Newsletter: 🏗️ Strong Towns Book Event / 🏙️ Women-Led Cities / 🛣️ Plans for Cobbs Creek Pkwy

Weekly Newsletter, Issue 166

🏗️ BOOK EVENT: CONFESSIONS OF A RECOVERING ENGINEER

Join 5th Square and friends for a guest talk by Chuck Marohn, founder of Strong Towns, at Philly Office Retail at 4701 Germantown Ave.

This Wednesday, 1/19 at 7 PM

The Strong Towns movement embraces how real people respond to the layout and function of streets and buildings, rules and zoning. It aims to grow neighborhoods by promoting prosperity and re-development without displacement.

RSVP Here

Chuck will be giving his Confessions of a Recovering Engineer presentation, where he will lift the curtain on America’s transportation system in his newest book of the same name.

✅🚲🏙️ JOIN US FOR THE 2022 ELECTIONS

Help us decide which Philly-area candidates to support for 2022 races in the PA State Senate and PA State House.

Members will gain exclusive access to vote on our candidate endorsements and can join our discussion to shape our priorities for the upcoming election cycle.

Become a 5th Square member TODAY

Kick off 2022 by helping us advocate for a more sustainable, walkable, and bicycle-friendly Philadelphia!

5TH SQUARE IN THE NEWS
🏙️ A CITY DESIGNED FOR WOMEN

Courtney Duchene of the Philadelphia Citizen writes about how Vienna has ranked as the most livable city in the world for 10 years, in part due to rethinking its urban design with women and children in mind.

Source: The Philadelphia Citizen

Featured are 5th Square members Camille Boggan and Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman who bring this experience home to Philly.

“If you look out your window at a city that you live in anywhere around the world, it’s likely everything that you’re looking at and living in and moving through has been designed and managed by men,” says Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

🛣️ PLANS FOR COBBS CREEK PKWY

Thanks to your advocacy, PennDOT and the City of Philadelphia are going forward with impressive plans to increase safety for all users of Cobbs Creek Parkway & 63rd St in West and Southwest Philly.

PennDOT has opened a Virtual Public Meeting showing the future plans for Cobbs Creek Parkway & 63rd Street. Available until 2/16/22.

View the Plans

If you like these safety improvements as much as we do, please comment in support of the plan. Please also comment with any safety issues that PennDOT is neglecting here.

Comment Here

This is thanks in large part to the advocacy of neighbors and traffic safety supporters who signed our petition back in 2020 and adding power to our voice calling for improvements to this very dangerous stretch of roadway.

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

WHAT WE'RE READING

🏙️ HOUSING & LAND USE

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Fairmount fire must be Philly’s wake-up call for safe, affordable housing | Editorial

The New York Times / 18 People, a Deadly Fire: For Some, Crowded Housing Is Not a Choice

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Multiple families lived in the apartment where 12 died. Philly’s lack of affordable housing points to why.

WHYY / Opinion: My housing situation is a catastrophe waiting to happen. I’m not alone

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Philly needs more affordable housing. Is a new bill a solution? | Pro/Con

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Neighbors — and a city councilmember — clash over latest push to revive a Germantown landmark

🌳 PUBLIC SPACE

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Let’s fight to keep FDR Park wild | Opinion

The Atlantic / Stop Fetishizing Old Homes

Governing / Retail Revival: Tough, but Not Impossible

🚌 TRANSIT

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Pa. will get $1.6 billion to fix bridges, like the MLK Bridge across the Schuylkill

Wired / Public Transit Systems Refocus on Their Core Riders

Bloomberg.com / Picture a Better Way to Protect Bus Lanes

🚴 MOBILITY

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia / There's Strong Neighborhood Support for a Safer Washington Ave

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Philly is trying a new bike rack to stop cars from blocking fire hydrants

Streetsblog USA / D.C. ‘Parking Cash Out’ Law Makes Employers Refund Workers Who Don’t Drive

VOLUNTEER with 5th Square

GRANT & FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

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

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Norris Square Neighborhood Project / full-time Urban Garden Manager

Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. /

Caring for Friends / Digital Media Coordinator

Azavea / Senior Software Engineer (Scala)

DIGSAU / Architect/Designer II, Research Specialist

Community Legal Services / Receptionist, Administrative Coordinator, Staff Accountant, Paralegals, Staff Attorneys, Peer Parent Advocate, Internship

South Philly Food Co-op / Front end manager (Application)

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) / Events Coordinator, State Auditor-in-Residence, Public Affairs Specialist(s), Data Science Fellowship Program

PearsonRavitz / Client Services Specialist

Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Democratic Caucus - District Office 184- Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler / District Office Director

Pennoni / GIS Analyst, GIS Technician

Public Interest Law Center / Manager, Foundation Relations

Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia / Policy Director, Education Programs Manager, Part-Time Mechanic

City of Philadelphia / Now hiring crossing guards: part-time job with benefits

Maas Building / Manager & Events Coordinator

Lehigh Valley Planning Comm / Director of Regional Planning, Program Associate for Community Engagement in Allentown

Allan Domb Real Estate / Executive Personal Assistant

Bread & Roses Community Fund / Development Coordinator, Program Coordinator

Oonee / Communications and Planning Associate

Philadelphia Outward Bound School / DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Open Plans, New York City / Policy Associate

Amtrak / Sr Govt Affairs Specialist

City of Philadelphia - Office of Innovation & Technology / Smart City Coordinator

City of Philadelphia - PHL Service Design Studio / Visual design fellow

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

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