Jabari Jones/Facebook photo.

Jabari K. Jones, a community advocate and small-business advocate, announced his candidacy for the City Council’s 3rd District seat on Friday. He will run against incumbent Jamie Gauthier in the 2023 primary election. Gauthier kicked off her re-election campaign on January 21.

“I have been called to run for this seat by residents that want results over rhetoric and problem solving over photo ops,” Jones said in a statement prior to Friday’s event. “Our community deserves bold leadership that understands the effect of legislation and holds the government accountable to the people of the Third District.”

Jones has said that gun violence, housing, and developing economic opportunities for the community are the reasons he is running for City Council. As The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription-based service) noted last week, Jones would focus more on solving crime than unproven prevention strategies. Continue Reading

Two long-time local groups, People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and Youth Service, Inc., announced their plan to integrate into one agency in November 2019 and officially began operating as a single organization, named HopePHL (pronounced “hopeful”), this month.

The merger marked the conclusion of a three-year integration process that blended staff, organizational culture and programs into a new comprehensive service organization for families, youth and children across Philadelphia. Together, they were recognized for 120 combined years of service excellence in 2022.

HopePHL’s mission is to inspire Philadelphia’s children, youth, families and communities to thrive by providing housing, advocacy, and trauma-responsive social services designed to promote equity, resilience, autonomy, and well-being. Continue Reading

SEPTA is pushing back the revamping of its bus routes and schedules – a project dubbed “Bus Revolution” – until Fall 2024 after riders criticized the plan in a public meeting earlier this week.

SEPTA officials have said that the changes would streamline the system by prioritizing busy routes. But riders and public officials complained in a City Council hearing on Monday that the elimination of some stops and routes would be disruptive to many passengers, including students and seniors. The current plan reduces the number of routes from 125 to 99 but would increase the frequency of buses on high frequency routes like the 52 along 52nd Street.

SEPTA officials said they would revise the project and have an update in early spring and begin a new round of community hearings in the spring and summer.

This would be the first major overhaul of the bus system in 60 years.

UPDATE (1/28/23): Supremo Food Market has reopened after a new inspection by the city health department, carried out on Jan. 27, deemed it safe to reopen. The store remained closed for more than a week.

(January 23, 2023): Supremo Food Market at 43rd and Walnut has been closed since Thursday because of numerous health code violations, including evidence of mice.

An inspector from the city health department noted a “gnawed package of cookies” on a store shelf, a dead mouse under one of the shelves and mouse droppings at various locations in the store, including “on the cutting board and the plastic sealing machine in the produce area,” according to an inspection report posted today. The report is the second in four days citing “imminent health hazards” that led to the closure of the supermarket last Thursday.

Supremo will be closed until at least Wednesday morning, according to the report.

Calls to the supermarket for comment were not answered.

Supremo was closed briefly in October for similar violations.

As gun violence in the city remained at record high levels last year for the third consecutive year, several local non-profit organizations have been awarded more than $9.5 million in state funding to help develop or sustain violence intervention and prevention programs. Among them are Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania and YEAH Philly. The announcement was made by State Rep. Rick Krajewski’s office on January 19.

Here’s the full list of the grant recipient organizations and some details on their violence prevention/intervention programs.

• Anti-Drug & Alcohol Crusaders Inc. was awarded $169,000 to provide evidence-based violence prevention education and positive alternative activities for students participating in their Safe Haven Out-of-School Time (OST) program located at Hardy Williams Elementary Mastery Charter School. The school is located in Southwest Philadelphia where violence/gun violence has increased. Funds will support salaries and benefits for personnel; program curricula, supplies, and materials; training on the evidence-based curricula; incentives and alternative activities such as dance, music, art therapy, drama, martial arts, and sports; field trips; celebrations; and indirect/administrative costs. Continue Reading

The City Council will hold a public hearing Monday on SEPTA’s Bus Revolution project, the plan to overhaul its bus network, which has drawn criticism from residents and elected officials.

The council’s Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities will hold a virtual public hearing beginning at 10 a.m. “to examine the approach and expected impacts of SEPTA’s Bus Revolution service reconfiguration.”

SEPTA’s plan cuts several routes and prioritizes high-use routes – like the 52 through West Philly – with promises of shorter wait times and more direct routes. But riders have complained that the changes will leave some residents, including some in Southwest Philly, with diminished service. Continue Reading