Ideas We Should Steal Festival 2024

The YIMBYS Have Won

San Francisco pro-housing activist and Philly native Sonja Trauss will return to her hometown on November 15 to herald a solution to our housing crisis. Here, she reflects on how to avoid the pitfalls of Bay Area unaffordability

By Roxanne Patel Shepelavy

Philadelphia Celebrates Juneteenth 2024

A holiday with Philly roots includes some of the city's biggest events of the year, from Germantown to West Philadelphia to Southwest and Old City — and then some

By Abigail Chang and Lauren McCutcheon
Ideas We Should Steal

Climate Resilience Hubs

When government was slow to help Wilmington, DE residents hit by Hurricane Ida, one woman stepped up with a grassroots disaster response team that is now a permanent fixture. Could a similar program help underserved Philly communities at climate risk?

By Angie Bacha

View From The Streets

For the first time in three years, the city is poised to start a new year with fewer than 500 fatalities, thanks to a renewed focus on the most violent neighborhoods. But the gunshots, sirens, and recurring cycles of mourning persist

By Mensah M. Dean

How a Community Fridge Built … a Community

Jane Ellis opened one of the city’s first community fridges at the start of Covid. Two years later, Germantown’s two free-to-all pantries testify to the power and promise of mutual aid

By Ethan Young
Business for Good

YING

Karla Ballard has raised over $1 million for her app, which seeks to replicate the community of helpful neighbors she grew up with in Philadelphia, one task at a time

By Courtney DuChene

Glitter’s Glow Up

Morgan Berman’s street cleaning startup company is working better than ever. The City, which once declined to fund the “unproven pilot,” now faces proof: It works.

By Nick Russo

15+ Indie Bookstores in Philadelphia We ❤️

Summer novels, banned books, literary classics, moving memoirs: Whatever you’re into reading, you’ll find it at one of Philadelphia’s independent bookstores

By Amber Burns
Citizen of the Week

Rev. Dr. Michelle Simmons

Rev. Simmons’ Germantown nonprofit Why Not Prosper helps recently incarcerated women get their lives back — and stay out of prison for good

By Christina Griffith
Art For Change

Elder Scribe

Next up in our conversation series with Forman Arts Initiative, oral historian Julie Rainbow connects the Second Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Philly to our present search for community

By Blake Bradford