Monthly Archives: June 2014

The development process in any city should include input from the neighborhood. In Philadelphia, that input often comes from Registered Community Organizations. The city registers RCOs during June, and the registration is good for two years. Right now, there are more than 200 RCOs in Philly, and each has a say in developers’ requests for zoning variances.

When baby boomers think back on high school or college, there may have been nothing as devastating and perplexing as getting an essay back with a grade, a few stray comments and, next to one paragraph, a simple “No.” Nothing else. No explanation, no “see chapter 7,” nothing. Just that one word with all its finality and all its mystery.

Philadelphia may not have ocean views, but it does have the Delaware River. That means that the city may be just as vulnerable to storm surges during tropical storms as coastal properties are. Superstorm Sandy generated the third-highest storm surge on record here. We are vulnerable.

We are talking about a legal dispute involving property owners along the New Jersey shore and the state government. The state — and Gov. Chris Christie — has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to build barrier dunes along the coastline. The idea is to protect the businesses and residents in beachfront communities from storm damage. The property owners have resisted the idea for a number of reasons.

New Jersey could be losing patience with property owners in communities along its coastline. The state has asked for easements, but the property owners are balking. The easements would give the Army Corps of Engineers enough room to erect barrier dunes along the beaches, dunes that would protect homeowners and businesses during a storm like Sandy. The dunes would also block the property owners’ views of the beach, or so they argue.

Philadelphia took a hit from Superstorm Sandy, but the beaches of New Jersey took a body blow. The storm washed away residential and commercial sites along the coast, leaving everyone scrambling to clean up and scrambling to make sure every home, every business, every town would fare better during the next natural disaster.

Huy Fong Foods Inc. has enjoyed tremendous success since its founder, David Tran, first started producing chili sauces in 1980. The company’s hottest — in every sense of the word — product is by far the Sriracha sauce. Some serious fans we know will leave a restaurant if they do not see “rooster sauce” on the tables.

Philadelphia Councilman at-Large Jim Kenney may have been disappointed last week to hear that Huy Fong Inc., the manufacturer of the immensely popular Sriracha sauce, will not be moving here any time soon. Kenney had contacted the company to offer Philly as a new location when he heard about Huy Fong’s dispute with its neighbors. The controversy has taken a dramatic turn or two in the months since we first wrote about it (see here), but Huy Fong and the city of Irwindale, California, announced last week that they have settled their differences.