Your City Defined: The Clothespin
The Clothespin is a steel sculpture by artist Claes Oldenburg that towers above The El stop at Centre Square at 1500 Market Street. Developer Jack Wolgin commissioned The Clothespin sculpture in May...
View ArticleYour City Defined: Councilmanic Prerogative
Councilmanic Prerogative refers to the near-absolute power each of the city’s 10 District council members wield over development projects in their respective districts. This longstanding tradition –...
View ArticleYour City Defined: Booing Santa Claus
It is the stuff of legend. You hear it during games, on sports talk radio, in the national media: The Philly boo-bird is so heartless, so hard to please, we once even booed Santa. Pelted him with...
View ArticleYour City Defined: Percent For Arts Program
Established in March 1959 by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, the Percent for Arts Program requires developers to allocate at least one percent of building construction costs of redevelopment...
View ArticleYour City Defined: The El (thē ˈel)
“The El” is what Philly lifers call the “Blue Line” or the Market-Frankford Line. The train, which takes riders from the Frankford Transportation Center to 69th Street, is elevated above the city...
View ArticleYour City Defined: Philadelphia Accent (Filelfia Ack-scent)
You know it by “wooder,” but there is more to the accent, which some Philadelphians don’t even realize exists. Philly speak is a weird cocktail of Northern and Southern accents, with rounded vowels...
View ArticleYour City Defined: Gerrymandering
In his final State of the Union address last month, President Obama singled out gerrymandering as a necessary reform to restore the public trust in our government institutions. “We have to end the...
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Your City Defined: Office of the Inspector General
When a reader thinks of an Inspector General they might, like me, picture a person of military persuasion walking up and down the front lines…inspecting things. A very old and proud tradition this...
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Your City Defined: Pay-to-Play
In most of America, we’ve collectively drawn a line in the sand when it comes to the notion of pay-to-play, the idea of being awarded government contracts for donating to political campaigns. In...
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Your City Defined: School Reform Commission
Tackling the School Reform Commission seemed like a reasonable thing to do for this installment. I taught in a number of public schools after college (though not in this country) so maybe, went my...
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CitizenCast:Your City Defined—SEPTA Tokens
The post CitizenCast:Your City Defined—SEPTA Tokens appeared first on The Philadelphia Citizen.
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CitizenCast:Your City Defined—Cash Bail
A few weeks after new District Attorney Larry Krasner took office, he announced his DAs would not seek bail on several low-level offenses, a strategy utilized across the country to prevent primarily...
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CitizenCast: Your City Defined—Street Sweeping
In 1919 mayoral candidate J. Hampton Moore ran on the platform “The city must clean its own streets!” Almost one-hundred years later Mayor Jim Kenney ran on the same platform. So what happened? J.P....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your City Defined: Gerrymandering
In his final State of the Union address last month, President Obama singled out gerrymandering as a necessary reform to restore the public trust in our government institutions. “We have to end the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your City Defined: Office of the Inspector General
When a reader thinks of an Inspector General they might, like me, picture a person of military persuasion walking up and down the front lines…inspecting things. A very old and proud tradition this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your City Defined: Pay-to-Play
In most of America, we’ve collectively drawn a line in the sand when it comes to the notion of pay-to-play, the idea of being awarded government contracts for donating to political campaigns. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your City Defined: School Reform Commission
Tackling the School Reform Commission seemed like a reasonable thing to do for this installment. I taught in a number of public schools after college (though not in this country) so maybe, went my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CitizenCast:Your City Defined—SEPTA Tokens
The post CitizenCast:Your City Defined—SEPTA Tokens appeared first on The Philadelphia Citizen.
View ArticleClik here to view.
CitizenCast:Your City Defined—Cash Bail
A few weeks after new District Attorney Larry Krasner took office, he announced his DAs would not seek bail on several low-level offenses, a strategy utilized across the country to prevent primarily...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CitizenCast: Your City Defined—Street Sweeping
In 1919 mayoral candidate J. Hampton Moore ran on the platform “The city must clean its own streets!” Almost one-hundred years later Mayor Jim Kenney ran on the same platform. So what happened? J.P....
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