Weekly Newsletter, Issue 189 🏖 BEACH TRIP SPOTS AVAILABLE! Join us on July 9th at 8:05am for a family-friendly day down the shore this summer with your favorite group of Urbanist advocates. We're headed to Atlantic City and have a fun day planned of hoagie-eating, jitney-riding, beach-laying, and of course, margarita-drinking. Let's meet at 30th Street Station and, of course, take a ride aboard the Atlantic City Rail Line. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 188 🚍 FUTURE TRANSIT FUNDING With ridership still down since the start of the pandemic, public transit agencies around the country will be grappling with a fiscal cliff for operation. SEPTA will be able to support operations with CARES Act funding until 2024, but without service increases and with ongoing bus driver shortages, it may not be enough. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 186 📚 BOOK TALK WITH NOLAN GRAY 5th Square is pleased to welcome author M. Nolan Gray to Philadelphia for a book talk about his newly-published book about U.S. housing policy titled "Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It." The event will take place on Friday, June 24th at 7:30pm at Resurrection Philadelphia near 42nd and Baltimore Ave. Light refreshments (pizza, beer, and seltzer) will be served. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 186 📧 EMAIL KENNEY RE: WASHINGTON AVE Councilmember Mark Squilla has passed through the Streets & Services Committee the legislation needed for his part of Washington Ave east of 11th. However, Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, will not be amending the bill to include his section of Washington Ave from 11th St to Grays Ferry Ave. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 185 🥪 NORTHWEST MEETUP ON THURSDAY! Our next meet-up has moved to THIS THURSDAY, June 9nd at 6 PM over at Manayunk Crossing (next to the movie theater)! We will be discussing mobility, safe streets, and access to transit specific to Northwest Philly neighborhoods. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 184 😡 MAD ABOUT WASHINGTON AVE Ask City Council to prioritize safety for Washington Ave. Heard the news? The City's plans for safety measures on Washington Ave are being jeopardized by one person: Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson. Continue reading

Dear Morris Arboretum, I have a lot of fun memories at Morris Arboretum. It’s the perfect place for family reunions. (The fernery is always a hit.) And I’ve also been there on a date, a highschool field trip and a birthday celebration, and it never gets old. It’s no wonder that you attract 130,000 visits a year. It is, however, odd that nearly all of these visits will be made by motor vehicle. Continue reading

5th Square members and volunteers submitted the following comments to SEPTA’s FY2023 Capital Budget Public Hearings.   Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 182 🚲 HB 140: PARKING PROTECTED BIKE LANES A bill to legalize parking protected lanes in Pennsylvania had a hearing last month, which included testimony by Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia's executive director Sarah Clark Stuart among others. However, no vote has been called. There are a few parking protected bike lanes already, but these are only pilot programs. There is nothing to assure that these would be permanent. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 182 🗳 2022 PRIMARY ELECTION INFO Endorsements Paul Prescod for the 8th Senate District Marylouise Isaacson for the 175th House District Joe Hohenstein for the 177th House District Jonathan Lovitz for the 182nd House District Elizabeth Fiedler for the 184th House District Andre Carroll for the 201st House District Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 181 🗳 2022 PRIMARY INFO Did you get your mail-in ballot but are unsure what to fill in? Here are our picks for the primaries and ballot questions. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 180 🎉 HOLIDAY PARTY THIS THURSDAY! We are pleased to announce the Holiday Party and Awards Ceremony, now scheduled for this Thursday, May 5th! It's a great opportunity to meet community leaders and like-minded folks. We will be announcing the winners of the 2021 Urbanist Awards. We will have beverages and snacks, and children over 5 are welcome. Proof of vaccination is required. Tickets are $30 online and $40 at the door (children are free). Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 179 🚌 🛣 BUS ONLY LANES As SETPA's Bus Revolution gets underway, there is a potential problem on the horizon. Many key routes connect disparate parts of the city and are extremely slow. No matter how the bus routes change, the busses will still have to deal with traffic. One great way to speed things up is to add bus only lanes to the street. We need to show the City that we want bus lanes! Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 178 🚲 25th STREET REDESIGN The City has another survey out for redoing 25th Street in South Philly, underneath a viaduct that needs significant repair. There are three different designs being put forward: Design A which has two lanes, parking, and loading zones, Design B with two lanes, protected bikes lanes, and a raised pedestrian crossing, and Design C, which has four lanes and parking and loading on the curb. We feel that Design B has the most benefits for all residents, being available for all kinds of traversal and one of the few city streets with protected bike lanes. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 177 🚲 PARKING PROTECTED BIKE LANES Last Monday, the State Senate Transportation Committee held a hearing about HB140, which amends Title 75 to legalize parking separated bike lanes. Sarah Clark Stuart of the Bicycle Coalition provided testimony in favor of the bill. The City of Philadelphia with Kittleson and Associates has already released a study on parking separated bike lanes as part of a cycling network. There are already some bike lane pilot projects like this around the city that were granted special permissions through PennDOT, like Market St and JFK Blvd. However, passage of HB140 would allow those and other projects to become permanent. If you haven't already, send an email to your elected officials to encourage them to take the vote on this in April. There are only a few days left for legislative sessions... Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 176 ⛽️ GAS TAX REBATES 5th Square members Fae Ehsan and Caitlin Nagle wrote an op-ed in the Inquirer against a possible gas tax rebate, as gasoline prices are on the rise. They felt that it does little to address the structural problems facing low-income Pennsylvanians while exacerbating the climate crisis and lining the pockets of Big Oil. Continue reading

Newsletter, Issue 175½ // April 1, 2022 Thank you for reading our first April Fools Newsletter Issue, if you aren't already a newsletter subscriber, sign up here!  All of these news items are satire, but obviously, with a kernel of truth touching on systemic issues with Philadelphia's broken political process and the way its affects our built environment and its residents. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 175 🔑 SEPTA INSTITUTIONAL PASSES Recently, SEPTA announced Key Advantage, their institutional pass program. Drexel University, Penn Medicine, and Wawa are their first participants for the 6 month trial. The passes will be active May 1st. 5th Square co-chair Jon Geeting and our partners at Transit Forward Philadelphia were instrumental in getting the program up and running. Continue reading

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETuesday, March 22, 2022 5th Square is proud to announce its endorsement for the following candidates for this year's 2022 Pennsylvania primary elections. Continue reading

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 174 📣✅ 2022 ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS Following the polls of our membership, 5th Square is proud to announce its endorsement for the following candidates for this year's 2022 Pennsylvania primary elections. Paul Prescod for the 8th Senate District Marylouise Isaacson for the 175th House District Joe Hohenstein for the 177th House District Jonathan Lovitz for the 182nd House District Elizabeth Fiedler for the 184th House District Andre Carroll for the 201st House District Continue reading