Committee on Streets and Services, April 7, 2025

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON STREETS AND SERVICES Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, April 7, 2025 1:51 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR., CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS

COUNCIL PRESIDENT JOHNSON

250102, 250148, 250176, 250176, 250177, 250203, 250208, 250209, 250209, 250240, 250241, 250266, 250267, 250271, 250272, 250273, 250274 - - -

Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to get started on this afternoon's Committee on Streets and Services. I want to welcome you to Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Streets and Services, and I note that the hour has come. We do have a quorum. So, Mr. Pullin, would you please call the roll.

Councilmember Ahmad.

Present.

Councilmember Bass.

Present.

Councilmember Brooks. (No response.)

Councilmember Harrity. (No response.)

Vice-Chair Squilla. (No response.)

Chair Young.

Present. And I also note the presence of Council President Kenyatta Johnson is a member of all Committees to establish a quorum here this afternoon. Thank you, Council President, for your attendance. So I note for the record a quorum of this Committee is present and this hearing is called to order. This is a public hearing of the Committee on Streets and Services considering testimony on Bill Nos. 250102, 250148, 250176, 250176, 250177, 250203, 250208, 250209, 250209, 250240, 250241, 250266, 250267, 250271, 250272, 250273 and 250274. I would also like to note that Bill No. 250273 is being held at the request of the sponsor. So before we begin, I just want to acknowledge if any of my colleagues have any opening remarks. (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the first bill.

Bill No. 15 250203 titled, Establishing parking regulations in the vicinity of: Ogden Street between North 13th Street and Camac Street; Wood Street between North 18th Street and North 18th Street and North 19th Street; North 21st Street between Hamilton Street and Pennsylvania Avenue; Franklin Town Boulevard between Callowhill Street and Wood Street. Thank you.

Mr. Pullin, would you please call the first witnesses to testify on this bill.

The first witness to testify is Lester Emerson, Deputy Parking Manager for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Mr. Emerson. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

(Inaudible).

Could you pull the mic a little closer. Thank you.

(Inaudible).

Hold on for a second, Lester. Still the stenographer is unable to hear you. The mic isn't working. Nothing.

There we go.

There we go. Thank you.

Good day, Council. My name is Lester Emerson, Deputy Manager for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Thank you for allowing me to testify before Council regarding Ordinance 250203, establishing parking regulations. The Philadelphia Parking Authority has no objection to the ordinances previously read before Council and recommends favorable consideration. Thank you again for your time. I will be happy to respond to any questions at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Emerson. Are there any questions or comments from members of the Committee for this witness on Bill 4 No. 250203? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on Bill No. 250203? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 18 250208 titled, Amending Section 19 12-1117 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Physically Handicapped and Disabled or Severely Disabled Veteran Parking," as it will take effect pursuant to Bill No. 24 240613-AA (approved December 18, 2024), by revising the definition of disability parking space and further amending The Philadelphia Code by updating cross-references to Section 12-1117 that now appear in Title 9, entitled, "Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions," and Title 12, "Traffic Code," all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. For the record, I would like to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the first witness to testify on Bill No. 250208.

The first witness to testify is Rich Lazer, Executive Director for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Chair Young, members of the Committee. My name is Rich Lazer, Executive Director Philadelphia Park Authority. I'm here to testify in support of Bill 7 No. 250208. Section 12-1117 of The Philadelphia Code outlines requirements and conditions related to the placement of designated disability disabled parking spaces, including in residential areas. Bill No. 240613-AA amended Section 12-1117 primarily to provide for residential disabled parking spaces reserved for the vehicle owner of the disabled applicant. This bill also modernizes language applicable to the disabled community and largely reorganizes the section. The amended Section 1117 will go into effect July of '25. Bill No. 250208 is now proposed to correct cross-references and certain terms used in Title and Title 12 related to disabled parking in order to be consistent with amended Section 12-1117. So it's pretty much a just a correction to clear up some language in the Code.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. I do have one question. Could you tell us for the record just how, if anything, is different for a constituent wanting to apply for the program?

Yep. So when people apply for the program, the application process is still the same. The goal would be this now will allow for us to have a reserve -- so now, when we put the new signs up, if the person accept it, that we put the license plate on the sign so it would only be for the applicant's vehicle. Right now ADA spaces are allowed for anyone that has either a plate or a placard can use them. The prior bill that was passed before designated that the spot will be for the applicant only.

Thank you. And is there something on the sign that will indicate that it's only for that applicant or address?

Yeah, correct. So we're redesigning the signs to make sure that it'll say that only the person with that plate number will be able to park in the spot.

Great. Thank you. Are there any other questions from my colleagues? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber who would like to testify on Bill No. 250208? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 12 250209 titled, Amending Title of the Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code" to clarify penalties and procedures associated with smart loading zone parking enforcement, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Please call the witness to testify on this bill.

The next witness to testify is Rich Lazer, Executive Director for the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. Please begin.

Good afternoon, Chair Young. My name is Rich Lazer, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, here to testify in support of Bill 10 No. 250209. Section 12-923 labeled, Smart Loading Zones and Section 13 12-924, Camera-based Parking Enforcement System were added to The Philadelphia Code through Bill 16 No. 211063. Now, Bill No. 250209 proposes an amendment to the Code 12-2809 to identify the Subsection in 12-923 that will be subject to the identified penalty for a smart loading zone violation. It's just adding it to that section. No change to the penalty amount is proposed. The bill also proposes the addition of the word adjudication to 12-924, Section 2 to clarify that all the terms and procedures, including the hearing process of any parking violation, will also apply to a parking violation notice issued by a camera-based system. So it just makes every parking violation have the same exact adjudication process. That wasn't clear in the prior bill. So we just wanted to clean that language up.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. For the record, can you tell us the areas where the smart-loading zone parking enforcement will be enforced?

Yeah. So right now we're piloting the program. It'll go live in another week. The cameras, about 23 cameras at 108 spaces primarily 24 from 8th to 20th, 22nd to Walnut, Chestnut and Sansom.

Thank you. And what's the rationale behind this pilot program?

So it applies like a metered fee to it, $0.10 per minute after three minutes. You get a three-minute grace period in case you're dropping off or picking up. But the goal is to kind of continue to make those zones more user-friendly for delivery and drop-offs to try to open up congestion on those streets. So this will be camera- enforced instead of just PEO-enforced, because PEOs have a route that they work where the cameras constantly will be monitoring those zones to make sure that they're being used for the proper purpose.

So essentially, we've had a number of drivers and motorists just pretty much parked in these loading zones and we need to free these spaces up, particularly for commercial activities --

Correct.

-- in our city's core and things like that?

Yeah, because people are using them longer than they're supposed to. And what happens is then you get to somebody double parking, so now you have the loading zones being used, then the traffic lane is now being used. Now, you're going -- and these streets are congested now. You're taking a whole level of traffic away.

Thank you, Mr. Lazer. Are there any questions? Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Good afternoon. Hi, Richie.

Hi. How are you doing?

Good to see you in this forum. Quick question about applying this in other spaces. I know you're just doing a pilot for this, but for people doing drop-off, pickup, are we able to transfer this technology to maybe other assigned spaces where that process can occur in a block?

Yeah, definitely. I think the goal for us is to see how this goes, have the pilot, look at the zone, because I think there's other zones that are primarily delivery -- either it's UPS or a small mom-and- pop delivery or Uber Eats. The goal is to get the data from this program to see how it's working and see how we can expand it. We are using camera- based technology. As of today, we had an announcement with SEPTA and Department of Transportation and we are rolling out the bus camera legislation as well. That's going to take effect May 7th.

And just another point because you might have use of these spaces high for certain things at certain times. Is there a way to read -- is it too complicated to say, we use this space for deliveries between this hour and this hour and this is for deliveries and something else for the remaining evening?

Yeah, we could definitely do that. So some zones are mixed. Like in the morning it may be 7:00 to 11:00 or 7:00 to 10:00 it's just for delivery drivers. And then after 10:00 or 11:00, it switches to meter parking for folks that are coming up to just park in a normal spot. So we have that capability of switching. I think the goal is to look at the data, who's using them, what's the time frame, things like that and the enforcement kind of patterns to make decisions that we can pass on to have better usage of loading zones in general.

Thank you. Thank you for being smart about our technology.

Thank you.

Thank you. Just to follow up on that, so there is the ability to let's just say in our downtown area if we're trying to spruce up the nightlife to get our city, for lack of a better phrase, popping again, right, we can change the loading zones to a metered parking spot to allow folks to come into the city, find a parking space, pay to park, things like that?

Correct.

That's perfect. Thank you so much.

Yep.

Are there any other questions of this witness? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in the chamber who would like to testify on Bill No. 250209? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 2 250241 titled, An ordinance 3 amending Section 2 of an Ordinance 4 (Bill No. 220454), approved 5 November 30, 2022, entitled "An 6 Ordinance Authorizing the vacating 7 of Krewstown Road from Norwalk Road 8 to its terminus southwestwardly 9 therefrom, under certain terms and 10 conditions," by extending the 11 period for compliance with the 12 terms and conditions stated 13 therein. 14

Thank 15 you, Mr. Pullin. Please call the 16 witnesses to testify on this bill. 17

The next 18 witnesses to testify is Noelle 19 Marconi, Legislative Affairs 20 Director for the Department of 21 Streets and Sarah Chiu, Development 22 Director for the City Planning 23 Commission. 24 (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 14 No. 250241, introduced by Councilmember O'Neill. This is not an Administration ordinance, but an ordinance requested by George Weiss, Jr., on behalf of Norwalk Gardens, LL -- excuse me, LP. The purpose of this proposed ordinance 22 is to amend a previous ordinance, Bill No. 220454, approved November 30, 2022, which authorized the vacating of Krewstown Road from Norwalk Road to its terminus approximately 402 feet southwestwardly therefrom. The proposed amendment will extend the operable period for compliance with the terms and conditions of the authorizing ordinance for an additional two years. This portion of Krewstown Road was open for the public in 1821 but was not plotted on, on the City Plan. This road has not been used by public traffic for many years, and the Department of Streets is not desirous of maintaining a street at this location. This action has been requested by an abutting property owner in order to remove Krewstown Road as an encumbrance on their land and facilitate planned residential construction. The Department of Streets supports this proposed ordinance and recommends it to the Committee for favorable action. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much. Ms. Chiu, please begin.

Good afternoon, Chairmember Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planning Manager with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 250241, introduced by Councilmember O'Neill on March 20, 2025. Bill No. 250251 will extend the compliance period to November 30, 2026, for a previously approved Bill No. 220454. The former bill 23 was passed to remove a portion of Krewstown Road as encumbrance on the adjacent owners' property and facilitated a potential development. This section of the road was opened for public use in 1821, but it was not plotted on City Plan. It is not physically improved as a street nor open for public vehicular or foot traffic. The Planning Commission at this meeting on June 9, 2022 recommended for approval. The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider Bill 250241 at its meeting on April 20, 2025 with a staff recommendation for approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. So did I hear right, Ms. Marconi, that once the striking occurs or vacating occurs rather, it's going to be developed. That's a proposal by the property owner?

Correct.

When these streets are vacated, is there a cost attributed to the property owner who then wants to use this now formerly public right-of-way to develop on?

Yes, I believe the person requesting the ordinance pays the City $200.

Okay. That's the ordinance fee?

Right.

Okay. But I guess my question was regarding the actual -- I don't know the width or length of the street, but that now becomes a part of their private property; am I correct?

Yes.

Okay.

It depends on how the street was initially opened.

Okay.

So if the street was dedicated to the City at no cost, then the abutting owners get half of the street each equally with no cost associated with it.

Oh. Thank you.

But if the City had paid cost or bond or paid for damage to open the street, then they have to pay back.

Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions for these witnesses on this bill? Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Thank you. I wanted just a clarification. So this is now currently a piece of public property that is being put over purview of a private owner; am I correct?

