Newsletter: ☃️ Invitation to Our Holiday Party / 🍽️ Who is Losing their Streeteries? / 🏙️ Density for Penn's Locust Walk

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 164

☃️ HOLIDAY PARTY INVITATION

You're invited to our fun year-end Holiday Party at 990 Spring Garden on Wednesday, December 22nd at 7 PM, where we'll be holding off our Third Annual Urbanist Awards ceremony!

Get Your Tickets Today

Come celebrate with other Philadelphia built environment activists, neighborhood and community leaders, architects, planners, builders, and sustainability advocates at the urbanist holiday party of the season!

Complimentary drinks and light fare will be served.

5TH SQUARE IN THE NEWS
🍽️ NEW BILL FORCING STREETERIES TO CLOSE

CBS3 covered how a compromise bill passed by City Council to keep streeteries permanently in Philadelphia carved out large sections of the city where they are no longer legal. 5th Square member Aaron Bauman (wearing our amazing gold shirt!) created a map indicating the nearly 300 businesses that would lose out in this new legislation.

Our city deserves better than this. We deserve a fair and equitable process to permit outdoor dining city-wide that doesn't require political savvy to enact.

5TH SQUARE IN THE NEWS
🏙️ PENN'S LOCUST WALK NEEDS MORE DENSITY

The Daily Pennsylvanian featured 5th Square member Ben She as a guest columnist advocating for reshaping Penn's Locust Walk with more density to rectify past injustices.

It may not be obvious, but the shortage of on-campus space for student organizations and vital resources like Counseling and Psychological Services is the legacy of a mistake Penn committed decades ago. The 20th-century urban renewal era saw the University partner with the City of Philadelphia to expand west and north into majority-minority neighborhoods, with entire neighborhoods condemned and demolished.

The Daily Pennsylvanian / Kylie Cooper

🛣️ ACTION: SUPPORT A SAFER WASHINGTON AVE

Demand a safer Washington Avenue. Sign the petition written and sponsored by a growing number of South Philadelphia Community Organizations urging the City to proceed with safety improvements.

Sign the Petition

🍂 HELP US REACH 300 MEMBERS!

Become a 5th Square member TODAY & support a more sustainable, walkable, and bicycle-friendly Philadelphia!

EVENTS

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia / Holiday Lights Ride 2021

Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 6:00PM - 8:00PM

The Holiday Lights Ride is back as an in-person event! Join us and our friends from the Wednesday Night Rides crew on Dec. 15 for a shivery, twinkly slow roll through South Philly’s holiday magic. This ride is free and open to all levels of bike riders.

Philly BOLT / Community Organizing Strategic Leadership Training

Saturday, December 18th, 12:30 PM

Join Philly BOLT and West Kensington Ministry at this free community organizer training. Become a community leader or enhance existing leadership and organizing skills to bring change.

SURVEYS

DVRPC - Vision Zero: Cecil B. Moore: The public input period for the Cecil B. Moore Vision Zero project is OPEN NOW to January 2022. Complete the survey and provide feedback on this important VisionZero project. https://www.dvrpc.org/cecilbmoore

Fishtown District Parking Survey: Fishtown District wants to hear from you our stakeholders, business owners, their employees, residents and patrons about parking within our commercial corridor.

Philadelphia Youth Sports Survey: Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy are interested in learning more about how local sports leagues and teams - especially youth sports - are served by City-owned sports fields. We want to hear what YOU need so we can better support you, and all of the city's youth and other recreational sports organizations. Thank you for taking 5 minutes to complete this survey! The team or club with the most responses will receive a team pizza party or $250 equipment donation!

Transit Forward Philadelphia Bus Rider Survey / Transit Forward Philadelphia needs your help with a short (less than 5 minutes) survey. Survey responses will help make changes to SEPTA’s bus network. At the end of the survey, participants will be entered into a raffle to receive a $50 VISA gift card. Responses are very important to us and will be anonymous. The results of the survey will be shared with the public and SEPTA staff.

