August 19: Walnut Hill Farm park | replacing Queen Lane | Desperation borrowing for schools | Dreaming on capping I-95 | Singing fountain wedding | Cheers, Charlie

Welcome to the working week, Streeters. Here’s your Monday morning Buzz:

Next month a new community park space is slated to open at Walnut Hill Farm, West Philly Local reports. The farmstead on Market Street near 46th is opening the park to give locals space to enjoy the green surroundings and gather, and improve the farm’s safety via solar lighting and a new rear retaining wall.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority plans to replace Germantown’s Queen Lane public housing tower with more low-income rental housing. But why isn’t Queen Lane being replaced with mixed-income Hope VI housing (like those in Hawthorne) that aims to economically integrate neighborhoods? That’s the solution Inga Saffron advocates for in her column from Friday. She argues, as Northwest Neighbors of Germantown do, that more low-income housing will consign this neighborhood to poverty, while increasing some homeownership into the mix could help curb blight and stabilize the neighborhood. It is, she sums up, a “clash of visions for the neighborhood’s future.”

The New York Times looks at Philadelphia’s decision to borrow $50 million in order to open schools on time, a move seen by analysts as desperate. “While the city’s own bond rating has been raised, to its highest level in 30 years, the school district’s credit has been downgraded to junk, with warnings that more downgrades may come. The unusual situation stems from a combination of politics and long-term structural problems.” As activist Helen Gym told the Times: “I just don’t know where this ends.”

Mayor Nutter and several staffers met with editors at WHYY and the Notebook, to explain the administration’s position on borrowing that $50 million and offered details on how the Governor’s idea of school funding came about.

In his Daily News column Stu Bykofsky renews the call to cover I-95 from Market to South streets. Center City’s stretch of the highway will be rebuilt in the coming decades and go through design work in about 2020, so if we want a different future for the waterfront, now’s the time to act and find the political will to do so.

East Passyunk’s singing fountain hosted its first wedding reception this weekend, reports Passyunk Post.

By now you’ve heard that the Phillies gave Charlie Manuel the boot last week. The Inquirer breaks down the Manuel’s final days, Ruben Amaro’s tears, and our collective frustration at this season. So if you haven’t already, hoist a glass to Charlie in thanks for the many great seasons we saw under his leadership. We have a small desk shrine to Cholly at EOTS World Headquarters that will remain intact for a long time.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.
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