Septa Fares

Well it looks as though the Septa fares have increased. I just found out today that Septa will be phasing out tokens - which is what I usually used when I ride the bus. Transpasses will be $91 a month and the basic fare has already increased to $2.25.

If you would like to read more about the Septa fare hikes just click here.

Winter Heating Assistance Available Through LIHEAP

Winter Heating Assistance Now Available through LIHEAP

I know that right now that we are definitely in the heat of the summer but it's never too early to prepare for the winter especially if you have been having high heating bills and want or need some financial help to help with your heating bill.

this is just another great example of the various forms of free money that is out there and available for those who are eligible!

Assistance is now available to help low-income households pay for a variety of home heating fuel sources and furnace repairs this winter.

Thousands of Pennsylvanians are eligible to receive heating assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Grants are based on income, family size, regional cost of living and heating fuel types.

Income eligibilty limits for LIHEAP are based on the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, with a family of four's annual household income not exceeding $17,655.

Funding for these programs is limited, and the programs are open only a short time.

To apply for assistance, eligible individuals should write or visit the:

Montgomery County Department of Public Welfare

1950 Calamia Drive

Norristown, PA 19401-3191

or call 610-270-3500

For further details, call the State Department of Public Welfare at 1-800-692-7462.

The Philadelphia Inquirer Is On Twitter!

Actually I really shouldn't be surprised that the Philadelphia Inquirer is on Twitter but when I got an email that said that they were following me I was quite surprised!

You see since I work from home I do a lot of my work online so I am online quite a lot of the time!

If you don't know what Twitter is it is sort of like a social networking site. People sign up (it's free) and they post messages so that the whole world can see them. You can visit my own Twitter site by clicking here.

As far as the Philadelphia Inquirer goes they post the latest news headlines from their paper and if you want to know more you can click on the links in the Twitter posts and that will take you to the full story(s). That way you will know what the latest news in Philadelphia is.

If you're interested in following the Philadelphia Inquirer on Twitter you can visit their site:

http://twitter.com/PhillyInquirer

What Happens If You Don't Pay Your Real Estate Taxes (in Philly)?

What Happens If You Don't Pay Your Real Estate Taxes In Philly?

The city of Philadelphia uses a law firm to collect delinquent real estate taxes. If your real estate taxes go unpaid then civil tax actions can be filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia to enforce the collection of delinquent real estate taxes.

Unfortunately this means that your property can be sold at a Sheriff's sales if your real estate taxes are not paid. Also interest and other fees will be added to the amount that you owe!

In order to prevent a civil tax action from being filed against your property you must send your payment to the city of Philadelphia.

If you reside in the property and are unable to pay the amount due in a lump sum then you should contact the law firm to discuss the possibility of entering a payment agreement to pay the amount due in installments. (Proof of a financial hardship may be necessary to enter into such an agreement.)

Also see if you can obtain a copy of the "Philadelphia Taxpayer Assistance Brochure". For help or assistance in arranging a payment plan, you can call any of the Housing Counseling Agencies listed on page 5 of this brochure.

Did you know that there are millions of dollars owed to the city of Philadelphia. According to the mayor of Philadelphia these taxes are needed to support police and fire fighters plus the money also supports new schools, senior centers, recreation centers and playgrounds.

Real Estate taxes are due once a year, on March 31st of the tax year. If the taxes are not paid by March 31st of the tax year, a penalty charge will accrue on the principal amount of the tax, up to a maximum charge of 15% of the principal amount due. If the taxes remain unpaid after December 31st of the tax year, the 15% addition is added into the principal, and tax liens are filed against the property. Penalties and interest, as well as attorney fees continue to accrue until the tax is paid.

You may be able to postpone a Sheriff's sale of your home one time for 60 days.

You can petition the Philadelphia Tax Review Board to try to reduce the amount that you owe.

Philadelphia Magazine

I have a copy of "Philadelphia Magazine that I purchased some time ago. Usually I don't buy this magazine because it is just too expensive for me but I decided to buy a copy this time.

