Four for Friday: Philadelphia weekly roundup

We haven’t even reached the Ides of March yet, but there’s plenty of drama and intrigue in and around Philadelphia City Hall. 

With Council returning to session one week before Mayor Cherelle Parker’s annual budget address, and foreign affairs having an impact at home, councilmembers have a lot on their plate. 

With this week’s whirlwind of news in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, City & State is offering a roundup of what you may have missed – and what’s on the horizon at home. 

Officials demand investigation into Palestinian American’s death

Both state and local officials have weighed in on the killing of Nasrallah Abu Siyam, a 19-year-old born in Philadelphia who was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank in February, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and witnesses.

Philadelphia City Council honored Siyam and welcomed his family to the chambers on Thursday, and Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a letter calling for an investigation into Abu Siyam’s death. 

Councilmembers Rue Landau and Nicolas O’Rourke introduced a resolution Thursday to honor Abu Siyam’s life and call for accountability. 

And in his letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Shapiro urged Bondi’s office to conduct an investigation. 

“While the killing of Mr. Abu Siyam and similar incidents in the region demand a diplomatic response, I hope you will agree that the death of a citizen of our Commonwealth under such circumstances also requires a criminal investigation, as prescribed under the law, to ensure accountability and provide answers to the Abu Siyam family,” Shapiro wrote.

Abu Siyam is the second Palestinian American to be killed by Israeli settlers in less than a year. In a press conference with relatives and local officials, Jonathan Kuttab, a human rights attorney, said he is working with Abu Siyam’s family to bring a civil case against 501(c)3 organizations in the U.S. that he said are supporting Israeli settlers’ attacks in the West Bank. 

Organizers said some members of the Abu Siyam family who traveled from the Philadelphia region to the West Bank for Nasrallah Abu Siyam’s funeral have been stranded there due to flight cancellations and travel restrictions after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran began last week.

SEPTA gets boost from feds and potential bump from Philly

Transit talk was positive this week, for once. The Philadelphia region’s transit system announced it’s finalizing service plans for the six World Cup matches scheduled at Lincoln Financial Field later this year and the Lemon Hill FanFest that will accompany FIFA festivities. 

SEPTA is getting roughly $5.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration to assist the additional service plans. The federal investment comes as part of the $8.47 million awarded to the region to strengthen transit capacity ahead of the games. 

And on Thursday, Mayor Cherelle Parker sent legislation to City Council seeking to encourage more apartment construction around SEPTA stations, in hopes of boosting ridership. The bill, part of a package of zoning legislation, is looking to kill two birds with one stone by increasing transit ridership and increasing the city’s housing stock. It would do so by expanding existing law to allow more properties near a SEPTA station to receive benefits, allowing developers to build more homes. The previous range – within 500 feet of a station – would be expanded to 1,320 feet, or a quarter of a mile. 

Smoke shops on the spot

City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson introduced a pair of bills Thursday to crack down on what she calls “intoxicating substances,” also known as the unregulated products being sold at smoke shops and corner stores. 

The bill, which seeks stronger enforcement against the sale of kratom and other hemp-derived products, is part of Gilmore Richardson’s push to remove nuisance businesses that she says can attract crime and worsen the quality of life in a neighborhood. 

The second bill would give the city greater enforcement against stores’ landlords if an illegal smoke shop was operating in their storefronts and had received previous notification of their wrongdoing. Gilmore Richardson said the legislation mirrors the illegal-smoke-shop accountability measure used in New York City. 

"Together, these two new pieces of legislation will really strengthen our enforcement mechanisms and ensure that we are using every tool in our toolbox to continue to make our communities safer and support their long-term well-being," said Gilmore Richardson. 

School closure plan doesn’t sit well with many

The School District of Philadelphia’s 10-year facilities plan, which initially called for the closure of 20 of the district’s 307 buildings, isn’t sitting right with students, parents and councilmembers, even after the revision to limit closures to 18 buildings.  

Council members have urged the district to “go back to the drawing board” on the facilities plan, pointing toward the 24 school closures in 2013, which displaced thousands of students and left some district buildings vacant for more than a decade. 

“There’s a lot more that I think we can do and could be done to keep our schools open. Those schools don’t have to be closed — that’s the easy solution,” Councilmember Cindy Bass said. “The important and the hard work behind it means that we need to go back to the drawing board, look at what was done 10 years ago and make the corrections, rather than just closing those schools.”

Meanwhile, Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. is pursuing legislation to give City Council the ability to remove members of the district’s Board of Education. The school district’s Board of Education, elected through a combination of public and private meetings where the nominees are vetted and City Council members vote on their final approval, is one of the few boards in the state not elected by the public. 

Young said he plans to share his proposal to let Council impeach Board of Education members “very, very soon.”

“I hope the school district is listening to residents of the City of Philadelphia because this plan, even as it’s tweaked, doesn’t make any sense, particularly in my council district," Young said Thursday. “As I stated to the school board, there are a lot of contradictions in the goals of your plan in how it really impacts the 5th Council District, so I’m going to continue to say something about it and do something about it.”