>The email did not note that the subpoenas are being sent out because the company would not turn over data about host addresses to the city without a formal request.

Sounds a lot like AirBnB is trying to exert political pressure on the city by getting hosts up in arms.

​

>“Maybe I’ll just sell [the triplex] and move to Florida, where I can do business without the government being insane,” said Romero.

This fits very well with my theory that Florida is a magnet that will slowly draw all the worst people out of the better states. One step closer to living in paradise, baby!

Speaking of internet rage bait...

This "only 7" stat seems to be about how many schools have certified librarians -- not the number of schools that have libraries.

Couple of things about that:

• Libraries seem to be under-invested in, and some schools don't have them. Agreed.
• I don't know the number of schools with libraries. It probably depends a lot on how you define a library, but I would bet a bunch of money that if you use a normal-person definition like "a dedicated area with a sufficient number of books and a borrowing system," then the number is much higher than 7.
• I was never clear on what our school librarians did, and I'm still not. Did they need a certification to keep the shelves stocked, answer questions, and recommend books? Are students even coming to school librarians to ask questions or ask for book recommendations these days?
• Stop the internet rage bait, please, or at least the irony of calling out internet rage bait in an internet rage bait post.

My Geico rate was going to renew with a 40% jump. No accidents/incidents/tickets, recently or ever. If I hadn't looked into their (fairly confusing) billing documentation before renewal and given them a call to confirm, I wouldn't have even noticed until it was too late. Shopped around and the best new quote I could find (which roughly split the difference between my old rate and my new rate with Geico) was with Progressive. FYI you only get the max available discounts if you sign with them a week or more before your current policy expires.

Update: The spill made Democracy Now's 15-minute world news report -- as did the chocolate factory explosion that killed 7 in Reading. They also ran a segment later on (it's a 1-hour podcast total) about how a quarter of humanity lacks access to clean drinking water. I'm guessing this was the only (non local) daily news roundup to address any of this. Certainly did not make NPR's Up First, NYT's The Daily, BBC Global News Podcast, or WSJ's What's News.

Amy Goodman, every day: https://www.democracynow.org/shows

Stat of the day: 70% of Philadelphians are in the back of an Uber right now. (I assume the other 30% are the ones driving them.)

My up/down is great and as advertised -- around 250 each with strong signal, sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower.

BUT I will say that the router they provide has frustrating periods of weak signal that effectively kills the bandwidth. There will be one day every two weeks (maybe? on average?) where for 20 minutes of every 30, just being at my desk 15 feet / two walls away will drop me down to 3-5 mbps, with my Windows wifi signal showing 2 or 3 bars out of 4. It's a mystery, and can be very frustrating, because with my partner and I each working from home on opposite sides of the apartment with the router in our bedroom in the middle, during those periods neither of us has good signal.

It doesn't seem all that complicated to me. It looks like this is an umbrella org that provides logistical/financial support for a lot of local leftist causes -- including some really excellent orgs -- that are too small to do/fund certain things themselves. I'm guessing that the Philly Community Bail Fund is probably the org that actually made the decision.

>So it seems that you are attributing all the positives in cities during 2008-2014 to ex-President Obama then.

Not really, no. I think there are some large-scale social phenomena that are just tough to explain. Going back to crime data (which, as I mentioned earlier, is what I know more about, so this is what I feel more comfortable dealing with -- and I also think crime/safety has a lot of knock-on effects that result in things like business development and cities "getting better" etc), there was somewhat of a global downward trend in homicides from 1990-2015 that no one has a particularly good explanation for either. Less pronounced than in the U.S., but still very noticeable and definitely statistically significant.

Anyway, I'll stop here, because I feel like you think I'm trying to fight with you. I'm really not. You might be right, for all I know -- maybe Nutter really was better than Street. IMO he was probably better than Kenney even under my stricter criteria, because most recently under Kenney Philly has actually been defying the national violent crime trends (and very much in the wrong direction). Ultimately I am trying encourage people to probe a bit more into the question of what indicates a "good mayor" and why. I appreciate you for engaging.

I was not living here, but the city that I was living in also changed greatly for the better during that time -- as did downtowns across the country.

So, just to be clear: I'm not saying that Philly didn't change for the better under Mayor X or Plan Y. I believe you when you say that it did -- and, specific to 2008-2014, I'd be a little surprised if it didn't. What I am saying is that if you're going to subscribe to a Great Mayor Theory, there's a higher bar than, "the city followed trends seen in most other American cities during that time." You wouldn't keep paying a financial advisor whose investments on your behalf merely tracked the market, even if that meant you got a 20% return, because an index fund would have accomplished the same thing.

Cherelle Parker was 100% vibes last night. Truly verging on stream of consciousness. Gym's answers seemed direct and crystal clear by contrast.

