continue Reading

The two plans under consideration for Woodland Avenue near the intersection with Chester Avenue and down to 42nd Street.

Traffic lights and crosswalks are coming to the section of Woodland Avenue near The Woodlands cemetery and the intersection with Chester Avenue.

Visitors to The Woodlands know that crossing Woodland Avenue at the awkward intersection at Chester or the trolley portal can get a little dicey. But a new plan unveiled last night at a Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) meeting will slow traffic along Woodland and close down the little section of 41st Street that often baffles drivers and pedestrians alike.

“The whole project is about user safety, whether you’re a pedestrian, a cyclist or a driver,” Julie Bush of the landscape architecture firm Ground Reconsidered told the SHCA board. Continue Reading

An artist’s rendering of the apartment complex proposed for 4601 Market St.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier is once again calling on residents to push developers of a 1,240-unit apartment complex at 46th and Market Streets to include affordable housing during a meeting scheduled for March 27.

The meeting is part of the Civic Design Review process for “Mill Creek Station,” an upscale cluster of five seven-story buildings, one 19-story building and courtyards that will have “outdoor kitchens, lounge spaces and a pool for the residents,” according to the plan. The apartment complex would be adjacent to the city’s juvenile detention center at 48th and Haverford.

You can review the recent history of 4601 Market Street across a couple municipal administrations – from its designation as the new police headquarters and morgue to the current proposal – here. Continue Reading