Philly News Briefs: 1/5/16

1.) Longtime Philadelphia councilman Jim Kenney was sworn in as the city’s 99th mayor during inaugural festivities yesterday. Kenney, a Philadelphia native, is now in charge of a city that has seen tremendous growth downtown but still struggles with deep-rooted poverty in many areas. He was sworn in by newly-minted state Supreme Court judge Kevin Dougherty, a long-time friend. In a short speech Kenney addressed his main issues for his term, including the aforementioned poverty, universal pre-kindergarten education, gentrification, and the overall quality of neighborhood schools throughout the city. In one of his first acts in office, Kenney signed an executive order prohibiting the city from cooperating with federal immigration officers. He said that he wants to preserve Philadelphia’s status as a “sanctuary city.”

The dancers of the Philadelphia Ballet are hardcore athletes, as the company pointed out in a Facebook post.

2.) A spate of restaurant closings have taken place in Philadelphia just in time for the new year. One of the eateries affected was BlueCat, the Latin BYOB owned by Guy Shapiro and his wife, Luli Canuso. Shapiro cited burnout as his main reason for closing the restaurant, despite the fact that business was “okay.” He also said that it was difficult to get diners in the door later at night due to his lack of a liquor license. Other closings include Roberto’s Trattoria, Cafe Fulya, Il Pittore, Cisco’s, Marabella Meatball Co., and Pizzeria Felici.

3.) The Pennsylvania Ballet took exception to a fan venting on social media that the Eagles played last Sunday “like they were wearing tutus.” The company fired back on its official Facebook page, pointing out essentially that the tutu-wearing dancers of the ballet were tougher than football players. In the response the company mentioned that the ballerinas of the ballet just finished performing The Nutcracker 27 times in 21 days, often without understudies or second-string players to come in and relieve them if they were injured. The post gathered over 22,000 likes and had been shared 13,000 times as of Monday.