January's a natural time for predictions, but not everyone can be Nate Silver. Hence, the Magic 8-Ball. Read a question and press SHAKE for an answer—or four.
1. Will the battle to keep the Barnes Foundation in Merion fade from memory, only to be resurrected when an out-of-town relative sees The Art of the Steal on Netflix?
2. Will Philadelphia get a land bank to address the problem of the innumerable vacant overgrown lots that are now home to drug deals and angry raccoons?
3. Will Spring Garden's Church of the Assumption be spared the wrecking ball now that the media has issued a cris de coeur about the city's broken preservation system?
4. Will the Center City renaissance continue throughout the year, bringing new hotels, office buildings, apartments and retail stores?
5. Will upstart developer Ori "Lotgate" Feibush finally win the love of the skeptical residents of Point Breeze and their equally skeptical councilman, Kenyatta Johnson?
6. Will the Actual Value Initiative—the new property tax assessment system—make residents go mad with anxiety and anger even if they don't know anything about it and it won't have any impact on them at all?
7. Will the city's reputation as an art mecca grow and solidify so that people book plane tickets to Philly rather than Paris?
8. Will housing prices continue to soar in the Graduate Hospital area as they did in 2012?
9. Will North Broad Street become a thriving, cosmopolitan center with pretty new school buildings, new restaurants and the Divine Lorraine Homes & Apartments towering above as a tribute to reinvention?
10. Which of the six developers will win the right to build Philadelphia's next casino?
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