Many have seen the recent commercial in which Vince Fumo claims to be 'indispensible' to Philadelphia's fight for sensible gun laws. Unfortunately for Fumo and for the residents of Philadelphia, the facts do not support Fumo's claims.

We produced a rebuttal for the Brady Campaign. Check it out and let us know what you think:

Dear Friends:

I recently reported that this summer saw the highest homeless population in ten years.

I think you'll agree that this is an unacceptable situation.

This Thursday at 1pm at City Hall, please come out to a rally organized by the Vote for Homes! coalition to show the next mayor that they need to address issues of homelessness and poverty.

Details below:

Show the Next Mayor You Care About Homelessness and Poverty

Nutter and Taubenberger will attend Vote for Homes! rally and receive thousands of post cards urging action on homelessness and poverty

For those who couldn't make the SEPTA rally yesterday:

Click To Play

The SEPTA cuts are an issue that could unite so many people across the City and region. There are folks rallying to the cause but it would be great if there could be a greater effort of some kind.

So if you look at the end of one of the anti-nutter ads:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FUdi7TTNI54

You'll notice that the center video comes from a video I shot:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xNxE8SLPhGM

at the anti-handgun rally last Fall in Harrisburg (http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2006/09/30742.shtml).

The video is used without my permission.

Now there are bigger crimes under the sun but I am not a fan of attack ads so if someone wanted to help pursue these people I would be more than happy to participate.

This started with a thread over here: http://fightforroom215.typepad.com/room215/2007/05/another_shot_at.html#comments

There has been some very inciteful discussion about the candidates' plans for fighting poverty in this city.

Well here's a chance to see what they have to say for themselves. Last Thursday the Vote for Homes! coalition held its mayoral forum. For all of the talk on this issue only two dems showed up, and one came late and left early making a bad impression for many there.

Click below for short clips with answers to some important questions. All videos here.

Intros with Sister Mary Scullion, Leeroy Jordan and Rev. Robin Hynicka:

If you are a candidate for City Council or Mayor you or your campaign received an email informing you that NOW is the time to endorse the R.E.F.O.R.M. Ballot.

The final R.E.F.O.R.M. Agenda has been created and signed by over 500 Philadelphians. http://reformballot.org/theagenda

Now we need you to indicate your support for each of the 24 points of the R.E.F.O.R.M. Agenda: http://reformballot.org/candidate-response

In order to vote you need yr login and password which you received via email this week. If you need any help with that email me at aaron at evolvestrategies.net

AFTER THE CANDIDATES have weighed in, Philadelphians will be able to view all of the responses and print out their own R.E.F.O.R.M. Ballot. Stay tuned.

I helped put together this video with the Philly IMC about the march on saturday, trying to capture some of the energy and enthusiasm of those involved:

Let me know what you think. How effective is the peace movement? What isn't happening to push it forward? Should we be engaging in direct action? More or less marching?

I attended the first At-Large City Council candidates forum last week and was struck by a) the amazing progressive energy and potential for improving the city we will have this spring, and b) the lack of female representation from the candidates.

I had been thinking about this recently because of discussions I've had with friends about the lack of outspoken, powerful women in politics here. There are some outstanding examples, but it is 2006 already and we should be doing a lot better in terms of diversity.

It is more than a numbers game, but 1 of 15 at-large candidates (so far), is pretty bad. And a quick look around: 7 of 17 councilpersons, 1/3rd of "connectors, 3 out of 10 'most powerful', shows it is not an aberration.

For the folks my age (under 40) it is a sunnier outlook. I think there are as many or more active and outspoken women in the networks I frequent than men. But is this true? Or just my white-male perception. So two questions for any and all:

1) Is the young, progressive community more diverse than old philly politics? If not what can we do?

2) Why isn't there more diversity in the philly elected? Is it still an old-boys network?

Personally, as a white male, I'm not sure what my part in all of this is. And to answer my own question I think we have a ways to go.

