In a crowded Mayor’s Reception Room this morning, Mayor Jim Kenney signed the so-called “soda tax” into law, which will help raise funds to both fund Pre-K for Philly’s schoolkids, and capitalizing a new bond fund, which will help pay for the repair of city recreation centers, libraries and parks.

For this reason and others, the Bicycle Coalition worked with other like-minded organizations to support the Soda Tax. The legislation will add a 1.5 cent/ounce tax on regular and diet soda sold in Philadelphia. We were in City Hall this morning to celebrate the bill’s signing.

Kenney specifically gave a nod toward the advocates who worked for this bill during the signing ceremony.

“You were so consistent and so strong and so correct,” Kenney said. “That says a lot about us going forward as a city. That we can do these big things and we can get big things accomplished if we’re actually all on the same team.”

Rebuild Philadelphia will make more funding available for trail development, which is good news for the Circuit Trails.

PPR and other development corporation agency partners, such as Schuylkill River Development Corporation, Manayunk Development Corporation, Delaware River City Corporation and Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, all work on developing trails such as the Schuylkill River Trail, the Central and North Delaware River trail, the East Coast Greenway, the Tacony Creek Trail, the Cresheim Trail, and others.

There are roughly 25 miles of the Circuit left to be built in Philadelphia. The Rebuild Philadelphia bond fund could accelerate the development of those trails and make it possible to close the gaps sooner rather than later.