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Philly property assessments (and tax bills) are rising, again; Kensington debates supervised injection site | Morning Newsletter

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1100 block of S. 16th Street boasts new housing, but some Point Breeze residents want a moratorium on buildings taller than two stories.
1100 block of S. 16th Street boasts new housing, but some Point Breeze residents want a moratorium on buildings taller than two stories.Read moreSarah J. Glover / File Photograph
    by Aubrey Nagle
    Published 

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

If you’re a Philly homeowner who just finished worrying about this year’s taxes, you might want to grab your coffee (or a stress ball) before reading. The city is sending out its new property assessments and many residents will see another increase for their tax bill. In other news about Philly’s many changing neighborhoods, Kensington neighbors continue to debate whether a supervised injection site should open there. Meanwhile, some tenants on historic Jewelers Row just learned their days there are numbered.

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— Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

Tax bills set to increase — again — for homeowners as Philly releases new assessments

Last year, many Philly homeowners were outraged to see residential property assessments (and thus their tax bills) climb, with some neighborhoods seeing increases as high as 47.1 percent.

The fallout led to an independent audit that found the city’s assessment methods are flawed and a change in leadership at the Office of Property Assessment.

But the furor is unlikely to end as the city mails out assessments for 2020 this week. More than 345,000 residential properties (that’s three-quarters of the total) will see increases next year.

For some Kensington neighbors, a supervised injection site feels like giving up

It’s been more than a year since city officials announced they would sanction a supervised injection site, where people could use drugs under medical supervision and have access to treatment, in Philadelphia.

But time has not dampened the debate between Kensington residents and the nonprofit, Safehouse, looking to open a site in the city.

Residents worry such a site will forever brand their neighborhood as the city hub of drug use and dealing following years of disinvestment and systemic problems.

Several Jewelers Row tenants receive eviction notices as Toll Bros.' high-rise plans remain unclear

Multiple tenants along Jewelers Row that sit in the path of a proposed Toll Brothers development recently received eviction notices requiring they vacate in the coming weeks.

Toll Brothers has faced resistance at every turn as they’ve planned a residential tower in place of five Sansom Street properties. Though many of the obstacles blocking the development are gone, plans for the site are still unclear.

The notices come just days after Mayor Jim Kenney announced new plans to protect Philadelphia’s historic properties.

What you need to know today

  1. Mayor Jim Kenney continued to delete text messages from his smart phone for sixth months after an open records request revealed in August that he was erasing potential public records.

  2. Chester County has sued Sunoco over its controversial Mariner East pipelines, asking the court to prohibit the company from starting construction on two county-owned properties.

  3. Facing a $27 million budget deficit, the Camden school district may close two schools, relocate 900 students, and cut 300 jobs, officials said Wednesday.

  4. More than 1,000 residents have received a Philly municipal ID since the program launched last week, but it’s so popular appointments are full for now.

  5. Mark your calendars: the Sixers will meet the Brooklyn Nets, a young but successful team, in the first sound of the NBA playoffs. The series begins in Philadelphia Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

  6. The good old days of ride-sharing are gone, Philly Uber and Lyft drivers say, and now they’re working harder and getting less.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

“Wow” feels like the appropriate description here, @lindsayinphilly. 😍

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

That’s Interesting

  1. Members of the local theater community have written a scathing open letter to the Philadelphia Theatre Company. The issue at hand: a season of plays by only white writers.

  2. The Marvel Universe exhibit opens at The Franklin Institute this weekend and you can bet it will be crowded.

  3. What lies beneath Philadelphia’s streets? Stories of what has been built and, just as importantly, what hasn’t, as columnist Mike Newall learned on a subterranean tour.

  4. Some newspapers have recently dropped ratings from their restaurant reviews, but Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan says his Liberty Bell system isn’t going anywhere.

  5. Philly’s rowing community is short $400,000 for the funds it needs to dredge the Schuylkill River and keep up its famed racecourse, so they’re asking the public for help.

  6. Cities can be noisy, and if keeping the volume down is important to you, there are ways to check noise levels before moving into a new neighborhood.

Opinions

“I’ve been upset about this since I got the news Sunday. There’s something uniquely sad about a child who takes his own life. That little boy should still be alive, grumbling about schoolwork and twirling his lacrosse stick as he loved to do.” — Columnist Jenice Armstrong on Philadelphia fifth grader Phillip Spruill Jr., who died last week.

  1. Kiss prefigured today’s age of populism by horrifying elites and inspiring a following that reveled in their scorn, writes columnist Marc Thiessen, which is why he’s such a big fan of the band.

  2. Ed Rendell, the 45th governor of Pennsylvania, writes that hindsight is 20/20 and he wishes he had made different choices about nuclear power in the state.

What we’re reading

  1. Survivors of sexual abuse by women in religious orders say their stories are being pushed aside in the conversation about assaults in the Catholic clergy so, WHYY reports, they’re raising their voices.

  2. Good news for local anti-violence organizations: the city is putting up money to support neighborhoods working to reduce gun violence, Billy Penn writes.

  3. PlanPhilly reports that an uptick in building collapses stems from illegal construction in Philadelphia, and wonders whether the city will hire more inspectors to keep homeowners safe.

  4. Summer is fast approaching and, if you’re environmentally conscious, you’ll want to read up on how bad swimsuits are for the environment, via Fast Company.

  5. Speaking of conscious consumption, a tribe of beauty fanatics is addressing how much waste the industry creates by ... dumpster diving. Refinery29 has the all-too-real story.

A Daily Dose of | Talent

Lindsay Harding’s historic rise from a WNBA star to a Sixers scout to the team’s first female coach is just the start. Could she be the NBA’s first female general manager or head coach?