Yes.

What is the use of the public property now?

For now it's been extended as a part of the side yard for the property owner. They have maintained for a long time part of the yard.

It doesn't really generate any revenue or there's nothing on there?

No. 18

It's just a piece of land that he wants to -- it's just because we're giving more area to a private individual where we could be generating revenue if it were a piece of property that allowed it to do so. But you're saying to me that that piece of property does not allow itself to be generating revenue for the City as is?

Not currently.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Are there any other witnesses or anyone in the chamber wishing to testify on Bill No. 14 250241? (No response.)

Seeing none, the Chair also recognizes the presence of Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson. Mr. Pullin, will you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 250102 titled, Amending Section 2 of an Ordinance Bill No. 220639, approved January 10, 2023, entitled "An Ordinance Authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan No. 27-S by striking from the City Plan the easterly twenty feet wide portion of Swanson Street from Wolf Street to Snyder Avenue, striking from the City Plan and vacating the legally open portion of Vandalia Street from Wolf Street to Weccacoe Avenue, and reserving and placing on the City Plan a right-of-way for sewer and drainage purposes within the portion of Swanson Street being stricken and authorizing acceptance of the grant to the City of the said right-of-way, all under certain terms and conditions, including the dedication to the City of the beds of the remaining unopened portions of Swanson Street from Wolf Street to Jackson Street and from Jackson Street to Snyder Avenue," by extending the period for compliance with the terms and conditions stated therein.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Would you please call the witnesses for this bill.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets, and Sarah Chiu, Development Director for the City Planning Commission.

Thank you. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 4 No. 250102, introduced by Councilmember Squilla. This is not an administration ordinance but an ordinance requested by Ronald Patterson, Esq. of Klehr Harrison Branzburg, LLP representing 11 Snyder LLC. The purpose of this 12 proposed ordinance is to amend a 13 previous ordinance (Bill No. 14 220639) approved January 10, 2023, 15 which authorized the striking from 16 the City Plan of the easterly 20 feet wide portion of Swanson Street from Wolf Street to Snyder Avenue and the striking of Vandalia Street, from Wall Street to Weccacoe Avenue. The portions of Swanson Street and Vandalia Street proposed to be stricken are not currently used by public traffic. A right- of-way for sewer and drainage purposes will be reserved within the portion of Swanson Street being stricken to accommodate the existing intercepting sewer running through this area. This ordinance 8 will extend the operable period for compliance with the terms and conditions of the authorizing ordinance for an additional two years. The changes proposed for Swanson Street have been coordinated with the Streets Department planned Swanson Street Improvement project to ensure the City's proposed roadway and streetscape improvements are accommodated. As a further condition of the proposed street striking certain portions of Swanson Street, which are currently shown are not legally open per Street Department records, will be dedicated to the City as a public right-of-way by the abutting property owner. These actions will facilitate the redevelopment of the adjacent formal industrial site into a commercial shopping center. The Department of Streets supports this ordinance and recommends it to the Committee for favorable action. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Ms. Chiu, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairman Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planning Manager with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 250102, introduced by Councilmember Squilla on February 13, 2025. Bill No. 250102 will extend to the compliance period to January 10, 2027 for a previously approved Bill No. 220639. The former bill was passed to strike an easterly feet wide portion of 11 Swanson Street from Wolf to Snyder 12 Avenue and reserve this area as a 13 drainage right-of-way. The width 14 of Swanson Street will be reduced 15 from 100 feet to 80 feet. 16 Additionally, it struck 17 and vacated a legally portion of 18 and Vandalia Street from Wolf 19 Street to Weccacoe Avenue. The 20 purpose of this action was to facilitate the redevelopment of adjacent site formerly occupied by the Inolex Chemical Company into a commercial shopping center. The Planning Commission at its meeting on July 21, 2022 recommended Bill No. 220639 for approval. The Planning Commission at its meeting on February 20, 2025 recommended Bill No. 250102 for approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any questions from my colleagues on this bill? Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Thank you. Quick question. It says this was the Inolex Chemical Company. Is there any remediation needed for the piece of land?

I would imagine so, but the remediation usually goes through DEP.

And who will pay for that?

The developer.

The developer?

Yeah.

And is there certification before we actually put commercial use on that, that regular public will be using to make sure it's safe and we're not leaching anything?

Right. Once this goes through the remediation process, there are certain standards that the development company has to meet, yeah.

And so, they'll be certified to do that. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions for these witnesses on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in the chambers wishing to testify on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 14 250176 titled, An Ordinance 15 authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan No. 118 by striking from the City Plan and vacating a widened portion of Warnock Street, on the westerly side thereof between Berks Street and Norris Street, and relocating the westerly houseline of said Warnock Street so as to align with the westerly houseline of the unaffected portions of Warnock Street as extending from Berks Street to Norris Street, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Mr. Pullin, please call the next witnesses.

The next witnesses to testify are Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets and Sarah Chiu, Development Director for the City Planning Commission.

Thank you. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 2 No. 250176, introduced by Councilmember Young. This is not an Administration ordinance but an ordinance requested by Meredith Trego, Esq., Ballad Spahr representing Jonathan Rose Companies. The purpose of this proposed ordinance is to authorize the striking from the City Plan and vacating a widened portion of Warnock Street, which forms a perpendicular parking lane along the west side of said Warnock Street from a point approximately 156 feet north of Berks Street to a point approximately 192 feet further northwesterly therefrom. The curbline in this area will be relocated in line with the curb through the rest of the block from Berks Street to Norris Street. The Philadelphia Housing Authority owns the abutting land bounded by Warnock, Berks, 11th and Norris Streets and has engaged the requesting party to redevelop this block. The proposed site improvements will include onsite parking spaces, eliminating the need for the existing parking lane. The Department of Streets supports this proposed ordinance and recommends it to the Committee for favorable actions. This concludes my testimony and I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Ms. Chiu, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairman Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planning Manager with the Florida City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 250176, introduced by Councilmember Young on March 6, 2025. This bill will strike and vacate a widened portion of right-of-way of Warnock Street to facilitate the redevelopment of a PHA-owned block in partnership with Jonathan Rose Companies. This is Phase 2 of the partnership, which is pursuing a low tax housing -- low-income tax housing credit application for development containing 136 units of affordable housing and 15 homeownership townhomes and replacement of recreational facilities. This approximately 4000 square feet of area stricken from the City Plan will be added to the development site to create a 65,000 square feet parcel. The Planning Commission at its meeting on March 20, 2025 recommended Bill No. 2 250176 for approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the Committee on this bill? (No response.)

And just for the record again, Ms. Chiu, you said this is going to be -- can you reiterate for us how many units of affordable housing on this site?

136 units of multi-family dwelling units plus the 15 townhome units.

Thank you so much. Seeing none, are there -- is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on 250176? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 8 250177 titled, Authorizing encroachments in the nature of a sidewalk cafe in the vicinity of 22 Wolf Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19148, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Can you please call the witnesses for this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets, and Sarah Chiu, Development Director for the City Planning Commission.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 10 No. 250177, introduced by Councilmember Squilla. This bill authorizes 22 Wolf Associates, LLC, the owners, to install, own and maintain encroachments in the nature of a sidewalk café, Federal Donuts, located at Wolf Street. A total 18 of 4 tables and 16 seats for a 19 sidewalk café will be adjacent to 20 the building of 22 Wolf Street. The 21 Department of Streets is not 22 opposed to this proposed sidewalk café, as it will maintain 9 feet of unobstructed footway. This concludes my testimony and I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Ms. Chiu, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairmember Young and members of the Committee on Streets and Services. I'm Sarah Chiu, City Planning Manager with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm here to testify on Bill No. 250177, introduced by Councilmember Squilla on March 6, 2025. This bill will allow a sidewalk café at Wolf Street 20 with a minimum of 9 feet of clear 21 sidewalk space to remain after 22 installation meeting the City's Complete Streets Policy. The Planning Commission at its meeting on March 20, 2025 recommended Bill 2 No. 250177 for approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you for your testimony. Are there any questions of the members of the Committee regarding this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on Bill No. 250177? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 23 250272 titled, Authorizing an encroachment in the nature of planters in the vicinity of 3322-40 Race Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the witness to testify on this bill.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members and of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 24 No. 250272, introduced by Councilmember Squilla. This bill authorizes the minister, trustees, elders and deacons, or the owners, designee, the owners, to install, own and maintain encroachments in the nature of planters at 322-40 Race Street. A total of five proposed planters will be located along the south sidewalk of Race Street and the east sidewalk of North 4th Street along the curbline. The Department of Streets is not opposed to these proposed planters, as they will maintain 6 feet of unobstructed footway. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Are there any questions from the Committee? The Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

I just had a question about the upkeep of these planters. If this were to be owned by someone else at some other point, is this going to be grandfathered onto whoever is the owner of said property?

Yes, they would have to be the owner's designee, so they would be responsible for the upkeep for this in perpetuity.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Are there any other questions of this witness on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on Bill No. 250272? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 8 250274 titled, Authorizing an encroachment in the nature of planters in the vicinity of 219 West Rittenhouse Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Would you call the next witness for this bill.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets.

Thank you. Ms. Marconi, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 9 No. 250274, introduced by Councilmember Bass. This bill authorizes RITTENHOUSE SOUNDWORKS PR, the Owners) to install, own and maintain encroachments in the nature of planters located at 219 West Rittenhouse Street. A total of three proposed planters will be adjacent to the curbline of 219 West Rittenhouse Street. The Department of Streets is not opposed to the proposed planters as it will maintain 6'3" of unobstructed footway. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Are there any questions of this witness on this bill by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on Bill 250274? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you, Ms. Marconi. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 21 250271 titled, Amending The Philadelphia Code by increasing the penalties for the prohibited parking or maintaining of semitrailers and truck tractors or residential properties, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Pullin. Would you please call the witness testify on this bill.

The next witness to testify is Noelle Marconi, Legislative Affairs Director for the Department of Streets.

Ms. Marconi, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill 23 No. 250271, introduced by Councilmember O'Neill. This bill increases the penalties for the prohibited parking or maintaining of semitrailers and truck tractors at residential properties. The penalty for parking a semitrailer or truck tractor at a residential property will increase from $500 to $1,000 per day. The Department of Streets is not opposed to increasing the fines associated with the parking of these vehicles on residential property. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. Are there any questions by members of the Committee on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers -- sorry. Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Just wanted to -- thank you. I just wanted to know who would be enforcing these violations?

It's the administrative -- the administrative -- excuse me. I'm drawing a blank. It's the --

Is it L&I of some sort?

No, it's not L&I. It's -- you go to the Administrative Bureau of Adjudications. I believe that's what the title is. And you have to -- basically if somebody wants to fight the ticket, that's where they would go. It's the Administrative Bureau of Adjudication.

And who would issue the ticket, just the regular --

It's the police department.

Police Department. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions of this witness on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers looking to testify on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 250240 entitled, An Ordinance 2 amending Chapter 12-900 ("Parking Regulations and Penalties") and Chapter 12-2800 ("Administrative Adjudication of Parking Violations") of The Philadelphia Code revising penalties related to parking certain large vehicles, including boats, motor homes, house coaches, house trailers, truck campers, recreational cargo trailers, and recreational trailers, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank 16 you. Would you please call the 17 witness for this bill. 18

The next 19 witness to testify is Noelle 20 Marconi, Legislative Affairs 21 Director for the Department of 22 Streets. 23

Thank 24 you. Ms. Marconi, please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Noelle Marconi and I'm the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Streets. I'm here today to offer testimony of Bill 11 No. 250240, introduced by Councilmembers O'Neill and Squilla. This bill amends Chapter 14 12-900 of The Philadelphia Code to revise penalties related to the parking of boats, motor homes, house coaches, house trailers, truck campers, recreational cargo trailers and recreational trailers within the 1st, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th Councilmanic Districts. This legislation will increase the fines associated with the parking of these vehicles in these Council Districts. The fines would double from $500 to $1,000 for the parking of a boat, motor home, truck camper or vending cart for more than days or parking a 6 semitrailer or truck trailer on the 7 street. The fine for onstreet 8 parking of a boat, motor home, 9 house coach, house trailer, truck 10 camper, recreational cargo trailer 11 or recreational trailer will 12 increase from $150 to $300. 13 The Department of 14 Streets is not opposed to 15 increasing the fines associated with the parking of these vehicles. This concludes my testimony. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ms. Marconi. I just have one question. Is this for vehicles that will be parked on streets, just on the street in the public right-of-way, or is this for vehicles that are parked in, say, vacant lots as well?

