Center City – Page 18

Occupy Philly Daily Happenings

Posted on October 27, 2012 by admin

Sunday Oct 28th
1:00pm The People’s Protest Against the Fraternal Order of Police! – 1336 Spring Garden St
2:00pm PHARE/Wells Fargo working group – 1706 Race St.
2:00pm SAVE YOUR POST OFFICE & YOUR JOB – SOLIDARITY RALLY & MARCH – Baltimore Main Post Office 900 E. Fayette Street Baltimore, MD
2:00pm Strike Debt Planning Meeting – Wooden Shoe Books – 704 South St
5:00pm Long Term Organizing MDU working group – Ethical Humanist Society, Rittenhouse Square
7:00pm Loving This Planet: An Evening with Dr. Helen Caldicott – Ethical Socety – 1906 S Rittenhouse Square

Arch Street United Methodist Church is starting their overnight mission in November. There is a microwave, and lots of clothes and other things in Room C downstairs. They need to empty that room to store cots, etc. for the mission. These items are left over from eviction night! If these are your belongings please go to Arch Street UMC to collect these items between 10 & 3, Monday through Friday or call 215-568-6250 to make other arrangements. They will begin disposing of things the first week of November and take things to Purple Heart or a thrift store.

Saturday October 27th, 11am – 2901 Germantown Ave – Historic Fair Hill Orchard Day Workparty & Potluck – Help to put the 3 gardens around 9th & Indiana Streets to bed for the winter, bring food & share in our first attempt at a community-wide potluck, & join us for the 2nd annual Philadelphia Orchard Project Orchard Day within Historic Fair Hill Burial Ground where we’ll be eating apples, drinking cider, roasting marshmallows, painting pumpkins, & enjoying the beautiful fall weather with the neighborhood. – https://www.facebook.com/events/160584604086112/

Sunday October 28th 1:00pm – The Fraternal Order of Police is organizing a fund-raiser party in honor of Jonathan D. Josey, the cop who bashed Aida Guzman in the face at the recent Puerto Rican Day parade. There is a rally and speak-out in front of the FOP office during the duration of the party inside. We want to make it uncompromisingly clear that it is unacceptable that the FOP is celebrating this policeman’s actions. Not that we expected anything different. The fact that this was a black cop does not change the fact that he was engaging in racist violence and acting in the interests of white supremacy. Mayor Nutter’s apology is not justice. The firing of Josey is not justice. Any ordinary person caught doing this on tape would be receiving criminal charges. But because Josey is a cop, he is above the law. We can’t rely on the police for justice. We can’t rely on the politicians either. We can only rely on ourselves and our capacity for collective action. Philly FOP office number: (215) 629-3600 – https://www.facebook.com/events/188074867994875/

Sunday, October 28, 2012 2:00pm ALL UNIONS – ALL ORGANIZATIONS – ALL CITIZENS The Postal Service is moving forward with closings way ahead of schedule, literally destroying itself and causing a severe delay of mail. SOLIDARITY RALLY Baltimore Main Post Office 900 E. Fayette Street Baltimore, Maryland 2:45PM – MARCH from MPO thru the Baltimore Inner Harbor & back to MPO PLENTY OF FREE PARKING at the Baltimore Main Post Office – For more information go to
http://cpwunited.com/home or https://www.facebook.com/events/292951954142007/. For those from Philadelphia wishing to attend the Baltimore event: please contact Joe Piette at 610-931-2615 or jpiette660@hotmail.com

Women Activist Artists in Conversation: Please join us for a series of dinner party conversation during fall 2012. Our dinners are intended to engage young women in the Philadelphia area making activist art in public spaces. Whether you are a performance artist, DIY zine maker, muralist, or dancer, you’re encouraged to attend and speak about your
practice. Aspiring as well as established activist artists are welcome. Please contact Phoebe Bachman for more information at activistart@phoebebachman.com, or check out http://wmaaps.blogspot.com/p/dinner-parties.html The first dinner will be held this Sunday the 28th of October, with the subsequent dinners on the 12th and 23rd of November.

Strike Debt Philly Planning Meeting Sunday, October 28, 2012 2:00pm Wooden Shoe Books and Records 704 South Street. Join us on Sunday to meet, greet, and brainstorm how to launch a Philly chapter of Strike Debt! Debt assemblies, debt burnings, and debt workshops are just a few of our ideas, but we need yours as well. Strike Debt is a new movement for the refusal of payment of debts to Wall St., whether student debt, credit card debt, medical debt, municipal debt, or whatever you got! Strike Debt (NYC) recently released the Debt
Resistors’ Operations Manual, which provides strategies for how to avoid and resist debts, a s well as historical and political context for why it is that so many of us are trapped in this unfair system to begin with. The Manual is free for download! Hope to see you on Sunday to launch the next phase of the movement against Wall St. http://strikedebt.org/ Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual: http://strikedebt.org/initiatives/the-debt-resistors-operations-manual/

