Terrorist Raccoon Eats Symbol Of National Pride

Aw, remember the eagles at the Navy Yard? They had formed the first nest in like 700 years or whatever and were all set on having a happy eagle family right near where the Eagles play. They’d be, like, unofficial mascots!

Well, now they’re dead. Well, okay, only the potential eagles — eggs, I suppose — are dead, and the eagles are gone. Although I suspected a jealous Swoop for the crime, investigators now suspect one or more of the eggs hatched, but the little eaglets were eaten by a raccoon.

Obviously, right? They already have the little Repo Man masks. The eagles may return next year, so the Navy Yard won’t be able to be developed or something. Now we just have to do something about the raccoon problem.

Eagles nest at Navy Yard has failed; officials suspect predator ate eaglet [Inquirer]

Rittenhouse Vibrant Despite Loss Of Chain Store HQ

Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, the limerent object of many of Philadelphia blogger, has a piece in this month’s Metropolis about the shiny new-ish Urban Outfitters headquarters down at the Navy Yard.

It’s, as usual, a fine article about the buildings; in a contrast to what Robert A. M. Stern Architects did for a city planning commission, the Urban headquarters kept in remnants from the building’s past. (And, for example, wood was reclaimed from a convent’s school’s basketball court, and added into the project. Neat!) Judging from the photos, the whole look is so much more better than any one-liner t-shirt.

And while the loss of any Center City business besides Dollar-O-Rama or whatever is a disappointment, I don’t think we were ever in this much danger:

When I first heard that Philadelphia’s Urban Outfitters (UO) was relocating its headquarters from its cozy Rittenhouse Square offices to the city’s decommissioned navy yard, it sounded like bad news for every­­one concerned. The idea of yanking more than 600 of Philadelphia’s most creative—not to mention best-dressed —workers out of downtown was the equivalent of exiling Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion houses to an industrial park near JFK. Losing so many trendsetters would surely diminish the Center City District’s hard-won cool quotient.

She’s right a bit, though. Now that Urban is positioned like 20 blocks south of the Wachovia Center, my personal cool quotient has dipped a bit.

A Stitch in Time [Metropolis]
Philly’s Best New Company HQ? Forget Comcast. Try Urban Outfitters [Skyline Online]

More Details On Navy Yard Shooting

As more details about the city’s bloodiest shooting since the Lex Street Massacre come out, the story continues to become more confusing.

The story is this: Vincent Dortch entered a conference room for a meeting with three investors. He carried with him two bags with a semiautomatic Glock and an AK pistol. He apparently believed he had been defrauded by the executive board of Watson International, which he allegedly invested his wife’s retirement fund in.

At the meeting, he launched into a tirade and eventually bound four of the six the men in the conference room with him. Dortch then executed three people and went to his car with two of the survivors to ostensibly go to New York to kill a fourth Watson official. The men convinced him otherwise, and he returned to the offices to tie those two men up. Patrick Sweeney, who was also shot with the three deceased victims, was able to put a phone cord back together and call 911, leading to a shootout with police and Dortch eventually taking his own life.

There really only is one word for it: Insanity. More details — and probably more questions — to come.

Gunman: ‘Say Your Prayers’ [Daily News]
Navy Yard | Investor rage, lethal trap [Inquirer]

Four Dead In Navy Yard Shooting

It was like the City of Philadelphia woke up and said, “Hey, we haven’t had a murder in a while. Let’s make this next one really memorable!”

Last night at the old Navy Yard, three people were killed and a fourth critically injured before the gunman committed suicide, allegedly after a dispute over money at a board meeting.

The papers have conflicting reports about what business it actually was; the Daily News reports “much of the bizarre mayhem took place inside the second-story offices of Zigzag.net, a prominent black-owned advertising and marketing firm based in a business center near the banks of the Delaware River,” while the Inquirer says “the shootings occurred about 8:30 p.m. during a meeting of the board of directors of a company called Watson International.” So, ah, the biz is Watson International but the shootings took place at Zigzag.net. Of course.

It’s the worst killing in the city since the Lex Street Massacre in 2001 where seven people died and three were injured. Apparently the conference room scene was “utter chaos.” More on this as more information comes out.

Gunman kills 3, then himself at Navy Yard [Inquirer]
4 ARE SLAIN IN S. PHILA. [Daily News]