Did You Know? Random PA Factoid

The Commonwealth's hardwoods and forest products industry generates $5.5 billion in sales annually, according to the PA Department of Agriculture. There are 16.7 million acres of forests in Pennsylvania, covering 58% of the state. This industry is growing in PA, with increasing lumber, paper and log exports, along with secondary wood products such as cabinets and flooring. Fortunately, because PA is a national leader in implementing sustainable forestry practices, our forests will continue to be a great resource for future generations, both economically, for recreation, and for the flora and fauna that live there.

Center City Hotel Occupancy Strong in September

Center City hotels had a 78.8% occupancy rate in September, up 12.3% from the same month in 2004. Year-to-date, Center City hotels are up 4.5% over 2004. RevPAR (i.e., "revenue per available room") is up 12.8% this year so far, according to Smith Travel Research. Some of this improved performance is attributable to the conversion of over 1,000 hotel rooms to condos.

Comcast Center Update

Two new tenants have signed leases at the Comcast Center, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. TelAmerica Media, a cable-industry "media aggregator" serving 72 million households, has leased a 24,000 square foot floor. Center City Film & Video will occupy 11,000 square feet. Comcast is leasing 39 floors - according to the developer - Liberty Property Trust. The building - now 70% leased - is scheduled to open in Fall 2007.

How Philly Works

Two remaining sessions in "How Philly Works" cover how the Philadelphia Department of Streets (Nov. 10) and the Department of Public Health (Nov. 17) use Geographic Imaging Systems ("GIS") technology to provide basic city services. The presentations will take place at 5:00 p.m. at the Atwater Kent Museum, 15 South 7th Street. There is no cost. For more information, call (215) 685-4830. This is a great opportunity for residents to get some insight into the vast array of services that the City of Philadelphia provides - competently and professionally - to its residents.

Rittenhouse Hotel Receives Honor

The Rittenhouse Hotel ranked #38 in Conde Nast's "Readers Choice Awards" of the top 75 U.S. hotels, as revealed in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler. Last year, the Rittenhouse was #68.

New Center City Retail

According to the Center City District, a slew of new retailers have recently located in Center City, are planning to open or are reporting to be looking for space, including:

• Del Frisco steakhouse will open its 7th U.S. location at the former Jack Kellmer store on the 700 block of Chestnut.
• Barney's Co-op and Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa are committed to a new—unidentified—building near Rittenhouse Square.
• BCBG is coming to 1601 Walnut St., L’Occitane to 1606 and American Apparel to 1611.
• Theory, Club Monaco, Levi, and Sephora, the cosmetics giant, are reported scouting for locations.
• South Moon Under, a women's retailer, is committed for the 1700 block of Chestnut.
• BoConcept, a furniture retailer, is opening later this year at 1719 Chestnut St.
• Capogiro, the gelati place on 13th, is opening a second location at 20th and Sansom.
• Estia, a new restaurant, is now open at the former Toto's location on Locust Street.
• West Elm furnishings is opening in mid-December on East Chestnut; Lucky Strike bowling will open at the same building in the spring.
• Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, a furniture retailer, has opened at 1308 Chestnut.

Nutter Bill would Promote Interests of Philadelphia Construction Workers

Councilman Nutter is sponsoring an ordinance - #050950 - that would amend Chapter 17-1000 of The Philadelphia Code and is entitled "Employment of Low-And Moderate-Income Persons by City Contractors." If passed, it would require those performing work under certain construction contracts supported by City funds/financial assistance to have a percentage of construction hours performed by City of Philadelphia residents.

New Condo Project at Washington Square

According to the Center City District, the Goldenberg Group and Brown Hill Development plan to redevelop the N.W. Ayer building at 210 W. Washington Square. The structure will be converted into 56 condominium units and will cost approximately $50 million.

Climate Mash

This is fun and timely...check out the "Climate Mash" website, watch the funny video, then send a message to President Bush.

The Greening of Philadelphia

PennFuture is embarking on a project that Philadelphia desperately needs. The working title is “Building Philadelphia’s Future” and the concept is to formulate an action plan that focuses on quality of life issues that intersect with environmental/sustainability concepts. Philadelphia is unique among large American cities in that it doesn’t provide structured local government support for the advancement of environmental/sustainability issues. No pedestrian coordinator, no bicycle coordinator, no office of environmental sustainability (or similar function), no City-sanctioned environmental commission. Heck, currently we don’t even have a recycling coordinator. The action plan will promote changes to Philadelphia governmental structures, ordinances, and policies that will result in a cleaner, healthier City. For more information and to be involved in the development of the action plan, contact Christine Knapp at PennFuture at knapp@pennfuture.org.

Our Leaves are Better & Bigger than Your Leaves

The Commonwealth's tourism promotions have become more professional since Governor Rendell took office...check out this link to the fall foliage tourism campaign.

Stop Pay-to-Play: Vote "Yes" on Charter Change Nov. 8th

On November 8, 2005, Philadelphia voters will be presented with a ballot question about whether to change the City Charter - essentially the City's constitution – and significantly curtail the City's costly "pay-to-play" system.

Here's what the question is going to say: "Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to require Council approval of certain City leases, contracts and concessions, to empower Council to address public confidence in the integrity of the City's contracting process by requiring certain disclosures and by providing whether persons who have made certain campaign contributions are ineligible for such contracts and for City financial assistance, and to empower Council to regulate the process by which non-competitively bid (no-bid) contracts are awarded?" Wow, that's a mouthful.

