Chair recognizes Councilmember Mike Driscoll for a motion on the resolution.
Mr. President, I move for the adoption of resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the resolution be adopted. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the resolution is adopted. Will the Chief Clerk 11/13/25 - STATED - 2ND READING please read the title of the next resolution.
A privileged resolution honoring and recognizing Nicole Fisher for her outstanding commitment to empowering Philadelphia's youth, promoting anti-violence initiatives and exemplifying leadership through faith, family and service. Introduced by Councilmember Bass.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass for a motion of the resolution.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the 11/13/25 - STATED - 2ND READING resolution be adopted. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the resolution is adopted. Would the Chief Clerk please read the title of the next resolution.
A privileged resolution honoring the courage and legacy of Ruby Bridges by recognizing November 14 as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day in the City of Philadelphia. Introduced by Councilmember Bass.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass for a 11/13/25 - STATED - 2ND READING motion on the resolution.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the resolution be adopted. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the resolution is adopted. Would the Chief Clerk please read the title of the next resolution.
Council President, there are no further resolutions in my possession.
Are there any speeches on behalf of the Minority? The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Council President, the Majority Leader has her finger up.
I'm sorry. Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. I ask to be excused for important Council business. May leave be granted?
Leave is granted, Majority Leader. COUNCILWOMAN GILMORE RICHARDSON: Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Any speeches on behalf of the Minority? The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Thank you, Council President. Today I brought forth a resolution recognizing abortion access as a human right. For decades the United States has participated in the U.N. Human Rights Council Periodic Review, the UPR -
Yes. COUNCIL PRESIDENT JOHNSON: Council will be at ease for a minute. Can't hear you so I got to wait for everything to kind of quiet down for a second. (Council at ease.)
Let me find my space. I lost track. Okay. The UPR is a regular assessment of a country's compliance with various international human rights treaties. Bans on abortion care have routinely been deemed by the Human Rights Council as violating several treaties to which the U.S. has signed and ratified. Abortion is one of the driving factors of the Administration's decision to withdraw this process in August. In response, All Above All and cities across the country our human rights to reproductive health care. Similar resolutions have been passed in Chapel Hill, Baltimore, Austin and other cities. Folks will be gathering in D.C. in December to take this message directly to the Trump Administration. Thank you to All Above All for your work on this issue. I know the vast majority of Philadelphians support reproductive health care. And right now, the Trump Administration is carrying out one of the most anti-public health agendas that our country has seen. It's no surprise Donald Trump is refusing to acknowledge the damage his policies have caused, attempting to hide it from the world. But I expect better in ago, the City Council voted to authorize a hearing on the impact of massive funding cuts on abortion health -oh, I'm sorry, reproductive health care. That hearing has still not been scheduled. When I say massive funding cuts, I'm referring to both federal cuts and local cuts. The federal cuts to Title X and Medicaid will be devastating effects to working families, but the local cuts were an unexpected blow to providers, patients and advocates who make up the Reproductive Freedom Task Force. Every year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Philadelphia has provided at least a half a million dollars in direct funding to reproductive health organizations. This was a central issue But in the FY26 budget, our city cut funding to zero. The current situation is not sustainable. Clinics are closing. Misinformation is spreading. After years of progress, the maternal mortality rate is rising. Thank you to the providers and advocates who are doing the work every day to uphold our rights and that testified today. I will fight alongside you to make sure that we get this hearing scheduled and funding restored. Thank you so much, Council President.
You're welcome. Chair recognizes Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke.
you, Mr. President. Veterans Day was I guess this past week on Tuesday, cold day. I intentionally took the time out to ask my team to lighten the load so that I can spend some time on a cold day with my son. My wife also was off from work. And so, she had him at home and I got a chance to laugh at him and look at him and let him cough on me. I also took that time because I took it slow, to watch a little YouTube, catch up on what was going on on YouTube. And two things that I got a chance to look at, one, were videos of old Council sessions back in, if you believe it or not, it's 2025, 2015, 2014 was a decade ago. I saw -
No, I'm gonna talk about it, doctor, because I saw you walk across here looking all babyfaced -
-across the whale of the chamber. I saw Member Jones sitting at this desk right here giving commentary. I saw Member Reynolds Brown, I think she stepped out. She was over here talking. Member Squilla, sitting exactly where he's sitting now. Yes, indeed. So many folks. Member Goode I think was sitting at this desk often giving commentary.
