Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Author: Ximena Conde

  • Philly’s unplowed snow has slowed SEPTA and frustrated residents and businesses

    Philly’s unplowed snow has slowed SEPTA and frustrated residents and businesses

    With more than 60 hours since the last bit of snow descended upon Philadelphia, the widespread complaints about the conditions of secondary and tertiary streets have reached a fever pitch.

    The Philadelphia Streets Department has tried to quell the public’s concerns with daily videos of excavators diligently filling dumpsters with snow. Yet evidence of icy streets and snow banks blocking lanes dominate social media, with city data showing the street conditions vary block by block.

    Between 3 p.m. Tuesday and 3 p.m. Wednesday, the city’s GPS data show, about 30% of city streets had been visited by plows. Some areas, like Center City and South Philadelphia west of Broad Street, saw most numbered streets and cross streets hit by plows during that time. Meanwhile, South Philly and Center City neighborhoods east of Broad Street saw little to no reported activity.

    The same was true for large swaths of North and West Philadelphia. And neighborhoods like Overbrook, Wynnefield, and Nicetown, which have seen the fewest reported visits from city plow trucks since the storm began, saw only a handful of streets plowed between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, according to city data.

    On the neighborhood line of Grays Ferry and Devil’s Pocket, Dani Hildebrand was one resident who felt forgotten as the streets around him were plowed and garbage picked up. Hildebrand’s block was supposed to have trash collection come through Tuesday with the one-day delay announced by the city. But on Wednesday, bags of garbage lined his block.

    An unidentified man shovels snow from underneath his car after it became hung up when he was trying to park in the middle of South Broad Street in Philadelphia in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Dump trucks filled with snow from the city’s snow removal operations were zooming by as he worked to get his car free.

    The 41-year-old father of three said his school-age children yearn to leave the house, even if for an errand, but it’s not in the cards.

    “Between piles of snow, trash, and dog pee and poop, it’s not ideal,” he said. “We’ve been stuck in since Sunday, and while I’m close to a market, it’s not safe to walk there with my three kids and I can’t get my car out.”

    The city, for its part, has said the snow clearing would take as long as it needs to and the work would continue until all roads are dug out. Residents should expect trash-collection delays as crews navigate the snow and ice. At the same time, officials have consistently asked for patience, noting that the frigid temperatures were not aiding snow-removal efforts.

    They have pointed to the 14 teams with more than 200 vehicles and excavators that are trying to move the snow and ice into storage facilities using dumpsters. Future Track trainees with the Philadelphia Streets Department have also taken up shovels to help clear crosswalks in the city.

    But, the city notes, this is time-consuming work.

    Wanted: Private plowers

    Chris DiPiazza, owner of the Passyunk Square bakery Mighty Bread, could not afford to wait for city plows and paid for a private service to clear his street Tuesday afternoon.

    After the storm, the bakery was unable to make or receive deliveries because the city had not plowed Gerritt Street, the narrow road it’s on. Adding to frustrations, DiPiazza said, snowplows that had come through the adjacent 12th and 13th Streets had left giant snow piles on both ends of the block.

    The 700 block of Hoffman is still covered in snow on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 in South Philadelphia.

    A 311 operator said it could take upward of three days for plowing to occur, DiPiazza said.

    That news was especially frustrating when residents are expected to do their part by shoveling sidewalks in front of their homes within six hours of snowfall stopping, but the city is not fulfilling its own end of that promise, DiPiazza said.

    “The city’s responsibility is to make the streets safe for people to drive, and they didn’t do that,” he said.

    SEPTA vs. ice

    For SEPTA’s size and reach, the organization is not so different from the average Philadelphian living without a plowed street.

    The snow-covered roads were especially difficult for bus routes through secondary and tertiary streets after the storm, SEPTA spokesperson John Golden said.

    “Those streets are hard to navigate on a good day,” he said.

    The lagging plow service made SEPTA pause service for many bus routes.

    “Some of our buses just aren’t able to navigate the streets because of lack of plowing,” Golden said.

    SEPTA riders board the 47 bus at 8th and Market Streets with the snow falling on Sunday, January 25, 2026.

    But service had returned to all but a handful of routes by Wednesday afternoon. The weekend storm was not particularly onerous for SEPTA compared with other large storms in years past, Golden said, but he noted the frigid temperatures in the days following have made things difficult. Ice is not melting as quickly as it usually does, leaving the roads treacherous.

    Golden said that while SEPTA officials have been in frequent contact with the streets department about problem spots, they don’t have any special recourse besides waiting for the city to clear the streets.

    How does 2026 compare with 2016?

    When the city was smacked with 22.5 inches of snow in January 2016, it was the fourth-largest snowfall in Philly history, and newly sworn-in Mayor Jim Kenney’s first major test in office.

    At the time, many side street residents issued the same complaints heard with this most recent storm — they were the last to be dug out, and entire blocks were locked in.

    But by the fourth day of storm cleanup, a Kenney spokesperson claimed 92% of all residential streets “were plowed and passable” and the administration was taking in kudos for what many — though not all — said was a job well done.

    The front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s B section in January 2016, following a major snowstorm that was similar to the January 2026 storm. The article reported some complaints of snow plow delays, but residents were largely complimentary of then new Mayor Jim Kenney’s handling of the storm.

    Though 9.3 inches fell this time around, city officials have said the conditions were very different. The temperature drop has been the largest hurdle so far, providing no help in melting the ice. The city still urges patience and says teams are working nonstop.

    For parents whose children took part in virtual learning Wednesday and residents who were sick of parking wars and icy crosswalks with another potential snowfall on the way, patience was almost gone.

    Residents in North and West Philly shared frustrations on social media of parking shortages because mounds of ice left people nowhere to go; some were even parking at an angle in parallel spots, to the chagrin of others. Bus stops were piles of dirty, frozen ice, and crosswalks remained icy.

    For Hildebrand, it was all very discouraging.

    “A plan could have been made and implemented, since the city knew about this a week before it happened, but it truly seems like bare minimum effort,” he said.

  • Immigration activists stage protests at Philly Target stores, demand the company reject ICE

    Immigration activists stage protests at Philly Target stores, demand the company reject ICE

    Activists with No ICE Philly demonstrated at Target stores in the city on Tuesday evening, attempting to slow business operations at a company that they say wrongly cooperates with federal immigration enforcement.

    Stores in South Philadelphia, Rittenhouse, Fairmount, Port Richmond and on Washington Avenue and City Avenue were among those targeted, the group said.

    Advocates say the retailer has failed to speak out against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to safeguard employees and customers, and has allowed the agency to set up operations in its parking lots.

    More than 40 people rallied on a frozen, 19-degree night outside the Target at Broad Street and Washington Avenue, holding signs that showed solidarity with Minneapolis residents who have resisted ICE in their community.

    “From MPLS to PHL, keep ICE out,” read one sign.

    Demonstrators gathered outside of the Target at Broad and Washington on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

    Inside, some masked customers bought ice trays and single bottles of table salt. As soon as they paid for the items at the checkout counters, they headed to the “Returns” area to seek refunds.

    Items were quickly restocked on store shelves by staff, only to be purchased and returned again.

    Demonstrators visited at least seven stores, according to the Rev. Jay Bergen, a leader of No ICE Philly and pastor at the Germantown Mennonite Church.

    “Our actions are in solidarity with people across the country responding to the call from Minneapolis communities to pressure Target,” Bergen said Wednesday.

    Company spokespeople did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the protests in Philadelphia. Target, founded in 1962, operates 1,989 stores across the United States and has a net revenue of more than $100 billion a year.

    At Broad and Washington on Tuesday, members of No ICE Philly handed out pocket-sized fliers that described their goals as they urged shoppers to go elsewhere. Some people turned away after talking to demonstrators. Others who went inside were met with boos.

    “Find another store!” the protesters shouted, as a police officer looked on.

