As you prepare for your much-deserved winter break and, no doubt, begin holiday shopping for your loved ones, I would ask you to please keep in mind the importance of buying locally. Be it products produced in Philadelphia or sold from independently owned shops in the city, nothing is more important to our economy than [...]

The semester is ending, and, with just one more edition left after this, I thought it appropriate to reflect on some of the major events of the last 10 weeks that shaped where we stand today.
OUR POLITICAL ENVIRONS
Clearly, the biggest event was the election of Michael “DJ Mixmaster Mike” Nutter to the office of mayor. [...]

In the six weeks I spent in Paris over the summer, I came to greatly appreciate the Parisian transportation network. I took note of several innovations that I thought could be excellently applied to my hometown of Philadelphia.
One of the more striking features of the city is the absolute proliferation of subway lines, which crisscross [...]

Today is Election Day, which means that all of you are presumably going to rush to the polls to vote on our presumably neck-and-neck mayor’s race. Will it be Michael or Al, Democrat or Republican?
Only time will tell, but let’s assume for some reason that Michael Nutter will not squander his 90-point lead and officially [...]

I’d assume most of us don’t spend a lot of time down by the city’s beautiful Delaware River waterfront, mostly because we don’t have a beautiful waterfront. Philadelphia has a seven-mile central waterfront that is notable for nothing.
Thankfully, in a rare moment of foresight, city Councilman Frank DiCicco commissioned the University of Pennsylvania design team [...]

I support Michael Nutter. I voted for him in the primary, and I will vote for him in the general election in November. You should too, even though his sham competition with Republican challenger Al Taubenberger leaves virtually no chance for a Nutter defeat, considering Philly has an 8 to 1 Democratic majority.
Regardless, Mr. Nutter [...]

In Center City, the streets are clean and safe. The parks and squares are neatly landscaped, and even the vast underground transit concourse is as urine-stench-free as any reasonable person could hope.
While Central Philadelphia is certainly a charmed quarter of the city in its own right, these sparkling assets are not coincidental. Since 1990, a [...]

Temple made citywide news last week with the announcement of their Employee Home Ownership Plan, an incentive program designed to entice employees to buy real estate in the area around the university.
Modeled after a similar plan launched by the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, Temple and the city will partner to provide matching loans and [...]

Like many Temple students, I ride to school on my bike. I ride to get to work, to go shopping, to see my friends - anywhere I have to go.
After riding in the city a few years, my bike has become as necessary as a car or a TransPass.
Most people I know ride, battling with [...]

After years of wrangling, the Barnes Foundation, a multi-billion dollar art collection and educational center founded in 1922, is on the cusp of relocating to Philadelphia.
Now nestled in the Main Line suburb of Merion, the foundation has long sought a move the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to increase its visibility as a cultural attraction and, more [...]