City Council To Regulate Buses, Dentists

The Inquirer’s Heard in the Hall blog reports on the lame duck City Council session that begins today. Any bills not passed during the three-week session will have to be introduced when the new council is sworn in next year, which is pretty much the same group of people anyway.

Still, it’s a pain to get legislation introduced or something, so City Council is rushing to get a whole boatload of bills passed. Blondell Reynolds Brown wants to pass a bill “that would require dentists to provide some degree of disclosure about the mercury contained in fillings.” Brown also wants to ban kids from fundraising in the street, which means the police are going to get to arrest little kids or something. Hilarious! Darrell Clarke wants to make it illegal to burn a cross or hang a noose.

More »

City Again To Make Unhealthy Food Healthier

As election day for City Council draws closer, incumbent City Council members are pushing through bills in order to, ah, keep their jobs. Makes sense. Since January, City Council has passed or proposed a blunt-style cigar ban (since thrown out by the courts), a trans fat ban, a bill to help people cross the street, a tour-guide licensing bill and, of course, a bill calling for Don Imus’ firing.

I’m not quite sure how some of those bills got through before this newest one from Councilwoman Carol Campbell, because this one might actually be the best yet. Campbell is proposing doubling the number of times food carts are inspected per year.

“Things don’t always look as clean as they should. They really don’t. I think you have to be concerned about what goes into people’s stomachs.”

Yeah, this is actually pretty much the best thing Council has done all year. (Oh, yea, they passed some sort of bill to guarantee a living wage for certain workers. Bor-ing!) Too bad doubling the number of food truck inspections would make the total number of times food trucks are inspected per year at (all together now) 2.

Eh, I haven’t gotten sick from a cart yet.

City Councilwoman Wants Food Carts Inspected Twice A Year [KYW 1060]

Get Ready For More Of This In The Coming Weeks

Last fall, five security cameras were installed along the 54th Street corridor. Hooray, everyone said. Government surveillance in the name of protection! But it wasn’t exactly government surveillance, as the cameras were run by the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp. And it also wasn’t exactly government surveillance because the cameras don’t really work.

Well, they work, but only sometimes. But the cameras are only checked every two weeks to make sure they’re working, so it’s sort of a pointless exercise even if the cameras are working. Naturally, the former head of the PCDC, Curtis Jones, is running for City Council (against Carol Campbell in the 4th District). And so, surprise!, here comes a story about Jones’ PCDC, less than two months before election time.

Of course, Jones didn’t do himself any favors by telling an old lady she was a liar on camera and later finding out that, no, the camera wasn’t working. The link comes from the YouTube user DontVoteCuritsJones, who one can only assume is against Curtis Jones as well.

Security Cameras Not Always Working [6 ABC]
Curtis Jones Freaks Out (and Lies) To Old Woman [YouTube]

Democratic Machine Sees Popular Outsider, Changes Rules To Make It Harder For Outsider To Win

A poll yesterday showing Tom Knox doing well in the mayor’s race got City Council’s panties all in a bunch.

“Oh no,” they must have thought. “What do we do if this new guy wins! We might actually have to help our constituents, do actual work and not just sit around and opine about how great we are all day. Fuck! How can we fix it so Bob Brady can win and the city can keep napping toward greatness?!”

And Jim Kenney came up with a plan. He’s going to change the campaign-finance rules to make it easier for Bob Brady to win. Yes, that’s right, folks. City Council wants Brady to win, and if they want Brady to win, they’re going to get Bob Brady in office, whether you peons like it or not!

Kenney’s measure changes the campaign finance reform laws so if a candidate donates $2 million to his own campaign, all the rules are gone. City Councilwoman Carol Campbell also spoke in favor of the bill in hopes it would make the election fair. Campbell supports fair elections so much she was pretty much appointed to her City Council seat.

“The campaign finance limits have opened the door to a candidate who buys City Hall,” Kenney said. “We have unintentionally created an opportunity for an unlevel playing field.”

Yep. As opposed to, y’know, campaign contributors buying City Hall.

Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Stunned by Knox poll, council ready to rewrite reforms [Inquirer]
Yesterday: Tom Knox To Depress His Way To Mayordom?