Filed under: Are You Kidding?, Real Estate | Tags: abatement, Gentrification, taxes
Philadelphia has been in a budget crisis for some time now. When Nutty Mayor Nutter tried to force his iron will and close a dozen branch libraries a few months ago, the people fought back and won. Many library advocates at the time pointed to the city’s 10 year, transferrable tax abatement program for rich ass condos in Center City as the cause of the city’s lagging tax revenues.
And now, dear reader, we bring you the penthouse condo tax abatement to end all Philly tax abatements.
Behold 50 16TH STREET S 56/57 PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102. For a cool $30,000,000 (yes, 30 MILLION DOLLARS) you can live on top of one of the city’s twin towers in a small-ish 16,000 square foot penthouse.
The nice (read: baby killer) realtors also just throw in the description: “In addition, the owner of this residence will enjoy a 10-year tax abatement.”
We’re pretty sure the owners of this “residence” (read: monster mansion deathtrap) will enjoy a little more than the tax break. But what exactly would those pwned 0wners be paying in taxes for this swank pad in the clouds, if the city of Philadelphia chose to tax them sometime in the next 100 years?
Using the Philadelphia Forward guide to taxes, we will do the math for you.
30,000,000 market value x .32 = assessed value of 9,600,000 (9.6 million..chump change!). Then we take 9,600,000 and multiply by 8.264% real estate tax rate which equals $793,344 in taxes, annually. per annum. each year.
So EACH YEAR people, the scumbags who live in the 50 16th st penthouse get a 793,344 DOLLAR TAX BREAK. Multiply that by 10 years, and the city just lost out on $7,933,440 in tax revenue. Almost $8 million on one apartment. Gee, that sounds like enough to save the libraries and open the pools, doesn’t it?
Filed under: Appropriation, Are You Kidding?, Displacement, Future Plans, Gentrification, University City Creep, University City District | Tags: creep, Gentrification, university city, war, west philly
Alert! Vandals have repeatedly struck the 4500-5000 blocks of Baltimore Ave in West Philly! Every lamp post on both sides of the street has been tagged UNIVERSITY CITY DISTRICT. Why oh why would merciless thieves and liars called University City District do such a thing??
“The intent is to increase illumination, reduce the perception and reality of crime and encourage private investment.”
Oh, that. But wait, there’s more!
“Lewis Wendell, University City District’s Executive Director noted, “This project demonstrates the results of a new level of collaboration between the major institutions in University City, Penn Dot, the City of Philadelphia Streets Department and PECO.”
We here at the UCD blog love collaboration, especially between private corporations and the government. But seriously folks, the vandalizing soul-sucking demons of the “left of center” University City District should really be reprimanded for their behavior. Replacing perfectly good, working streetlights with boutique, fake vintage gaslight-looking streetlamps for a million bucks so they can hang their crummy gentrification advertising banners… well what can we say, this shit is wack.
Peep the original press release via http://www.ucityphila.org/news/release/402
Britain’s The Register did some crack reporting on University of Pennsylvania student Ryan Goldstein, who was sentenced 3 months in a guilty plea for running multiple botnets to attack his online enemies with Denial of Service attacks. That’s not too unusual, except for the fact that Ryan Goldstein repeatedly exposed himself to little boys on webcams, and had over 1,000 photos of kiddie porn on his computer. The IRC channel admins who were the target of Ryan’s DDoS attacks (because they banned him for lewd and inappropriate behavior) went so far as to hack into multiple UPenn networks to gather Ryan’s emails, emails of UPenn Administrators colluding with the FBI, print out photos and contact info with accusations of pedophilia on UPenn networked servers, and so on. Wow. Good job guys, it seems like UPenn doesn’t know how to config a router to save its life.
But you’d think that someone busted for hacking, spamming, exposing himself to minors, and downloading child porn all on his UPenn school network would be tried for all of those charges. But no. (More Register coverage here)
Instead, the Judge was so miffed at the sentencing options that he had a joint hearing so that Ryan was tried alongside convicted child pornographer Derrick Williams–who is African American. Ryan faced a maximum sentence of 5 years and $250,000 fine, but received only 3 months and a $30,000 fine. But that’s generally what happens when white prep boys (’05 Germantown Academy grad!) get busted. Williams received 2 years.
“The prosecution failed to bring any charges regarding the more than 1,000 child pornography images found on his computer. They then agreed that he could schedule the 90 days at his convenience, so as not to conflict with his class schedule. He’ll probably serve them during summer vacation.
I’m not sure what kind of school wants to have a convicted computer criminal and child pornography collector as one of their students. I guess he’ll get his degree and go find a job, after his brief visit to jail. “
But don’t take our word for it–even USA Today noted the disparity.
“Both men were found with several thousand images of child pornography, and each had copied some of the images, though Williams had also posted about 15 of them on a Web site, prosecutors said.
The judge said he could not help noting that Williams is black and Goldstein is white.
“This has weighed very heavily on my mind, as I think it would most judges,” U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson said. “That’s why I’ve brought this case together with the Williams case.”
However, he said the sentencing disparities were not connected to race. Baylson gave Williams a two-year prison term, noting his steady work history and minor criminal record.”
