By Tom Ferrick
 After a few weeks of getting beat up over city budget cuts that target libraries, fire stations and pools, the Nutter administration has finally gotten its mantra down.
What people must realize, Mayor Nutter has said, is that many of these facilities and services were created for a city of 2 million.  Today, we [...]

Updated: 5:27 pm
Friends of the Free Library will hold a special Community Meeting on the 11 proposed library closures this Saturday, November 8, 10 am - Noon, at the Children’s Story Hour Room inside the Central Branch, 1901 Vine St. (20th and the Ben Franklin Parkway)
Updated: 4:33pm
Library locations listed below are confirmed. The mayor’s office released a list of proposed [...]

You want a transformational moment, I’ll give you one.  Try this title on for size: Gov. Michael Nutter.
No, Philly’s new mayor hasn’t  been elected governor of Pennsylvania, but the results of Tuesday’s election show that he could be.
Conventional political wisdom was that a black man could not run in Pennsylvania and win.
So much for that [...]

In an effort to turn his sinking poll numbers around nationwide, the republican presidential candidate announced tax relief aimed largely at older Americans. Speaking today in Blue Bell, PA a suburb of Philadelphia, John McCain said he would cap the tax rate at 10% on money withdrawn from IRA’s and 401(k) retirement plans on the [...]

As of the latest count, there are 8.7 million registered voters in Pennsylvania topping the previous peak of 8.3 million voters set in 2004.
The voter registration deadline in Pennsylvania was October 6th, but some counties are still counting new registrations. The Associated Press says the final total won’t be known till later this month. The [...]

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has set out to move 700 homeless people off the street into public housing. He made the pledge this past spring and wants to see the job get done within a year. The good news is that the Mayor’s latest call for budget cuts to fill a $450 million spending hole [...]

We want to know why you choose to make Philly your home. What is it that keeps you here? Why not move to another city or the suburbs? What helps keep you connected to the community? At the same time, we want to hear from people who might be thinking of leaving. And if you’ve [...]

The idea that where you live affects your opportunities is not new. As America’s major industrial cities began shedding jobs and population to the shiny new suburbs, cities were left to fend for themselves with smaller budgets. That had a huge impact on the quality of services government could provide. But a new book by [...]

We invited Diana Lind, editor in chief for the Next American City, to weigh in about what role urban issues have in this year’s presidential race. The Next American City is a national quarterly magazine published here in Philadelphia [...]