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Philly.com gets new Web site redesign

Philly.com – the online home of the Inquirer and the Daily News – launched a new redesign last week.

Our man Daniel McQuade of Philadelphia Weekly’s Will Do blog has some thoughts.

Well, well! Philly.com went a redesigned and… well, they got rid of the changing front page via Javascript, so the redesign is an immediate success in one area. Reader Christopher emails: “The site has totally gone retro 80’s pastel with geometric shapes and magic marker headlines. Feels like Miami Vice.” That kind of feels right, though — remember, this is a company that pays both Michael Smerconish and Christine Flowers, who must turn in their columns in magic marker.

My friend Chris Reber says it “looks good, but isn’t that the same design as Stereogum?”

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No surprise the comments on the redesign’s announcement are full of hating.

Your kidding me right… did you have the website redesigned and outsourced in India? It looks like a 12 year old without any perception and or understanding of color theory or interface usability built this site. And what is up with your header and that bouncing “philly.com” logo? And for the love of god whahy did you use a beige textured wallpaper in your background it look very 1996ish. One word comes to mind “FAIL”!

Of course, that is fairly excessive. Agreed, it doesn’t scream professionalism or the Internet home of the third oldest daily newspaper in the country, but then, the two newspapers’ individual pages are more traditional. The Daily News didn’t change at all – from what I can see – and the Inquirer didn’t change much, though, to be honest, what changes they made seem to be a step backwards. No dominant image and no displaying other new media. Three columns and I am drawn more to their left-most advertising than their content.

The Temple News: An open letter to President Ann Weaver Hart

My final column after four years writing for The Temple News:

An open letter to President Ann Weaver Hart

By Christopher Wink | May 12, 2008 | The Temple News

I am graduating. After four years on North Broad Street – two more than you – I have plenty I want to share with you. Space is limited, so forgive my suddenness.

Throw your students into the surrounding communities.

For 45 years, this university has tried to figure out how to trick middle-class students into studying amid one of this country’s densest collections of black people, many of them poor and uneducated. So we built walls and took publicity shots facing south. We closed North Park Avenue, tried to close 13th Street and turned inward.

So, each year, a portion of accepted students confuse Temple with shootings at the Norris Apartments and confuse Philadelphia with an abandoned row home at 20th and Diamond streets.

That’s backwards. Have Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico amend our new general education requirements to involve 10-credit hours of “community education.” The engineering students can take a class on the most efficient means of backfilling condemned buildings, architecture students can figure out what’s wrong with the North Philadelphia subway stop, and students of the social sciences can work with the nonprofits that are trying to help our neighbors.

Leverage our intellectual capital and market it as the most unique academic experience in the world.

Continue reading The Temple News: An open letter to President Ann Weaver Hart

Rae Scott Jones: helping St. Joseph's keep up with the Scott-Joneses

As filed – without edits – for yesterday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE are students in the supermarkets.

That’s a healthy level of community involvement Rae Scott-Jones might tell you.

Scott-Jones, who was named assistant vice president for government and community relations at St. Joseph’s University, has lived in the school’s Wynnefield neighborhood for nearly a quarter century.

“I want more students in the community. I think that’s important because we all live here. The more we interact the more we are likely to get along and develop some understanding. We are less likely to antagonize individuals than groups,” she said. “We live and work here. It’s critical that we live and work here together.”

Continue reading Rae Scott Jones: helping St. Joseph's keep up with the Scott-Joneses

The Sons of Ben: Philadelphia soccer fans benefiting Chester

As filed – without edits – for today’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

BRINGING A PROFESSIONAL SOCCER TEAM to Chester may have little to do with bringing professional soccer to Chester.

In February, Philadelphia was officially granted Major League Soccer’s 16th franchise, to be played in a 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium that is leading a major waterfront renovation in Chester. The Sons of Ben, a group of soccer fans eager for Philadelphia to join the growing league that formed in January 2007, led the excitement that surrounded speculation preceding the announcement. Now that their mission to bring the world sport to the city has been completed, they’ve taken to bettering the community of 36,000 that will house their still unnamed Philadelphia soccer franchise.

