April 21: Seniors using SEPTA Key | Center City’s density | Garage-fronted housing loophole

Center City “ranks second only to Midtown Manhattan when it comes to people living in the heart of a city,” says Maria Panaritis, reporting on Center City District’s new State of Center City report. We’ll be spending some time with the report today so check back for more highlights.

Still, it will be a very long time before Philly achieves true Bladerunner urbanism. The densest part of Philadelphia in the Center City core is only 41% as dense as Manhattan, and about 85% as dense as Brooklyn.

Nathaniel Popkin, still on the warpath over the front-loading garages across the street from the Betsy Ross house on Arch Street, says Alan Greenberger wants City Council to close the “loophole” that allows single-family homes with garages to be built in areas zoned CMX-3.

This warehouse in South Kensington will be the headquarters for Indego, Philadelphia’s new bike share program.

SEPTA Key is already live for seniors 65 and up, who swipe with their driver’s licenses. It doesn’t work on all turnstiles yet, but some seniors have gotten a head start on using the contactless fare system.

Michael Bloomberg’s What Works Cities initiative is funding $42 million in open data projects for mid-sized cities.

Congestion pricing is typically only discussed as an option for very large cities with major traffic congestion problems, but it also worked in the smaller Swedish city of Gothenburg, which has only a half million people, and started out with 26% transit mode share.