It’s a load of bait-and-switch at City Council

Not a stop-the-presses moment, but City Council Monday afternoon pulled the old razzle dazzle, and screwed the citizens, according to the Friends of Pine and Spruce nonprofit.

FOPS and other interested citizens — pro and con — turned up at City Hall to make public comments about a bill that would give the Streets Department and the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems unlimited and unusual authority to create loading zones in Center City. As things stand now, only City Council has that authority.

KYW NewsRadio covered the session and got it almost right. 

What reporter Pat Loeb missed, or chose to ignore, was the last-minute amendment, passed around after public comments, that rewrote the bill from loading zones all over Center City  to only on Pine and Spruce streets. She also neglected to mention that the city’s hasty introduction of loading zones was unlawful, which provided the basis for FOPS to sue. 

(Loeb also accepted the city’s fiction that cars’ momentary stops in bike lanes, which has been allowed for more than a decade, creates danger for bicyclists. At my request, the Philadelphia Police Department did the research and reported the number of accidents in bike lanes involving stopped cars was zero.)

“It is a rare event in Philadelphia when 25,000 people that live on the Pine and Spruce corridors are collectively screwed in public, in the City Council’s chambers, in broad daylight,” said FOPS board member Ken Luongo. “But that is what the city did on Monday.”

FOPS President Lloyd Brotman cited Judge Thomas-Street’s ruling against unlawful loading zones, and he said Council bill 250718 was to apply citywide.  “At the last minute and unclear from where it came, an amendment to specifically target Pine-Spruce, while preserving Councilmanic prerogative elsewhere was offered.”

I asked both City Council President Kenyatta Johnson and 1st District Councilman Mark Squilla for comment. Both demurred, kicking my questions to Kenyatta spokesman Vincent Thompson, who said the bill was never intended to be citywide.

Brotman concluded “our neighborhood is being unjustly railroaded.”

To be fair, I consulted an expert on City Council procedure, who told me the late introduction of amendments was not unusual. So it’s legal, I asked, but is it kosher?

His only answer was a slow smile. As in, are you surprised?

In regard to empowering Streets and Otis to make parking decisions, FOPS Vice President Nicole Galli said, “Those officials are not elected by and thus not accountable to the citizens of Philadelphia. . . Council deprives its constituents of the opportunity to be heard on these issues and allows the Streets  Department unfettered discretion over a scarce resource in the heart of the city.”

Luongo said his understanding is that Johnson, and Squilla, whose districts contain the Pine-Spruce bike lanes, were open to compromise, “but that’s hard to believe after this bait-and-switch bill.”

Neither politician commented on any desire to compromise.

“They have shown no interest in meeting with us to talk,” said Brotman.

Keep in mind this whole mess began with Johnson’s insane and unprovoked idea a year ago to revoke the long-standing policy of allowing momentary stopping in bike lanes to discharge passengers and deliveries. 

Realizing this move imprisoned thousands of Center City residents, the city then invented the "solution" of (unlawfully) creating new loading zones, which had the effect of further reducing already scarce parking spaces.

Rube Goldberg could have had a hand in this weird exercise.