Larry Eichel

The Pew Charitable Trusts today announced the creation of the Philadelphia Research Initiative, a new research unit at Pew to study critical issues facing Philadelphia. Larry Eichel a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and editor, will serve as project director. Eichel told It’s Our City this afternoon that this is his last week with the paper, and he will join Pew on Monday November 24th to lead the new unit.

Eichel says he’ll be hiring a staff and his unit will take on the important and complex  issues facing the Philadelphia region. He and his staff will issue reports in the model of past Pew-commissioned studies. One example is  “Philadelphia’s Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits” which remains quite relevant to the city.
The report released earlier this year warned of Philadelphia’s ballooning pension and health-care cost.