Recent comments

Well, philly  residents who are behind in their real estate taxes and water bills can also face foreclosure!.   In an aggressive measure to collect taxes the City of Philadelphia now has TWO collection Agents.  These special agents are Law Firms (Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson  and the GRB).  Thousands of residents who are behind in their taxes are receiving collection letters from one of these two agents as well as the City's Law Department.  Homeowners are also sued in Municipal Court.    Facing collection action and foreclosure, low income homeowners can apply for payment agreements. 
The payment agreements are affordable (based on income) but, the devil is in the details in these low agreement contracts.  The contracts  they are signing contain a "stipulated judgment". 
If a homeowner defaults, The city will have an automatic judgment and the homeowner is now in deeper peril, because this allows the city to take the homeowner to sheriff sale more quickly.  Unwittingly, homeowners are signing away some of their rights, such as to file bankruptcy or petition the Tax REview Board for the abatement of Penalties and Interest.  ALso, interest and penalties continue to accrue and the low monthly payment they are now paying barely touches the principal, let alone the mounting interest and penalties.  
These minimal  payment  can make it nearly impossible to ever pay off your back taxes. But, low income homeowners can't pay much more given the rising utility costs.  Also, some uninformed homeowners just pay the agreement amount which covers only portion of the outstanding tax balance and they don't understand that they still have to pay annual  taxes as they become due.   If this is the case the City can still put the homeowner in collections for that balance.
A payment agreement might be all the homeowner can do to stop or slow down collections or in other cases stop the property from going to sale.  But, in the long run if the homeowner can only afford to pay the minimum amount required its likely that they will never fully realize a satisfied debt.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Congrats nurses at Broomall Presbyterian Village

A new group, Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT, prononuced equate) is taking on mountaintop removal has formed and is taking action to stop PNC Bank from continuing to fund Massey, and to push them to invest in renewables. Check us out: http://eqat.wordpress.com/

They closed Northeastern Hospital.  They closed Episcopal.  So they can do whatever they want to do. 

Broad & Ontario
Go Temple nurses! All of us need you to be able to do your jobs well!

I want to thank everyone that came out today to show your support. Today's rally was really powerful. We are standing strong and we will be heard. We ARE being heard all over the country. Thanks to everyone who spread the word, everyone who honked for us today, everyone who came out to capture it on film.
A very special thanks to MMP for being with us throughout this entire campaign. We are truly thankful for everything you've done for us.
It's not over though......We made another offer to administrators to sit down and talk once more this weekend.....they refused. So the strike starts on Wednesday,march 31,2010.
We will be forcing Temple to recognize how valuable we are. And its about time. We work so hard and what we do makes Temple the wonderful hospital it is. WHAT WE DO...NOT THEM. We are on the frontline. Any one of our thousands of patients wouldn't know who the administrators were if they tripped over them. So they need to really really GET A GRIP! WE are Temple- The workers- not the "suits"!
So they can pretend that us walking out will have no impact on the quality of the care- but they will soon see- VERY CLEARLY- that we are the ones who make Temple the well known and respected hospital that it is. And without us- it just won't be the same.
Thank You all for everyhting.

Families face a shrinking social safety net as political disagreements
hold up the passage of a final state budget for cissp exam questions. This segment covers a rally
by The Coalition for Essential Services in Media, PA. Speakers
discussed potential cuts to Head Start, Pre-K, child care, housing
assistance, adult education classes along with other social services like ccnp.

In the midst of a national health care reform battle, a small drama unfolds in northeast Philadelphia. Last week, the Pennsylvania House held up $175 million in additional funding to Temple University. Representative John Taylor described the move as a “wake up call for Temple University” to live up to their responsibility to the public.
The communities of Port Richmond, Kensington, Fishtown, Bridesburg and Juniata coalesced last December amid rumors Temple University Health System (TUHS) planned to close down the busy, full-service Northeastern Hospital. Despite the effort of community members and local lawmakers, Temple refused to discuss their plans. In fact, they would not even confirm their intention until they announced in March they would close the hospital. They gave two months notice, which is the minimum required by the state. Temple did the minimum.

