Endangered properties in Philly

The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia is currently compiling its Endangered Properties List. Every year the nonprofit organization creates this list of properties in the Philly region that citizens find threatened by development or abandonment. The organization hopes that it will bring attention to the city’s many historic places that are at risk and can’t be replaced. It also serves as a means of bringing public support for preservation solutions. This is the 9th year the group has compiled this list.

Not surprisingly, North Broad’s very own Divine Lorraine Hotel, which many in the Temple community are familiar with and curious about, has been consistently featured. Interestingly enough, this was one of the first high-rise apartment buildings in Philly. It was constructed in 1893-94. In 1948, Reverend Major J. Divine and the Divine Peace Mission bought the building and started operating it as the first racially-integrated hotel in the city. A Dutch company currently owns the building, which in 2006 was approved to be converted into an 800-unit apartment complex. The approval was appealed, and the building continues to sit vacant, as it has since 2000.   

Nominations for the Endangered Properties List are accepted through October 14. If you’re concerned about a property in Philly, submit one!

PHOTO CONTEST! Have some fun with our EIC

The U.S. economy has been so dismal that jobs are being cut left and right. No one is safe. Not even our Editor In Chief, Chris Stover. Stover will graduate in May, and needs to find a job. That’s why he recently took this picture, in hopes that someone would take pity on him.

Help Stover get a job and use this file [709KB] to help make him a better picture (and brush up on your Photoshop skills)!

Send all images in any format to web@temple-news.com by Monday, April 13 and receive our already free tickets to see State of Play Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 at Ritz Five in Olde City.

Good luck!

Incoming!: TU football slideshow

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Hustle over to Temple-News.com for a Temple football slideshow by TTN Assistant Photo Editor Kevin Cook.

The Owls, who are currently in the midst of training camp, will begin the regular season on the road with a match-up against Army on Friday, August 29 at 7 p.m.

Keep your eye on Temple-News.com and Broad and Cecil in the upcoming weeks for more coverage of the Temple football team. If you don’t, we’ll make your run laps, chunky.

Photo courtesy Kevin Cook.

Philadelphia police beating as bad as Rodney King?

You’ve heard it by now.

Fox 29 captured an 11-minute video following a Philadelphia police chase that ended with officers punching and kicking three men, suspected of a drive-by shooting minutes prior Monday night.

In case you’re smart enough to avoid cable news, you might not realize that the story is being recycled again and again each news hour with new perspectives with the same information. Here’s the footage discussed with a New York City lawyer on CNN.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL9dr-am3ec 350 292]

Yesterday the Rev. Al Sharpton, as you could have bet he would, chimed in, calling the beating “worse than Rodney King,” referring to the 1991 beating of King by Los Angeles police.

In case you don’t realize how ridiculous that assertion is, here’s the notorious Rodney King footage. Truly it’s graphic.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg 350 292]

Listen to NPR’s coverage here.

Tough week for the city’s police, who had to deal with Saturday’s fatal shooting of 12-year veteran Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, after he responded to a robbery at a bank inside a Port Richmond supermarket.

Violence on SEPTA: The Temple News reports

Plenty of noise has been made over the spike in crime on SEPTA, particularly its two main subway lines. As new precautions, added security and cameras, come on line, The Temple News reports.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUldjZnWG_w&eurl=http://temple-news.com/ 350 292]

Oh and just because I can, check this Temple journalism class video I found on Youtube that discusses SEPTA violence.

Please watch the second interviewee have his take.

Just because some rich person got murdered and it’s on the news a lot doesn’t mean that people haven’t always been getting mugged on the subway.

I am sure the family of 36-year-old Starbucks manager Sean Patrick Conroy really appreciate his concern.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjOsfeB33vI&feature=related]