For whatever reason I'm doing a bit here now. Yipee!

Future of Pa. six-pack sales is now a case for justices

If you've lived in Pennsylvania for even a week you know what good news this is.

"The state Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Pennsylvanians will be able to walk into their local grocery or corner store and pick up a six-pack of beer along with toilet paper and a carton of milk. The case grew out of a central Pennsylvania chain's long-running attempt to capitalize on the state's arcane liquor laws and sell six-packs at one of its convenience stores."

"If the justices side with Sheetz...Pennsylvanians would then have the same option as their New York state neighbors to buy six-packs while picking up their hoagies and hand wipes."

It's Monday.A long week is before me. Basically everything I need to do to complete my final semester and graduate has to be done this week. I'm hoping my faithful readers and friends can help alleviate the pain a bit with some tantalization.

When I'm done school I'll actually be able to choose my own reading list. So I'm looking for recommendations.
What's the best book you read this year and briefly explain why. If you're feeling constrained you can catogroize if you wish (best fiction, non-fiction etc.)

(Classics are permissible but you must first make your case here)


Different Note

You heard about what Ray Nagin said following a visit to our fair city, right?

"Let me tell you something," Nagin said to some of his constituents during a town hall meeting in New Orleans Saturday. "You ought to go to Philly and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is."

Laughter and applause broke out and then he continued:

" . . . We still have some work to do but we definitely beat them by a long shot."

This after he came here to learn from Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. Unfortunately, the uproar over Nagin's comments is misplaced. Really, who cares what Nagin thinks and I'm sure with regard to some parts of Philly, he's right about how dirty it is. The sad thing is this: " a spokeswoman for Nagin...said Philadelphia's NTI will serve as the model for rebuilding New Orleans." Lets hope the world "model" is being  used in the loosest possible way. While NTI is innovative in some ways its hardly been a rousing success. If your plan is built around two equally important steps: to remove blight and bulldoze uninhabitable buildings and then build new construction in its place - you better be prepared to follow through with the second part of that plan. Unfortunately, we now have a host of officially cleared, but empty, overgrown, trash strewn lots to go along with our thousands of dilapidated row houses.

Plus as a method for addressing city blight its not altogether sensible. NTI esstentially targets certain blighted areas of the city without much thought as to how its method of clear and contruct might impact individual neighborhoods. I mean its a tough balance. Philadelphia is blighted like none other so you want a full, head on, comprehensive plan to go get rid of it. The difficulty is doing that in a way that makes sense for the very individual neighborhoods of our city (i.e. getting neighborhood associations invovled in what will be built up on the newly cleared lots). Then of course there's the controversal use of emient domain uprooting long time residents in the name of blight removal. I'm not saying there's an easy solution only that the model needs a lot of work. Here's hoping New Orleans has a bit more success.