Keeping Avenue of the Arts for the Arts

Revisiting a longtime university president’s proposal to turn University of the Arts’ main building into an arts community that would make the city a destination for practicing artists. The developer of Bok has a plan — but may need Mayor Parker to make it happen

By Elaine Maimon
The New Urban Order

Dos and Don’ts of Running a City in 2025

Some clarity for cities in the confusing times of Trump 2.0.

By Diana Lind
Guest Commentary

The Answer to SEPTA’s Funding Woes?

Philadelphia’s struggle with transit cuts should spur reform in another area in need of attention: Housing. A housing policy expert shares ideas Philly should steal from around the country

By Andrew Justus
Watch

The Opposite of Gentrification?

The Citizen’s latest Development…for Good event featured Jumpstart Germantown’s Ken Weinstein and Jordan Parisse-Ferrarini, sharing what they know about growing developers and building wealth in their community

By Courtney DuChene
The New Urban Order

Could AI Help Cities Win Back the Middle Class?

Promising new jobs, new skills and new technology, is artificial intelligence the new economic development?

By Diana Lind
Guest Commentary

What to Do with Market East … Right Now

Pop-up retail? Parklets? Public art? All of these, a former city planner says, are “Meanwhile Uses” that can start to revive the Center City corridor

By Amanda Soskin
New Urban Order

Does Pittsburgh Have the Answer to Philly’s Market East?

The other big PA city is undergoing an ambitious public-private effort to reinvigorate a lagging city corridor.

By Diana Lind
Development … For Good

Neighborhood Renewal By Residents, For Residents

Jumpstart Germantown has helped more than 3,000 Philadelphians become developers of affordably-priced housing. Could this local model work for the entire country’s housing crisis?

By Courtney DuChene

Where Art Thou, Rebuild?

Connor Barwin’s City-funded $21 million revamp of Vare Recreation Center shows what the Kenney-era program could accomplish — so why did it fall so short of its target?

By Malcolm Burnley

The Arena Deal That Wasn’t

Billionaires fighting. Pols flailing. Protestors screaming. Did the last three years really happen? What went wrong — or right — behind the arena wars

By Larry Platt