In this issue:

• an article about philadelphia-native Kevin Bacon
  
  
• Philadelphia Facts and Trivia:
  
  
  • "Tons of trash removed from Fairmount Park in an eight month period? 3,608 tons!
    
    
  • Total number of hockey pucks used in a Flyers season - 75,000 hockey pucks!
    
    
  • Coldest day on record in Philadelphia was -11 degrees Fahrenheit on February 11, 1943
  
  
  
• a small article about a feud between WMMR and WYSP
  
  
• I didn't know that Philadelphia has a charity circuit?
  
  
• "Why are New Yorkers coming to Philadelphia for plastic surgery?
  
  
• according to one of the articles "Why Philly is still America's best college basketball town?
  
  
• I do have to say that Philly surely does have a lot of nice-looking stores and restuarants that I would love to investigate!
  
  
• I was looking at the classified and advertisement section near the back of the magazine and I noticed that Philly seems to have quite an S & M and "fantasy" market!
  
  
• it was quite interesting reading the personals section just to see what people are interested in.

I see that the magazine has a lot of advertisements in it so hopefully that means that the magazine is well funded. I don't knw how many people subscribe to "Philadelphia Magazine but it would be interesting to know.

All in all I can't say that the Philadelphia Magazine is such a bad magazine. It just seems to be targeted to a higher-income/class of people.

I do have to say that I enjoy looking at the pictures - especially the pictures of the products that some of the "higher-end" stores are selling!

We must have some very rich people here in Philadelphia!

Al Butler - aka Mr. Midday!

Here is a picture of Al Butler - aka Mr. Midday who used to have a show at WHAT. I'm glad to report that he is now on WURD, Mon - Fridays from 4 - 7pm. I just found this out today by going to

his MySpace page

If you don't already know WHAT is not WHAT Radio any more. I'm still trying to find out what happened to Mary Mason!

But I'm glad I found Mr. Midday.

WURD is 900 am

"Parking Wars!"

If anything should scare you about getting parking tickets in Philadelphia - This show will! First of all I can't get over the fact that this show is only using Philadelphia - do we really have THAT much of a parking problem that they don't have to highlight other areas as well?

First my own experience with the Philadelphia Parking Authority -I have never gotten my car booted BUT I did have some rather horrendous experiences with getting tickets!

This was a few years back but once I was going to school in Center City and I decided to park my car along Walnut Street! When I returned to drive home I found that my car was gone - I thought it was stolen! I came to find out that first it was ticketed and then and then it was towed to the tow "place". Well I first had to find out where the towing place was - it way far out somewhere - and I had to take the bus to get there! Once I did get there there was something like $200 I had to pay! Well I decided there and then that I was never going to get another parking ticket again! That scared me enough to NEVER get another parking ticket again!

Another time (again a few years back) I got an $80 speeding ticket! So suffice it to say that I don't speed any more!

Well back to the show - Parking Wars - It sorely reminded me why I avoid getting any kind of ticket or anything like that again. First of all people have to wait in line forever - a lot of them had to take off from work to get down there and they are not to happy to begin with!

Another thing is that a lot of people are there because they either don't have or they have expired paperwork like their drivers' license and/or registration and/or their car insurance has lapsed (or they have let their car insurance expire). (So as much as I grumble about having to pay that stuff I know its better to pay it than to get caught without it!)

As you can guess a lot of these people are NOT happy at having their car ticketed, booted or towed away! A lot of the people got into this situation because they have a lot of unpaid parking tickets. One woman got her car towed because her registration had expired. She had to go to court and get a paper releasing her vehicle, then she had to go back to the parking authority to get her car only to find out that she had to hire a towing service to remove her car!

It's just enough to make you want to scream (and some of them did!)

I kind of feel sorry for some of the Philadelphia Parking Authority staff because they take a lot of abuse from the people!

But if anything will scare you straight about getting a parking ticket - then this show should definitely do it!