Back On The Block: Speaking Up For Hurley Street

Jeff Deeney’s recent Philadelphia Weekly cover story on Hurley Street has provided a fulcrum upon which several important and constructive conversations about the city’s future — and more urgently, its present — are tilting back and forth. Was it a realistic portrayal of the desperate straits in which poor families are forced to live, or a hatchet job on a section of the city which can still lay claim to many safe and stable residential blocks? Is it more important for the city’s next mayor to understand the problems or to solve them? Is it too little to simply expect […]

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Letter Of St. Paul Hewson To The Philadelphians

Tomorrow, Bono comes to town to accept the 2007 Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center. Of course your humble correspondent will be there, though the wireless situation on-site doesn’t sound promising so you may have to wait until it’s over. That’s ai’ght, it builds character. Actually, there are two recipients of the $100,000 prize, Bono and DATA, for their joint efforts to fight poverty and disease in Africa. President Bush v. 1.0 (the Constitution Center’s chairman) will present Bono, while National Constitution Center CEO Joe Torsella will do the honors for Jamie Drummond, DATA’s executive director. The webcast begins […]

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MY MOTORCYCLE DIARY: Or, Seven Days Through The Amazon On The Back Of An Ass

Our own Boss Phawker, man of the world and leader of the local ruling junta, is vacationing down South America way. This is the first of his dispatches. BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT TABIO, COLOMBIA — Let’s just dispense with the cocaine jokes right now, shall we? Yes we shall. That is NOT why I am down here. As fate would have it, my Uncle William, a retired neurologist, is married to a wonderful woman from Colombia named Stella — that’s Aunt Stella to you and mostly me. And they have built a fairly spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright-ish home […]

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You Might Feel Some Pressure: City’s Official Boob-Crusher FOUND! ‘Girls’ Breathe Sigh Of Relief

Caught this earlier today on Heard In The Hall: The “out of control” Philadelphia Health Department lost a $67,000 mammogram machine, does not keep track of its prescription drug deliveries, and fails to remove expired drugs from its prescription stocks, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Tuesday morning in releasing an audit of the beleaguered agency. Read the report here. But fret not, uninsured Philly women at risk of breast cancer! Your crack civil servants (the breast and brightest?) are on the case and the machine has been found! Jeff Shields updates: In order to avoid widespread panic, we inform you […]

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HOLLA: THE MONSTER MILE, PART I

BY JAMES DOOLITTLE 10: 15 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 23 The first thing you note is just how gorgeous a day it truly is, with the sun all hot and bothered, yet it’s oh so cool in the shade of your ride’s interior. It’s the kind of Sunday morning that almost makes you want to go to church. Almost. Being indoors would place you away from Mother Nature’s good intentions, and in much the same situation as your current one — trapped in a stuffy congregation, inching along in a 10-mile procession toward an exit ramp that in all likelihood doesn’t […]

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CINEMA: Super Happy Japan Rock Fun Time!

Between “The War” and “Dancing With The Stars,” anyone leaning toward the “total nerdbucket” end of the cultural scale will be at home in front of the ‘tube tonight. No worries, that just means more room for you at the International House, which at 7 p.m. shows the rare 1968 Japanese rock film Go Forward! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The Beatles are so ubiquitous 37 years after their break-up that their music finds ways to wriggle into your life whether one invites them or not. So where can a fan go after they’ve worn out their records and the […]

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Tough Boys Running The Street, Taking Bullets

Within the space of a few hours in West Philly yesterday, a rookie cop barely old enough to drink was shot in the face yet chased the suspect on foot for blocks, and an 18-month old boy at the playground with his Dad took two bullets meant for another man. Officer Richard Decoatsworth, 21, was seriously wounded by a close-range shotgun blast after he approached a motorist who was driving a battered blue Buick suspiciously at 9:05 a.m. in West Philadelphia, Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson said. . . . After he was shot on North Farson Street near Market Street, […]

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ETHNIC CLEANSING: Iran Free Of Gay Menace

Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of human rights in his country, notably persecution of homosexuals: “In Iran we do don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” he said, sparking loud laughter from the audience. “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you we have it.” [Reuters] RELATED: Iranian Queer Organization Ring A Bell?

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