It was really interesting watching it and it made me realize that there really is no reason to believe that do here will be remembered by anyone but us long after we're gone. That's not to be negative. I think it's just realistic. People not in the orbit of the political bubble that we work in don't watch sessions back every week like some or like I did on Tuesday. So let us remember all the minutia and the busyness that we take the time out for. S. nuclear testing continues to haunt the Marshall Islands. There was a whole era in the beginning of arms production where the United States government was dropping nuclear bombs, hydrogen bombs, on a little small chain of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. And the continuing impact on the people there, the displacement, the health challenges that they still live with to this day was something that this brief about 15-minute documentary really caught my attention. The VICE video calls me to reflect on past decisions and how those past decisions affect the present. President Trump recently declared that the United States would restart testing nuclear weapons for the first time in 30 years, continuing the nuclear arms race and increasing the threat of global nuclear war. He also in that spirit recently granted permission for a nuclear submarine to be built right here at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. S. atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and which pose a devastating and existential threat to humanity ongoing, as those who live on the Marshall Islands know. Detonation of even a small fraction of nuclear weapons would cause large-scale climate and agricultural disruption, such that the lives and the food security of more than 2 billion people could be at risk. Governments have a moral obligation to use public resources for the common good. Moral societies I believe owe duties to future generations, not just what we do in the present moment. And investing in potential instruments of mass destruction rather than human flourishing reflects a moral failure in stewardship and long-term environmental, genetic and political risks that extend far beyond current generations, their maintenance and potential use burden the future with a threat of extinction or ecological collapse. Investing in them violates the moral responsibility to protect the well-being of those who come after us. Leonard Boff is a noted theologian, I mentioned this to Member Bass earlier, but he said that spirituality, not even religion, is about that attitude which puts life at the center and defends and promotes life against all the mechanisms of death, desiccation or stagnation. And so, in that spirit I think it's important to know that weapons is morally indefensible because it violates the sanctity of life. It misuses collective resources, perpetuates injustice across generations and conditions peace on the threat of mass death. It is a moral obligation for the City of Philadelphia to invest in what our residents need, such as safe and healthy homes, affordable transit, working utilities, child care and more, and divest I believe from weapons that threaten life on our planet, investing not in the power to destroy humanity, but in the means to preserve it, which is the reason why I introduced my resolution today.
And I hope as we think back on Council sessions gone by and how what we do, whether we not, actually affects the future, that we're mindful about the decisions that we make and the investments that we make and make sure that they are towards the common good and not taking away from life. Enough on that. )
Thank you. The only other thing I wanted to mention was that the first Starbucks Union formed in 2021, speaking of past actions, and over 600 stores have since joined the Union, but they're still fighting for their first contract. This year alone the company has committed over 400 labor law violations and over 125 ULP charges. To that end, Starbucks workers around the country are 14,000 workers exercising their hard-won right to strike. Philly will be one of the main sites organizing, and that's because there's such a strong base of local coffee shops being organized as we speak. Huge shout-out to Workers United. They're probably not in the room now, but maybe if they look back on this video they'll know that I shouted their name out. Colleagues, I invite you to join me at the North Apron today at 4:00 p.m. because Philly is the face of this national strike. And if you can't do that, I understand we got busy schedules, but I am going to ask that you do what I'm asking everybody else, which is for as long as these workers are on strike, you ditch the red Starbucks Yeah, let them go. You can't get the little teddy bear with the cap. I think them are all sold out anyway. So ditch the Starbucks cups. No contract, no coffee from Starbucks. Dunkin' is better anyway. We already know that. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. I think the corner store coffee in the neighborhood is better than all of them.
We done got cute. Now, we drinking Starbucks. I'm going to the corner store. Let me stop. Any speeches on behalf of the Majority? The Chair Jones, Jr.
Thank you, Mr. President. Nic, will you be my representative when we open Council? I want you to preach. I'm putting you on reserve for that.