What does it mean? If a majority of Philadelphia voters vote yes on this question, information regarding City professional services contracts would be made available to the public, providing for a more transparent process whereby pay-to-play and other related corrupt practices would be less likely to occur and/or more easily detected. Individuals/businesses seeking no-bid contracts would not only be required to disclose political contributions, but there would be limits as to how much individuals/businesses could give to a candidate, incumbent and/or Political Action Committee (“PAC”).

The only reason to vote no on this charter change question is if you have personally benefited from the City's pay-to-play culture (like maybe somebody put a deck on your house or slipped you an envelope full of money); because most of us have not (and would never), please make sure that you vote yes on this question. For more information, check out the Committee of 70's website.

South Jersey Ad Agency Leaving Suburbia for Center City

One of the Philadelphia region's largest advertising agencies will relocate its headquarters from Cherry Hill to Center City, bringing with it up to 100 jobs (see story). The Star Group intends to spend $5 million to purchase and refurbish a five-story building at 1635-37 Locust Street. The Star Group also has offices in Las Vegas (NV) and Kansas City (MO), both of which service casino clients.

Minimal Disclosure Standards for Political Polling

Standards for Minimal Disclosure

(from the America Association of Public Opinion Research)

Good professional practice imposes the obligation upon all public opinion researchers to include, in any report of research results, or to make available when that report is released, certain essential information about how the research was conducted. At a minimum, the following items should be disclosed:

1. Who sponsored the survey, and who conducted it.

2. The exact wording of questions asked, including the text of any preceding instruction or explanation to the interviewer or respondents that might reasonably be expected to affect the response.

3. A definition of the population under study, and a description of the sampling frame used to identify this population.

4. A description of the sample selection procedure, giving a clear indication of the method by which the respondents were selected by the researcher, or whether the respondents were entirely self-selected.

5. Size of samples and, if applicable, completion rates and information on eligibility criteria and screening procedures.

6. A discussion of the precision of the findings, including, if appropriate, estimates of sampling error, and a description of any weighting or estimating procedures used. Which results are based on parts of the sample, rather than on the total sample.

7. Method, location, and dates of data collection.

The next time you see a survey that doesn’t include most of these supporting elements, you might want to view it with some suspicion. Like maybe, that mayoral poll that came out last week.

Condomania Comes to East Falls

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority ("RDA") has preliminarily selected Global City to construct the "Terrace at Falls Bridge". This proposed $85 million development would consist of 172 condo units in four modern buildings ranging from four to twelve stories. A key feature in the design is a forty-foot wide public terrace that will run between Ridge Avenue and Kelly Drive. The public terrace will be flanked by 17,000 sq. ft. of retail space, likely to include a food store. The selection of the developer by the RDA Board is considered preliminary. Global City will need to negotiate a developer's agreement with the RDA and then secure necessary approvals for their project, including zoning.

Glocalization

I thought it was a typo at first; Mayor Street's travel schedule for today included a trip to the 4th annual conference on "Glocalization" at the World Bank. Glocalization is "[t]he creation of products or services intended for the global market, but customized to suit the local culture", according to Wikipedia.

Random Environmental Factoid: The Marines and Soy Beans

According to PennFuture, the United States Marine Corps is the largest consumer of biodiesel fuel in the nation and the US military is expected to use more than six million gallons this year. Military fleet managers find that using biodiesel means cleaner engines that produce less pollution, without any loss of power and performance. Also, the Department of the Navy has ordered all domestic Navy/Marine facilities to use biodiesel when possible.

Are More Alternative Fuel Vehicles in Philadelphia’s Future?

A resolution – sponsored by Councilman Kenney - was unanimously adopted by Philadelphia City Council and referred to the Committee on Legislative Oversight authorizing the Committee to hold public hearings on whether the Office of Fleet Management’s vehicle purchasing policies should require a preference for the purchase of alternative fuel or hybrid-electric vehicles, which will facilitate savings, reduce fuel consumption, and promote a positive image of Philadelphia as an environmentally-conscious City. Hearings are likely to be held towards the end of the month.

The City of Philadelphia’s fleet consists of approximately 6,200 vehicles, including ambulances, fire apparatus, police cars, passenger and cargo vans, jeeps, buses and sedans that use approximately 4.6 million gallons of fuel (gasoline and diesel) each year. Given the rapidly rising cost of gasoline, many cities across the country have moved to replace conventional vehicles with hybrid-electric or alternative fuel vehicles. In particular, hybrid-electric vehicles have excellent warranties, lower projected maintenance costs (because the combustion engine receives less wear) and as much as 50 percent lower fuel costs than conventional vehicles. By way of example and inspiration, New York City has been purchasing hybrid-electric vehicles since 2001 and have amassed a hybrid-electric fleet of over 800 vehicles by requiring 80 percent of their light-duty vehicles purchases per fiscal year to be hybrid-electric.

Council Action on Proposed PGW Rate Hike

The Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities – Chaired by Councilman Michael Nutter - will meet to consider Resolution #050845 on Tuesday, October 11 at 2:00pm in room 400 of City Hall. This resolution would authorize City Council's Transportation and Public Utilities Committee to hold public hearings to discuss the impact of the proposed PGW 19.4% rate hike on the Philadelphia's citizens and explore methods of providing resources and relief to those most severely affected by such a dramatic increase.

Philadelphia Lawyers

A new survey of lawyers who practice in Philadelphia reveals that almost half - 45 percent - live within city limits and 30.3 percent are women (see story). The Philadelphia Bar Association survey of 340 attorneys - released last week - also found that lawyers eat out five times a week and 60 percent regularly do pro bono work. The survey establishes empirically what’s generally known about the legal profession in Philadelphia; law firms and their lawyers and support staff are a vital and productive component of the local economy and they also contribute significantly to civic life.