Opinion & Essay
Eyes on the Street
To thrive, Philly needs more housing — not more rules limiting builders
Pro-housing development activists call on the mayor to veto a bill they argue will hamper efforts to address the city’s growing affordability challenge.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
How Kensington became an island
Welcoming to many and then cut off from transportation, support, and opportunity, Kensington has long been on its own.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Individuals alone didn’t create Philly’s litter problems and individuals alone can’t solve it
Litter is a racial justice issue created by systemic disinvestment. Philadelphia needs to take a systemic approach to solving it.
5 years ago
Our Space
Unpacking the phallic fallacy atop Philadelphia City Hall
Conrad Benner investigates a question that haunted his teenage years in Philadelphia and uncovers the history behind Billy Penn’s eyebrow-raising pose atop City Hall.
5 years ago
Listen 5:51
Eyes on the Street
Disrupting poverty in Philly with housing help for people returning from prison
Pa. has the second-highest imprisonment rate in the U.S. The Supervision to Aid Re-Entry (STAR) program connects returning citizens with the support they need.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Home appraisals drive America’s racial wealth gap — 95% of Philly’s appraisers are white.
Appraisal bias contributes to wealth disparities and segregation in Philadelphia and other cities. Diversifying the appraisal industry would help.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Creating safe communities in Philly starts with listening to communities impacted by violence
In order for Philadelphia to make a real change when it comes to disinvestment, leaders listen to the wisdom of the people who live here.
5 years ago
The Philadelphia Experiment
Our Town bowling alley is a murder scene, and things will never be the same
My family has spent many evenings at Our Town bowling alley. Now that a murder has taken place there, I wonder if things will ever be the same.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Coming home to West Philadelphia without survivor’s guilt
Writer Kyle V. Hiller left West Philadelphia, where he was raised, to attend college. His 2020 return was a homecoming he never could have anticipated.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Black Lives Matter and rainbows: How Philly windows got political
The pandemic turned a place for cozy seasonal displays into a space for public dialogue.
5 years ago
Listen 8:35
The next generation of American voters must learn to decipher fact from fiction
Olga Polites, a high school English teacher, makes the case for mandating media literacy in public schools.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
La vida en lockdown: North Philly teens capture pandemic moments in photos
Philadelphia teens working with Photography Without Borders captured the range of emotions of life in lockdown.
5 years ago
Proposed constitutional amendment threatens independence of Pa. appellate courts
Deborah Gross, president and CEO of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, and Lauren P. McKenna, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, argue that House Bill 38 threatens
5 years ago
Philly is in the national spotlight again, and race is the through line
While perfection may be unrealistic, the pursuit of a more perfect city should always be our goal, writes WHYY’s Christopher Norris.
5 years ago
Eyes on the Street
Philly needs to protect public art — and the artists that make it too
Philadelphia stands to lose more than murals if the city, employers, and cultural institutions don’t do more to support the artists that create them.
5 years ago