City Councilman Brian O’Neill was victorious in yesterday’s election, retaining his spot as the only Republican District representative on Council. O’Neill handily defeated Democratic challenger Bill Rubin.

The race for the Northeast’s 10th Councilmanic District was seen as one of the most competitive in Philadelphia, with O’Neill fighting to keep the seat he’s held since 1979.

Democrat Bill Rubin attempted to tie O’Neill to the controversial DROP retirement program, even though the incumbent has said he will not take advantage of it. O’Neill thinks that tactic hurt his challenger. continue reading »

It was 9:30 on election night and about 50 people were waiting for Bill Rubin in a bar that smelled like hot wings.

The Sternos were keeping the food hot at the Red Rooster Inn, and sitcoms played on the flatscreen as accommodating bartenders surfed the channels for results. Rubin was trailing with 47 percent of the vote in the 10th Councilmanic District. The Democrat was challenging incumbent Republican Brian O’Neill, who’s represented the district for 32 years. This was the first serious challenge to O’Neill in his three decades at the helm.

“Vote for my dad Bill Rubin,” read the navy and white shirts his son and daughter wore. His wife, parents, brother and sister had similar tops, while his other supporters donned their general pro-Rubin shirts over long sleeves with “push button 227″ on the back. continue reading »

Okay, crazy time is here.

If you’re running a competitive political campaign, there comes a point in the closing days of the race, when you realize that this is, or could be really close, and any little thing could make the 100-vote difference, and somebody is putting out some scurrilous crap that could cost you this thing, which by the way you’ve been working 18 hours a day on for so long you don’t remember what clean laundry even looks like, and you’ll be damned if you’re going to let them get away with it and….lord only knows what will follow.

In the Northeast Philadelphia City Council race, incumbent Brian O’Neill’s campaign has filed complaints with the city board of elections, the city board of ethics and the District Attorney’s office about mailings that have reached voters touting the candidacy of his Democratic opponent, Bill Rubin.

You can read the O’Neill campaign’s complaint by clicking here.

O’Neill’s folks are steamed because the mailer doesn’t say who paid for it – a violation of the state election code – AND because the mailer has the wrong hours for voting on November 8th. As you can see above, it says that polls open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m..

You can read the rest of this blog post from Dave Davies on NewsWorks.

Democrat Bill Rubin (L) and incumbent Republican Brian O'Neill (R) at the 10th District City Council debate

It was about halfway through last night’s 10th District City Council candidate debate when Carol Kessler stood up to ask a question. But this wasn’t an audience participation type of event.

As League of Women Voters President and debate moderator Rachel Lawton explained ahead of the hour-long debate, there’d be no audience questions. Also part of the rules: incumbent Republican candidate Brian O’Neill and Democratic challenger Bill Rubin both had one minute to answer each question and 90 seconds to close their arguments.

Kessler had many questions for the two men, and though she spoke loudly and entered the aisle to make herself heard, Lawton continued with her questions as planned, leaving many of Kessler’s queries unanswered.

O’Neill and Rubin did have answers for Lawton, though some were vague and some were more swipes at each other than they were promotions for their campaigns. continue reading »

Pennsylvania legislative district 172, as it stands today. Click to visit Redistricting the Nation.

This is part of ongoing coverage in “District 172: The Politics of Change after State Rep. John Perzel,” a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Neighborhoods funded by J-Lab.

Shaping legislative districts is by no means illegal. It’s a part of the democratic process.

After each U.S. Census informs leaders about population and demographic shifts throughout the country, each state, county and municipality is meant to see subtle movement in its boundaries to better reflect the realities there, from balancing population totals and community divides. For example, in the post-1990-census redistricting, Philadelphia lost two House seats to its western suburbs due to population growth there.

Where redistricting has earned the more negatively connoted term of ‘gerrymandering’ — coined in 1812 after a partisan Massachusetts governor — has been when political, not population, shifts seem to motivate legislative rewiring.

Now again, Pennsylvania is revisiting its boundaries, like the rest of the country, following the 2010 census. In April, a former Superior Court president was named the independent chair of the state’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which by October is due to send to the state Supreme Court its reapportionment draft of state legislative districts.

One district that will be watched by some insiders is the Pennsylvania 172nd State House Legislative district, formerly the precinct of John Perzel.

continue reading »

Brian O'Neill explains the impact of the zoning code. Photo by Ian Romano.

This is the second in a two-part look at zoning in the Northeast. Read part one here.

Councilman Brian O’Neill and the Zoning Code Commission’s executive director argued over zoning regulations at the April meeting of the Greater Bustleton Civic League. The draft is the first citywide revision of the zoning laws in 50 years.

ZCC Executive Director Eva Gladstein said parts of the code may apply to the Northeast more than other areas.

One of those issues is family-based childcare in the home. The restrictions in place for such an establishment are not changing for family-based childcare. The one distinction is the amount of children allowed in the home.

“For childcare in someone’s home, in the 6th and 10th council districts, the number of non-related children allowed in the home is only four. In the rest of the city the number is up to six,” Gladstein said.

Zoning classifications for parks and recreations will be changed under the draft.

“One thing we’re doing is enabling private participles to be zoned for parks,” Gladstein said. “Now it says only land owned by the city can be a park.”

The new code is requiring new developers to notify registered civic associations and to have a neighborhood meeting before completing their zoning variance.

“I think that will be positively affecting the Northeast since it has so many active civic associations,” Gladstein said.

The number of days allotted for posting a zoning hearing is being increased to 21 days. Another posting is being required if the hearing is continued to another day.

The Zoning Code Commission is changing the organization of the code. continue reading »