Just in the public right-of-way. And I believe it's just in the 1st, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th Council Districts.

Thank you. Are there any other questions of this witness on this bill? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on 250240? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you, Ms. Marconi. Mr. Pullin, please read the title of the next bill to be -

Bill No. 2 250266 titled, Regulating the direction of movement of traffic on 47th Street between Chestnut Street and Kingsessing, all under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Mr. Pullin, please call the first witness.

The first witness to testify is Cole Appleman, Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, Mr. Appleman. Please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Absolutely. I think -- oh, here we go. Got it. Yep. My name is Cole Appleman. I'm a Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. Good afternoon, Chairperson Young members of the Streets and Services Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear here before you today. As I just mentioned, my name is Cole Appleman. I'm a Transportation Policy Analyst at the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. You probably know us better as OTIS. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill No. 250266 sponsored by Councilmember Gauthier. This bill amends Title 12-203 of The Philadelphia Code to establish a northbound one-way street, 47th Street, from Kingsessing to Chestnut Street as part of the 47th Street Repaving and Traffic Safety Project. This project will convert two-way vehicle traffic to a one-way northbound on 47th Street in between Kingsessing Avenue and Chestnut Street. This project was a result of months of community 7 engagement on the 47th and 48th 8 Street corridors. To improve 9 loading on this corridor, the 10 project will also include loading 11 zones on commercial and residential 12 blocks to enable better access for 13 passenger pickup and drop-off as 14 well as for deliveries. 15 The City team also 16 worked closely with three schools 17 along the corridor to verify that 18 this project will improve traffic safety for kids going to and from school. In summary, this legislation will improve traffic safety for all users of the 47th Street corridor. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Thank you, Cole. Can you just describe exactly what the direction change is on the street so folks who are listening get an understanding of what's going on?

Yeah. Once again, it's going to be a direction change. So currently it's a two-way street on 47th from Kingsessing to Chestnut. It's going to be a northbound one-way.

Thank you. Are there any other questions of this witness on this bill? Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

I just wanted to know how much time the community and people who use that part of the road will be given to understand the change and prevent actual accidents from people going on there?

Sure. So I actually do have a documentation memo here laying out every single community meeting that our office undertook on 47th and 48th Streets. As I've mentioned before, it was about months. So the community 12 has been well-engaged and these 13 projects do take a while, so there 14 will be additional time for more 15 engagement should it be necessary. 16

So 17 there'll be signage to say this is 18 now a one-way --

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

That's what I meant after the fact, to make sure others that go through that area who are not from there know that this is a one-way.

Of course, of course.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other questions by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, is there anyone else in chambers wishing to testify on 250266? (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Hi. Good afternoon. Are you testifying on 250266, the 47th Street bill?

Yes.

Thank you. Can you please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, City Councilmembers, Chair Councilmember Young and City Council staff. My name is Theresa Feo and I live in Cedar Park in the neighborhood south of Baltimore Avenue. I'm here to speak on behalf of the 47th and 48th Street Friends Group regarding Bills 250266, to turn 47th Street one-way and Bill 250267, to remove a travel lane for an extra-wide parking protected bike lane. First, I wish to state upfront that we support safety for all bike riders, pedestrians and motorists. As a mother who's raised three bike-riding children --

Pardon me for a second. Because we have not heard the testimony on the other bill you referenced, if you could just keep this testimony limited to 250266 on 47th Street because we have not heard the other --

Sure.

-- bill yet please.

Sure.

Or if you would like to wait until the end to testify on both, that could be helpful.

Should we do that?

That is how I have your names listed by the way.

We can do that.

Okay. Thank you.

On these two bills together?

Yes.

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. So with that, Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 8 250267 titled, Amending Section 9 12-701 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Designation of Bicycle Lanes" to authorize a bicycle lane and removal of a travel lane on 47th Street, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. Would you please call the witness for this bill?

The next witness to testify is Cole Appleman, Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Mr. Appleman, please state your name and you may be given your testimony.

Absolutely. Good afternoon, everybody, Chairperson Young, members of the Streets and Services Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you again today. Once again, my name is Cole Appleman. I'm a Transportation Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. I'm here today to offer testimony on Bill No. 250267, sponsored by Councilmember Gauthier. This bill amendment -- this bill, excuse me, amends Title 12-701 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Designation of Bicycle Lanes" to authorize a bicycle lane on 47th Street from Chestnut Street to Kingsessing Avenue and make the associated changes to remove a travel lane within the same limits, all under certain terms and conditions. This project will convert two-way vehicle traffic to one-way northbound on 47th Street between Kingsessing Avenue and Chestnut Street and install a parking separated bike lane along the same stretch. This project is the result of months of 14 community engagement on the 47th 15 and 48th Street corridors. Once 16 again to improve prove loading 17 along this corridor, the project 18 will include loading zones on commercial and residential blocks to enable better access for passenger pickup and drop off as well as deliveries. The City team also worked with the three schools along the corridor to verify this project will improve traffic safety for kids going to and from school. In summary, once again this legislation will improve traffic safety for all users of the 47th Street corridor. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and I will answer any questions at this time.

Thank you. Are there any questions of this witness on 250267? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next witness to testify.

The next witness to testify is Theresa Feo of the Friends of the 47th and 48th Windsor Intersection Group. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Welcome again, ma'am. Sorry for the confusion, but can you please just state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

No problem. Again, my name is Theresa Feo and I live in Cedar Park in the neighborhood south of Baltimore Avenue, and I'm here speaking on behalf of the 47th and 48th Street Friends Group regarding Bill 250266 and Bill 250267. We've combined them and you'll see why in a moment. I wish to state upfront that we do support safety for all bike riders, pedestrians and motorists. I've raised three bike- riding children. I'm a former triathlete. I've seen my fair share of road injuries so understand the importance of safe streets. However, the current redesign of 47th Street as proposed, especially in the neighborhood south of Baltimore Avenue, will likely worsen safety conditions rather than improve them. The four key points I wish to convey are as follows: Number one, the inadequate traffic and engineering studies. OTIS did not conduct traffic studies at 47th and Springfield, which is one of the busiest and most dangerous intersections in our neighborhood where St. Francis de Sales Church and their PreK through 8 Elementary School, which has 460 children from families who speak 16 different languages, sits across the street is a busy senior center. m. dismissal and during rush hour when the congestion and chaos is frightening as school staff and residents will testify. OTIS's proposal includes major changes to this conflict intersection, switching from a two-way to a one-way street, removing a travel lane and installing a parking- protected bike lane. This intersection alone would warrant more careful traffic analysis to predict if the changes are likely to worsen an already hazardous situation versus alleviate it. At each community meeting that was just mentioned, residents have asked if diversionary route traffic studies on adjacent and parallel side streets would be done to assess increases in diverted traffic volume, if the studies were done for the busy intersections at Springfield and Chester as well as Windsor and Warrington. Residents were told yes, those study results would be sent when complete. Yet this morning's email, even just this morning from OTIS confirmed neither Springfield nor Chester were included in their studies. They don't consider Springfield a key intersection or major cross street, even though it's the busiest of all of the streets on 47th Street until you cross over Baltimore; that OTIS did not find it necessary to conduct a formal analysis on this particular Springfield intersection at St. Francis de Sales School is deeply concerning. They also failed to conduct the promised diverted traffic study for the tiny Windsor side street, stating they don't anticipate any cut-through traffic. They seem to be unaware Windsor already experiences significant cut-through traffic, which makes it clear OTIS did not thoroughly investigate the traffic flows and patterns in this neighborhood. Without doing this preliminary work, OTIS can't claim with any certainty that this proposal will make our streets safer. Our second point is the disregard for the existing infrastructure, which in 2023 the initial 47th Street proposal was presented without input from our neighborhood residents or any indepth street analysis, so OTIS was unaware of the original plans hindering access to the multiple small side streets off of South 47th Street near the West Philly Tool Library and by Woodland Avenue. There's no easy access for emergency vehicles and residents. Often these are single- like one-way streets with that dead-end. Then it was the residents who pointed out the safety risk in the plan that impact the 47th Street rec center, Grays Ferry, Pascal and Woodland Avenues. OTIS then had to eliminate Grays Ferry and Woodland Avenue as the origin point of their proposed one-way conversion, pushing it further north to Kingsessing which is shown on the plans today.

Yet some of those same access issues persist in the current plan at Regent Street and the additional traffic diverting onto Windsor and Warrington as vehicles circle the block to queue up at St. Francis for pickup three times a day. We would like to know why OTIS would propose such major changes for a busy, congested street without first studying and fully understanding the neighboring streets or listening to residents who do know the current traffic patterns. We suspect this project is driven by the bike lobby's desire for northbound, southbound parking protected bike corridor to connect to the new Schuylkill River Trail from Grays Ferry and not to improve safety for all users. Our third point is a lack of transparency and early stakeholder input. OTIS's community engagement process has been problematic, particularly in the early stages of planning. Major decisions are made without residents' input or major stakeholders. Without doing proper traffic studies, OTIS contacted St. Francis. It was to discuss initially a one-way 47th Street and solutions to the dangerous traffic congestion at the intersection. There was no mention of a protected bike lane or removal of a travel lane. The sisters who run the school made it clear the safety of the children was their highest priority. They explained how the few school buses wait on Warrington Avenue where there was no crossing guard so the teachers are escorting the young children across the street. No mention, again as I said, was made of installing an additional 9 foot wide buffer, which is a parking protected bike lane. The traffic studies they were told would be done before making any final decision never materialized. Yet the decision to move forward was made. As of this morning, neither Father Ryan nor Sister Mary of St. Francis support the current plan to convert to one-way as laid out and do not believe a parking protected bike lane makes sense in this situation nor is appropriate for the safety of the children or the elderly residents in their care. The majority consensus within the neighborhood is also that this proposal doesn't make the 47th and Springfield intersection safer but far more dangerous. Small children will now be in danger not only from moving cars but injured from fast-moving bikes and electric scooters who don't follow traffic laws. Before approving these bills, I urge Council to consult with Father Ryan and Sister Mary to consider their valuable input. They'd like to know why adding a parking protected bike lane is even being considered on this stretch of road when safer alternatives exist. And finally, No. 4, lack of respect for residents. This pattern of disregarding community concerns is not new in the Complete Streets process we've been through in the last three years. We've also heard from resident groups in other neighborhoods across the city who've experienced similar issues with OTIS. Their stories mirror the poorly-planned parking protected bike lane installation on 48th Street, which created two new hazardous intersections that now need to be fixed either by switching the bike lane to the west side of the street or reverting back to the original bike lane configuration which was safer. Residents and critical stakeholders continue to raise safety concerns for vulnerable, young school children and the elderly and disabled residents who reside in the immediate vicinity. Yet OTIS is pressing ahead without addressing them. Claiming to have community support based on an anonymous exit survey results is also disingenuous, as anyone can fill them out making them unreliable. It appears to many that OTIS isn't genuinely interested in involving the community. However, we're speaking out now so we don't make the same mistakes here as were made on 48th Street.