Allied Barton has a long history of being abusive to employees.  Messing around with employees benefits has been an age old problem for guards  with Allied Barton.  They create a hostile work environment. 

This campaign is a great continuation of earlier work in Point Breeze and it is very important to the future of affordability in South Philly.  Do the organizers know what garbage the City Paper wrote about their efforts?  Check out http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/author/andrewthompson/.
 
The writer, Andrew Thompson,  reprints the campaign flyer and disrespects the entire community, calling them violent and drugged out.  What benefit could he get from attacking our women, children and elders?
 
Here is his trash:

"February 22

Save Point Breeze; or, Don’t let the Sidecar happen to your neighborhood!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
posted by Andrew Thompson

Back in October, I wrote about simmering tensions between newcomers and old-heads in Point Breeze, the mostly derelict, violent, drugged-out, blighted neighborhood south of Washington Ave on the West side of Broad Street that had accrued such a reputation as to be designated for federal funds to make it slightly more livable. At that point, push-back to the newcomers was more of a tacit sentiment than a force with any organization.

Now, the latent antipathy has become at least as organized as a flier distribution program. The “Save Point Breeze” campaign, started by Concerned Citizens of Point Breeze, is perhaps the most visible sign of resident-rage yet at the prospect of wealthy white folk coming into the area and building condos and living with their dogs - dogs they will, undoubtedly, take for walks. The flier shows the Sidecar cafe at 22nd and Christian Streets as an example of doom that could potentially befall Point Breeze residents, raising their property values and and wreaking havoc on their idyllic Eden.

The link above gives a “list of demands” CCPB has for the Philly Planning Commission, among which is that Point Breeze residents have priority for jobs at the new Philly Live complex, to be built neighborhoods away. Also demanded is tax amnesty for old residents who may be kicked out of their homes and a strict prohibition on condos.
I think we can all agree that the best thing for Point Breeze is to keep it poor and segregated."
 
|| End of the City Paper's garbage ... ||
 
If these primitives are crawling out from under their rocks because of what you folks are doing, then you must be doing something right. Keep up the great work!!

• to keep Point Breeze as the name for the neighborhood
  really?  that's beef number one?

• not to allow zoning changes that would result in more condo construction
  so leave the vacant lots as trash heaps instead...

• the city demonstrating a commitment to housing equality by providing money for housing for poor and working-class people
  how's that equal?  i pay my mortgage.  my neighbor gets the city to.  please explain to me the equality in that?

• money for home improvements and repairs for existing residents
  finally!  a point worth talking about!  here's the kicker: the money's already there, but you have to actually do work to get it.

• tax amnesty for longtime residents at risk of losing their homes
  ummm, the city is broke.  you're talking about, on average, letting the people who proportionally use the most city resources (welfare, health clinics, public trans) to not pay for it.  how long you've lived somewhere shouldn't determine anything.

• improved facilities for all of the neighborhood's recreation buildings
  again, the city's broke.  there are grants for things like this.  but YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY APPLY FOR THEM TO GET THEM.

• funding for job training programs
  that usually takes private investment.  the very private investment you're saying you do not want.  make up your mind.

• local residents prioritized in hiring for the new Philly Live entertainment complex
  ???

• stimulus money used to encourage the construction of a grocery store and pharmacy in the neighborhood
  how about assuring new business owners they won't be robbed at gunpoint within a week of opening?  oh right--that's the element that you're trying to preserve by not allowing people to move in to the neighborhood.

I guess my point is, you can't have your crack and smoke it too.  The "gentrifiers" aren't trying to kick you out.  In fact, most of them want the same things you want and would bend over backwards to work with you.  But unless you're willing to enter into a conversation instead of listing your demands, that's not going to happen.

But, if that fails, I hear properties down by the airport are cheap ;)  have fun "gentrifying" that neighborhood...