Mr. President, colleagues, listening audience, today I rise to acknowledge some entity within our city that often seems invisible, that often seems ignored but is a backbone of our city, and the United Way has dubbed them as ALICE. And they are called ALICE because they are limited -- what is limited. I got it now, Asset Limited, Income Constrained but Employed. Access -- long session. ALICE. And the reason they're called that is because they often earn too much to get the safety nets that we talked about in these chambers the other day. They don't get the day care. They don't get the rent rebate. They don't get the subsidies for day care and transportation. But above them, they don't get the access to the upper class. They don't see the mobility that many people (inaudible). This represents about 40% of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 300 households in the city -- 300,000 households in the city of Philadelphia are ALICE and they're not invisible people. in my office that does my scheduling. They don't qualify for what we do in this chamber, but they see the benefits going to others. And I'm going to tell you, you want to meet them, go to Aisle 6 at Shop Rite and they are resentful. They're resentful because they don't get the benefits of being super poor and they don't have the access to being super rich. So they get by every year on credit card debt, not for lavish vacations but to pay their grocery bills, and their hopes are dashed by the interest rates they pay just to maintain. We had a hearing here the other day talking about who should get more when. I should say it shouldn't be or. It should be are important too. Because if you penalize them for going to work, they can't come down here and talk about public comment because they have to work. They have to finance their way from Wednesday to pay day. They can't come down here to express themselves. But trust me when I tell you, you go to Aisle 6 in Shop Rite, they will tell you how they feel about all of this. And they're your voters. Those are the people that come out. And when they don't vote, it is because they don't feel that we are speaking to their needs. And they will tell you privately or they will tell you publicly when they don't vote. I would say to you that this chamber should be their bastion of hope that the American and that it applies to them and that these programs are also, also, also for them. ALICE should not be ignored. They should be promoted. Because when you lose ALICE, you lose the middle class. You get the haves and the have-nots, and the have-a-littles shouldn't be penalized. E. program -- I'll say it again. E. program wants to do for both the poor and that struggling middle class. Because in my district, I represent a whole lot of them. In Phillips' District, you represent a whole lot of them. In Cindy Bass' District, you represent a whole bunch of those working people that go about their business. They don't complain. They just pay their kids. They do what we all hope that every good person can do and we want the poor to be able to do, and we need to find pathways for them to be that middle class. 50. So I thank the Mayor. I thank the Mayor and her team for making sure that the ALICEs among us don't get left behind. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank community members in the 5th District for showing up to a town hall that we held last week at the Free Library Central branch, where we were able to speak to residents about quality-of-life issues in their neighborhood. We talked about homelessness, we talked about nuisance businesses, and they were able to give us their feedback on how to improve their life, particularly here in the city. I also want to thank community residents and most importantly, the family of LGP Qua. His legacy will forever be memorialized at 9th and Clearfield. This weekend we had the opportunity to have a street renaming ceremony that street sign serves as an inspiration to the youth of that community who feel like they can't be successful when they try to be themselves. Qua stood for being positive and always being your authentic self no matter what. And hopefully that sign serves as inspiration again to young people to be who you are and don't be afraid of being who you are, because success can come from just being just that, doing you. And last night, our office along with Councilman Thomas hosted a 2026 Preparedness meeting for residents of the 5th Council District to make them aware of what's coming next year and how they can participate in almost the $1 billion of economic impact that's expected for our region. thank our host Girard College and Mr. Tumar Alexander; Jonathan Todd from Philly Soccer 2026; Tyrone Dixon from the Mayor's Office of 2026, Ms. Jennifer Nagle, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau; Patrick Sherlock from Park to Broad Arts and Business District; and Melissa Williams from the Commerce Department. As we look ahead to 2026, it's important that every neighborhood feels included in Philadelphia's moment on the world stage. And I am focused on making sure that residents and small businesses in the 5th District have the tools and connections they need to benefit from this special occasion that we'll have in our city. On the legislative front, today I introduced a bill that would limit hours of certain businesses along Girard Avenue and Fairmount Avenue and the Brewerytown, Fairmount and Spring Garden communities. This bill would also require a special exception for certain types of stores opening up in these communities, giving the community a voice in the process. As we all know, our communities have been inundated with nuisance stores where they're actually selling illegal narcotics, and I look forward to having this conversation how we can continue to improve the quality of life for residents in the 5th Council District with this legislation. And finally to those watching and listening, our office has partnered with the National and Temple University to host a job fair, which is going on right now as we speak until 3:00 p.m. at the Liacouras Center. We have close to 100 employers there who are actually hiring. So if you're looking to change your life, to improve your life, looking for that next opportunity, this job fair is for you. Again, it's happening right now at the Liacouras Center at Broad and Cecil B. Moore until 3:00 p.m. I hope that everyone can meet me there. I'm on my way there now. So thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like leave of absence to attend to 30-plus Mifflin students sitting in my office.