A Million Stories

[ a million stories ]

The city of Philadelphia, along with the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) and Wireless Philadelphia, held a meeting last week to discuss a federal "broadband stimulus" grant that they will apply for this summer. The grant, part of the president's stimulus package, provides $4.7 billion nationwide to improve technological access.

Allan Frank, Philadelphia's chief information officer, says he views the meeting as a starting point of a long process that will extend beyond the available grant money.

"Really, $4.7 billion is such a small number for the entire country that we have no idea what we will be able to do," Frank says.

Frank emphasizes finding ways to use technology to improve public safety and services, such as police cameras and information kiosks in neighborhoods. At the gathering, held at the Community College of Philadelphia, many participants talked about creating "universal access." "This is an opportunity to both create a public safety network and a public access network, as well as the training and hardware to support that," says Todd Wolfson of MMP.

—Morgan Davis

The Francisville section of lower North Philly has remained largely untouched by the sort of development that tends to usher in gentrification. But at a neighborhood meeting on Friday, 95 percent of attendees voted to allow chic developer Onion Flats to build a super-sustainable five-story residential building at the long-overgrown corner of 19th and Wylie streets. The voters were roughly two-thirds black, and at least 50 percent were longtime residents, says Kristin Szwajkowski, board member of the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corp. (FNDC). "I was surprised that the neighborhood voted so overwhelmingly for the plan," she says.

The vote could be rendered meaningless if various authorities don't like the idea. The FNDC plans to write a letter to Councilman Darrell Clarke urging him to support it.

As for concerns that the Onion Flats project is a harbinger of Northern Liberties 2: "This is our last big development parcel," says Szwajkowski. "We don't have a ton of empty space like Northern Liberties did."

—Andrew Thompson

At last week's annual NBA draft, 60 young men heard their names called. Our June 18 cover subject, Dionte Christmas, was not one of them. Christmas, a now-former Temple star, had been hoping to be selected late in the first round, but understood he was probably headed for the second. Not going in either round came as a surprise.

"I was watching right through the 60th pick," Christmas says the next morning. He quickly jumps into a stream of clichés about how the experience will provide motivation, but it's hard to imagine he's not disappointed.

"A little bit [disappointed]," he says when pushed. "But like I said, the draft is crazy." He pauses for a few seconds to collect his thoughts. "I had never heard undrafted." He spits out the last word, which will stick with him the rest of his career. "I had heard mid-second, early second, late second, maybe even sneak into the bottom of the first. But never undrafted." We're talking on the phone, but you can practically hear his head shaking. He sounds more than a little disappointed.

—E. James Beale