Imagine there's no cars... well, there aren't, at the Autumn Festival

People take over the street in Philadelphia for the Autumn Festival

1,000 Protesters Hit Streets of Philly to Express Shale Gas Outrage « EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement

1,000 Protesters Hit Streets of Philly to Express Shale Gas Outrage « EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement: "More than 1,000 people from Pennsylvania and the shale regions of neighboring New York, Ohio, West Virginia and beyond, along with downstreamers from Maryland and Delaware, joined together to protest the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s industry convention in downtown Philadelphia on Sept. 20, making a unified statement to “Stop Fracking Now.”"

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All over the U.S. street car rails are waiting under the asphalt

Let's make the buses fare-free. Then when the critical mass of the auto is broken in the city, the auto costs will be seen as the burden that they are, and we can gradually go back to streetcars.

Polls consistently show that people want more public transit

Survey: Americans want more public transit - but not higher taxes to fund it - Philly.com: The support was even higher in the Philadelphia suburbs: Pollsters found Bucks and Montgomery County respondents favored more local spending on transit by a ratio of 82 percent to 13 percent.
...Respondents there were split 49-48 on a five-cent-a-gallon gas-tax hike. They also supported a one-half-cent increase in the sales tax for transportation improvements, by a ratio of 55 percent to 41 percent.

Hidden tax! Hidden tax!

Where are the right wing nut jobs when it is time to complain about hidden taxes that subsidize private profit? The city spends over 190 million dollars a year managing parking. Parking management is necessary because there are too many cars. This creates parking hell, which then must managed through taxes--an externality of the industries that profit from the auto system--the oil industry, the auto industry, the coal industry, and the sprawl industry, to name a few. This money is collected by way of tickets, mostly. Parking tickets are a tax on delivery companies and messengers. These taxes hurt business!

 tax collection

expensive equipment to manage parking

Here is an idea. Take the 190 million and make public transit fare-free. Then the delivery companies and small businesses can have some room to work.

Imagine there's no cars... wonder if you can

Street resurfacing. If there were no cars, every other street could be a park. A lot of money would be saved.

SEPTA | Sustainability | Farm-to-SEPTA Enters its Second Season

SEPTA | Sustainability | Farm-to-SEPTA Enters its Second Season: "When SEPTA included a commitment to access to local food via transit as a goal under its Sustainability Program Plan, it didn't realize how much momentum and new partnerships the goal would create both within the organization and in the communities it serves. To quote James Beard: "Food is our common ground, a universal experience." This has most certainly been the case as SEPTA moves into its second season of its Farm-to-SEPTA initiative.
The initiative includes two programs:
1) An employer-hosted CSA program, and
2) Farmers markets at SEPTA stations."

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Not enough water for fracking

The Drought of 2012 Teaches Us About the Value of Water: "On June 28, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission suspended 37 separately approved water withdrawals for fracking due to localized streamflow levels dropping throughout the Susquehanna Basin in Pennsylvania and New York."

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Verizon workers say "WTF?" "Where's the fairness" #1u #ows

Workers Stand for America Rally | District 2-13 | Communications Workers of America: "Event begins Aug 11, 2012

Location: Eakins Oval on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA

Rally begins at 11:00 AM at Eakins Oval.

The program will include speakers and musical entertainment.

Let's send a message that we need an America that works for everyone!

For more information, please click on the link below (PDF):

http://cwafiles.org/District2-13/rally_flyer_2012aug11.pdf"

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How do oil trolls keep getting elected: propaganda, and now, vote suppression.

Protest rally sets stage for Pa. voter ID hearing - CBS News: "HARRISBURG, Pa. — Hundreds of demonstrators descended on Pennsylvania's Capitol to protest a tough new voter ID law, launching a daylong political drama that set the stage for a state court hearing on a lawsuit seeking to prevent the law from taking effect this year."

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Free public transit is the best path to a green city

If free transit were introduced smoothly, it would be a big success. The money lost in lost fares would be re-gained immediately by elimination of the costs of collecting fares, and by the lowering of the unit cost of each rider.

More buses would be needed. But the city spends $180 million a year now just managing parking. And just imagine how much more shoppers would be around on foot. Delivery trucks could get in and out quicker with fewer cars blocking them.

Here is how to implement. Reduce the SEPTA Transpass price by one dollar every month. Everyone would know what is coming and when.

Free transit works. Click here to see who has it now.

#occupy national gathering in Philadelphia #natgat

http://www.occupywallstreet.net/event/june-30-july-4-natgat