If this 47th Street plan to change to one-way removal of a travel lane and parking protected bike lane moves forward, it will confirm to the community at large the true goal was never community safety but rather to install parking protected bike lanes for the benefit of the powerful few at the cost of everyone else's safety. Prioritizing a last mile bike connection to the Schuylkill River Trail is not worth compromising the safety of our neighborhood. In conclusion, I respectfully ask the Committee on Streets to pause this 47th Street project until a thorough context- specific analysis of the neighborhood is conducted. We also hope Council will consider the latest research on the safety and efficacy of parking protected bike lanes, which show crash increases on inner city streets that have multiple intersections, spiking some as high as 117% and 400%. In cities like Denver, in New Orleans, other major cities are removing these parking protected bike lanes as a result of these injuries. I also urge Council to ensure that future parking protected bike lane proposals, especially on non-High Injury streets such as 48th Street, which was our street, are properly analyzed, designed with community input and focused on everyone's safety, not based on political pressures from the powerful bike lobby. Thank you for your time and consideration. And these are the emails -- this is the email from this morning from Adam Smith and OTIS's Central District Manager and all the multiple requests from us over the last three months for those studies, which were ignored for months and months and months, and he just confirmed this morning that none of the intersections in our neighborhood were studied included any of those studies. You can have them.

Thank you.

These are all from this morning. These are all the other ones.

Is it possible for you to share your written testimony with my office? Could you email that to us so we can have it?

Yes.

Thank you. You also wish to testify as well?

Yes please, Councilmember.

Please state your name for the record.

My name is Virginia Lynn Hogben. I am a long- term more than 30-year resident of the 4700 block of Windsor Avenue, which is directly affected and adversely affected by this proposal. I'm here to testify against both bills, 250266 and 250267 for two fundamental reasons: 47th Street -- this is not merely a one-way and a protected bike line. This is a one-lane street. This street is the sole access for two side streets, my street, 4700 Windsor, and Regent is the sole access to the egress for 4600 Regent. They can't get in or out if something -- if one vehicle blocks that street. And it would seem if you have to make a street one lane, it's uniquely inappropriate to do that on a street where there are side streets, major residential side streets that depend on access. The other concern is the purpose of this is ostensibly safety. However, it is clear that this proposal, in addition to the matters that Theresa has raised, it is clear that a protected bike lane will create a safety hazard of a two-vehicle collision because it eliminates visibility at intersections. When they installed the protected bike lane at 48th Street, you no longer coming off Windsor Avenue can see the cars coming on 48th Street. That is not a fully- controlled intersection. It's a stop on Windsor only. So there is a high risk at a nonfully- controlled intersection of having two cars collide. That will happen on 47th Street necessarily. If the bike lane is on the west side, you can't solve it by which side it's on. If it's on the west side, you will have that collision probability at Warrington. If you install it on the east side, it will happen at Regent because those are two nonfully-controlled intersections. They don't have three-way stop, they don't have a traffic light. And so, you are going to create a two-vehicle collision risk, a real live visibility problem. That has been raised with 48th Street when it was created and nothing has been done for four or five months. There is still no 14 commitment to solve that problem by installing traffic stop signs, three-way stop signs, which could reduce that danger by slowing the vehicles down so you wouldn't have a vehicle going straight through unseen by a vehicle attempting to turn into or cross the intersection. There's no 23 commitment to do that, so you are now creating a new safety hazard of a two-vehicle collision in an area where parents are driving kids to school and from school and you're not -- and there's no solution in this bill. There's no solution from the Streets Department. No one has even attempted to solve this and created a solution before proceeding and creating the problem again. The other thing is the extent anyone is proposing taking out parking, that's a problem for several reasons. There is a shortage of parking in the area. You take additional parking spaces out. People who have to come home to their homes late at night can't safely get home. They're forced to park too far away from their home to safely get to their house at 2:00 in the morning or 10:00 at night. And in addition, with all the community discussions taking out parking was never ever told to the community as one of the aspects of this proposal. Had it been, there would have been even more people concerned about it. There are people concerned about it. There was opposition. I don't think anyone wants any parking taken out. With respect also to the community meetings, -- yes, in fairness Rich Montanez has met after the problem was created with neighbors about the 48th Street intersection, but that has not been resolved yet. At a minimum, at a bare minimum before you create a two-car collision hazard, a visibility hazard in an intersection, you need to figure out how it's being solved and do that and not proceed to create a new problem.

The other thing I would briefly like to say is with respect to the community meetings, yes, there have been community meetings, but a number of these community meetings actually restricted who could speak. For example, on 48th Street people who lived on Windsor were told they weren't affected. Now, we can't get off of our street without having a traffic hazard. So there has not been complete and proper community input. There has not been listening to the community. But the why of all things to proceed to create a traffic hazard if your purpose is safety, solve all your hazards first. Don't go and create a two-vehicle collision blind-spot area without solving it first. You can always -- if you can come up with solution, you can discuss it. If you can do the studies and then do it fully informed and not just create more problems with our city tax dollars. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions of these witnesses by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, I'd also like to recognize the presence of Committee member Councilmember Brooks as well. But I do have a question for OTIS. I want to follow up. I mean, these witnesses testified regarding the traffic studies. Can someone from OTIS come up to talk to us about what traffic studies were conducted to come up with this project? (Witness approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Please state your name for the record.

Hi. My name is Christopher Puchalsky. I'm the Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives at OTIS. We did traffic counts and detailed analysis at intersections in the 10 study area. We also looked at all 11 of the intersections in the study 12 area to make sure that the proposal 13 is not going to cause issues. 14 We're certainly very 15 concerned about drop-off activity 16 at St Francis de Sales School. 17 That's why we've been working with 18 Sister McNulty and the Parish 19 priest whose name escapes me. It's 20 our understanding that they're 21 supportive of the project. We 22 wouldn't want to go forward with 23 anything that's going to endanger 24 the students. We know that pickup and drop-off is an issue. The chaotic activity that happens at schools all across our city is something that needs to be investigated. We think this proposal is actually going to increase safety during the pickup and drop-off activity. It reduces the number of conflict points. Right now because you have two-way traffic, you need to be looking constantly both ways when you cross the street. Because you're now going to have one-way traffic, you're only going to need to look one way so that the reduction in the number of conflict points reduces the cognitive load of people who are crossing the street either as a pedestrian or as a driver in the study area. So we're pretty confident that this move is actually going to increase the safety of pickup and drop-off at Springfield and 47th.

Thank you. In their testimony, the witnesses' testimony, they mentioned specifically a couple of intersections that stood out to me, Springfield and Chester. They said that there was no study done for those intersections. Can you talk to us about that? What was your rationale with not including those in the study? You said you did 15 intersections and looked at others. 16 So can you tell us what that looks 17 like? 18

Yeah. I 19 mean, I think maybe the sense that 20 we didn't study them is a bit of a 21 misnomer. We didn't take detailed 22 traffic counts. We didn't do 23 detailed simulation modeling at 24 those intersections. That's not to say that we didn't look at them, that they weren't considered. All of those intersections were brought to the community meetings. We had several table-long roll-outs to show this is what the configuration is today, this is what the configuration is going to be if this project goes forward as proposed, please give us your comments on all of them. There was a number of discussions about them at the public meeting. So we certainly looked at them. They're certainly considered in the plan. We just didn't do the detailed counts and the detailed modeling at those intersections because the volumes were lower on those places then, like I said, the other intersections that we 23 counted throughout the study area 24 both on 48th, 46th, 47th.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Are there any questions? Councilmember Ahmad.

Yes, thank you. A quick question about the parking issue that was mentioned by the previous witnesses. This is a circumscribed area that you've looked at and done a lot of studies. Do you have a sense of if parking is going to be eliminated for some of these folks or can you just address that?

Yeah. So there was a few issues brought up. So one of the things that we noticed when we were looking at the traffic conditions is the lack of visibility at cross streets. That's why we are going to clear some parking at the cross streets, which was why that was brought in the public engagement materials when we had the meeting. I was personally at this one. So there is going to be some parking loss. A lot of that -- the reason is because the current regulations do not meet the city standards for sight lines or the standards for national groups for sight lines, that is, how far back and what distance can you see if you were either making a move onto or off of a side street. So that's why we wanted to not only on the side of the street where the bike lane is but actually on the side where the bike lane isn't, we wanted to have consistent sight lines at all the side street intersections, so we are clearing some of the parking to have better visibility.

Is there a way to offset that in any way with near sites that could accommodate neighbors?

We can certainly take a look at that. Part of it is trying to create, especially during the daytime, perhaps daytime-only loading zones so people have a space to stop and do loading activity that doesn't block traffic or otherwise cause a danger. But we're certainly willing to continue to look for as many parking spaces as we can to offset any losses. But that's the reason there were some parking spaces taken, is to have better sight lines. And it's like I said, not only where there is the bike lane but even where there isn't the bike lane we saw that there was some standard site distances.

Yeah. So you have the location, you have the data, you can actually look at car registrations to overlay on top of where and then you can see what the gap is. And to accommodate our constituents, it would be great to see how you can reallocate them in nearby locations so it's not the inconvenience which is considerable, especially as they mentioned late at night, early in the morning, sense of security and ease of access since they preceded having their cars before the change was being made. So that's why I think it's only fair to sort of see how to accommodate our community members.

Yeah, I think that's very reasonable. We can continue to look at the parking situation and to see what measures at all we can take to offset any losses for safety.

and soon when you have all those smart whatever Rich Lazer was talking about, if they're instituted, you can actually see the amount of occupancy based on the time of day so that that could alleviate some pressure as well.

Yeah. I don't think there's smart loading zones that are anticipated for implementation in the near term in this study area, but that's certainly a tool that we can look at.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you so much. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next witness to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Cameron O'Grady and Jared Johnson, members of 5th Square. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Could you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Young and members of the Street and Services Committee. My name is Jared Johnson. I am a resident of West Philly and a Vision Zero advocate for 5th Square in support of both Bill No. 250266 and Bill No. 18 250267. I am proud to see the City Council and the Mayor's Office realize the safety and concerns of residents, businesses and commuters in this particular area. After months of voicing our concerns from vehicles speeding or vehicles being double-parked causing a traffic jam or bikes having difficulty getting through on 47th Street, this is welcome news that there is action involving separated bike lanes and a conversion from a two-way lane into a one-way lane at 47th Street between Kingsessing and Chester Avenues. Although this is great news, in the past recent years there are bicyclists and pedestrians who have lost their lives before these bills were introduced, and we should not forget about those individuals. It was too late for them and I wish in my heart there was solution to this issue at the time. It is so disappointing that we have to wait until there are too many tragedies or one serious accident too much before a solution is reached when it does not have to be this way at all. However, I am glad there is finally a resolution to solve this issue with the addition of protected bike lanes to the point that it is not too late for the pedestrians, bicyclists and others that are still here with us. I have cousins, friends, and there are also members of 5th Square who live in West Philly, especially in that particular section. Some of them are here. Some of them are not. And I think about their lives every day. I worry about them. In my mind, I always think about are they going to be okay. I hope they're going to be okay, let them be safe. With the addition of protected bike lanes, this will make bicyclists, pedestrian, school children and school and public transit riders, drivers and many others safer. The addition of protected bike lanes will also benefit greatly to prevent tragic results and will lessen further consequences. I appreciate you taking the time to consider these bills and responding to these concerns we have been voicing within the past to months. I 11 ask the City Council to please 12 approve these two bills. Thank you 13 for your time. 14

Thank 15 you so much. 16 Mr. O'Grady, please 17 begin your testimony. 18

Hello, 19 Councilmembers of the Committee of 20 Streets and Services. My name is 21 Cameron O'Grady and I'm here to 22 urge you to support Item No. 250267 23 as you report it out of Committee 24 which will authorize a bike lane along 47th Street. I spoke in this very spot about a month ago and gave public comment about three bills, each implementing bike lanes along various streets in the city. Even though I did not live where they would be implemented, each of those bills was passed unanimously. I am now back to support an item that is relevant to me as a West Philly resident. I did not expect to be back here so soon. But nonetheless, I'm extremely happy to be back here, as this means Councilmembers such as yourselves are taking the idea of bike lane seriously. I sincerely appreciate that, truly. Thank you. But on to the specifics of 47th Street, having a parking protected bike lane on the street authorized as quickly as possible is extremely important, as the Department of Streets is likely to repave 47th Street this summer. The proposed section of 47th Street, that's the section that's going to be repaved, any delay or denial of this bill could leave 47th Street in a state of limbo, confusing both motorists and bicycle users with an unmarked, unclear street. This is the prime opportunity to properly restripe the street to ensure safety for all. Additionally, there has been months of community engagement 15 to ensure that the proposed street 16 change have met the needs and wants 17 of every community stakeholder, 18 including loading zone needs, the safety of children attending three local schools, the traffic needs of motorists and the safety of cyclists and pedestrians using this route as well. At this point, there is no reasonable objection to the bike lane. The City has operated in good faith to move forward with these changes. Those who oppose it now do not, and simply wish to keep the convenience of their motor vehicle travel at the expense of other road users and pedestrians. You're right, faster and more convenient motor vehicle travel cannot be at the expense of the safety of others. So it is now time to follow through and keep at the momentum of bike lanes to give more transportation options to the citizens of the city and protect the safety of those most vulnerable users. Please support Item No. 20 250267 and thank you for listening.

