Kim Gavin’s art class from Cramp Elementary School in West Kensington didn’t get to witness the big vote after all, the one that the grade-schoolers and their chaperones had hoped to influence when they traveled to City Hall for last Thursday’s weekly Council meeting.
Instead, Councilman Bobby Henon delayed the vote on his bill that would essentially allow the city to buy riverfront property in Holmesburg for the potential development of a new prison. Henon said that new questions from one of his colleagues prompted the postponement, the third such delay in the relatively brief, tumultuous history of Bill №150406.
Council’s last session before summer break is this Thursday, June 18. Henon intends to call for a vote on the bill then. If that doesn’t happen, and Henon doesn’t withdraw the bill, Council may re-consider it when the fall session begins in September.
Ironically, there is no actual mention of a prison in the legislation. And the property is now zoned residential, having been changed that by council 10 years ago as part of a condominium development plan that ultimately failed.
Spectators packed last week’s Council session and continued to line the hallways outside the chamber after security guards closed admission, declaring that the gallery had reached its capacity. But only a small minority were there explicitly to protest Henon’s controversial proposal. Dozens of Service Employees International Union-member airport workers wore distinguishable T-shirts and waved signs, advocating for better wages at Philadelphia International, which they won as Council passed a new airport lease.
Meanwhile, the Cramp School group consisted of 19 children and adults, Gavin said. They also waved signs calling for more school funding, although there were no school funding measures on the agenda. Gavin said that her art class took part in the meeting to fulfill a requirement of a grant from a local non-profit organization, Public Citizens for Children and Youth. Linda Fernandez, director of PCCY’s Picasso Project, said that a condition of the grant is that the recipient use a portion of it to advocate for additional school funding. ••