You see, the Feds set up a deal that prevented the judge from trying the case effectively. According to The Register, “In exchange for Goldstein’s help prosecuting seven cases involving botnets, federal prosecutors agreed to charge him with a single misdemeanor hacking charge for damage he inflicted on a University of Pennsylvania server.” So you give the spammer hacker a big break (ignoring child porn charges?!) for outing other spammy hackers? Interesting.
Ryan’s Google profile is available here, which also has a nice pic and a link to his company ChronoWake, which develops “a product that helps people wake up feeling more refreshed and energized.” Wow yeah I guess if I were a pedophilac spammer I would need that product too. Way to look out for your people, Ryan, I think you have that target market covered. Here’s his “business profile” with date of birth and ludicrous claims that he was contracted by the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and NASA.
You can find his contact info (address, phone numbers, emails) in a forum thread here.
Also of interest is that UPenn’s “Office of Information Security” got photos and emails of Ryan yanked from servers with the following letter:
“Hi,
I work for the Office of Information Security for the University of Pennsylvania. Someone has posted a file as well as private information from emails to your forum and we would like to ask you if you would kindly take it down.
http://www.opensc.ws/showthread.php?p=13632
The file “Digerati Exposed” contains personal email that should not be hosted on a public website. It is likely that everyone who has an interest in this file has already downloaded it so leaving it public is of no advantage.
Thanks for your consideration.
- –
xxxxx
University of Pennsylvania
Office of Information Security
xxxx“
Yes, UPenn, thanks for your consideration of the fact that you aided the government to get one of your pedophile students free on easily prosecutable charges. Thanks also for allowing him to remain in school and get a degree. That’s the kind of morality we’ve come to expect from the University of Pennsylvania.
Filed under: Appropriation, Are You Kidding?, University City District | Tags: upenn, west philly, youcies
West Philly kids love going to the Bubble House for queer dance parties. The mere fact that Bubble House is located at 34th and Sansom should have tipped everyone off to their lameness and associated evils already, but in case you missed it, the “youcies” love Bubble House. Youcies? Really? That’s the best you could come up with? via (LOL) Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace. Sorry we all missed this great event.
Young Friends of University City Happy Hour!
The Bubble House
3404 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday, March 20, 5:30pm
Connect, Interact and Explore with youcie –The Young Friends of University City. Mingle with old friends and make new ones while enjoying drink specials and complementary hors d’oeuvres courtesy of The Bubble House at our first monthly happy hour.
This event will take place from 5:30 to 7:00pm, is free and open to anyone ages 21 and up, so feel free to pass this invite along but, please RSVP by March 16 so we can plan for enough food.
Youcie members are diverse individuals who are committed to University City’s uniqueness, growth and vitality. Youcie events will allow members to connect, interact with and explore University City’s diverse cultural, social, and community service offerings.
Youcie membership is free and open to those 21 years and older who wish to engage in exciting programming with other like-minded professionals.
To RSVP, please send an email to youngfriends@ucityphila.org.
Super Bonus Edition! UPenn endowment shrinks drastically (not like that!)
It pains me to link to this crappy newspaper, but in the interest of journalistic freedom we will do so. Due to the omnipresent shitty economy, it looks like UPenn is getting hit in the pocketbook.
“Penn’s endowment dropped 19.4 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, falling from $6.2 billion to $5 billion from July to December 2008, according to Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli.”
Cry me a river. While that’s a nice chunk of change to lose, don’t start pulling out your checkbooks for poor old UPenn. Let’s think about this for a second…five billion dollars? Like, woah. I guess they can buy whatever they want. But let’s all hope that their economic policy wonks at Wharton keep messing up this “market based economy” thing. Lately at least one UPenn econ professor has been distracted by having sex with little boys. (“Investigators uncovered child pornography in the Penn office of Wharton professor emeritus Scott Ward yesterday, piling fresh charges on top of allegations that he brought child pornography into the country.”) If only we could make this shit up.
UPenn President Amy Gutmann
Well, UPenn sure is an interesting place. A few years back UPenn President Amy Gutmann decided to have a little fun and hang out with the “kids” at a UPenn Halloween party, stopping to pose for pictures with all sorts of upstanding young citizens frat boys. Here she is pictured with a young lad who thought it would be funny to dress up as a suicide bomber. “Ha, ha! What a barrel of laughs,” she must have thought. *Click!* Well she’s not shy of a little controversy, and remember any press is good press for UPenn!
Filed under: Are You Kidding?, Introducing, University City District | Tags: marketing, ucd, university city
Just saw an ad for a new marketing scheme courtesy of University City District: University Square .BIZ! Nothing says fine establishment like a .BIZ address. I’d say it’s a good place to go to meet squares.
But their website says…
“Eclectic. Hip. Urban. University Square includes galleries, cultural and recreational venues, and public spaces, as well as funky shops, nationally known stores, bistros, fine dining establishments, and outdoor cafes.”
It’s none of my .BIZness but come on people, hip? urban? Nothing screams YUPPIES like University City.
And it’s time for our daily disclaimer: If you’re looking for info about University City, or restaurants in University City, or perhaps even the Top 10 reasons to go to UPenn, then you’re at the right place. We’ve got all that University City info and more.
Thanks, UCD for the worst facebook page I have ever seen. Just remember, people who are friends with faceless evil corporate real estate development agencies are always super cool. Maybe I’ll find my new BFF through the UCity facebook page! OMG! PS- I smell a rat.