“Once it was announced that the stadium would be in Chester and the funding would be all set, we reached out for a way to get involved,” said Bryan James, Sons of Ben president and founding member.

Continue reading The Sons of Ben: Philadelphia soccer fans benefiting Chester

How the Republican Party chooses a candidate to support in Philadelphia

Michael Meehan is a powerful guy in the city’s Republican Party – for whatever that means. But it occurred to me that that isn’t always explained why.

One doesn’t need Meehan’s permission to run, of course. But this state’s elections, like those in much of the country, expect it. The blessing of the Republican committee comes with the promise of making the ballot and much less competition than in the Democratic Party. In the small pond of the Republican Party, Meehan holds influence to divvy available jobs, which keeps some Philadelphians registered with the party. Thus, in deciding that the party will support a particular candidate, ward leaders and committeemen rarely deviate from Meehan’s choices.

One can briefly encapsulate the selection process thusly: the Republican Party selection committee – which Michael Meehan leads – chooses a candidate and the party’s 67 ward leaders ratify that decision. Meehan’s control over the committee and effective sway over most ward leaders makes him as powerful as an unelected Republican can be in this city.

Photo courtesy of History Cooperative.org.

Finals: Mr. Rogers moves on, seeks social security and health care

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvRMHz4mb4]

Because I am finishing up my college career and am totally not available to legitimately update you on my existence or anything more important, I am indulging this week with a look at other finals. How about, yes, the last goodbye from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, first aired on Aug. 31, 2001.

Finals: Flyers in 1987, Ron Hextall interviews naked

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm0VDV5ymmk]

I’m slow this week with posting because I am finishing up finals in the last week of my college career.

So I leave you with another finals, the Flyers lost game 7 to the Oilers in 1987. Afterwards, famed goalie Ron Hextall was interview and, thankfully, the camera man made sure that we knew Hextall was naked. This is for Sean Blanda.

Finals: Michael Jordan flu game in 1997

I rarely go a day without posting something, however, it is an extremely rough week. The last finals week of my college career. So, because it will be slow, I’ll give you other “Finals” themed fodder.

Here, your man Michael Jordan in the 1997 NBA finals. Game 5, our hero had been suffering flu-like symptoms the entire night before. …Yeah, we all knew the Jazz were in trouble.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLQl7UJOYUs]

Registered Republicans in Philadelphia compared to region

When I interviewed Michael Meehan, he mentioned that the latest total he saw put registered Republicans in Philadelphia at more than 147,000. He called that the largest county-wide total in the Commonwealth. Methinks he misspoke, easy to do because, I wouldn’t be surprised, for centuries that was true of Philadelphia.

But the past month there was a flurry of research into regional registrations after it was reported Montgomery County went Democratic, and because it is the state’s most populous, turns out that while Philadelphia’s GOP isn’t the state’s largest, it is among them, and those that beat it are all neighbors.

Using totals collecting by the Committee of Seventy (Seventy-PDF), Philadelphia has 145,439 registered Republicans and 799,381 Democrats.

Bucks County – 181,696 registered Republicans and 185,381 Democrats

Chester County – 147,010 registered Republicans and 113,278 Democrats

Delaware County – 188,834 registered Republicans and 156,608 Democrats

Montgomery County – 240,053 registered Republicans and 240,232 Democrats

Carton courtesy of Christine Berry.

The Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund showing the Spirit of Philadelphia

As filed – without edits – for last Friday’s of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA partnered with the Kelly Anne Dolan Memorial Fund on April 20 to benefit families in the region with seriously ill or disabled children. Four hundred patients and their loved ones were aboard the Spirit of Philadelphia, along with Miss Philadelphia Brintha Vasagar and Miss Pennsylvania Rachel Brooks. The cruise was also meant to honor the Dolan Memorial Fund, which has raised more than $7 million and helped with the uninsured needs of more than 17,000 families in its 31-year history. The nonprofit has treated more than 2,000 children and their families by welcoming them onto the Spirit of Philadelphia over the past six years.

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.