This may not be what "accountability" looks like to you but FWIW she apologized swiftly & publicly for the Union League debacle.

I'm sure there are a lot of pieces to this claim, but I'm just going to take the one I'm most knowledgeable on: "Homicides and violent crime hit record lows during my administration" (specifically 2013). Guess what? Homicides and violent crime bottomed out nationwide in 2013-14, then started trending up again everywhere after that (including in Philly, including in the last two years of Nutter's administration).

I'm tired of politicians who take credit for being in the right place at the right time. That's a signal that doesn't need boosting.

Right, to clarify, I was saying was that the dick move was cutting her off when she tried to say anything about the bill in her answer. The question itself was a fair one and I'm disappointed that Gym dodged it.

I've been to two of these events (4 candidates), and my observation is that Nutter has consistently been leaning into a "tough guy asking tough questions" vibe. He likes his "lightning rounds," even though it's obviously ridiculous to expect an illuminating answer to "All-time most/greatest/worst ___" in 30 seconds. IMO his treatment of Rhynhart ("Some people are saying you aren't tough enough for this job; are you tough enough for this job?") did as much of a disservice to her as his treatment of Gym ("How are you not a hypocrite?"), just in a different way.

What this article doesn't mention is that early on in her interview (in response to a question from the first interviewer, I think), Gym straight-up accused the last several mayors of either completely ignoring or actively working to undermine public education. You can see why that might have raised Nutter's hackles. I am torn between appreciating Gym for being willing to stick her neck out and say what she believes (I think too many politicians follow the path of least resistance to [re-]election), and feeling like it shows really bad judgment to pick a fight with one of your interviewers.

On the flip side, as others here have already said, Nutter had the opportunity to be the adult in the room and focus on doing his job -- interviewing the candidate for our collective edification -- instead of defending his record. He chose to defend his record.

It was also kind of a dick move for him to ask Gym about a specific bill in a public forum (he loves leading with the bill number, which I think is just another tactic to make them sweat), and then cut her off when she tried to (very briefly) characterize that bill. No one cares whether you understand the bill, Nutter; the real audience is the other 250 people sitting here. Gym pushed back firmly on that and was right to do so.

Sorry your question got such a non-answer from Parker. I wholeheartedly agree with "we need a walkable city, not just a city built for cars," but she didn't seem to be directly addressing the question at all.

First thing to do is check whether your whetstone is a waterstone or an oilstone. (Lest you think I'm being patronizing, I for one used to think "whet" was "wet" as in "water." This is not the case!) Then make sure you use that term in your YouTube search so that you find the right vids. Also, some waterstones require 15-30 minutes of soaking beforehand, while newer ones (ceramic, Arkansas) do not.

You're not going to be removing a ton of material at once with a stone, so personally I don't think it's a high risk thing to attempt on your own knives. (That said, YMMV and please don't come after me with said knives kthx.) Just don't do anything crazy, like running the knife 90 degrees to or along the corner of the stone, and you'll be very unlikely to ruin anything.

Saw someone changing the plate of the car parked in front of mine yesterday evening but there's really not much you can do. Like... maybe the guy just bought or renewed the registration on the vehicle and was putting on his new plate!

Probably not. But maybe!

Wow. Conflicts of interest aside, this guy is getting $200,000/year for doing what exactly?

In case anyone else was wondering, "Why do we have a sheriff's office and what does it even do": the Citizen has a good explainer, and here are two different editorials saying we just shouldn't.

I mean, if you can ever find the place...

So much of this here. "It's a left-hand bike lane... now it's a right-hand bike lane... now it's just a regular lane for cars! Psych!" I was going south on 15th yesterday and when I hit Spring Garden I thought, "Oh cool! A bike lane!" (Left-hand side.) Crossed traffic to get over to the left only to find that it lasted for two blocks and then at Callowhill I had to not only cross back over to the right (for safety -- no bike lane), but I also had to avoid getting hit by the cars coming down the Vine St Expressway off-ramp. Total bait & switch.

When you find them, get a meal together at Kpod. The kpop vibes are very strong with that place.

The trolleys & bus situation is mixed -- the network is pretty dense, but you have to build in extra wait time because you often don't get real-time location updates / arrival estimates. SEPTA has advanced a plan to reduce some bus routes but increase frequency on the popular ones, which I would love given where we live, but a lot of people are up in arms about it and it seems in doubt.

P.S. Do you bike? We moved here last year, and one of the things we put a big premium on was living reasonably close to the Schuylkill River Trail. That puts us about 15 minutes from center city and lets us visit our friends in the almost-burbs (like Manayunk) -- and crucially, it's safe.

Our place is about 800sf, with electric heat, and we paid about $200 last month :-( We are luxurious princesses and keep the heat at 69 during the day (nice!), 63 at night.