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Today marks an important milestone in our City's ongoing fight against human trafficking, a fight that demands both compassion and courage. For the first time, this Council is introducing a bill that directly addresses the rights of human trafficking. Our legislation amends Philadelphia's fair practices ordinance to ensure that no one is denied employment or treated unfairly at work because they are a survivor of trafficking. Too often survivors face barriers when they try to rebuild their lives, gaps in employment history, trauma-related challenges or stigma that follows them long after they have escaped exploitation. While existing laws punish traffickers, they have not always protected survivors once they are free. This bill fills that gap. It ensures that human trafficking victim status is recognized as a protected class under our City's antidiscrimination law, giving and opportunities as everybody else. In tandem with this local action, I'm also introducing a non-privileged resolution calling on the General Assembly of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to take swift and decisive action to pass House Bill 1286. That legislation championed by Representative Young would strengthen statewide prevention efforts by requiring human trafficking awareness training for employees of hotels, motels and short-term rental operators. It is a thoughtful bipartisan measure that bears education with accountability, ensuring that those most likely to encounter trafficking victims know how to recognize and report it. Our local and state efforts are Council has already invested 500,000 to launch a citywide Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention campaign. Next Tuesday we will host a press conference and stakeholder convening at the Independence Visitor Center to announce this partnership, bringing together the Office of Public Safety, Stop the Traffick and many other stakeholders. This convening will serve as the foundation for a unified citywide strategy to protect vulnerable people, uplift survivors and build an informed public that refuses to look away. Before I close, I also want to share that during Monday's Public Health and Human Services Committee meeting, the committee reported out a favorable to amend the fair practices ordinance to protect workers from discrimination based on menopause, perimenopause or menstruation. And let me be frank about why these protections matter. In WHYY's coverage on November 12, 2025, which reported on the bill's advancement, the online comment section was flooded with sexist remarks, many from men, mocking the idea that menopause or menstruation deserve workplace protection. That response itself underscores exactly why this legislation is necessary. It shines a light on how stigma and ignorance continue to shape our culture and why we must ensure that no worker is marginalized or dismissed for a natural, biological experience. This measure would the first municipalities in the nation to codify explicit protections for workers navigating menopause and related health transitions. And we are doing it because respect, inclusion and equity should not depend on gender or age. They are human rights. Taken together, these legislative actions on menopause protections and human trafficking underscore what this body can achieve when we legislate with empathy and purpose. We are saying clearly every person in our city deserves safety, respect and the chance to thrive.
Thank you, Council President and colleagues, for your partnership in this work.
Thank you, Mr. President. Today I introduced a bill calling for a temporary commonsense pause on backyard breeding in Philadelphia. Right now healthy and adoptable dogs are being euthanized in our shelter simply because there's no space. And a DNA study by ACCT, which is the city's Animal Care and Control Team, found that nearly 60%, nearly half of 60 Huskies in the shelter were close relatives, which is a clear sign that unregulated backyard breeding is fueling the overpopulation that we see today. This pause protects public health, preventing the spread of disease like parvovirus and rabies. It protects public safety, reducing the risk of attacks and the link between unlicensed breeders and criminal activity, and it protects consumers and taxpayers, shielding families from fraud and heartbreak while easing the strain on city services. Every litter means more dogs in our shelter, more cost for taxpayers and more suffering that we can prevent. This isn't about punishment. It's about compassion and responsibility and giving our community time to stabilize and heal. If you want to learn more about how our city manages our dog population, we'll be having a lunch-and-learn in the near future with ACCT and we'll keep you apprised as to the date. I also wanted to go over just a couple of key points on backyard breeding in Philadelphia. Now, we want you to know that this is a temporary pause and it's a breeding moratorium. This is a commonsense measure and is trying to get to the root causes of being healthy and adoptable dogs who are dying at our local shelter because they must make room for more dogs who are coming into the shelter. The temporary pause on backyard breeding and sales protects consumers from fraud and disease and emotional distress, while also saving lives and preventing the killing of adoptable