Topic: Ideas We Should Steal
A 100-Year-Old Idea for Feeding American Cities
Twenty percent of Philadelphians regularly experience hunger — in part because they live in food deserts. National urban thinkers lay out an idea we should steal for reinventing the grocery store, from Mamdani’s New York to Atlanta, Georgia
By Bruce Katz
What If We — Not Billionaires — Controlled Our Election Funding?
A local political activist has an idea we should steal to bring power back to the people
By Rabbi Michael Pollack
Make our Rivers So Clean, You Can Swim in Them
A partnership of organizations has made Baltimore Harbor swimmable again. Could Philly do that with the Delaware and the Schuylkill?
By Courtney DuChene
Parker v. Parker
A year from reelection, the mayor has taken big swings, sustained political losses, and faces progressive backlash. Here, a job performance review — and a challenge
By Larry Platt
Books for Every Pennsylvania Child
Like 22 other states, the PA House passed a Montco Rep’s bill to encourage reading in every household. The inspiration? Dolly Parton
By Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
Borrow Before We Burn
What if Philadelphia applied the Free Library model to household tools, vacuums, even party supplies? London’s Library of Things does it — saving Londoners millions
By Amanda Soskin
Utopian Pragmatism and More Mind-Blowing Ideas for Cities
In the future, we’ll be working at night, skiing atop waste plants, buying single room homes, and measuring everything with AI, according to this year’s Bloomberg CityLab in Madrid
By Diana Lind
Social Housing
Vienna and Maryland have invested in innovative, income diverse public housing to much acclaim. Could they work in Philly too?
By Cristian Salazar
“The Only Problem was the Job”
When police die by suicide, their loved ones often lose benefits. Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, may now change that
By Mensah M. Dean
Subsidizing the Sidewalk
San Francisco’s new incentive program to bring retail back to downtown is an idea Philadelphia should steal
By Diana Lind