weeklypress.com • ucreview.com •march 13, 2013 3


The UC Review and Weekly Press compile political news that affects voters each week on the city and state level to keep readers more abreast of local politics. If there’s an issue you would like included in this column, please email it to newsdesk@pressre- view.net by the Monday, noontime deadline! From State Senator Larry Farnese - Pennsylvania In- vests $14,000,000 in the First Senatorial District in Rede- velopment Assistance Capi- tal Program grants (RACP) from the state, and the three projects they fund, will bring jobs, economic devel- opment, green energy solu- tions and improve tourism in the City of Philadelphia. The three projects that will receive RACP grants are: Navy Yard Central Green Project: A $4,000,000 will be used to support redevelop- ment at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in addition to beautification and creating a five acre central park. The Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development is


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a public authority incorpo- rated by the City of Phila- delphia to acquire, improve, lease or own industrial, commercial or specialized development projects in the City. Then, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Art Han- dling Facility The $5,000,000 grant will help construct a 68,000 square foot Art Han- dling Facility, which was designed by renowned ar- chitect Frank Gehry, to pro- vide much-needed improve- ments to the Museum’s back-of-house operations for the care, storage and move- ment of art. In addition, the Philadelphia Energy Solu- tions (PES) Catalytic Cracker Turnaround $5,000,000 will upgrade and refurbish the Catalytic Cracker Unit locat- ed in Philadelphia’s historic, South Philadelphia refinery. PES took over the Sunoco refinery last year, preserv- ing nearly 1,000 jobs. And, RACP is a commonwealth grant program administered by Pennsylvania’s Office of the Budget for the acquisi- tion and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic and historical improve- ment projects.


State Rep. James Roe-


buck, Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, recently un- veiled his new charter and cyber charter school reform bill, which could save school districts an estimated $365 million per year. The esti- mate is largely based on a


2012 report from the audi- tor general’ office. “While I do support charter schools, I believe major revisions are needed regarding the governance, financing and accountability of charter and cyber charter schools. These revisions will result in signif- icant savings to our school districts, and I believe this is the most far-reaching reform bill of its kind introduced in Pennsylvania in this ses- sion,” Roebuck said. “Two years ago, Pennsyl- vania cut about $900 million from K-12 education, and the governor’s new budget proposes to restore only about 10 percent of that cut. This reform bill would return four times that pro- posed increase to school district budgets -- without raising taxes,” Roebuck said. “It’s possible the amount might be even higher than this conservative estimate of $365 million, but we can’t know for sure without the increased transparency and accountability requirements in this bill. There are signifi- cant unknowns about char- ter and cyber charter school finances, even though they are public schools.


Council President Darrell L. Clarke (5th District) on Thursday proposed a pack- age of legislation designed to expedite the disposition, reuse, and redevelopment of City-owned properties; stimulate new affordable housing construction; pro- mote economic development projects to benefit low- and moderate-income house- holds; and incentivize buy- ers of vacant land and shells at Sheriff’s Sale to com- mence development quickly.


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At peace with oneself, but not at home in the world namo, as my Catholic friend


the time to respond to my cousin Cheryl, who wrote to him years ago from a convent when he was Car- dinal Ratzinger? Cheryl, now a deacon, is one of sev- eral thousand women who wish to serve as priests, to help in this world, to work humbly in the “vineyard of the Lord.” But they are not welcome in the Church. I have no say in this mat-


ter, being neither Catholic nor Christian, but I love my cousin, much as I love Rev. Jack Hemenway who first introduced me to the writings of Paul Tillich. As a kid in Detroit, I was sur- rounded by Catholics. We’d be playing in the street when suddenly, at 7:30, Mrs. Rioux would call us in to say the rosary. Each evening a priest was on the radio to lead the faithful. So we would kneel, hail- ing Mary, full of grace… then we’d head back to the street. I loved that street, our house at 13222 Manor, and the Holts, Wagners, the Riouxs next door. These and other houses are gone now, removed for an ex- pressway.


The Riouxs sometimes took me to mass as well, all in Latin, all a mystery… Here in Philadelphia, I sometimes take out-of- town friends and relatives to the Sunday Mass at St. Andrews, a Russian Ortho- dox Church at 5th


I love Father Shin’s service, all the more edifying since it’s in Russian. I love the icons, the incense, the basso voice. Yes, it takes energy to be the Pope. A younger, more rigorous Pope might have done more in Cuba last year. He might have visited the prisoners at Quanta-


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Paul had urged him. He might have also visited a Cuban prison. So many of us have no say in this mat- ter, but we do want to help the needy, nurse the sick, visit the imprisoned. At Hamilton College we read the Bible as literature. “Hurt not the earth, neither the oceans nor the trees….” Possibly the closest I’ve come to Christianity was in Stockholm years ago when I saw in a crafts shop window a number of hand- carved crucifixes. Each corpus was carved from a branch, no two alike, the carver simply finding in each branch the emerging body to be crucified. The woodworker simply carved a head and defined the limbs — one arm not al- ways the same length as the other, perhaps pulled from its socket — then with a few nails the body was fastened to a cross. I had never seen


anything so devout, so care- fully found or fastened… I couldn’t afford to buy one, but I asked who had made them. Father Frantzien, I was told, lived on the island of Ãland, between Sweden and Finland. I went to see him. Within the next few days the conclave at the Vatican will select a new Pope, pos- sibly someone young and vigorous from Africa or Lat- in America, someone with a very catholic, worldly outlook, or perhaps some- one from the old “senior class”. Think of it, if Milan’s Cardinal Scola should be chosen, children around the world might soon be getting tweets from “Pope Sicola.” I wish the Church and the new Pope well. Once those little puffs of white smoke arise, we’ll know that the next Holy Father has been chosen. Ready to serve – awaiting our affection, and our forgiveness. - John Dowlin


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