Thank you so much. I'm going to ask Ms. Feo to come back. Is there some concern that you have -- I'm sorry. Are there any questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

I'm sorry. Seeing none, thank you. I'm going to ask Ms. Feo to come back. She had a couple questions and a couple things you want to put on the record. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Hi. Theresa Feo, and I wanted to respond to a comment about the parking and also the comment that was just made. We want to be clear, we specifically are referring to our neighborhood which is south of Baltimore Avenue. It's a very different flavor than the gridded area over by the Garden Court Association, kind of like the West Village downtown in New York City is very different than the gridded streets up above. We have lots of diagonal streets and little side streets. Our neighborhood operates differently. None of our streets are one-way. 43rd is not one-way. 45th is not one-way. 46th is not one-way. 47th, 48th, none of them are one-way streets. But from Baltimore north, the streets go alternating one way. From Baltimore Avenue north, they all have a single lane of traffic where there's room for a bike lane and parked cars. That was just to specify that we're kind of in a different neighborhood than I suspect that Garden Court members come from. They're much more commercial traffic. They are adjacent to Chestnut and to Spruce Street and Walnut. Where St. Francis de Sales particularly is a totally different animal. And we would like to know that they did the proper study. Sister Mary and Father Ryan at that school are adamantly opposed to this plan. They lose all their parking spaces. Their teachers have nowhere to park. And to the parking comment that the OTIS gentleman made, during the day we lose our parking spaces when City employees drive in from like Darby and Chester and they come in, and we're the last space where you're unticketed parking, like we're free parking. So they park there and they ride their free SEPTA cards. And we see that all the time on the trolley and we don't mind that. So during the day, parking is incredibly scarce. And then at nighttime if you're not on your street by 6 o'clock, you are literally parking two to three blocks away, for me two to three blocks away. The other night when I came home from visiting my son up in North Jersey, it was o'clock at night 6 and I had to park at 51st and 7 Warrington. The next day someone 8 was shot at 51st and Warrington. 9 So it's dangerous to park after 10 certain hours. Parking is just 11 it's filled up suddenly. We only have the overflow parking behind the Vietnam cafe and Dolla(ph). I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with that area, which just last week was taken over by a film crew for five days so the parking was incredibly intense. And the sight lines that he referenced in our case have nothing to do with Windsor. As Deputy Commissioner Montanez can tell you, the grading issue of 47th Street is lower than the street. So if you're coming up that street to turn onto the road, you would literally have to remove five, almost the whole block worth of parking for a sight line if you're in a sedan or a lower car to pull out into the road. The cars are now stopping at the stop sign, then they slowly cover the crosswalk, then they have to cover where the protected bike lane is now and then nose out in front of oncoming cars to see to pull out. It's an issue. Mr. Montanez is aware of it. He met with us. They reached out to us a couple weeks ago to come and see what they can do to fix it. Our concern is the only way you could really fix it is to switch that protected bike lane to the other side, which was our concern that we were bringing to their attention for two years and we were ignored. We were told this is about cleaning the bike lanes and who's going to remove the lease, we were bringing up safety issues. And our neighborhood is probably 70% elderly people, some that are disabled. The nuns have -- all the retired nuns live on that same corner at 47th and Springfield. So it's a neighborhood with lots of young children, pedestrians. I took videos.

I -- because you can't play them in here, but I have videos I can show you at dismissal time at 2:30 what that intersection looks like and what losing that extra lane will do, what changing it to one way will do to make it even more dangerous. And losing all the parking, no one in the neighborhood is happy about that. So it's not about to me safety versus parking. It's all about safety, in that one lane eliminates an emergency vehicles from getting to Regent Street once it's backed up. It eliminates the children being able to have the space to cross to the cars. The cars are now circling around the block repeatedly. The parents get agitated when they can't get to the school. It's chaos. Anyway so I appreciate you listening to my extra testimony. And then also the City people that park in our neighborhood during the day with the free SEPTA cards unless we get restricted parking, the whole block it's not going to change, but nighttime is a problem for parking. So thank you.

Thank you so much. Are there any other witnesses to testify on this bill? (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Hi. Good afternoon, Council Chair Young and members of City Council. I would like to testify on Bill Nos. 250266, 250267 in support of those two bills.

State your name.

My name is William Tung, T-u-n-g. So there's some discussion about Springfield Avenue, 47th Street, 48th Street. I want to say as a person who lives on Springfield Avenue, I live further west on 51st in Springfield. And as a person whose entire family was struck by a car on the corner of 48th and Springfield, the corridors of 48th and 47th Street are dangerous. 47th Street is on the High Injury Network. It's on the list of one of the most dangerous streets in the city. And I ideally welcome the roadway layout changes because all these changes will only make the streets safer. There's also some contentions about parking. Pa state law actually prohibits parking feet from the 10 corner, from every corner in the 11 city. So currently a lot of it's 12 not enforced. A lot of it's not 13 signed. 14 Cars do park, you know, 15 within 20 feet of the corner all 16 the time without any consequence. 17 The problem that that creates is, 18 is it reduces sight lines, right. 19 So we have a lot of crashes. We 20 have a lot of people getting struck and hit by cars because you can't see somebody coming out from an intersection from a corner. Cities like Hoboken, Jersey City have achieved Vision Zero by just what's called daylighting, by putting posts in those corners so people don't park in them so that you can actually see when you're driving down a street, you can actually see people coming out from a corner. And that's what's happening with this 47th Street, that there's going to be flex posts placed on these corners so that drivers can see other drivers, drivers can see pedestrians and people on bikes as they travel down that street. That's all. Thank you very much for your test -- thank you.

Thank you. Please state your name and proceed.

Jeremy Blatstein. Speaking right off of what Will just said, you hear too many times I care about safety but. There shouldn't be no but when it comes to safety. It's not really this parking versus bike lane thing. It's really what we're talking about is safety. And I do kind of want to challenge this idea that there's this bike lobby that is taking over the city of Philadelphia, right. The people that are advocating for bike lanes in the city of Philadelphia are everyday people and they are directly affected by that. So I think that that's just something to keep in mind as we are implementing bike lanes, that they are doing what they think and what the data suggests is what's best for Philadelphia when it comes to safety. So I just want to make sure that's clear, that you can't just make up random ideas when it comes to safety when OTIS and park -- when it comes to the bike lanes, right. The studies show that this implementation of one way with bike lanes is the safer option. So I just want to put that on the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this bill and Committee in chambers? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the title of the next bill.

Bill No. 20 250148 titled, An ordinance 21 amending Chapter 12-3400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Use of An Automated Speed Enforcement System to Improve Safety" by providing for the use, administration and enforcement of automated speed cameras on routes located within specified school zones, under certain terms and conditions.

Thank you. And I do note that this is a bill that we heard at the last Committee hearing. So if there are any witnesses who did testify at that last hearing who wish to testify today, I'm going to ask if you could summarize your testimony because we do have that testimony on the record. I am going to now recognize the sponsor of the legislation, Councilmember Thomas.

Hello. Good morning, Mr. Chair and to my colleagues and members of the Streets Committee. I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity just to communicate a little bit of information about the bill but, more importantly, to be able to answer any questions that any members of the Committee may have. Today I'm speaking on Bill No. 250148 to authorize speed cameras in the following school areas -- I'm sorry, in five different school areas. I'm not going to read them right now because I know you have the legislation. For us a big factor in determining why this initiative exists is because of the issues that we're dealing with as it relates to speed. What we're dealing with speed, with safety around vehicles and things of that capacity is not uniquely designed where it only impacts children. There are a lot of seniors and other folks across the city who constantly request things like safety measures, speed bumps and other things just to try to put themselves in a position to address some of the issues that we're seeing around transportation. As former Chair of the Streets Committee, we noticed the spike in hit-and-runs and reckless driving started in the year of 2020. For me, my work with the PA Municipal League helped put me in a position to advocate with other legislators across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be able to fight for new technology and technology- based initiatives to address issues around traffic safety and traffic calming. That inspired me to do a number of hearings specifically related to Vision Zero-based initiatives through the Streets Department, looking at the hit-and- run crisis and examining what we can do. One of the things that came out of those hearings was in collaboration with at that time Police Commissioner Outlaw and a former Captain Overwise. We were able to advocate for revenue to be in the budget for new technology, when a hit-and-run takes place to be able to gather and collect evidence and put ourselves in a position to increase the arrest rate after a hit-and- run. Unfortunately, while that's good work it doesn't necessarily address the preventive side. We also worked in collaboration with former School Safety Officer and now Police Commissioner Bethel to come up with the Safe Corridors and travel program for young people traveling to and from the city of Philadelphia. And of course, when we've seen Harrisburg give us the ability to move and have cameras and use technology, because a lot of people don't know that we need Harrisburg to give us enacting legislation and put us in a position to use technology and cameras, we then put out a survey to citizens across the city of Philadelphia to gather data and evidence to try to figure out where Philadelphians thought the most dangerous intersections were, and. we wanted to compare that data with the High Injury Network, OTIS and other government agencies. And so, with that being said we are happy to work with the School District as well as the Mayor's team to introduce the bills that's being read before the Committee today. And again, want to just say thank you to the members of the Committee for allowing me to testify. And more importantly, speak to the sense of urgency of this particular issue. I'll close out by talking about the fact that the Education Committee. We meet with the School District on a monthly basis, and some members of this Committee are also members of the Education Committee. And one of the things that the School District is responsible for doing is communicating any significant issues that happen that put young people in a danger or put them at harm. Sometimes that's buildings being evacuated because of the infrastructure issues, sometimes fights and arguments. But then there's those heartbreaking situations where you get that text message that says that a child has been hit by a car either going to or from school.