There is a lot of talk about 'reform' and progressive change right now. But as progressives if this isn't a diverse movement then I think we need to go back to the drawing board.

Bumped up as a reminder that this is tomorrow. -Dan

Hello YPP Community:

As I write this members of the City outreach teams as well as concerned citizens are scouring the streets of Philadelphia.

These are the same streets we walk upon every day. The same streets that too many Philadelphians call home.

Tonight is the quarterly street homeless census. It is not a time for engaging or assisting but for counting.

The last street census counted 550 persons. 550 fathers and mothers, grandparents and children. That is twice the number of people that were out on the street in 2000. This is a crisis.

A crisis I am describing from the comfort of my own room.

As a white expensively-educated male I have a small window into this crisis. As a part-time outreach worker I have gotten to meet many of those out on the street. Many of those we walk past every day. Many of those we want to help but don't know how.

There are no simple answers. But I'd like to help spur some dialogue about this issue. If anyone has any questions about it I would be happy to answer them over email or on this forum.

Next week there will be a public forum about this crisis: Tues Nov 21st, at 7pm. Arch Street United Methodist Church (55 North Broad).

I would like to encourage everyone who reads this to come out and be a part of it. I know that there is a victory party at the same time. I am proposing that folks come out to the forum and then head over there with me afterward.

There are a lot of exciting environmental projects going on right now including an important even on THURS that I want to let folks know about.

Recycle NOW coalition is working to get Recycle Bank, which is single-stream curb-side recycling, throughout the city to improve our dismal 6% recycling rate.

Next Great City is a project you will be hearing more about soon which will push for a series of recommendations to improve the city aimed at the Mayoral race.

A number of folks including myself recently started Greenadelphia!, a Philly-based environmental blog to help build community around these and other projects.

FINALLY, there is GreenPlan Philadelphia, which is a city initiative that will bring multiple city agencies together for the first time to work in concert on open space design for the city. GreenPlan is holding its first public event this THURDAY (see below). While I'm excited about GreenPlan I am also skeptical so am looking forward to learning more about it:

The rights of communities in Philly are being eroded on several fronts right now, with the loss of zoning on the casinos and the passage of Act 193 which strips groups right to appeal before the zoning board.

These are opportunities as well as with the creation of groups like NABR, MCA, RCU around the casinos and now Neighborhood Defense.org in response to Act 193.

Neighborhoods right now are at the mercy of elected officials who won't represent their interests. How can we turn this around?

Part of that I think is through electing better representatives, but we also need to fight for the right for communities to represent themselves.

That is why I think Neighborhood Defense.org is important as it can not only restore those community rights strippd by Act 193 but also be an organizing tool for neighborhood groups across the city.

Tom Ferrick had an excellent article today on gun control and where members of the legislature in the five county area stand on HB871 and SB1002 which would limit gun sales in PA.

Notables who would not support the legislation include our favorite philly reps Perzel and Dennis O'Brien (no surprise) and Fumo (which is kind of shocking to me as I don't know his history on this issue). O'Brien's excuse is that he doesn't want to spend his political capitol on something that won't pass anyway but what is Fumo's excuse? How do you call yrself a democrat in philly and not support this? The 4 yr old girl who was recently shot at the 2100 block of Sigel Street is still in critical condition. The 2100 block of Sigel street is right on the border between Fumo and Williams districts. How many innocent people have to get shot before OUR elected officials will do something about it? What will it take to force their hands?

Despite the fact that the homeless street census has been up in the last two years, there is good news in the fight against homelessness.

Philly IMC has an article and flash video on "Grace Cafe" a new initiative that closed its doors for the summer this morning. What is so remarkable about Grace Cafe is that it was successful at getting many people off the streets who previously would not come in. Instead of a shelter, the cafe was a "drop-in center" in which a selected list of persons known to the city outreach teams could take refuge.

It is hoped that the cafe will start up again next october. See also Philly IMC's homeless resource page for more info.