PHILADELPHIA | 1001 S. Broad Street Phase I | 180 FT | 14 FLOORS

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Please God, and let Pearl be the buyer.

If Blatstein gets his flip-enhancing garage zoning, Goldenberg will probably buy it and build a cheap-o monster big box and parking crap pile. Hope the unintentionally potentially heroic idiot Johnson's lawsuit gums stuff up for awhile at least.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Philly Kid

I knew Bart was never serious about building on this site, this is his modus operandi. Buys a parcel of land, gets zoning in place, puts out a stacking diagram of the site, sells land and realizes the gain in value for the site being zoned appropriately.

I think Bart is decidedly a "doer of deals" and not much into actually building anything, so I had the same suspicion. That said, this was already zoned for almost anything sensibly imaginable. Do the anticipated exceptions (granted and withdrawn, probably to be granted again) add that much value?

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

If Blatstein gets his flip-enhancing garage zoning, Goldenberg will probably buy it and build a cheap-o monster big box and parking crap pile. Hope the unintentionally potentially heroic idiot Johnson's lawsuit gums stuff up for awhile at least.

We've seen spot zoning before (given, taken away, and given again on Spring Garden, for example). Can there be spot exceptions (or non-exemptions)? That might be just as questionable, but a far less dramatic thing for Johnson to do.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Can there be spot exceptions (or non-exemptions)? That might be just as questionable, but a far less dramatic thing for Johnson to do.

Dumb as he is, Johnson probably realized the bill proposal would be DOA and only did it to create the appearance of doing something while actually doing nothing. So I doubt he really wants to do anything worthwhile in this situation, though I am holding out unreasonable hope against hope.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

Dumb as he is, Johnson probably realized the bill proposal would be DOA and only did it to create the appearance of doing something while actually doing nothing. So I doubt he really wants to do anything worthwhile in this situation, though I am holding out unreasonable hope against hope.

Not who we want in an advocate. Johnson just got socked with a $34 [THOUSAND] verdict:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/po...s_to_jury.html

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by knight hospitaller

not who we want in an advocate. Johnson just got socked with a $34 million verdict:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/po...s_to_jury.html

*$34,000

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

*$34,000

Yep. Only $34,000. But potentially a BIG blow and the first signs of cracks in the abuse of councilmanic prerogative. And hopefully the beginning of the end for Johnson.

[VikingDutchman]

With the Feds nosing around, will be interesting to see if the rest of Council hangs him out to try rather than risk a more thorough change in how they all do business.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

*$34,000

My bad. Since corrected.

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by VikingDutchman

With the Feds nosing around, will be interesting to see if the rest of Council hangs him out to try rather than risk a more thorough change in how they all do business.

I'm pretty sure this means the bill is done for. I'm not sure what this means for Blatstein's Tiny Town, but Johnson just got dealt some bigger things to deal with.

http://www.philadelinquency.com/2016...federal-court/

Can't say I'm upset. Killing councilmanic privilege would open up a real Land Bank, and I can't even imagine what kind of development that would lead to.

[McBane]

Re councilmanic prerogative (and my earlier posts on the subject):

The practice is virtually unchallenged. According to a 2015 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, in recent years Council has never voted on land-use issues against the wishes of the member whose district the property is in. Of 730 of those votes, all but four passed unanimously, the report said.

Also, I'm embarrassed that I've been spelling the term incorrectly.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by McBane

Also, I'm embarrassed that I've been spelling the term incorrectly.

I thought you were doing it on purpose, to be witty and reveal your feelings about it (which I'm sure we all share):

pe·jo·ra·tive
pəˈjôrədiv/
adjective
1. expressing contempt or disapproval.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...8#q=pejorative

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

I thought you were doing it on purpose, to be witty and reveal your feelings about it (which I'm sure we all share):



https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...8#q=pejorative

Pejoratives are about the only terms suitable to describe our City Council.

What a disgraceful, underwhelming group of people.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by McBane

Re councilmanic prerogative (and my earlier posts on the subject):



Also, I'm embarrassed that I've been spelling the term incorrectly.

Yes, it's been virtually unchallenged to date. But with the jury verdict and the federal investigation, we'll hopefully see that start to change. Fasten your seatbelts, Council. Your ride is about to hit a few bumps.

[McBane]

I wonder if Blatstein has a case against Johnson or the whole Councilmanic Prerogative tradition? We're not talking about a few townhomes, the stakes here are very big and Blatstein certainly has the resources.

A few questions:

1) What's Johnson's liability as a legislator? Per an earlier article on the trial:

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone dismissed several of his claims because elected officials have immunity from being sued for some actions taken as part of legitimate legislative duties.

2) What's the city's liability given that the practice is not codified into law?

3) While acknowledging that the Broad and Wash project is very large and significant, does Blatstein want to declare war on this cherished (but disgusting) Council tradition and alienate his political connections?

Maybe the answer to #3 is the real key. I could see Blatstein telling his pal Clarke to make the bill go away or else he'll go to court, too. I'd love to see that but it's probably in both Blatstein and Council's interests to avoid litigation. Councilmanic perogative doesn't need more media attention or another potential courtroom defeat. And Blatstein needs to maintain goodwill with Council if he wants to continue developing in Philly.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by McBane

I wonder if Blatstein has a case against Johnson or the whole Councilmanic Prerogative tradition? We're not talking about a few townhomes, the stakes here are very big and Blatstein certainly has the resources.

A few questions:

1) What's Johnson's liability as a legislator? Per an earlier article on the trial:


2) What's the city's liability given that the practice is not codified into law?

3) While acknowledging that the Broad and Wash project is very large and significant, does Blatstein want to declare war on this cherished (but disgusting) Council tradition and alienate his political connections?

Maybe the answer to #3 is the real key. I could see Blatstein telling his pal Clarke to make the bill go away or else he'll go to court, too. I'd love to see that but it's probably in both Blatstein and Council's interests to avoid litigation. Councilmanic perogative doesn't need more media attention or another potential courtroom defeat. And Blatstein needs to maintain goodwill with Council if he wants to continue developing in Philly.

He'll have to calculate the long-term effects of rocking the boat vs. the near-term negative effect of a one-year development "moratorium" on the value of the property.

[McBane]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

Yes, it's been virtually unchallenged to date. But with the jury verdict and the federal investigation, we'll hopefully see that start to change. Fasten your seatbelts, Council. Your ride is about to hit a few bumps.

Wishful thinking. Council is digging in.

Council members: It's our prerogative to block development

This is one of those articles that just makes me want to walk up to city hall and give each of these idiots a punch in the face.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by McBane

Wishful thinking. Council is digging in.

Council members: It's our prerogative to block development

This is one of those articles that just makes me want to walk up to city hall and give each of these idiots a punch in the face.

We'll see. Digging in doesn't mean the cracks haven't already started to form even if it's a slow collapse of the abuse.

[Cro Burnham]

Now this is getting interesting. Or not.

http://www.phillymag.com/property/20...ning-approval/

Blatstein is so full of schnizzit. Apparently his agreement of sale expired (yes, it seems he does not even have a valid agreement of sale, let alone title, to the site at this point. . . who knew?).

All this is much ado about nothing, I suppose. The plans are comical, as is the execution so far. I think the man is slipping in to some kind of dementia. Blumenfeld is proving to be less full of it than Blatstein. Pretty amazing.

[City Wide]

It seems fitting that this project is turning out to be a circus considering one of the last uses of the lot was for the same.