Tag: fairhill

City council members introduced 24 resolutions and 20 bills at Thursday’s meeting — the first since the summer recess — but much of the focus centered around the business curfew that council approved in June. 

The curfew, which takes effect in mid-November, will require corner stores and takeout businesses in the Seventh and Eighth Districts to close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. It also affects a portion of the First District. Those districts include Germantown, Fairhill and Kensington, among other neighborhoods. 

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The curfew omits restaurants and with liquor licenses and is designed to target illegal activity. Proposed by Councilmember Quetcy Lozada (D-7), it expands a curfew put in place in Kensington in 2024. 

Council President Kenyatta Johnson clarified that the expanded curfew will take effect in 60 days after some people questioned whether it was starting Thursday. The curfew will expire at the end of 2026, and the law also raises the fines for violators from $500 to $1,000. 

But some small business and food truck owners say that they’ll lose out on overnight sales. 

Jose Ruiz, a North Philadelphia resident who owns a food truck, was among those who spoke out against the curfew on Thursday. 

“Food trucks are part of our nightlife, they are a part of that aspect of life in our city,” Ruiz said. “Above all, we are a source of income for working families. … This (ordinance) endangers our ability to earn a living. We harm no one. We are not a problem. We are part of a solution serving a community that needs us.”

A group of 10 organizations, including the Germantown United CDC, the Frankford Kensington Development Council and the Institute for Justice — a Virginia-based public interest law firm — signed a letter Monday calling on council to recall the law. 

Jennifer McDonald, director of the Institute of Justice, spoke at the meeting Thursday on behalf of small business owners, including a pharmacist who said the curfew would prevent him from providing medicine for area hospices overnight. However, several council members chided her, noting the law firm is not based in Philadelphia. 

Councilmember Cindy Bass (D-8), whose district is affected by the law, said the Institute of Justice does not understand the harmful impact of overnight businesses. 

“It’s just unbelievable that you have the audacity to tell neighbors that they have to put up with something that you’re not putting up with,” Bass said. “You don’t have to deal with it, but to tell people that they should have to deal with these conditions.”

Lozada said the curfew is not intended to harm small businesses, and claimed that the opposition to it prevents the neighborhoods from developing. 

“For the love of God, when is my community going to catch a break?” Lozada said. “We have got to do these drastic pieces of legislation in order to bring structure and order and discipline back into my community, in order for us to be able to start again and welcome businesses.” 

Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson also introduced two additional bills aimed at “nuisance businesses” that contribute to litter, drug use or other neighborhood issues. The first prevents businesses from changing their names or ownership to avoid legal persecution and the second provides clarity on violations that prompt notices to stop work or cease operations.