Category Archives: News

Philadelphia news relevant to our local communities.

Entertainment, Food & Drinks, News

Stay in, Philly: Get Exercise & Groceries Delivered

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Philadelphia, like the rest of the world, is under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay inside, avoid people, and social distance, but don’t forget to live!

Exercise. Walk, run, or do youtube videos. There are so more live workout videos and streaming channels right now than ever before. Run outside as long as you can maintain a healthy 6-feet distance from other people and don’t touch anything.

Eat healthy. You have plenty of time to cook up your favorite meals. Get groceries delivered from Reading Terminal Market for free using mercato with coupon code RTMFREE. Shoprite, ACME, and other supermarkets will also do curbside pickup. There is no reason not to get groceries delivered or ready for pickup.

Neighborhood, News, Pennsport

Deep South Philadelphia revitalization

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Expect an increase in investment and property values in South Philadelphia in 2020. Many stakeholders have invested in large projects in the area, particularly around the stadium district and eastern South Philly.

Here are some major projects coming soon in zip code 19147/19148:

Live! Hotel and Casino at 900 Packer Ave in the South Philadelphia

Live! Hotel and Casino at 900 Packer Ave: The $700 million casino and hotel is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. The long delayed construction begins in 2019.

Pattison Place by 1100 Pattison Ave in the stadium district

Pattison Place beside Xfinity Live! at 1100 Pattison Ave: The glass-sheathed office tower will encompass at least 200,000 square feet and is the first step toward developing the sprawling property in the South Philadelphia stadium district. Also included in the proposal are 20,000 square feet of street-level retail at the site to the immediate west of Xfinity Live. Find out more on Philly.com.

South Columbus Boulevard centers redevelopment in Pennsport

South Columbus Boulevard center redevelopment, starting with a $12 million renovation of UA Riverview Plaza. The center spans the western side of South Columbus Boulevard, from Washington Avenue to Dickinson Street, in the city’s Pennsport neighborhood. Cedar Realty Trust plans to redevelop the center over 7-10 years in three phases, the first two of which will consist of about 260 apartments and 125,000 square feet of retail. This mixed-use project made up of apartments sitting over street retail will feature some of the finest river views in all of Philadelphia. Cedar anticipate launching this project in the first half of 2019.

South Quarter Crossing in Western South Philly

South Quarter Crossing on the west side of South Philadelphia: Cedar Realty Trust will redevelop and merge Quartermaster and South Philadelphia Shopping Center into a single one million-square-foot shopping and residential complex. Click here to see their leasing plan.

Entertainment, News

South Philly Stadium Casino: Live! Casino starts construction

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Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, an affiliate of The Cordish Companies, has announced that Gilbane Building Company will serve as the General Contractor for the new $700 million project of the Stadium casino located at 900 Packer Avenue between 10th and Darien Streets, in the heart of the South Philadelphia Stadium District.

Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia will transform the South Philadelphia area into an integrated sports, entertainment and casino resort destination. The 1.5-million-square-foot facility will include 2,200 slots and table games, more than 150 table games, a boutique hotel, nationally-recognized restaurants, live entertainment venues, valet parking, and an approximately 2,700 space parking garage.

Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia plans to develop the far South Philadelphia to create significant economic opportunities for local residents and businesses. A Pre-Bid Contractor Information Session will be held on Friday, January 11, 2019 from 10a.m.- Noon at Xfinity Live!, 1100 Pattison Avenue in the South Philadelphia Stadium District. The event is open to the contracting public and will include a project overview, bid package information, and the opportunity to meet with the Estimating Team and representatives from the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) will also be available.

Cordish officials have told the state that demolition of a former Holiday Inn will begin soon, and construction of the new casino and hotel would start January 2019.

Neighborhood, News

Squilla criticized for cutting green agenda

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Philadelphia Inquirer’s Inga Saffron criticizes Councilman Mark Squilla’s recent legislative choices as regressive. According to PlanPhilly, Saffron focuses on the measure that “exempts Society Hill from having to comply with a zoning incentive designed to encourage the construction of rain-absorbing green roofs” and references an earlier bill that suspends a program allowing electric vehicle owners to create EV-only parking spots in front of the curbside electrical outlets.

Many philly.com readers agreed with Saffron and criticized the councilman.

Squilla, who allegedly ‘represents’ me, doesn’t represent me or my values. And further, I don’t think most City Council people do. They should be out of development, city planning, and urban design issues, allowing the City Planning Design Office handle these through a robust city-wide effort. The best cities do; as we did many years ago. Unfortunately, the piggish, self-serving representation, turning the neighborhood districts into their own fiefs, is appalling. They haven’t a clue about sustainability, design, urban design, Smart Cities, the progressive initiatives of the Water Department saving the city from potentially billions of dollars of infrastructural replacements, or any other aspect of making cities safe, clean and wonderful places to live.