and healthy dogs at the shelter. Nearly half, again 47%, of dogs share more than 25% of the same DNA, meaning that they are close relatives, most DNA overlap for the 60 Huskies over a two-year period. Most DNA overlap was between 30% to 40% indicating that they were parents, offspring, half siblings and cousins. This level of relatedness is four times higher than what we've seen in typical urban shelter populations. Typical open intake or urban stray dog populations usually show less than 10% of individuals sharing more than 25% of genetic relatedness. And by contrast, in the ACCT Philly Husky sample, again more than 47% share the same DNA, genetic evidence of unregulated backyard breeding contributing to shelter intake and overpopulation. Every litter means more dogs in our shelter, higher costs for taxpayers and more stress on already stretched city services. Too many backyard-bred dogs end up sick, unsocialized or on the at risk. Temporary restrictions help weed out these exploitive backyard operations that profit while others shoulder the burden. And this isn't about criminalizing people. It's about protecting pets and giving our community time to stabilize and heal. Puppies who are not given appropriate preventive care, like free prevention deworming and vaccines, spread illness in our community. One unvaccinated puppy that hasn't been dewormed, several times can spread parasites in our community, which both people and dogs can catch. Puppies and dogs who have not received a minimum of two vaccines can catch parvovirus, a serious and often fatal virus that attacks the intestinal tract and
It can live in the environment, outside or inside for up to six months, continuing to make dogs sick whose owners aren't even aware of the risk. Now, in terms of public safety we want you to know that there are all kinds of examples of the harms that uncontrolled breeding and unregulated large dog breeds can contribute. As an example, in May of 2024 a 52-yearold woman was attacked by three pit bulls being walked by an alleged backyard breeder. An off-duty police officer shot the dogs, killing one and injuring another and likely saving this woman's life. In October 2023, Antonio Shaw, a nonverbal after a series of several strokes 62-year-old man walked into the wrong backyard attacked him. In May of 2024, a man was attacked by four dogs at the corner off of Fairmount Avenue. Police shot and killed one dog and injured another as they ran off. Three of the dogs looked very similar and were likely related. There's a number of other issues in terms of dog breeders where mother dogs are being dumped, being found that they've clearly had too many litters and no longer able to produce large litters. Commonly, backyard-bred dogs are being found as strays with conditions such as prolapses that occur as a result of forced separation during mating or from a complicated birth, very often in these breeds as the puppies heads are often too wide to pass through the birth canal, could go on and on. But we all get the point. We have to do something and we have to do something now. And so, I certainly hope that we'll have the support of this body in passing this bill. I also very briefly wanted to mention we had Nicole Fisher, who's a devoted wife, mother, mentor and champion both in and out of the boxing ring here today. Congratulations to her for all of her hard work and her accomplishments. And also again, we're recognizing November 14th as the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day in Philadelphia and we encourage you to take note and to walk your child to school. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilman Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, colleagues, and most importantly, good afternoon to our neighbors here in Philadelphia. Before I begin, I want to announce that this past Saturday I joined the Scott family as they laid Kada Scott to rest. It was a beautiful tribute, a very beautiful tribute. And throughout this tragedy, I've reiterated that people of the city deserve systems that protect them, support them and remain accountable to them, and that is where I want to focus our attention today, on accountability. I've heard from our the 9th District about absentee landlords and about the lack of a responsive and frankly responsible person here when issues arise at their property. So today I introduced a non-residential, non-resident landlord accountability ordinance. I want to be clear that we are talking about landlords that are irresponsible. We're not talking about every landlord because many our neighbors who live in our communities are great landlords, but there are others, irresponsible landlords, who neglect has led to blight and vacant properties across our neighborhoods, creating nuisances that hurt everyone. Over the last five years, Licenses and Inspections has reported more than 62,000 housing violations, many involving owners who are unresponsive or unreachable. That is not okay. It is unacceptable. It's unfair to the tenants and our neighbors to get calls every day about nuisance properties and about neighbors or tenants that people, Councilmembers, advocates are not able to reach the owners. This legislation changes that. It requires verifiable contact information for every licensed rental property and mandates a local agent or individual within Philadelphia for any landlord who does not live in Philadelphia to be here, to be a point of contact. This is about accountability for our neighborhoods. It's the same accountability and responsiveness I weeks ago, and how important being responsive is. I want to again express my concerns about the ongoing issues that I've been having and our neighbors have been having with the Philadelphia Water Department's responsiveness to maintenance across the 9th District. Can you believe even since that speech that I gave several weeks ago they're still not done the issue, they still have not completed the task. These concerns have been escalating repeatedly