Unfortunately, just last month an 11-year-old here in the city of Philadelphia was hit by a car in the morning on the way to school, and these are the heartbreaking stories that we have to witness on a consistent basis. So hopefully bills like this, with the support of the members of this Committee, can put us in a position where we can begin to put a small dent in a crisis that's not just affecting Philadelphia, but affecting major cities all across the country. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you again to the members of the Committee for allowing me to offer a few remarks. And if any members of the Committee has any questions specifically for me around this legislation, I just wanted to be here to answer those questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to my colleague Councilman Thomas for your hard work on this issue. And I just wanted to say -- because I think that there's been a lot of confusion around exactly what some of the concern was last time. And let me just state a couple of things for the record. Number one is that I am the proud mother, as you know, of a teenager who goes to public school here in the city and goes to school in a very high traffic, high density neighborhood. And so, it never loses my sight for a second the importance of traffic safety around schools. Also, I want to do note for the record that I was the author along with my colleagues in not this past Council legislative body but the one prior to that, in which I was the author of a bill 8 which adds about $3 million to $5 million annually for traffic calming to the city of Philadelphia. So I do want to just be absolutely clear in case there's any confusion about where I stand on this particular issue. But I also as a member since 2012, I have taken an oath as we all have as Councilmembers, to never take an uninformed vote. And I think that making sure that we as members, as colleagues, are all sort of working together on the same page, aware of what is being presented is paramount. I would like for everyone to put themselves for one second in the shoes and in the seat of a member of City Council and to think about a vote on any topic coming to you in which you were not informed of and how would you handle that. And I think that with most of us, we all feel that having the information is paramount to being able to make an informed decision on behalf of the citizens of the city of Philadelphia. I have always supported every traffic camera bill, red light bill, traffic calming bill, bike lane bill, you know, whatever it is that is going to be supportive of safety. As someone said earlier, safety first. Safety first, safety last. And so, that is something that I have always taken a position to uphold since my time as a member of Council. And so, I'm pleased to be able to support this bill. I thank my colleague for informing us, for giving us the information, for briefing us. And I think that we both at the end of the day were able to have some great conversation that is really able to move the city and move our neighborhoods to where we all want them to be. So I thank you for that, colleague.

Thank you, Councilmember Bass. I just want to echo those sentiments. I mean just so the public is clear, this bill is a pilot that the state authorized only five locations. And so, when we have this limited resource, we want to make sure that we are putting this resource in the best locations and we wanted to review that data and that information to make sure again that we are making informed decisions regarding our constituency, because to not do that is kind of malpractice on our part. So we just want to make sure that we are placing these resources in the locations that have the need for these resources. And we wanted to be informed about that decision. Mr. Pullin, would you please call -- I'm sorry. Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Yes, thank you so much. I just wanted to ask you if you had any perspective on the cameras that were put on Roosevelt Boulevard that hopefully is informing us on our next space so if you could just speak about that for a minute and the impact that has had? And as my colleague said, safety first, safety last. And how we want to make sure our constituents know this is evidence- based work. This is not just pulled out of a hat and this is not to inconvenience people, but it's really to slow people down and save lives.

Thank you, colleague. And I'll be very brief. I think when you look at what Roosevelt Boulevard cameras did is that it changed culture, it changed behavior, it changed norms. We're hoping that this pilot will change culture, change behaviors and change norms specifically around school zones when children are arriving to school and when children are departing from school. You know, 10 o'clock at night, no one's going to get a speeding ticket. Even though you shouldn't be speeding, right, you're not going to get that speeding ticket at 10 o'clock at night. We're specifically talking about the times when young people are traveling to and from school. And what we want to do is create a system that puts us in a position where the norm, where the cultural norm in Philadelphia is when young people are traveling. We are going to move about in a way that's cautious, that's safe and that puts us in a position where our children do not have to feel vulnerable traveling to and from school. And if I could add my shameless plug, I would ask our colleagues in Harrisburg for some advocacy-based initiatives because as we continue to expand the use of technology to address traffic- related issues, some of that revenue, which is our job, needs to come back to the City of Philadelphia. A lot of people don't realize that in order to put us in a position to use technology to address traffic calming, we need permission from Harrisburg. But Harrisburg also gets all of the revenue. I'm not a big fan of using fines and fees to collect revenue for the City of Philadelphia. I don't like predatory behavior. But I do recognize when we put certain mechanisms in place, it changes culture and the revenue itself should come to the City of Philadelphia. So that's my one issue with what's going on with Roosevelt Boulevard is that as we're changing cultural norms and behaviors up there, unfortunately none of that revenue that Philadelphia constituents are paying goes directly to their city. So thank you, colleague, for that question.

You're welcome. And no unfunded mandate, I hear you.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the witness to testify on Bill 250148.

The first witness to testify is Cole Appleman, Policy Analyst for the Office of Transportation Infrastructure Systems. (Witness approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon, everybody.

Good afternoon.

Once again, my name is Cole Appleman. I am a Policy Analyst with the Office of Transportation Infrastructure Systems. I have here with me our head of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, Chris Puchalsky. I understand that brevity is at a premium today, so I will keep it rather brief. Just as Councilmember Thomas said a moment ago, this is really all about safety. We really have -- excuse me here, let me -- wasn't quite as ready to go off the cuff as I thought I was. Just a couple of clarifying points. Since the last time this bill was heard, we have met with all the affected district Councilmembers and provided some clarifying points as far as where the data comes from, our constrictions based on the way the school zones are defined, so on and so forth. We have also openly and explicitly voiced our desire to continue engaging with the community based on what's going on here. I would just like to emphasize one more time there was a tremendous amount of research and data and consultation not only with PennDOT, but with the schools that are involved to put these systems in place and we really do hope to expand this lifesaving technology in the near future should PennDOT allow that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Are there any questions of these witnesses by members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you for your time. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next witness to testify on this bill.

The next witnesses to testify are Craig Johnson, Chief of School Safety for the School District of Philadelphia, and Karima Mackins, of Local 1956, Philadelphia School Crossing Guards Union. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chair Young, Committee members, Councilmembers and lead sponsor Education Chair Thomas. My name is Craig Johnson. I'm the Chief of School Safety for the School District of Philadelphia, and I am pleased to be here this afternoon to provide updated testimony in support of Bill No. 23 250148 on behalf of the School District of Philadelphia. Thank you to the City Council and Mayor Parker for consideration of this important legislation, which will improve safety for students across the District and for students of our parochial and charter school partners. We also thank our state- elected officials and the Governor for supporting the funding for this work. Automated enforcement of speed limits will bolster traffic safety protocols already in place in school zones and will help keep our children safe from careless drivers. The School District of Philadelphia via the Office of School Safety and our Operations team shared data on traffic safety concerns with our City partners in the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, the Streets Department and Philadelphia Police Department. As Chief of the Office of School Safety, I work with our police department counterparts to identify traffic safety violation locations to support any additional enforcement needs. My colleagues and operations also share information with Streets and OTIS to prioritize locations for traffic-calming devices such as flashing lights and speed bumps. For example, in 2023 via sharing data the City installed traffic-calming devices at Sayre High School and a total of 50 other school sites. In 2024, the School District provided a priority list of elementary schools for installing similar devices to the Streets Department as funding becomes available. We are glad to see this important traffic safety work supplemented with state funding and this bill which will allow for additional and better enforcement of speed limits in some of our highest traffic school corridors. The School District continued partnership with the City allows us to collaborate on improving student safety on the way to and from our schools and in support of our charter and private school partners. We look forward to the installation of the automated enforcement camera and are happy to provide any needed logistical support to facilitate the completion of this project. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony in support of Bill 21 No. 250148 and I'll be available for any questions.

Thank you. Ms. Mackins, please state your name and begin your testimony.

Karima Mackins. Good afternoon, Chair Young, Councilmembers. My name is Karima Mackins. I am the President for Local 1956 representing school crossing guards on District Council 33. I would like to thank Councilmember Thomas' office for acknowledging us as always and inviting me to speak on this bill 14 today that will authorize speed cameras and potential school zones. School crossing guards play a vital, a vital role in the safety of our children as they travel back and forth to schools every day. But sometimes we're unable to perform those duties properly when there's just people that seem to not care about the safety of our children as they travel through those school zones every day or the guards when they're just there trying to do their jobs. As a result of someone speeding in the school zone, I have a guard out right now, LaTonya Hill, who was hit by a car standing in the middle of the street crossing children by somebody speeding down the street. She is suffering right now with multiple fractures to her knee as well as a torn ACL on top of the mental trauma and being out of work that she has to endure every day from her injuries. I actually just got word on Friday that we had a guard that was hit by a car in the 2nd District who was still in the hospital as we speak, that this person sped through the red light and she has suffered with broken bones and has to go through surgery. And so, I feel that placing the speed cameras in school zones could also potentially add value to the life of our children, our school crossing guards as well as our communities. So with that all being said, I truly hope this bill is taken into consideration to keep our babies safe from harm. We have to start somewhere and I think that initiating this bill would be the perfect start. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions for these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, thank you so much. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next panel to testify.

The next witnesses to testify are Will Tung and Brennan Maragh, volunteers with 5th Square. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Brennan Maragh, 5th Square advocacy for the record. Good afternoon, Chair Young, Councilmembers and staff of the Street and Services Committee. Again, my name is Brennan Maragh. I'm a member of 5th Square advocacy. I want to thank you today for listening to my testimony in regards to Bill No. 250148, which would improve road safety around some of the most important places in Philadelphia which is our schools. So this bill as written would create automated speed enforcement zones with clear signage in schools around the city. Anyone who has driven in the city, myself included, probably knows how it feels to get a ticket after violating a traffic law. You feel annoyed first, then angry that you owe a fine and then hopefully the next time you drive, you're on better behavior because you know that there will be consequences. As the Councilmember stated, this is exactly the kind of behavior that we are trying to change with this bill. It's imperative that drivers understand that speeding, especially through a school zone, is dangerous and should incur a cost if you continue to do so with impunity. Furthermore, it is clear that in Philadelphia there is a need for this legislation. In 2024 alone, 125 citizens of our beloved city died as a result of car crashes and neglected driving. It's crucial that we continue to do the work to ensure those deaths are reduced by reducing speeds and holding drivers accountable. I know that some District Councilmembers and other residents have expressed reservations about this bill for various reasons. Personally I do not have children of school age but, I live in an area that has kids walking around all the time, whether it's to the library down the street, go to school or just walk around the neighborhood. And I believe they all deserve to feel safe no matter where they are, but specifically where they spend a lot of their time in the School District. So I believe that delaying consideration of this bill 4 again would be dangerous and illogical because who doesn't want kids to feel safe in the city. So thank you again for listening to my testimony and I encourage the Committee to pass this much-needed legislation. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Tung.

Good afternoon, Chair Young, members of City Council. My name is Will Tung. I'm speaking as a volunteer with 5th Square advocacy and as a parent of a 6th grader here in Philly in support of Bill 250148. My daughter Juniper has adopted one singular mission in her middle school, and it's getting into Central High School. My wife and I don't know where she gets this drive. But we keep on telling her you got to make straight As. You got to make straight As to even be considered. When her report card came in last week, she told me, Dad, I didn't get straight As, I got three A+s too. I'm so proud of her. So last month you heard testimony from a Central High School parent. Now you're hearing from me, a hopeful Central parent. We're humbly asking you to keep our kids safe by authorizing speed cameras in our city's most dangerous school zones. We're running out of time. We're already one year into a five-year pilot authorized by Harrisburg. And if my kid's lucky enough, she may see these for her freshman year of high school. One can only imagine -so five children are struck and seriously injured by cars every week in Philadelphia. And research shows that the Boulevard speed cameras save one life every month. One can only imagine how many injuries and deaths will be averted by these school zone cameras. And one can only imagine what a one-month delay in considering this bill will mean for the next school child crossing the street. So I understand there may be concerns from constituents who receive speeding tickets. The bill requires no less than five signs posted before and after the zone that there's a speed camera and a 30-day warning period. And I'd rather Councilmembers get complaints from people getting speeding tickets than having to hear from a constituent telling you about their child who fell victim to traffic violence. It shouldn't matter who your Councilmember is. Every Philadelphian in City Council in every City Council District deserves to have safe streets. Like gun violence, traffic violence takes the lives of too many Philadelphians. Unlike gun violence, the design and safety of our streets is well within the control of the people who work in this building. We are relying on you to keep us safe. My daughter is relying on you to keep us safe, keep her safe, and your constituents are relying on you to keep them safe. Please pass this bill.

