November 24: Who parks on the City Hall apron | Neighborhood Index | Target goes urban

Who’s parking on the City Hall apron and undercutting those expensive aesthetic upgrades to Dilworth Park? That would be Michael Nutter, Darrell Clarke, some other Council members, and a bunch of top Nutter staffers. Patrick Kerkstra confirms that the Mayor’s office has direct control of the apron parking situation.

Local real estate developers say the future of the Philly market depends on what Millennials do, so they have to be encouraged by the growing number of young adults taking responsibility for improving the neighborhood public schools before their kids are even of school age so they can remain in Philadelphia.

Like real estate developers, big retailers like Target also see the writing on the wall, and are changing form to serve urban markets with smaller-footprint stores.

Mark Dent at Billy Penn compiled a helpful Philly neighborhood index, ranking the hoods by different variables like nightlife, college attainment, diversity, and of course the all-important hipster quotient. 

Why there probably won’t be a lame duck “micro session” before Tom Wolf is sworn in as Governor.

Here’s a good deep dive into the shaky economic assumptions behind ride-sharing company Uber’s $18 billion valuation, and the economics of the ride-for-hire industry. The central question is why investors believe Uber will be able to make this much money on a service when nobody, besides taxi medallion owners, has figured out how to make much of a profit on this.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal