Category: Collateral Consequences

Why aren’t office workers returning to Philadelphia?

by · Aug 24, 2023 10:28 am

“The City of Brotherly Love has a new reputation as one of the emptiest office districts in America, sparking a debate over what’s keeping Philadelphia workers at home,” Katie Mogg reports in the WSJ.

Philadelphia, like many U.S. cities, has gone full throttle on efforts to lure people back into downtown areas. But the combination of the office-worker exodus, taxes and crime has resulted in more empty office space on the market today than during the 2008 recession, theorize researchers, Philadelphia employees and real-estate professionals.

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Understanding Prop 47’s Real Outcomes

by · Jul 9, 2020 2:18 pm

Last month, the Public Policy Institute of California released a report, entitled “Proposition 47’s Impact on Racial Disparity in Criminal Justice Outcomes”.

The report examines Proposition 47, “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”, which implemented three broad changes to felony sentencing laws. First, it reclassified certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, including shoplifting, forgery, insufficient funds, petty theft, receiving stolen property, and petty theft with a prior. The proposition also reclassified drug possession under Health and Safety Code sections 11350, 11357(a) , and 11377 as strictly misdemeanors. (As with the aforementioned theft offenses, these new misdemeanor rules do not apply to individuals who one or more prior offenses (specified under Penal Code section 667(e)(2)(C)(iv).)

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