Morning Headlines: Controller’s Office Calls L&I “Evasive”

Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections delivered a three-page document and a reference to a 3,000-page report to the Controller’s Office in response to a request that the Controller be allowed to monitor demolition procedures.

Controller Alan Butkovitz has accused L&I of “stonewalling,” and based on comments by the Butkovitz’s deputy Harvey Rice, the document seems to have made things worse: “Basically, what they did is evasive, which raises even more questions about their inspections and the work of L&I on demolitions and other matters,” Rice told the Inquirer.

Read more here.

What else is going on? Oh, plenty…

• The Business Journal’s Natalie Kostelni explains what happened with the Granite Run Mall’s “failed road trip,” which was just sold. Part of the problem? Mortgage brokers acting like drunken sailors.
• Society Hill church members and neighborhood activists had a prayer vigil, reports Valerie Russ, hoping God would intervene and make a new building less hideous and out of place with the rest of the neighborhood. Let’s hope He’s listening.
• CBS Philly reports that an awkwardly named activist group — Margate Citizens Questioning the Beach Project — is wondering if new dunes are really necessary, given that Margate is already well protected. It’s the kind of questioning that’s always asked when it’s not raining.
• What can we say? This is terribly sad, as is all the loss of life in Nairobi: “Remembering Architect Ross Langdon, partner and unborn child – victims of Nairobi terrorist attack“