In other news

1. Philadelphia Mayor John Street's call to end homelessness gets a little more flesh in a piece today.

   Street said the goal would be achieved through better coordination of existing services, construction of 600 new units - 25 a month - of subsidized housing for homeless people, and the addition of 100 beds for the chronically homeless.

   Some experts are being asked to recommend specifics.
   
   
2. In a related announcement, Street calls for a special fund to help low-income residents with steep winter heating bills. This might supplement federal LIHEAP support, to which neither the state nor city currently contribute. Street also encouraged better-off Philadelphians to "adopt a family" to help see everybody through.
   
   
3. Continuing the theme of bucking up the local community, PA Governor Ed Rendell ponies up $16 million to expand the convention center.

   The money will be used by PCCA to do the kind of work that needs to be done before construction crews move in: preparing bid documents and screening potential contractors, for example. A second agreement authorizes the city's Redevelopment Authority to use some of the money to hire real-estate appraisers and begin obtaining appraisals of properties needed for the expansion.

   I wonder if the return to discussions of this was spurred by the increased business coming our way after the closing of the New Orleans convention center (see here).
   
   
4. The Fairmont Parks Commission has approved funds for an overhaul of little-known Franklin Park, one of the lynchpins of the original streetmap of Philadelphia (along Logan Circle, Rittenhouse Square, and Washington Square Park, each taking one corner of a rectangle), but eclipsed by the highway and bridge entrances. The proposal is only sketched here, which leaves me with the sense of an odd mix of restoration and modern additions (a big screen for news and films?)...