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.

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. 

If next week were a normal week, on Monday you could expect to read our weekly digest of the most interesting bills introduced in City Council the previous Thursday. But there won't be any new bills introduced this week, because City Council is going on holiday break...for the next two months.

In which Derek Green and Al Taubenberger propose increasing the reward for reporting on short-dumping; Several Councilmembers propose some basic accommodations for pedestrians near construction sites; Mark Squilla proposes a crackdown on SLAPP lawsuits and a rezoning of Queen Village; and Curtis Jones, Helen Gym, and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez request an update on the Police Department's body camera project.

In which Blondell Reynolds Brown, Al Taubenberger, and Mark Squilla propose a new fee to fund the Historical Commission; David Oh proposes repaying teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies; Darrell Clarke and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez put some land in the Land Bank; and several Councilmembers call for a hearing on turning Philadelphia into a "zero waste" city.

In which Bill Greenlee proposes some fixes to city towing regulations; Councilmembers deposit some land into the Land Bank and exempt publicly-owned properties from stormwater fees; Allan Domb, Bill Greenlee, and Darrell Clarke propose some basic tracking of tax incentives; and David Oh proposes clarifying the protocol for parking by broken parking meters.

In which Blondell Reynolds-Brown calls for a sustainability pro on the Civic Design Review Committee; Darrell Clarke (via Bill Greenlee) proposes upzoning parts of Logan Square; Bobby Henon proposes changing the way city contracts are awarded; Kenyatta Johnson proposes buying some land near the airport; Derek Green, Helen Gym, and Mark Squilla propose giving L+I the power to shut down discriminatory businesses; and everybody except Darrell Clarke, Bill Greenlee, and Maria Quinones-Sanchez calls for hearings on increasing the number of buffered and protected bike lanes.

In which Maria Quinones-Sanchez tries to tone down the reality TV pizzazz of our local towing industry; Council calls for hearings on the distribution of City contracts for Rebuild projects; and Derek Green, Cherelle Parker, and Mark Squilla hold hearings to introduce the Commerce Department's new small business lending consortium.

David Oh's office got smacked with yet more fines from the Ethics Board for doing political campaign work on city time, reports Tricia Nadolny. 

In which Derek Green and Bobby Henon propose rules regulating the locations of medical marijuana dispensaries; Mark Squilla proposes allowing more housing near the future Rail Park; Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, Kenyatta Johnson, and Bill Greenlee (for Darrell Clarke) transfer some more public properties to the Land Bank; and Cindy Bass calls for hearings on increasing City WiFi access.