Thank you so much. Are there any questions of these witnesses? (No response.)

Seeing none, Mr. Pullin, would you please call the next panel.

The next witnesses to testify are Nicole Brunet, Policy Director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Nora Dowd Eisenhower, State President of AARP Pennsylvania. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon.

Thank you. Please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Thank you. My name is Nora Dowd Eisenhower. Good afternoon. My name is Nora Dowd Eisenhower. I'm the Volunteer State President for AARP Pennsylvania and we've testified before on this issue and we feel very strongly about Vision Zero as a positive development in Philadelphia. And I want to say good morning -- good afternoon again to Councilwoman Brooks. We saw you this morning at the press conference for the housing issues. With a membership of nearly 38 million people nationwide, almost 2 million in Pennsylvania and nearly 300,000 across Philadelphia, we advocate on issues that matter most to older adults, their families, their loved ones with a focus on health security, financial resilience and livable communities. As the Committee of Streets and Services convenes today to consider a variety of ordinances related to the safety and functionality of the City streets, we appreciate the invitation to offer our insights. We believe it is important to first recognize that this public hearing occurring just days after the annual Vision Zero conference occurred at Temple University right up North Broad Street organized by our friends at the Bicycle Coalition, who you'll be hearing from very soon, the 2025 Vision Zero conference celebrated successes like the two decades that have passed since the installation of red light cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, and it also acknowledged the continuing high toll of crashes and fatalities of pedestrians and bicyclists who are far more vulnerable to being injured or killed in a collision than drivers. This is particularly true when a driver is speeding, because as speed increases, the chance that a pedestrian or bicyclist will be seriously injured or killed increases dramatically. As such, reducing traffic speed and preventing red light- and stop-sign running are essential to protecting pedestrians, bicyclists as well as drivers. For AARP our firm commitment to Vision Zero holds that we as a society have an ethical responsibility to do all we can to ensure that people are safe as they move about their own communities, whether that is walking to school, driving to a doctor's office or bicycling to work. As a program that aims to design and manage roads and other transportation infrastructure to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries, Vision Zero assumes that people will sometimes make mistakes and sets up the road system to a default that safety despite such mistakes. As such, it minimizes the risk of death and severe injury to pedestrians, cyclists and others outside of the vehicle. Vision Zero addresses the many factors that affect safe mobility. These include designing roads to promote the safety of pedestrians and cyclists rather than focusing primarily on the convenience for the drivers and setting and enforcing appropriate speed limits and using technology to improve safety. Moreover, our support of the Vision Zero global movement leans into our support for automated speed enforcement. We know that speed is the most critical factor in the severity of a traffic injury. That means we need to bring speed down to safe levels. Since managing traffic speeds is crucial to achieving zero fatalities, we need to design roads for safety, set lower speed limits and effectively enforce speed limits, including by using automated speed enforcement technologies that are more effective and equitable than traditional officer-initiated enforcements. Automated speed enforcement is less subjective than officer-initiated enforcements still. Even when using cameras to encourage safe behavior, we need to pay attention to where technology is installed and how it is implemented and tracked in ways that don't have a disproportionate impact on certain people, such as individuals in low-income communities. We know that achieving the goals of traffic safety and serious injuries happen most effectively when high-ranking local officials, you, make a public commitment to Vision Zero as you have.

As an organization that thrives on serving as a wise friend and a fierce defender for Pennsylvania's 50-plus, AARP Pennsylvania is dedicated to ensuring all residents are safe when using their streets and sidewalks. We look forward to continuing to organizing neighborhood walk audits with the Livable Communities Network and to providing leadership and input to the Vision Zero Task Force as it develops the next five-year Vision Zero Action Plan and Vision Zero Capital Plan, which is due on October 31, 2025. I thank you today for asking us to testify. We are really happy to be here and to continue to support high-ranking local officials because we know that that can make a big difference in the results. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Ms. Brunet, please proceed with your testimony.

Thank you so much. My name is Nicole Brunet. I'm the Policy Director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. I also oversee families for Safe Streets Greater Philadelphia, a group comprised of family members who've lost their loved ones in traffic crashes. Thank you, Chairperson Young and other members of the Streets and Services Committee, Councilwoman Brooks. I'm here to testify in support of Bill No. 21 250148. I'm also very happy to see this ordinance get introduced. We were very involved with the advocacy in Harrisburg to get the speed camera pilot on Roosevelt Boulevard made permanent and expanded to five additional corridors. As part of this legislation included a five-year pilot for the speed cameras in school zones, that five years has already begun. So we've already lost one year of that pilot to be able to test this kind of technology. Philadelphia children deserve to get to and from school safely. I think everyone in this room can agree with that. This should be the bare minimum that school zones are a safe place for everyone no matter what age they are and that they not only have signage, that they have infrastructure, that they have enforcement to improve the safety for all vulnerable road users. Automated speed enforcement has been proven to save lives as we've heard already, and I'm very excited about the expansion to Route 611 and 13. It will be a historic opportunity to save lives across the city. Like I said, there's limited time to try out this kind of technology. I'll also add that in order to get a speed ticket from these cameras, you have to be going 11 miles over the speed limit, which if you're in a school zone, it's 25 miles per hour. So you have to be going 36 miles per hour into speeds in a school zone to be able to actually even get the ticket to begin with. Since the Boulevard cameras have gone online, there's been a decrease in violations of 95%, a decrease in repeating violations. This just affirms that these programs aren't made to just get revenue but, in fact, the goal is to change the driver's behavior and make the roads safer. As we've heard, five children age and under are hit 5 every single week. I don't have a 6 family, but I want my family to be 7 able to walk to school, to bike to 8 school. I think it's such a joyful 9 way to get around. It's what I did 10 when I was growing up, and this 11 should be of utmost seriousness to 12 this group of people in this room. 13 Children are most 14 vulnerable users and they deserve 15 to get to and from whether they're 16 walking, biking, taking transit or 17 even being driven to school. This legislation along with the legislation that's been very successful, introduced by Councilmember Phillips, to add traffic calming around schools is a necessary combination to be able to make these zones safer. I support this legislation because as a Safe Streets advocate, I hear too many stories of heartbreak from families who have waited for their loved ones to come home only to find out that a reckless driver has killed them. In the last two years, close to 50% of all these fatalities have been pedestrians. These are your constituents and they were someone's everything. Through this work I've learned that we have been taught that these things are accidents, that they're avoidable. But we know that these cameras save lives and we have the ability to turn incidents not into fatalities and not into serious injuries. But as drivers are slowing down, we'll see less serious incidents in total. So thank you again. I support the passage of Bill 250148 and I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you so much, Ms. Brunet. Just a point of information, in school zones, particularly when the lights are flashing, the speed limit is 7 miles an hour. So I believe that 8 the tickets will come at 26 miles 9 an hour. So just to put some 10 clarity on that. Thank you. 11 Are there any questions 12 of these witnesses by members of 13 the Committee? 14 (No response.) 15

Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony. I appreciate you all being here again for this bill. We will now transition into our public comment section. I'm going to ask that we limit our public comment to three minutes. Mr. Pullin, would you please call the first speakers for public comment.

Lewis Bartholomew, Dustin Dove and Cody Gouper. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Could you state your name for the record and begin with your comment.

Good afternoon, Chair Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Louis Bartholomew and I'm a resident of Center City and a member of 5th square. I'm here to speak in support of Bill 250148, which would authorize school zone speed cameras around schools around Philadelphia. At the last hearing this bill was inexplicably tabled for further consideration. This bill 24 is about simply getting dangerous drivers to slow down and protect children getting to school. I and many others, including students, parents, teachers and traffic safety advocates, were confused and saddened at the unnecessary delay of this lifesaving technology. One member by a member -- one question by a member of this Committee was related to community engagement or whether people who would be paying these fines have been sufficiently notified and consulted. Let's be clear, the folks who will pay these fines are drivers who choose to drive recklessly and dangerously even after receiving warnings in the mail. What engagement do we need to do with them exactly. Another question from this Committee was on whether speed camera fines are inequitable. I would draw this Committee's attention to the demographics of those who are injured and die from speeding cars. They're disproportionately lower income and Black. The speed cameras would seek to correct this inequity by preventing deaths and injuries amongst our most vulnerable populations. Finally, a member of this Committee remarked last month that this bill should have originated from a District member, not from an At-large member. This line of reasoning stems from councilmanic prerogative or the notion that District members is those on the front lines of issues in their Districts should be the ones who enact legislation in their Districts. While I'm sympathetic to the exercising of prerogative on certain issues, I think we can all agree that it doesn't matter who introduces basic lifesaving legislation like this one around speed cameras and we sure certainly shouldn't be invoking Council turf as a reason to delay basic safety legislation. Each one of you yields an ability to do so much good for our city and that's why it was such an unwelcome and disappointing surprise that instead of supporting Councilmember Isaiah Thomas' bill, this Committee decided to delay it for no real reason. Please pass Bill 250148 and I urge you to use councilmanic prerogative sparingly on issues of street safety going forward since every day we unnecessarily delay these laws, people will die and get injured, especially those vulnerable populations in your Districts. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.

Thank you. So I didn't catch the very beginning of your testimony but I did want to comment, because I don't know if you wrote your testimony prior to my statement that I made at the beginning of this conversation. But I want to be again absolutely clear that this was not a matter of councilmanic prerogative, but it was a matter that none of the District members who were voting on this bill or who were affected were informed. It's really a matter of being an informed voter, as we encourage everyone to be on any level. But we want to make sure that as members we are responsible for the bills that come out of here, out of Council and that we do our due diligence and make sure we know what we're voting for, so it's really just as simple as that. But thank you very much for your testimony. I really appreciate it.

Yeah. I just want to echo it's really that simple right. We were presented locations. How do I know this location is the best location for this limited resource, how do I know that if you haven't showed me the information, showed me the data or showed me any of the rationale behind the decision-making process. We don't know. So we should just blindly just -- I would say I do trust the OTIS. But one thing in this particular position is we trust but we must verify as well, right. So we needed that verification that these locations were the best locations for this type of use. So I just again want to echo the sentiments of my colleague. And with that, please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Dear, Chair Young and members of the Streets and Services Committee, my name is Dustin Dove. I live in Fairmount and I am the Vice-president of the Fairmount Civic Association. I'm testifying today in support of Bill 17 250148 that would authorize seven speed cameras in school zones across Philadelphia. I'm here to support this bill because I'm lucky enough to be a parent of a little kid. She's 2 as of a month ago. And I see every day how difficult it is for kids of all ages to cross the streets in our city and in my neighborhood. We're pretty fortunate in Fairmount because our schools tend to be located on lower-traffic streets, but kids also have to cross busy roads as they walk to and from school every day. I live in an intersection that deserves traffic calming for the safety of the kids walking to nearby Bache-Martin School and fear every user of that intersection. My near daily walk to day care includes three intersections where I have to be extra cautious and concerned because I have seen multiple, multiple instances, sometimes daily, of people speeding, cars not stopping at stop signs or traffic lights and other forms of extremely negligent and reckless driving. You might not think that would happen in Fairmount but it does all the time, even on small side streets. I wish we could have more safety improvements like these traffic cameras in areas around our city and especially in school zones, because children are some of the most, if not the most, vulnerable users of our streets. I'm fortunate that I have the time to take off work today to be here with you all and I appreciate the hearing. And I'm fortunate enough also that my Councilmember's chairing this Committee and is having this hearing on these bills. And I hope that he's listening to residents who want these safety improvements. I had the time to come here today and advocate for this while many others do not. It shouldn't be a matter of awareness. Lifesaving safety improvements are a place in our city, and the City should make it a priority to improve safety no matter what Council District the improvement is in. It also shouldn't matter who a person's Councilmember is when they're requesting safety improvements for them or for their kids because we all deserve to be safe, no matter what part of town we live in. Council District lines are mostly irrelevant to anyone outside this building and they're not a rational basis for making safety improvements in the city. We should use technology and tools and funds available to us to make sure our kids and our seniors and anyone else using our streets and sidewalks isn't hurt or killed due to reckless drivers. We know traffic cameras work because they have already made an enormous difference on Roosevelt Boulevard, as we previously discussed, saving nearly one life per month. We know these locations selected will work because OTIS has put in the work to identify them. This pilot should be enacted also because it seems like we rarely get a chance to do this kind of work from Harrisburg, and one year of this pilot program authorization has already passed. I wish I get one of these traffic cameras near Bache-Martin, my local school, but until then, I hope City Council will allow these schools on traffic enforcement zones to move forward so that the kids and neighborhoods selected will benefit from the enhanced traffic safety they bring. I encourage the Committee to vote in favor of Bill 24 250148. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comment. Mr. Pullin, would you please read the names -- just read all the next folks who are coming up for public comment and please have them come behind the rails.

