City Council Plans Rare Summer Hearing on Rec Center Violence

At 9 a.m. on Thursday, members of Philadelphia’s City Council will convene for a rare summer hearing. They’ll meet in Council chambers to discuss the heightened violence at city rec centers this year. Recreational Commissioner Susan Slawson says that the rec centers themselves are safe, but that the street violence in many of Philly’s dangerous neighborhoods spills into the would-be safe havens. Shootings and the gang rape of a teenage are among the incidents of violence that have taken place at rec centers across the city so far this summer. [Newsworks]