Monday October 29th, 6:30pm – UPenn 3620 Locust Walk – Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall, Room 109 – “Living Under Drones! Report from Pakistan” A first-hand report by the U.S. anti-war/anti-drone delegation to Pakistan. The speakers will be: Joe Lombardo, National Co-coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition, www.nationalpeaceconference.org,
and a participant in the delegation to Pakistan; Peter Lems, American Friends Service Committee, www.afsc.org, providing information on the geo-political situation of southern Asia and the use of drone warfare; and Marjorie Van Cleef, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, www.wilpfus.org, speaking about war research and development at Penn an Drexel universities. Other speakers, including student members of the Penn Pakistan Society, will be announced. Sponsored by Philly Against War, www.phillyagainstwar.org,
and the Penn Pakistan Society, www.dolphin.upenn.edu/paksoc/. Endorsers: Penn for Palestine; Brandywine Peace Community, www.brandywinepeace.com; Temple Students for Justice in Palestine; Philadelphia International Action Center, www.iacenter.org/philly-iac; Socialist Action; Green Party of Philadelphia, www.gpop.org,
and Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, www.wilpfus.org. For more information, please contact 215-243-7103 and gpop@gpop.org

Events listed here include Occupy Philly related events as well as other social justice events. For more updates be sure to check the Occupy Philadelphia Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPhiladelphia. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Occupy Philly Year Two – The Fight Continues

Posted on October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 by admin

by Anonymous

PHILADELPHIA, PA — On September 17th, 2011, the first tents went up at Zuccotti Park in the financial district of New York City. What resulted was an international insurgency of activists committed enough to proclaiming the message of social and economic equality that they would: give up their lives to camp in a public park, educate the people about crimes being committed in their names from Oakland to Chicago to Kalamazoo, erect tent cities (reminiscent of the Hoovervilles of old) and serve as public reminders of Wall Street greed and corrupt government. The world had been occupied.

On October 6th of that same year, Philadelphia took up the call. In the past year, we have taken our message of economic justice, social equality, and a fair economy to the streets, to the the banks and to City Hall. From protests to sit-ins to National Gatherings, we shone a spotlight on the plight of everyday Philadelphians and beyond. We have experienced setbacks in the form of police aggression and political games, but rest assured that we have not been, nor will we be, silenced.

As year two begins, we call on our fellow Philadelphians to Fight the Power. Big bankers and political puppets still mold our city in their image even at the cost of our families and communities. We must not allow big money backed special interests to destroy our communities for their own profits. We must not let politicians sit idly by, pacified by their concern for campaign contributions and let it happen. It is time the people of Philadelphia rose up against corruption.

We invite you to join us on October 6th, 2012 at City Hall at noon. Together we will send a message all over the city of Philadelphia: that the people have come for their due, and we are not going anywhere until justice and equality run uninhibited through the streets.

Occupy Wall Street? Occupy Yourself
Occupy Philadelphia 2011
More Occupy Philadelphia

Impact of Budweiser Made in America Festival

Posted on September 25, 2012October 4, 2012 by admin

PHILADELPHIA, PA — – Mayor Michael A. Nutter announced that over the Labor Day weekend the Budweiser Made in America Festival, locally produced by Live Nation, generated at least $10 million in economic impact for the city economy and covered all municipal costs associated with the event, while netting hundreds of thousands of dollars in various tax revenues for City coffers.

“Today, the Festival promoters delivered a check for $305,124 to the City. Coupled with an earlier check of $200,000, I’m pleased to say that the Festival covered all costs incurred by the City for what was a truly stunning event on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway,” Mayor Nutter said. “Financial considerations aside, this event gained global recognition for Philadelphia and showed what a great city can do working with the private sector. It energized our hospitality industry on a traditionally quiet weekend, brought thousands of visitors to our city and pumped millions of dollars into the city’s economy.”

A preliminary economic impact estimate was developed by Econsult Corp., the Philadelphia based consulting firm, working on a pro bono basis for the City of Philadelphia. Using a set of conservative assumptions, Econsult estimated $6.1 million in direct new net spending and an additional $3.6 million in indirect expenditures. Spending by Festival attendees on tickets and concessions was not included in the analysis.

Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., said, “Labor Day weekend is usually a very slow time for hotels, restaurants and the whole industry. But this year, Center City occupancy (including University City) soared the entire three nights, averaging more than 90% for the weekend at very good rates. The last couple years, it was 66%. This means an increase of more than $2,000,000 in hotel revenue, spinning off tax revenue, restaurant receipts, and souvenir purchases and so on.”

Levitz said that the two-day event also spread the city’s name worldwide. “Equally exciting was the international media coverage: we have tracked well over 6,000 pickups so far including print, online and electronic. When you add in the global chatter on all social media platforms, the sound of Philadelphia will continue to resonate, giving strength to our great city’s image as the place to be,” she said.

In addition, Festival promoters have estimated that during the two-day event 1.5 million viewers from all over the nation and world live-streamed the event.

Ed Grose, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, said his member hoteliers were “thrilled with the weekend.” Citing research from PFK Consulting and Smith Travel Research, Grose said room revenues were $4.96 million for the weekend, up $2.17 million over 2010. Grose said the 2011 Labor Day weekend was impacted by Hurricane Irene. The occupancy rate for Labor Day weekend 2012 was 90 percent, up almost 21 percentage points over 2010.

The Econsult analysis completed three days after the Festival estimated total city tax revenues of $223,000. But city officials believe the total tax revenue impact will be more. For example, a recent analysis of hotel occupancy data conducted by GPTMC estimated hotel tax revenue at almost $202,000 for the three days of the event.

In addition, the Econsult analysis did not include an estimate of amusement tax. Live Nation officials said today that 78,655 people attended the Festival, generating $5,049,924 in gross ticket sales. In turn, the City’s 5 percent amusement tax raised $240,473 in amusement tax revenue. Wage tax revenue has not yet been fully calculated, though the Econsult analysis projected $66,000.