PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City Council met for the last time before most of the members stand for re-election, next Tuesday. Two of the bills that got introduced addressed the kind of quality-of-life issues voters are interested in.
Councilmember Mike Driscoll is running unopposed, but he sponsored a bill that’s sure to receive constituent approval — a crackdown on those parking lot boombox parties that are so loud that complaints about them come in from New Jersey.
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“The parties include large groups of people who gather along the Delaware River and blast music from cars that are equipped with massive speakers,” he said. “Enough is enough.”
The bill would give police the power to seize vehicles involved and impose a $2,000 fine on participants.
Driscoll is also co-sponsor of a bill that would change zoning codes in five of the 10 Council districts — comprising the Riverwards, Kensington, South Philly, Southwest and the Northeast — to ban safe injection sites.
Such sites allow people with substance abuse disorders to legally consume drugs under medical supervision, in an attempt to prevent overdoses and deaths.
He said in an interview that the U.S. attorney's office has been in settlement talks with the nonprofit Safehouse, which once had a plan to open such a site in South Philadelphia.
The legislation — like the state Senate bill passed earlier this month that would ban safe injection sites anywhere in Pennsylvania — is prompted by fears that organizations like Safehouse would be allowed to open a site.
Driscoll predicts dire consequences for any such location.
“In my judgment, they’re not good for a neighborhood,” Driscoll said. “The problem that you didn’t think could be worse will become worse.”
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