Allen Fisher, Eli Fastow, Jeremy Blatstein. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Thank you. Anyone can begin. Just state your name for the record and begin with your comment.

Hi. My name is Allen Fisher. I'm speaking on Bill 250148, and brought with me an image today. Some of you may or may not know what that symbolizes, but this is a picture symbolizing aircraft statistics in World War II where planes would go on missions and return to bases with significant damage. This is where the damage would happen on the planes. These dots are all depicting where different aircraft received hits and they were all able to impact to their airfields. This is showing every plane that has survived, not the ones shot down. This is a very clear example of survivor bias. And you and I, like everyone else in this room, have that same bias as that airplane. Unlike many, we made it home, we made it through school, we made it through work and we did everything that allowed us to be in this room at this very moment. We generally have that same survivor bias. Now, near where I live is the Hackett Elementary School, which is on York and Trenton Ave. And at the intersection of those streets is a new traffic circle and that was built I think in the last three, four years. Generally has improved that intersection, vastly improved over what it was. So I have to thank the Streets Department for that. But on the same block are multiple telephone poles with signs that read crossing this street should not be this dangerous, and they were put up by the crossing guards that actually help with the students coming and going from that school. And there's some info on it I think under that. It says to contact one of you. But those crossing guards are right. Despite the traffic improvements that have happened nearby, certain drivers still feel the need to speed in the area despite all of different changes in infrastructure things we've made. There's still a very much mentality that, oh, we can. If a kid gets hit by a speeding driver at the intersection and gets disabled or God forbid killed, they probably will never be in the same spot I am today speaking to you or maybe even in your position because they did not have the survivor bias to be able to live and talk and do what we're doing. So again, just because you made it home, just because we are allowed to do what we do means that we might not completely understand the situations that a lot of people that may have not made it here are in. So I am in favor of the speed cameras and I am in favor of ticketing people that speed over miles an hour around schools. It's not hard to do or it's not hard to avoid that. So at the very least, we need to make it so our kids can make it home safely and that they have the luxury of being in the position that we are in today so that they have the survivor bias. So thank you.

Thank you so much for your comment. Please proceed.

Good afternoon and thank you so much for your time. My name is Eli Fastow and I'm here to give support in favor of passing Bill 250148. I'm convinced of the necessity of speed cameras in school zones as a consequence of my own observations living within school zones, not as a parent, but as a resident down the block. For the past five years, I've lived down the block from Independence Charter School. There I witnessed countless violations, speeding violations, reckless driving violations, really too many to counter, name or waste your time with. I do want to bring one instance to your attention, not for its uniqueness but because it's representative. I watched a kid wave to a friend, shout his friend's name and then run across the street, not at an intersection. His dad grabbed his arm just in time as a pickup truck flew down Lombard at what was visibly an unsafe speed. Fortunately, no one was injured but it was very, very close. And that sort of reckless driving should not be allowed to endanger children anywhere in the city. Recently I've moved coincidentally down the block from another school, Bache-Martin, the 800 block of North 22nd. So nice to meet you, Councilmember Young. I'm your new constituent. And I continue to see a pattern of risky driving from my own stoop, just looking out the window. While taking action to prevent children -- or protect children, I'm sorry, is always timely, it's always important. We're already one year into a five-year pilot, so there's a unique urgency with this bill. It's my hope that this pilot is the start of a wider program of speed cameras in school zones. But for that to come to pass, we need to enact this as soon as possible. I understand the concerns of a financial burden resulting from tickets, but the pilot mandates no less than five warning signs in a 30-day warning period. Frankly, for an aware driver, and you should be an aware driver if you're driving your children really anywhere in the city, there's no excuse to get a ticket. Simply don't speed. We know from Roosevelt Boulevard that speed cameras empirically, definitely save lives. There's a 90% reduction in speeding violations. Traffic deaths were halved. Professionally and by training I'm a scientist. I wish I could buy an effect in my own data that strong. This definitely works. So I think school zones and speed cameras could save lives, will save lives. This pilot will save lives. And so, it merits passage immediately as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Proceed.

Hello, City Council. My name is Jeremy Blatstein. I rise today in support of Bill No. 250148. Thank you, Councilman Thomas, for introducing this. I am deeply concerned about how councilmanic prerogative is being used, not to protect neighborhoods but to block commonsense public safety. I hear what City Councilwoman Cindy Bass says, and I do believe that there should be the process followed in terms of how do you notify the different District people for what's going on in their District. I am concerned though regarding the meeting that was held on October 21, 2024 where some of this information was laid out. I understand that maybe not everybody on this Committee was in that meeting, but that meeting was held by the Administration and by OTIS where this information was given out --

In that meeting, did they tell us the exact locations of the schools?

Again, it was based on the data that they were using to provide these cameras, right. So they were explaining that. Right now --

Did they provide the exact locations of the school?

No, but I think that afterwards, right -- so I think they were introduced -- I mean, I don't know if this is back and forth, but okay. I think the data was introduced of how they were going to go about introducing these cameras, correct. And that was the study they were doing. So in terms of saying I don't know how they were going to implement these cameras, they said, we're going to be studying this and we're going to be doing this and then they decided on the cameras and that was introduced. Whether or not the right process was given is for debate, right. But from the time it was introduced in City Council until this hearing I believe -- and this is where maybe the failure of process, and I respect that, was not provided to you guys or each of the District people. So that's my only point of that. So right now a bill to install speed cameras near schools, something proven to reduce speeding and save lives was being held up because of some Councilmembers' objections. City Council standing in the way of a citywide safety measure, that's not democracy. That's dysfunction. Let's be clear, this isn't about land use or zoning. It's about our kids, about making sure drivers slow down where children walk, where families cross, where tragedy can happen in a split second. This bill 11 shouldn't be controversial and it certainly shouldn't be subjected to a veto by geography. I want to take a moment to talk about councilmanic prerogative, longstanding unwritten tradition here in Philadelphia where each District Councilmember has near total control over land use decisions in their own District. That includes zoning changes, street closures, city land sales and sometimes even things like traffic safety measures. The idea is to respect local input, but in practice it means one person can block or delay citywide progress with no public vote, no hearing and no 6 accountability. It turns what should be a predictable policy into a game of personalities and politics. Prerogative isn't in the City Charter. It's not law. It's a custom. And like all customs, it can be changed when it no longer serves the public good. Councilmanic prerogative was never meant to apply to public safety. But when we're allowed to dictate citywide policy, we're not governing. We're negotiating and in the meantime lives are at stake. How do we explain to a grieving parent that a speed camera wasn't installed because of politics? How do we justify delay when the data is clear and the need is urgent? We must start drawing the line. Safety should not be up for barter. It's time for this Council to put children over customs, policy over personality and to pass the speed camera bill, not just in some neighborhoods but hopefully in the future across all neighborhoods. Let's not wait for another tragedy to act. And I do call on Harrisburg to allow us to implement this across the board. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.

Jeremy, so let me ask you a couple of questions. So, Jeremy, you were a candidate at some point?

Yes, ma'am -- what? Sorry. Excuse --

You were a candidate for Council?

No. 5

Or for another office?

Was I you're asking me?

Yeah.

No. 12

Okay. I apologize then. For some reason I thought that you were a candidate. But the point that I wanted to make though, whether you're a candidate or not, was if you were in this body would you take an uninformed vote? Would you be willing to take a vote that you had not been informed on, yes or no?

(Gestured).

You would? You would take a vote without knowing what you're voting for?

I guess what my point is, is that if I was in this body, hypothetical situation, and I was -- and this is where the staff would be prepping me for what that Committee was hearing that day.

Okay. Fair enough. That's the way it's supposed to work. If you had not been prepped, if you had not received information?

Again, if what was on the agenda for that day before I came to this Committee was not laid out . And that's where again I'm not sure where that failure came --

Well, since you brought it up I think maybe we should dive into it just a little bit.

Sure.

So if you had a question or let's go back to the briefing that you mentioned. So who was at that briefing?

I'm not sure of every individual that was at that briefing.

Okay. So you don't know if any of the members of this Committee were at the briefing and you don't know if any of I'm aware --

Yes, I'm aware that one of the members of this panel was at that briefing.

Well, I'm not sure who it was, but I can tell you who it wasn't and that was me.

I'm well aware of that too.

And are you aware that not one of my staffers was included in this briefing as well?

I believe, yes, we communicate about that.

So again, this has absolutely nothing to do with prerogative and everything to do with the fact that I'm being asked to take a vote on a very serious and important issue without being at all informed. As I mentioned earlier, I am the mother of a teenager, public school student who takes public transportation, who moves around in a very busy, densely populated neighborhood with a lot of traffic where she goes to school. And so, this is not something that I take lightly at any rate. But let's say, for example, if we put up cameras at School X and the problem is at School Y, don't you think a briefing is necessary so that I can make sure that where we're putting the cameras up is the right location, it's the location that is densely populated, it's the location where there's heavy traffic, it's the location where there may have been traffic incidents in the past? And I really wish we could get cameras at every location. That's really what is ideal. But to make a decision -- to be uninformed and make a decision is a dereliction of our duties as members of Council.

I hear you and I respect that. And I think that my only point, counter, is that how that information is provided and after hearing the testimony of how it was implemented to then delay the vote that would then be taken at the next City Council meeting, I'm not sure which has changed, right. What has changed in the last month?

Let me tell you what's changed. We've been briefed. We're informed voters now, as we always want -- listen, when you go to the ballot box, right, we want informed voters. We don't want people to go and just vote one way or just do what I say do. We want you to be informed when you go and vote and cast your ballot and it's the same for us. We should absolutely be informed before every vote that we take in this body.

And hopefully I see more votes that are split then based on data and information when it comes to safety.

Thank you. Are there any other persons in the chamber wishing to provide public comment?

Thank you very much. Thank you. (No response.)

Seeing none, I would like to thank all of our witnesses and for joining us today. We will now end the public hearing and go into a public meeting. I note for the record that a quorum of the Committee is present. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 250209.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 250209. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 6 250209 be adopted. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 250209 be adopted. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it. The motion carries and the amendment to Bill No. 23 250209 has been adopted. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass for a motion on Bill Nos. 250102, 250148, 250176, 250177, 250203, 250208, 250209 as amended, 250240, 250241, 250266, 250267, 250271, 250272 and 250274.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that all bills read into the record be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that all bills read into the record be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it. Bill Nos. 250102, 250148, 250176, 250177, 250203, 250208, 250209 as amended, 250240, 250241, 250266, 250267, 250271, 250272 and 250274 will be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a further request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading at the next session of Council. Are there any final remarks from the members of the Committee? (No response.)

Seeing none, this concludes the business before the Committee on Streets and Services. Thank you very much for your attendance. (Committee on Streets and Services concluded at 4:15 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL