Center City : In The News

Philadelphia's approach to making government data public differs from other efforts around the country, and it's paying off, according to GovFresh.

Several months ago, with the unveiling of the OpenDataPhilly website, the City of Philadelphia joined the growing fraternity of cities across the country and around the world to release municipal data sets in open, developer friendly formats. But the City of Brotherly Love did things a bit differently than most of its contemporaries.

The city actively partnered with outside parties, private firms, not-for-profits and universities to help set the direction of the city’s open data efforts. The OpenDataPhilly website itself, although it’s brimming with data collected and maintained by the city, was developed by the geospatial and civic application firm Azavea, and is not hosted or operated by the city.  The website, and the larger open data effort in Philadelphia, operates under the stewardship of a group made up of both public sector and private sector partners.

Source: GovFresh
Read the full story here.

Local restaurants are getting a reputation for farm fresh ingredients, according to OffManhattan.

To taste the freshest produce in the region, you can shop one of the city’s many farmers market, haul your selections back home, and crack open a cookbook. Or you can take the effortless route, and settle into one of the top farm-to-table restaurants in Philadelphia.

Uniquely positioned between ‘Jersey Fresh’ territory and Amish Country, Philly offers its chefs an impressive variety of local, seasonal ingredients from which to craft their award-winning menus. And diners will be excited to know that much of this produce makes its way from farm to plate just one day after harvesting. Yes, the peppery radishes and buttery greens in your appetizer salad may have been plucked from the dirt just hours ago.

Source: OffManhattan
Read the full story here.

Philadelphia's rich landscape heritage makes for a city painted in shades of green, according to The Huffington Post.

The transformation of the urban core, as I've written before, is hot, hot, hot. Currently, there's a great deal of attention focused (justifiably) on the much-talked-about opening of the second phase of the much-talked-about High Line in New York, which has put yet more vim into that city's vigor. But if you want to see some serious va-va-voom, set your sites on Philadelphia (and don't get all snarky quoting W. C. Fields now). Philadelphia's exceptional array of parks and open spaces, and the visionary, entrepreneurial and civic-minded people behind them, is where to really see a city center in high gear (and the BYOB restaurant scene is taste bud nirvana).

For more than three centuries, city planning, landscape architecture and a unique civic ambition that emphasizes horticulture as much as the pedestrian experience in its public spaces and streetscapes, have made Philadelphia a fascinating city. From the five squares that were at the core of William Penn's 1683 plan to Dan Kiley's mid-20th-century design for Independence Mall, which connected Franklin Square to the north and Washington Square to the south, the city has a landscape heritage that few others can boast.

Source: The Huffington Post
Read the full story here.

Art in America is enamored with Philadelphia's art scene and the latest Claes Oldenburg public sculpture, a 51-foot tall, turned over paintbrush recently installed and opening Oct. 1.

This tilted sculpture, with red bristles that will illuminate, is situated between the academy's museum and the art school, "so the idea was to have something that would mediate between the two," Oldenburg told A.i.A.. The form and subject of the work "comes from the museum, which is known for its paintings, and the school, which is one of the few institutions that encourages painting, or the use of a brush. The brush is also very much a sculpture so you have a form that is both sculptural and painterly. It suggests two approaches."

Oldenburg, whose work has grown in scale as his career has progressed, has three prior public sculptures in Philadelphia (his biggest presence in the world). Clothespin, a 45-foot-tall Cor-Ten rendering that alludes to Brancusi's Kiss, was the first, positioned in front of City Hall in 1976.

Original source: Art in America
Read the full story here.

With 18 companies, the Philadelphia metro area ranked fifth on the recently released Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing companies. The Philadelphia region placed nearly 150 companies among Inc.'s 5,000 fastest-growing companies. Flying Kite parent company Issue Media Group made the list for the second consecutive year, rating as the 25th-fastest growing media company in the country.

Here's Greater Philadelphia's fastest in the top 500 (percent growth, revenue in parentheses):

24 - re2g (7,493%, $10.6 million) PA
48 - Leadnomics (3,932%, $5.8 million) PA
67 - NextDocs (3,213%, $9.8 million) PA
123 - Petplan (2,207%, $18.7 million) PA
150 - Optimal Strategix Group (1,878%, $6.5 million) PA
151 - Free For All (1,871%, $2.5 million) NJ
182 - Magic Hat Consulting (1,669%, $3.4 million) PA
214 - Aromatic Fusion (1,455%, $5.3 million) PA
238 - Decision Distribution (1,335%, $34.5 million) PA
272 - Ohana Companies (1,187%, $8.4 million) DE

Original source: Inc. 500
Read the full story here.

The increasingly famous punk rockers from Lansdale, The Wonder Years, filmed their new music video in Philadelphia, which provided much inspiration for their newest full-length release Suburbia, according to Glasswerk National.

The Wonder Years have unveiled their new video for track "Local Man Ruins Everything". Filmed in the band's hometown of Philadelphia, PA, it includes locations that were inspired by and mentioned in their newest full-length Suburbia, I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing. The band are heading to the UK this September for a headline tour, following their stint earlier this year on the Kerrang! Tour. Dan "Soupy" Campbell of the band comments: "We're stoked to announce that, in support of our new record Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing, we'll be coming back to the UK! Even more exciting than that, we'll be bringing Such Gold and Valencia with us! It's going to be awesome and we hope to see you all there!"

Source: Glasswerk National (UK)
Read the full story here.

Former New Jersey state CTO Adel Ebeid moves into the newly created post of Chief Innovation Officer of the City of Philadelphia, according to Technically Philly.

Described as "the perfect immigrant story" by the city's Managing Director Rich Negrin, Ebeid, who was born in Egypt but raised in Jersey City after losing as a teenager his father to cancer, rose through the ranks of New Jersey state government to become among the only cabinet level leaders that fiery Governor Chris Christie kept on. Now, after 'flatly' turning down the offer, the soft spoken and succinct Ebeid is preparing to move his wife and new daughter to a city he admits he doesn't know well to help inject innovation into the City of Philadelphia.

Source: Technically Philly
Read the full story here.

The grassroots soul music movement of Philadelphia that created The Roots and Musiq Soulchild hasn't disappeared, and its latest practitioners are worth seeking out, according to Urban Cusp.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Philadelphia had one of the most diverse and respected cultural scenes on the East Coast. One could walk down South Street and hear poets on the corner, see Rasta street vendors selling patchouli and flags, and not make it too far down the block without receiving at least two hand-bills advertising upcoming events. You could walk on UPenn and Temple's campuses and see a range from tattooed Rockers with spiked hair to B-Boy wannabes in full Adidas gear. The culture was so bountiful that it made you stop and ask, "Are we still in Philly or is this Brooklyn?" But, now it almost seems like the diversity has disappeared or at least gone into hiding. Where did all of the culture go? Have all of the true artists been pushed out? Have they sold out or have they all given up and relocated to New York and DC?

Source: Urban Cusp
Read the full story here.

The Associated Press checks in on Philly-based online kids' bookstore Monkeyreader donates 5 percent of profits to childhood literacy.

Once upon a time, there was a bookstore. One day, the bookstore went away and reopened online with a new name and a mission to combat childhood illiteracy.

The rest of the story of year-old e-tailer MonkeyReader.com is still being written but its founders hope the ending will be happy�and successful.

"We're beginning, we're growing, we have a lot of great ideas," co-founder David Lenett of the venture, a successor of the Discovery Bookshop, a popular Philadelphia children's bookstore that closed in the 1990s and became an online storefront that evolved into the more interactive MonkeyReader site. 

Source: The Associated Press
Read the full story here.

This month, Philadelphia GayFest! presents four GLBT-themed plays and a reading at the Shubin Theater, according to Passport Magazine.

August gets very gay in Philadelphia with the debut of GayFest!, a new GLBT theater festival presented by Quince Productions. With four plays running in repertory and a staged reading of a new gay play, the event promises to make the tiny Shubin Theatre a hotbed of gayness.

Source: Passport Magazine
Read the full story here.

A skybridge is more than just a skybridge at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, according to USA Today.

But the skybridge that links the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown hotel to the Pennsylvania Convention Center had grown so busy in recent years that it received a major makeover during the hotel's just-completed $60 million overhaul.

"It's become the front door to the hotel," Tim Haggerty, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, told me.

The answer is linked to the fact that the hotel is the only one in downtown Philly that's connected to the convention center - and it's also connected to the train station. (The train station is below the convention center.)

Source: USA Today
Read the full story here.

City Councilman Bill Green writes in Government in the Lab about bringing Philadelphia government into the digital age.

Open Government Philadelphia � both as a philosophical approach to how government should work and as a series of concrete actions � is aligned with the City's current needs, its upcoming challenges, and, importantly, its available resources. The city is poised to spend $120 million on technology upgrades over the next six years. For this investment to yield the return we hope for and desperately need � i.e., innovation that increases city government's effectiveness, while reducing its size and cost � we must proceed with purpose, foresight, and a bold vision. Open Government is designed to catalyze this dynamic change.

Original source: Government In the Lab
Read the full story here.

Philadelphia has avoided many recession-related blues thanks in part to Mayor Michael Nutter's leadership, reports NPR.

In 2009, Mayor Michael Nutter and the City Council doubled the local sales tax from 1 to 2 percent. In 2010, they increased property taxes 10 percent. And most recently, the city's Democratic leadership raised property taxes again --3.85 percent to help pay for schools.

The tax hikes are temporary, but they allow Nutter to brag that the recession did not result in big cutbacks to city services.

"All 70 of our swimming pools are open. Every rec center is open. Every library is open. Every park is open, and all of our services are being provided," Nutter recently told a cheering crowd at the Philadelphia Senior Center.

Original source: NPR
Read the full story here.

Walk Score ranks Philadelphia fifth in its listing of the most walkable cities in America.

Philadelphia's most walkable neighborhoods are Center City West, Center City East, University City. Philadelphia's least walkable neighborhoods are Byberry, Torresdale, Fox Chase.

Source: Walk Score
Read the full story here.

Where will your future tech workers come from? A Philadelphia non-profit encourages math and science training for future careers in technology, according to CIO.com.

In the Philadelphia metro area, there's TechGirlz, a two-year-old non-profit group that works with young girls, encouraging them to study math and science in school so they can pursue careers in technology. The problem, according to TechGirlz, is that girls are often choosing to opt out of technology at a relatively young age because they're not being encouraged and mentored.

Source: CIO.com

Read the full story here.