Four for Friday: What to expect from Philadelphia City Council

The back-to-school vibes were strong in Philadelphia’s City Hall Thursday as city councilmembers returned to legislative session for the first time since the summer recess. Lawmakers were met by advocates and activists – and plenty of public comment focused on safety and development issues. 

With that in mind, City & State has your Four for Friday, breaking down some of the biggest priorities for Philadelphia City Council this fall.

Vision Zero and street safety

The most talked-about issue during the public comment period was street safety – and those in attendance didn’t have to wait long for an update on the topic. After a spate of high-profile pedestrian and bicyclist deaths led many to question Philadelphia’s commitment to protecting residents from reckless drivers, Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier returned to session by introducing legislation to ban people from stopping their cars in city bike lanes and to increase penalties for those blocking bike lanes. 

Aptly named the “Get out of the Bike Lane” bill, the legislation seeks to increase fines for drivers parking or stopping in a bike lane from $75 to $125 in Center City and University City and from $50 to $75 elsewhere in the city. 

Johnson told reporters the city will look into implementing concrete barriers to protect bike lanes around the city, not only on Spruce and Pine streets, where Dr. Barbara Ann Friedes, a 30-year-old pediatric resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was killed while riding her bike in July. 

“When you park in the lane, it causes the bicyclists to go out into the traffic. There lies the vulnerability of a person actually getting hit,” Johnson said. “You may jump out of your car and go into the store and come back out and somebody could actually be dead or severely injured.”

Sixers arena saga

If Vision Zero isn’t the leading story coming out of City Council, the Sixers arena saga definitely is. Discussion over the proposed Market East arena near Chinatown has picked up in the last week with the release of the city’s impact studies and a proposal coming from the State of New Jersey to entice the Sixers to build a new arena in Camden rather than Philadelphia. 

Advocates held a press conference outside City Hall prior to session to voice opposition to the 76Place proposal that would build a $1.55 billion arena in Center City. Residents of Chinatown and medical providers expressed concerns about the impact an arena would have on the Chinatown community and businesses, as well as the congestion and potential life-threatening traffic delays a Center City arena could cause around Jefferson Hospital. 

Johnson told reporters that although the offer from New Jersey – and the $800 million in tax incentives the state put forward – has to be taken “seriously,” he said the Sixers leaving the city “shouldn’t be an option.” 

Public transit

Facing a structural budget deficit of $240 million, SEPTA released a plan to raise fares for many riders currently getting a discount by buying fare cards. The jump from a $2 fare to $2.50 for SEPTA Key users is expected to result in a more than $10 million increase in revenue, SEPTA officials said. 

Transit officials have said they are working with lawmakers on a long-term funding solution, but some cost-cutting measures and fare increases will be put in place. And amid the debate over the feasibility of a Center City arena, the public transit conversation isn’t going away anytime soon. 

Quality-of-life concerns in Kensington

Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, representing the 7th District, introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at restricting mobile addiction services from parts of the Kensington neighborhood and ensuring service providers clean up after themselves. Lozada, whose district includes the sites of the largest open-air drug market in the city, said the legislation is meant to create a more “coordinated” approach to mobile health services in the neighborhood. 

The first bill would restrict mobile units from operating in residential areas – blocks where more than 80% of buildings are residential and less than 50% have commercial establishments – and any block with a school or city recreation center on it. The second bill would require mobile-service providers to remove all litter within a 50-foot radius of where they’re operating. Both bills would apply to only the 7th district, meaning service providers could be pushed out of the most impacted neighborhoods or begin operating nearby in the 1st or 6th District.