Group to pitch park-in-the-sky idea to Council

Here's what will make news in Philadelphia this week:

Residents who want to see the forbidding and abandoned Reading viaduct become a park in the sky will lobby City Council on Thursday in support of a measure to help make that happen.

Council's rules committee will have its second public hearing at 1:30 p.m. on a plan to create the Callowhill Reading Viaduct Neighborhood Improvement District.

The district would be financed through a 7 percent property tax, which is opposed by many in the Chinatown North community.

Sarah McEneaney, of the Callowhill Neighbors Association who favors creating a park similar to the High Line in New York City, said her group "will have a strong show of support."

After the hearing, there will be a 45-day period in which property owners who oppose the NID must write a letter to the city clerk stating their opposition.

McEneaney said it would take 51 percent of the property owners to kill the NID. If fewer than 51 percent oppose it, the ordinance would be approved without having to go to a full Council vote.

James Morton, a Callowhill area resident who opposes the NID, said the ordinance creating it is "unfair, undemocratic and unconstitutional."

The NID will roughly encompass the area between 8th and 13th streets and Vine and Spring Garden.

Competitive political races are often decided in the closing weeks of the election. Campaign contributions can play a big role in the outcome.

So the city's political class will look with deep interest Friday as the "Second Friday Pre-Election" campaign finance reports are filed with the City Commission. That's when we find out who has what as the Nov. 8 election nears.

Races to watch:

* City Councilman Brian O'Neill, the Republican Minority Leader, is challenged by Democrat Bill Rubin in Northeast Philly.

*  Five Republicans are vying for two at-large Council seats set aside for candidates who don't belong to the majority party.

* Republican City Commissioner Joe Duda is trying to fend off a challenge by Al Schmidt, who is part of a GOP insurgency trying to seize control of the party.

Joseph Dworetzky will be the lone holdover from last year on the School Reform Commission when it meets on Wednesday.

Dworetzky, along with new members Wendell Pritchett and Lorene Cary, are set to meet at 3 p.m. at school district headquarters on Broad Street near Spring Garden.

Cary and Pritchett, the interim chairman, were appointed to the board by Mayor Nutter to replace former chairman Robert Archie and Johnny Irizarry. Gov. Corbett's two appointments, Pedro Ramos and Feather Houstoun, are awaiting state Senate approval. Houstoun was appointed last week to replace Denise McGregor Armbrister.

Coach gets hearing 

Louis Spadaccine, 37, the part-time baseball coach at Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School arrested last month for allegedly sexually assaulting and drugging two of his young male players, has a preliminary hearing scheduled Thursday in Family Court. The South Philly resident also worked as a staffer in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Harold Kane.

Fumo sentence battle

In federal court on Friday, the government and defense are required to respond to each other's memos filed last week in the resentencing of former state Sen. Vince Fumo. The government is seeking a sentence of at least 15 years; the defense says U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter should resentence Fumo to the same 55-month term he gave him in 2009.

City Council is expected to vote Thursday on a curfew bill introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown on behalf of Mayor Nutter.

The measure, which would expire in 2013, would levy a $75 fine for youths who violate any of three curfews: 8 p.m. for kids 13 and younger, 9 p.m. for 14- and 15-year-olds and 10 p.m. for 16- and 17-year-olds.

The bill, which was stalled last week by a procedural error, also calls for a $500 maximum penalty. Parents would have 30 days to pay the fines.

Last week, members of Occupy Philly voiced opposition to the bill, echoing concerns about civil-rights infringements that were previously voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union.

- Staff writers Valerie Russ, Chris Brennan, Mensah M. Dean, David Gambacorta, Michael Hinkelman and Josh Cornfield contributed to

this report.