WHAT WE'RE READING

🌳 PUBLIC SPACE

WHYY / A new law could use sound meters and cameras to catch noisy vehicles

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Despite Philadelphia’s glorious tree lighting, we are a city that is (literally and figuratively) in the dark

6abc Philadelphia / Some Philly restaurants upgrade outdoor dining as City Council approves legalizing 'streeteries'

WHYY / Report explores a decarbonized future for PGW, and foresees challenges

Streetsblog USA / Who’s a Good Boy? Five Ways To Make Cities More Dog Friendly (Without the Car)

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Most businesses aren’t following Philly’s new plastic bag ban yet, survey says

🚌 TRANSIT

WHYY / SEPTA purchasing more hybrid buses to run greener and cleaner

NBC10 Philadelphia / Where Infrastructure Money Is Going in Philadelphia Area

Governing / With Ridership Still Down, Transit Agencies Rethink Priorities

transitcenter.org / Better Ways for FTA to Measure Transit Equity

🚴 MOBILITY

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia / Time To Move Forward with Popular Washington Avenue Plan

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Philly’s new bike rack will keep cars from parking near fire hydrants

PhillyVoice / State investing $12.5 million to make Roosevelt Boulevard safer

WHYY / Philly to test new tech in bid to stop delivery drivers from parking illegally

PhillyVoice / Philadelphia to pilot high-tech solution for delivery trucks clogging city streets

🏙️ HOUSING & LAND USE

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Hundreds of families can't find housing after Hurricane Ida destroyed affordable rental units

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Council President Darrell L. Clarke wants to give lawmakers more influence over development

Slate Magazine / The Injustice of Putting Apartments on Busy Roads and Houses on Quiet Ones

California YIMBY / How a Shortage of Housing Supply Reduces Social - and Economic - Mobility - California YIMBY

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Homeowners associations aim to protect property values but can limit personal choice

VOLUNTEER with 5th Square

GRANT & FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Better Civics / Request for Proposals: Graphic Design Services

Better Civics creates educational toolkits each election, explaining what’s on the ballot and why it matters in an engaging nonpartisan way. Better Civics seeks a graphic designer to design the components of our 2022 Election Toolkit.

DVRPC's Public Participation Task Force is looking for new members! Applications will be open until December 19.

Want to represent your community and engage in the regional planning and decision-making process? Apply to be a member of DVRPC’s Public Participation Task Force (PPTF) today!

The mission of DVRPC's PPTF is to provide access to the planning process, host a welcoming forum to discuss and learn about timely issues, assist the Commission in implementing public outreach strategies, and to empower residents to be a part of the planning process. For more details about the PPTF, visit http://www.dvrpc.org/Committees/PPTF/.

Applications for the 2022 cohort will be open through December 19th, 2021. The application is online here: http://www.dvrpc.org/GetInvolved/PPTFApplication/.

Applications open for the city's Environmental Justice Advisory Commission

The City officially opened the application process for the first Environmental Justice Advisory Commission. The commission will provide recommendations to the Mayor, City Council, and Office of Sustainability for how to study and address environmental justice issues in Philadelphia. Ends 12/22

Robert Schalkenbach Foundation / Progress of Ideas Scholarship

The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation (RSF) was founded in 1925 with the mission to promote the ideas of 19^th century social reformer, Henry George. RSF’s Progress of Ideas Scholarship program echoes that original organizational charge in its focus on economic equity and social justice, and its drive to discern and challenge the drivers of inequality in our systems of governance and taxation.

The scholarship supports the cost of attendance for students in fields of study related to the organization’s mission. We are seeking recipients whose lived experiences have engendered in them a commitment to social justice and a drive to make the world a better place for all people. Due 1/31/22

National Safety Council / 2022 Road to Zero Community Traffic Safety Grants

The focus of the Road to Zero Grant Program is on innovative and promising approaches for implementing evidence-based countermeasures, supporting a Safe System Approach, and performing necessary research to address traffic fatalities and improve traffic safety. Ends 1/7/22

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

KensingtonSoccerClub / Director of Development

Temple University / Assistant Director Marketing Analytics

Centennial Parkside Community Development Corporation / Equitable Development Project Manager

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials / Director of Policy and Government Relations

McCormick Taylor, Inc. / Communications Specialist

SEPTA / Corporate Initiatives Manager

Monument Lab / Part-Time Designer, Reporter/Producer

National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) / Program Manager, Communications

Local Progress / Policy & Research Analyst

Independence Blue Cross / Senior Research Analyst

JMT Architecture / Deputy Program Manager for Design

SEPTA / Manager, Strategic Planning

Northern Liberties Business Improvement District / Capital Projects Coordinator – freelance

Drexel’s Nowak Metro Finance Lab / multiple research officers

The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia / Data Analyst: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Fairmount Park Conservancy / Project Manager for Planning and Capital Engagement

World Café Live / Director of Development

City of Philadelphia / VISTA Program Coordinator

Shapiro for Pennsylvania / Policy Department

SEPTA / Deputy General Counsel-Corporate

Pennsylvania Democratic Committee / Various Jobs

City of Philadelphia - Office of Emergency Management / Infrastructure Program Manager

5th Square is Philadelphia's urbanist political action committee.

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