Weekly Newsletter, Issue 135 5TH SQUARE IN THE NEWS - 🚉 The Future of Regional Rail The Inquirer's Pat Madej poses the existential question facing SEPTA's regional rail system -- Without commuters, what will happen to SEPTA Regional Rail?  Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 134 ACTION PennDOT’s is accepting public comment on their I-95 proposal for road work near the Frankford Arsenal in Northeast Philly. 🚵‍♀️ Demand safe bike and pedestrian facilities here! Continue reading

We have some small but exciting news to share about our campaign to reform regional rail fares and service in our region.As part of their FY2022 Work Program (still open for public comment), the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) will conduct a study of regional rail fare equity and restructuring. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 133 🚸 MANTUA TRAFFIC SAFETY PROJECT Do you live, work, or travel through the Mantua neighborhood in West Philly? Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 132 Note: This newsletter will be a special one with two urgent action items and a celebration of all the work we have done in the past year! Continue reading

Thank you to everyone who attended our year-end Holiday Party and Urbanist Awards ceremony. We are giving one last shout-out to all the nominees and the winners from the night's awards ceremony. We want to thank each one of the following nominees for their outstanding contributions to Philadelphia’s urbanist movement in 2020! Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 131 ❄️ HOLIDAY PARTY + 2020 URBANIST AWARDS Join 5th Square for our year-end Holiday Party over Zoom on Thursday, December 17th at 6:00 PM and our second annual Urbanist Awards ceremony! Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 130 🏆 Nominate Your Faves for Our Annual Urbanist Awards! Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 129 🏛️ PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN'S TRANSIT PLANS It was thrilling to see the pivotal role our region played in tipping the votes for President-elect Joe Biden in last week's Presidential election, and 5th Square is proud of the work our members and volunteers did helping turn out the vote in their communities on Election Day. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 128 🏞️ WIN FOR SAFETY ON COBBS CREEK PKWY At a virtual stakeholder meeting hosted by Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center last Thursday, PennDOT and the Philadelphia Streets Department shared some promising plans to improve safety along Cobbs Creek Parkway. Continue reading

We have exciting news to share about Cobbs Creek Parkway! At a virtual stakeholder meeting hosted by Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center last Thursday, PennDOT and the Philadelphia Streets Department shared some promising plans to improve safety along Cobbs Creek Parkway. Continue reading

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Larry Spector has penned an impassioned and very lawyerly letter to the mayor about how he and his coalition have worked really hard to come up with a totally awesome bill that is totally not about keeping people out of Society Hill. They really need it to get passed because they worked really hard on it for two whole years. We won’t go line-by-line through Spector’s screed, and we won’t try to guess at the coalition’s intentions or motivations. (They claim something to do with historic preservation, which they hope to accomplish by requiring new parking lots to be built.) We will lay out some facts of the bill, and the impact it will have. You can decide whether this bill would be “not racist” and “not exclusionary”. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 127 🌆 TELL MAYOR KENNEY: VETO EXCLUSIONARY ZONING OVERLAY IN SOCIETY HILL Councilmanic Prerogative won another round for exclusionary zoning, and City Council passed Councilmember Mark Squilla's zoning overlay for Society Hill. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 126 🌆 REJECT EXCLUSIONARY ZONING IN SOCIETY HILL Society Hill NIMBY ('Not in My Back Yard') activists have been lobbying Councilmember Mark Squilla to help them make their neighborhood even more exclusive. Despite the Mayor vetoing this push last year, the bill is back and likely to pass City Council THIS THURSDAY. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 125 🚴 BIG WIN FOR GRAYS FERRY BRIDGE Remember that petition for a westbound protected bike lane on the Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge we published last year? PennDOT and the City heard our request and is making it happen! PennDOT anticipates that a modular curb system with flexible delineator posts will be installed by the end of November 2020 on the westbound side of the Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge over the Schuylkill River. This means that both westbound and eastbound sides of the Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge will have protected bike paths! Continue reading

Remember that petition for a westbound protected bike lane on the Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge we published a little over a year ago? We just got an exciting update from PennDOT! PennDOT anticipates that a modular curb system with flexible delineator posts will be installed by the end of November 2020 on the westbound side of the Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge over the Schuylkill River. This project safety enhancement will make the boundary between the westbound bike lane and the adjacent vehicular traffic lane more visible to both drivers and bicyclists. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 124 🏞️ PETITION FOR A SAFER COBBS CREEK PKWY For far too long Cobbs Creek Parkway has been a deadly thoroughfare weaving through the western edge of West and Southwest Philadelphia. PETITION TO CHANGE THIS TODAY Continue reading

By Larissa Mogano, For 5th Square On Thursday, newly elected Register of Wills and 50-year resident of Southwest Philadelphia Tracey Gordon held a press conference at the entrance to the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center to address traffic safety concerns along one of Philadelphia’s most dangerous roads: Cobbs Creek Parkway. Jokingly dubbed “NASCAR” by other longtime neighbors, the topic of the press conference was definitely no laughing matter. We gathered to remember yet another young life lost in a completely preventable incident. 25-year-old Avante Reynolds leaves behind a 2-month-old baby after she was violently killed by a driver who left the scene. While we are frustrated with the careless and callous actions of one individual, the responsibility is not theirs alone. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 123 🛣️ RECOVERY STREETS - EXCITING NEWS TODAY: Join us for a webinar about our Recovery Streets Platform and hear about the progress Philadelphia has made to date plus exciting new initiatives.  Continue reading