and continued delays are unacceptable. Neighbors across the 9th district have raised ongoing concerns about the Philadelphia Water Department's slow and incomplete restoration of water main pipe repairs, confusion of who is responsible for repairing streets and sidewalks and a growing Water Department is slow to respond. It lacks proactive communication and struggles to resolve issues efficiently. This does not reflect the hard-working crews and customer service teams at the Water Department, the men and women who do the work day-in and day-out. However, it reflects the poor leadership of the Water Department, starting with its Commissioner. This is a call for better systems as a whole. Given the magnitude of these challenges and the frustration felt by our neighbors, the nerve of the Water Department to ask for me to introduce an ordinance to change zoning to help them with some sort of improvement that they see that
Today I'm not introducing those ordinances until they see to it that they're going to be committed to helping our neighbors in the 9th District return the service that they're supposed -- receive the service that they're supposed to receive. I'm asking the Philadelphia Water Department to address these issues immediately, especially in East Oak Lane and Olney and to provide a clear path for improvement. Our office stands ready to work with the Water Department, but I cannot and will not advance additional zoning legislation for a water department that does not assure service to our neighborhoods. And I don't mind -- the last thing I'll say is this on the mind making the Water Department an example of how we should hold people accountable during budget season. I think they need to be the first example of how well we do that. They have a couple more months to prove us differently. Thank you so much. The Commissioner heard me.
Thank you, Member Dr. Anthony Phillips. I think I just saw the mic drop. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. That's a tough act to follow, Councilman Phillips. Thank you, Council President. First, congratulations to Asian Americans United for 40 years of amazing advocacy and AAPI community. City Council was proud to honor this milestone today with an honorary resolution. For four decades, AAU has participated in initiatives around improving education, providing youth leadership, combating anti-Asian violence, neighborhood development, cultural preservation and much more. And I have been proud to work with AAU for 30 of those 40 years. Cheers to 40 years of important service and unwavering dedication to Philadelphia. We can't wait to see what's in store for the next 40. I also introduced a resolution honoring and celebrating the life and legacy of Pierre Robert, the beloved WMMR Radio host and a champion of Philadelphia's rock music scene for over 44 years. up the airwaves with his love of music, his energy, his self-deprecating humor and his lasting genuine connection with his audience. Known for championing local musicians and bands, he also had a steadfast commitment to his Philadelphia LGBTQ+ community and to support those living with HIV and AIDS, using his influence to not just celebrate but to educate listeners. We will miss him deeply here in Philadelphia, but we know that his impact will be with us forever. I also introduced a resolution recognizing November 16th as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the City of Philadelphia. I also introduced this resolution this time last year and it's very sad to it because traffic deaths are a leading cause of preventable deaths, disproportionately harming people who are walking and biking. This year's World Day of Remembrance is organized around the theme of remember, support, act. We must remember those we lost to traffic violence, support the victims and their families as well as emergency services that help and act to prevent and stop further road traffic deaths and injuries. Thank you to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Families for Safe Streets Greater Philadelphia and other partners for speaking in favor of this resolution today. And before I end, I just wanted to take one moment to respond to Councilmember Jones and happened yesterday with our H.O.M.E. hearing. In my opinion, many of us who are advocating for a prioritization of this first tranche of funding are not talking about pitting the have-nots with the have-a-littles. In fact, we know there's plenty of money for all. We're not also, as he's saying, making $1 out of $0.50. We have $800 million to spend in Philadelphia to make sure that every single person who needs safe, affordable, accessible housing has it. We just need to make sure that, especially on the front end, that we are prioritizing where that money is going in the beginning. We have a transformational opportunity here in Philadelphia to absolutely build and to make sure that our lowest-income Philadelphians who need affordable housing so much absolutely have an opportunity to live in a place that is safe, decent and affordable. That's all we're saying. There's plenty for everyone. There's 800 million, not $0.50. Thank you.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
I'm sorry, Council President. I apologize. I was just trying to make a motion to close. I thought it was time. That's my bad. I apologize, Council President. I'm sorry. I might have jumped the gun.
As there are no more speeches, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Thomas for a motion to adjourn.
I apologize for the confusion, Council President. Happy Veterans Day to all of the veterans out there, especially to those in my family. Thank you to all for your service. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that City Council stands adjourned until Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned on Thursday, November 22, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. Thank you all very much. ) 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. m. C. E. m. d. N. S.