Grading the Philadelphia Experiment

Schoolkids aren’t the only ones in Philadelphia praying for a good report card this month. Last fall, with most of the city’s students testing well below state averages in reading and math, Philadelphia’s assertive new schools chief, Paul Vallas, handed over control of 45 of the city’s worst schools to seven private operators, including nonprofit organizations, universities and, most controversially, three for-profit companies. Now that the school year is ending, everyone is looking to see how the newcomers have done. Vallas has already given privatization a qualified endorsement by reaching agreements with six of the seven managers on contract terms for next year. This week a critical batch of test scores will provide the first hard data on how students have fared under privatization, a wrenching process that involved new principals, teaching methods, rules and expectations.

Read the rest by Rebecca Winters in Time Magazine.

Local DJ starts new business renting out iPods

CityPaper: In iPod He Trusts:

Porter knows music. For the past seven years he’s been spinning vinyl at clubs and lounges around town as DJ Botany 500. Over the last five, he’s helped run Cue Records, the Fourth and South shop known for its extensive hip-hop and electronic selection. As a DJ, he’s learned to read the mood of a room and find the appropriate groove. And with Cue’s impressive stock — plus Porter’s own expansive archives — at his disposal, chances are he can find just the track he’s looking for.

The trick is somehow turning Porter’s knowledge and collection into a more efficient and transportable entity, rather than having him spin at a restaurant day and night.

That’s where technology comes in. Armed with a small fleet of iPods, Porter’s embarking on a one-of-a-kind business venture: filling the little mp3 players with a specially created musical catalog and renting them out to area businesses. “Instead of going in with my vinyl and DJing for four hours, I can DJ for them for the whole month.” As far as he knows, he’s the first to come up with this particular business model.

Very, very cool. via More Boom In The Room.

Slaying taints neighborhood

A bad title. A very bad title. Deep within this story lies a few paragraphs that are very important:

Welcome to Fishtown – deeply rooted in tradition, slow to change. There was once a time when there were a score of Philly neighborhoods exactly like this one – anchored by the Catholic Church, fraternal lodges, the corner bar, the local athletic club and a factory.

But the roots of Fishtown, a stone’s throw from the busy Delaware River, with Center City still in its rearview mirror, are planted more deeply than most. Anthony Palmer founded a plantation here in 1730, and the cemetery that bears his name is a local landmark, a green mark penned in by a wall of rowhouses. The place has been called Fishtown since the 1800s, when the smell of the day’s catch from the Delaware filled the narrow streets.

Maybe that history is part of why the great social upheavals of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s didn’t deliver a knockout punch the way they hit some nearby neighborhoods. Home to a number of cops and firefighters, Fishtown was mostly as solid as the red brick of its homes. There have been racial tensions here, but not as strongly as in some other sections of Philadelphia. Although Fishtown remains predominantly white, there are also substantial Latino and black communities, as well as a recent tide of immigrants from Armenia and elsewhere.

Read he rest in the Daily News.

The killing of Jason Sweeney should not be an indictment of the entire neighborhood. To judge Fishtown in it’s entirety based on this terrible story would be wrong and closed minded. I’ve lived all over Philly, and I gotta tell you – like all of its neighborhoods – Fishtown can’t be described in just a few words or be summarized by a single event, even one as horrific as this. As Elizabeth Murawski, neighbor to the Sweeney family says “If it could happen to Jason, it could happen to anyone.” And let me add – anywhere. Drugs are the true poison in all of this. It’s reach is far, and it’s effects are always terrible.

My prayers go out to him, his family and all those touched by this.

$125 a piece for murder

…Morley delivered her suitor to the slaughter.

They walked down a black gravel road toward a junction of trees. Morley began to undress. Then Sweeney took off his shoes. That’s as far as he got.

A blow came from a small-handled hatchet. It struck Sweeney on the head and knocked him to the ground.

Sources said it was followed by blows from a hammer and more blows from the hatchet as he tried to get up.

Another assailant used a brick. Later, one of the boys used what one detective described as a “boulder” type of rock to crush Sweeney’s head.

Nearly all of the blows struck Sweeney on the head and face, according to a source familiar with the injuries.

As the grisly slaying unfolded, Morley stood off to the side and did not take part, according to sources.

When it was over, though, she allegedly shared in the blood money – $500 – divided four ways.

A total of $125 apiece, for murder.

…The detective said the alleged perpetrators, the three who were arrested and charged with murder on Tuesday, appeared to express little remorse during their interrogation at police headquarters, asking indifferently, “When are we going home?”

Daily News: Cops: Teens used sex to draw pal into deadly trap, all for $500. A horrific story from one of my old neighborhoods.

Update: I’ve taken the liberty to remove the comments thread from this post. There were some hateful and hurtful remarks being thrown about when prayers and support for the family should be offered instead.

Willard Rouse III, 1942-2003

Bill Rouse was our champion. More so than anyone else, he could overcome Philadelphia’s all-too-frequent lack of self-confidence,” said Peter Hearn, former chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a former candidate for mayor. “He defied the doubters time after time, and succeeded. The loss of Bill is staggering.”

Gov. Rendell said yesterday that no other figure in Philadelphia could match Mr. Rouse’s civic brawn.

“Do I see anyone on the scene? No, I don’t,” Rendell said. “But gosh, I’ve been involved in tons of major cities in my capacity as mayor, and I have never seen any individual have as significant an impact on the direction of a city and region, anywhere in the country.”

…Often referred to as “bigger than life,” he loved nothing more than to scoff in the face of what others thought impossible. Consider this piece of typical Rouse braggadocio:

“They laughed at us. They said it couldn’t be done.”

Read the rest by Peter Dobrin in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Prayers and thank you to him and his family.

Hoagieland?

R. W. Apple Jr. in the NYTimes: In Hoagieland, They Accept No Substitutes. The New York Times sampling Hoagies, Cheese Steaks, Scrapple, and Soft Pretzels! A good cheese steak or hoagie is usually just a delivery call away while a soft pretzel from any of the hundreds of street vendors across Center City (what we call downtown) can be bought with a soda. Good scrapple with two scrambled eggs from a diner is a my favorite breakfast. If I ever left Philly – you better believe I’d miss the food.