Measuring the Power of Philly Ward Sample Ballots
If you're thinking about running for a ward seat for the first time in 2018, one question you may be asking is "how much influence do wards really have over who wins elections?"
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Council Report Card: Back to School Edition
City Council has been on winter break for seven weeks, but they're back and ready for action. Or at least for filing some bills. Our Council Report Card is back too, with a weekly look at the top bills introduced in City Council. You can track the status of prior bills we've written about here. One quick note: this week's Report Card contains bills introduced last Thursday, so they're about a week old. We'll have the latest bills up early next week.
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'Get Mad, Then Get Elected': Five Takeaways from our Ward Elections Workshop
Over the past two weeks, Philadelphia 3.0 hosted two sold-out 'Get Mad, Then Get Elected' workshops that helped prepare nearly 200 Philadelphians from over half the citys wards to run for their first political office next year in the 2018 ward elections.
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Despite Retrograde Liquor Policies, PA Has Higher Binge Drinking Rate
Back in the 30's, when the end of Prohibition was within sight, Pennsylvania's Prohibitionist Governor Gifford Pinchot saw the writing on the wall and created a Prohibition-lite framework for regulating alcohol in Pennsylvania. His stated goal was to "discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible."
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City Land Sales Need Less City Council Meddling, Not More
Back in 2014, the City of Philadelphia created a Land Bank to manage the disposition of the City's huge stockpiles of vacant property. Philadelphia owns a lot more land than most other big city governments do, and people on all sides of this issue generally agree it would be a good thing if we owned less.
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Mayor Kenney's 'Zero Waste' Initiative Should Restore Street Sweeping Services
(We used to do this | Photo: Philly History)
Mayor Jim Kenney announced the creation of a Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet this week, which will spend the next six months figuring out how to turn Philadelphia into a "zero waste" city by 2035.
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It's Illegal to Build Apartments on the Vast Majority of Philadelphia Land
The Philadelphia Fed's new study on gentrification made a big splash recently with the finding that between 2000 and 2014, the city lost one-fifth of its affordable rental units--23,628 in total.
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How Much Does Ballot Position Impact Philly Vote Totals?
Everybody knows that a candidate's ballot position has an impact on his or her chances of being elected, but it's always been unclear exactly how large the effect is.
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With Lowest 'For Sale' Inventory in 16 Years, Philly's Housing Boom Isn't Over Yet
While various housing commentators have wanted to call the top of the market for Philly's post-recession housing boom for a couple years now, this chart created by our friend Jake Liefer should pour cold water on that notion.
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Listen to Philadelphia 3.0 on WHYY's Radio Times
Our campaign to recruit people to run for ward elections in 2018 has been picking up steam for the last month, and local media is taking notice. We sold out both of our January workshops, which will train 200 people on the nuts and bolts of winning ward elections, some of the neighborhood teams we've helped organize are already starting to meet already, and sign-ups continue to roll in through our web form.
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