Personally, I would wish that Mr. Squilla resign. And the rest of Council. The government of this city is not for the people but for themselves, time and again. Short sighted, parochial, profit hungry, and likely still paid on the side.

Commentary

What happened to Passyunk Post?

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Passyunk Post has not been the same since the disappearance of their staff writer Taylor Farnsworth and the website’s subsequent hiatus in February. The difference is clear in the content and depth of their articles. Recent articles seem to lack direction, with more fluff and filler pieces. This begs us to ask the question everyone has been thinking: What happened?

Passyunk Post was founded in 2012 by Albert Stumm, who wrote and published most of the articles a few years back. In recent years, the bulk of the writing obligation has landed on Taylor Farnsworth. Now that Farnsworth has gone missing, an Anthony C has taken over. No explanation has been given. We will just have to wait and see whether this staff writer change is permanent or not.

Entertainment, Events, Press Release

BalletX Spring Series 2017 at The Wilma Theater

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From April 26th through May 7th, BalletX will present 13 performances of its Spring Series 2017 at The Wilma Theater on S Broad St. BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet and resident dance company of The Wilma Theater, has built a repertory of 61 world premieres since its 2005 inception.

BalletX Spring Series 2017 will feature the U.S. premiere of Cayetano Soto’s Schachmatt, the Philly return of Matthew Neenan’s The Last Glass (2010), and a world premiere by 2017 Choreographic Fellow and PHILADANCO! alum, Tommie-Waheed Evans, entitled In Between the Passing…

Behind the scenes | Photo by BalletX

Tickets to Spring Series 2017 at The Wilma Theater are available online at www.balletx.org, by phone at (215) 546-7824, or in person at the Wilma box office at 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Choreographer: Cayetano Soto (2017 Choreographic Fellowship Mentor), Tommie-Waheed Evans (2017 Choreographic Fellow), Matthew Neenan

Dancers: Andrea Yorita Caili Quan Chloe Felesina Daniel MayoFrancesca Forcella Gary W. Jeter II Richard VillaverdeZachary Kapeluck Roderick Phifer Megan Dickinson (Guest Dancer)

Schedule:

  • Wednesday April 26, 8:00 PM
  • Pre-Show Q&A with Artistic Collaborators, 7:00 PM
  • Thursday April 27, 8:00 PM
  • Post-Show Q&A with Choreographers
  • Friday April 28, 8:00 PM
  • Saturday April 29, 2:00 PM
  • Saturday April 29, 8:00 PM
  • Sunday April 30, 2:00 PM
  • Sunday April 30, 7:00 PM
  • Wednesday May 03, 8:00 PM
  • Thursday May 04, 8:00 PM
  • Friday May 05, 8:00 PM
  • Saturday May 06, 2:00 PM
  • Saturday May 06, 8:00 PM
  • Sunday May 07, 2:00 PM
Neighborhood, News

New Bus Shelters in South Philadelphia

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There has been a quite a few transportation developments happening in deep South Philly as of late. Septa recently announced that bike racks are coming to their Oregon station on the Broad Street Line. On a larger scale, the Philly Transit Shelter Project, which aims to bring 600 new transit shelters to the city, has started making some moves in South Philadelphia.

Today, we got report of the new bus shelters being put up on the Southwest corner of Broad St and Oregon Ave, where route 7 and G runs.  We received some inquiries last Friday when the old bus shelter was torn down and completely removed. In less than a week, the new transit shelter is up and almost functional.

Transit Shelter Town Down
Old bus shelter at Broad and Oregon was removed last week

Transit Shelter Rebuilt
New bus shelter at Broad and Oregon is almost complete

That is a pretty quick turn around time for this area of the city. Let’s hope the new shelters on the other routes will be built just as quickly.

News

Jefferson expands in Navy Yard of South Philly

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Jefferson Health System announced plans to open a new 70,000-square-foot adult health and  wellness facility in the Three Crescent Drive office building at the Navy Yard in South Philadelphia by mid-2018.

The Navy Yard is increasingly becoming home to many businesses, including GSK, Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Urban Outfitters headquarters, Philadelphia 76ers, Tasty Baking Co. and Penn Capital Management.

Public transportation to the Navy Yard feels limited, despite the two free Navy Yard shuttle routes that transports visitors and employees to the Navy Yard from Center City, and AT&T Station on the Broad Street Subway Line. As the Broad Street Line Expansion project seems far from reality, it will be interesting to see if Navy Yard transportation will expand with growing tenants.