Thomas Paine Plaza, the public space outside the Municipal Services Building, is so unremarkable that you’d be forgiven for not knowing its name. But you might recognize it by the bronze…
A newly funded citywide public engagement campaign will be designed to give all Philadelphians a chance to shape plans for a new waterfront park over I-95 at Penn's Landing, project officials said…
People hanging out on the corner are often stigmatized as hoodlums or miscreants, but Philadelphia police officer G. Lamar Stewart sees something more “I see kings; I see queens. I see…
Philadelphia’s 1960s-era visitors center near City Hall, known as “the spaceship” because of its shape, has been more of an eyesore for about a year as it’s redesigned as part of …
Cyclists, walkers, children and dogs were happy to take over the four-lane expanse of North Broad Street during Philly Free Streets on Saturday. The event, in its third year, is a…
Many organizations and people are behind this year’s Philly Free Streets event. The city goes “car free” on Broad Street from City Hall all the way up to Butler Avenue in…
Philadelphia is shutting down North Broad Street, Saturday, August 11, to show off the major artery. This third edition of Philly Free Streets will close the street to cars from 8…
Mayors get criticized all the time, but it’s not every day the critic is a billionaire rap mogul. In an op-ed for the Inquirer and Daily News, rapper Jay-Z…
The corner of Second and Market streets in Old City is laden with history. As Philadelphia’s original civic center, the neighboring block was the site of the city’s first town hall…
There’s a tidy way to tell the story of North Philly Peace Park -- as a project that has unfolded in three acts: the past, the present, and the future. After…
For a non-archaeologist, Walter Hood has a prodigious habit of exhuming history. He shakes the dust off old blueprints. He revives images and recollections embedded in the collective memory of places…
A cemetery with a long, remarkable past – which, unfortunately, included periods of neglect and deterioration – is working on a new plan for a long, sustainable future. Mount Moriah Cemetery,…
Tucked away behind a parking lot filled with yellow school buses and a busy metal recycling facility along the Delaware River in Bridesburg, there is a rutted, weed-strewn 10-acre lot. It…
Planners, public utilities fans, and curious residents packed WHYY’s studios Wednesday to discuss the transformation of urban spaces in Philadelphia. PIDC's Prema Gupta, the Philadelphia Land Bank's Angel Rodriguez,…
By now you've heard about or experienced the inconvenient road closures around the Benjamin Franklin Parkway thanks to the NFL Draft. It's a hassle. But that's not what Community Contributor Kevin…
In Philadelphia, many of the pedestrian, bicycle, and recreational amenities we appreciate were born from resident-driven ideas. In this feature PlanPhilly and SPOKE explore what it takes for citizen-driven projects to…
Should Philly consider replacing the city flag? Writing about a new flag proposal in Milwaukee, Linda Poon says flag redesign movements are sprouting up all over the U.S. to replace flags…
With Election Day right around the corner, the Inquirer editorial board says Philly's Harrisburg delegation could use more competitive primaries. "These races could shake up the delegation a little, but…
The Spirit of the River Wards is running a series on the places most affected by drug dealing and crime, many still in "nice" parts of the area. Here's the story…
William West has a grading scale for the filthiness of Center City’s narrow, often dumpster-choked alleys. His taxonomy of crud: F - Functional. A place to stow cars or stash trash.…