Morning roundup
Can anyone stop illegal dumping?; Free student loan apps are down; Doobies Bar reopens | Morning roundup
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Who can fix Philly’s big illegal dumping problem?
Philly residents say they’re angry and demoralized by the city’s inability to get a handle on the illegal dumping problem.
- This is way beyond litter. Crews sometimes remove hundreds of tons from a single spot in a week — but records show they’ve collected less in recent years, despite what feels like a worsening problem.
Lawmakers are promising to address it, Meir Rinde reports for Billy Penn, with more cameras, a bigger environmental crimes unit, and higher penalties.
Test your local knowledge with the monthly trivia quiz
It’s always trivia time in Philadelphia. There are supposedly enough different Quizzos around the city to attend one every single night.
- What’s different about our monthly quiz? To do well, you have to bring serious local knowledge about everything Philly — our three rounds of questions run from the past to the present to the future.
At Jose Pistola’s last week, our winning team got 20/24 questions correct. Now it’s your turn. Without using Google, can you beat the high score?
RECAP: What else happened?
$ = paywalled
- Pennsylvania still has a backlog of more than 45,000 unresolved unemployment claims. Officials blame staffing shortages at the Dept. of Labor and Industry. [WESA]
- Candidates for Pa. House and Senate are scrambling to collect the signatures they need to get on the ballot after the redistricting battle shortened their petition period from three weeks to less than two. [WHYY]
- Federal student loan applications are down 10% across Pa; in Philly, they dropped from 42k to 37k. The deadline is May 1, so there’s still time. [PennLive$/Datawrapper]
- There’s a battle brewing over whether the Delaware River next to the Philadelphia can be used for recreation like kayaking, or should be reserved for boats and ships. [Inquirer$]
- Thursday is the launch day for Philly Metro Latino — a new monthly bilingual section from the city’s largest free daily print paper. [Metro]
- Artist Justin Favela’s new exhibit in Queen Village’s Paradigm Gallery features work that “reveals the settler-colonial infrastructure” in canonical images of fruit and landscapes. [Al Dia]
- 44-year-old Fitler Square tavern Doobies Bar has reopened its interior after two years closed to the public. [Doobies/Facebook]
MAYOR WATCH
Mayor Kenney joins Superintendent Hite to unveil new signage for the Fanny Jackson Coppin School (2 p.m.). The Passyunk Square K-8, originally known as Andrew Jackson School, changed its name last year after a lengthy process involving community input and feedback.
ON THE CALENDAR
🐦 The Philly Pigeon hosts a night of live poetry at PhilaMOCA in the Spring Arts District (fka Eraserhood). Tickets are $10-$30. (8:30 p.m. Friday, April 1)
💃🏽 Taller Puertorriqueño is throwing a Quinceañerx, featuring a panel discussion on rethinking the tradition followed by a free glam dance party. (7 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 1)