There’s never a dull moment and last week proved it.
All 17 Philadelphia City Council seats will be up for election this year. Now, for the second time in less than a month, a second long-time at-large Council member has announced he won’t run again, and several candidates had already thrown their hats into the ring before his announcement.
You can read about some of the at-large candidates, as well as how the Philadelphia City Council election system works, either at the front page story of our Feb. 15 issue below or at the article’s web link.
Primary Day will be May 21 and the General Election will be Nov. 5.
Last week ended nicely when I saw two of my stories vertically adjacent to each other near the top of http://www.epgn.com/.
The second – about two organizations getting $40,000 in grants, $25,000 for one and $15,000 for the other – actually contained an incorrect picture and introduction on top. Unfortunately, I have nothing to do with the website at the moment, and I’m hoping that’ll change soon.
Also unfortunate is that it still hasn’t been fixed online. The story text starts after the second picture, and there were no pictures to go with the story – other than possibly using the organizations’ logos – but this print version is correct.
I was also asked to continue writing and copy-editing several shorter stories. The Winter Pride Drive and Qunify stories were mine (Qunify is a great group and I was finally able to update the story that had been cut, weeks earlier, because another group you don’t see gave me a hard time) and I completely re-wrote the rest. Unfortunately, they’re not up on the website yet, so I hope you can read them here.
And as I alluded to at the end of my last post, I did my first Street Talk segment. I had to get three people to give their opinions on requiring LGBTQ studies in middle- and high schools. The people also had to give me their name, neighborhood and occupation, and let me take a picture of them!
It went pretty well, but there wasn’t diversity. Believe me, I tried, but many people wouldn’t speak to me. Also unfortunate is that it’s not up on the website (notice a trend?), but this is how it looked in print.
They must’ve liked it since I got assigned to Street Talk again for the Feb. 22 issue! The tweet I posted this morning will clue you in on how it led a much bigger and more important story.
The subject of that story came up when I approached someone it turned out I’d known of, but didn’t recognize, who actually lived a block away from me years ago in South Beach.
I also used the recent Chinese New Year to delve into the LGBTQ Asian-American experience.
Then, March 1, another story that involves the summer. I say that while looking outside my windows at an expected 3 inches of snow, falling and accumulating!
See you next time!
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