Vacant property disposition issues | Greensgrow lessons | overtaking Bodine Street | thousands protest school outsourcing plan | Night Market NoLibs

The administration revealed its “front door” interface for browsing city-owned vacant property this week, but that doesn’t improve the varying disposition procedures used by different property-owning agencies. Today’s Citypaper traces one man’s 24-year quest to acquire two vacant lots in Kensington, illustrating how dysfunctional and transactional the property-acquisition process can be, and how a land bank could be the solution.

Philly Weekly talks with Greensgrow founder and urban farmer Mary Seton Corboy about how Greensgrow’s success shows one way the city’s vacant properties can become productive assets. “Greensgrow is a place that was considered totally unusable, totally abandoned, and without a big capital infusion we managed to turn it into something that’s a positive for the community,” Corboy said.

Finnegan’s Wake is once again trying to take over tiny Bodine Street with grand plans for huge porches and transitioning most of its business to catering, Eater reports. Will Northern Liberties neighbors go for it this time around?

In addition to closing 64 schools and privatizing public education, the School Reform Commission’s radical reorganization for the School District would outsource labor. Thousands protested the radical school plan Wednesday at a union-led march up Broad Street, reports Citypaper. More than 2,700 union workers have already received layoff notices.

Get your food fix tonight at Night Market, on 2nd Street in Northern Liberties from 7-11pm.

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