    Elijah Wald, 66, said the Washington Avenue location was his neighborhood Target.

    “Our main hope is that businesses will understand that they need to protect their employees, that they need to not collaborate with a government that right now is targeting everybody,” he said.

    Wald, whose mother was a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Austria, said he has always felt positive about immigration, that the United States was built of “people who are used to moving to find work, moving to find cheaper housing.”

    But the discourse over ICE operations in major cities has gone beyond undocumented people, said Wald.

    “They’re shooting U.S. citizens now,” he said.

    Demonstrators gathered outside of the Target at Broad and Washington Streets on Tuesday.

    At the Target at Snyder Plaza, about 20 demonstrators encouraged people to do their shopping elsewhere.

    “Protest with your wallet; Acme is right there,” a protester said through a sound system.

    Celine Bossart, 34, said boycotts are an effective way to denounce ICE actions.

    “As citizens, our power is limited, but a big part of the power that we do have is where we choose to spend our money,” she said, “and at the end of the day, corporations aren’t necessarily going to listen until it hits their bottom line.”

    A man in a Flyers jersey stopped to heckle the demonstrators, who responded with words of their own. Bossart said the protest did not aim to make anyone’s day difficult.

    “Our neighbors are people who work at Target, people who work at Acme; these are the neighbors who we’re trying to protect,” she said. “So we’re just trying to send a message to upper, upper management.”

    Last week, demonstrators held a sit-in at a store in Minneapolis, where the company is headquartered, chanting, “Something ’bout this isn’t right ― why does Target work for ICE?”

    At other Minnesota stores, demonstrators formed long lines to buy bags of winter ice melt, then immediately got back in line to return them, slowing the checkout process.

    No ICE Philly, which has led demonstrations against the agency, and against the arrests of immigrants outside the city Criminal Justice Center, said Target must:

    • Publicly call for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave Minnesota.
    • Post signs in its stores that deny entrance to immigration agents, absent a signed judicial warrant.
    • Train store staff on how to respond if agents arrive.
    • Publicly call for Congress to end ICE funding.

    Chief executives of Target and more than 60 large Minnesota companies issued a public letter on Sunday calling for an “immediate de-escalation of tensions.” It marked the first time, The New York Times reported, that the most recognizable businesses in the state weighed in on the turmoil in Minneapolis.

    Critics said the letter offered too little, too late, coming after two local U.S. citizens were shot to death by federal agents.

  • Many Philly side streets remain full of snow and ice days after Sunday’s storm

    Many Philly side streets remain full of snow and ice days after Sunday’s storm

    It is a sentiment long held by residents across Philadelphia, especially those living on side streets, dating back to when snowfall was a more frequent occurrence than it has been in recent years: Don’t expect the city to do a thorough plowing job.

    That belief is one that Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has said she is trying to shake with action.

    Two days before a storm that whacked the city with 9.3 inches of snow and sleet, Parker, surrounded by the leaders of various agencies, including the Philadelphia Streets Department, vowed to buck precedent on the plowing issue.

    “We will make every effort to get to every primary, secondary, and tertiary street in the city of Philadelphia, and that is our standard,” she said, adding it would take “as long as it takes,” citing worker safety.

    “But know that we won’t leave any neighborhood, any block, or any community behind.”

    Still, residents across the city Tuesday said they were losing patience as side streets and even some secondary streets remained packed with several inches of snow and ice, locking cars in and making navigating intersections impossible.

    Fishtown resident Rohan Khadka, 22, was hoping plowing might happen overnight. Instead he woke up Tuesday to streets that were hard for him to cross even with the proper footwear.

    “A lot of our roads down here look exactly the same,” he said. “Most of the cleanup that has happened, to my knowledge, has either been by other residents or just cars happening to clean it because they’re using those roads.”

    A pedestrian walks through a snow-covered parking lot at Ninth and Arch Streets in Center City Philadelphia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

    Analysis of the City of Philadelphia’s PlowPHL data, which tracks the movement of plows via GPS data, showed that about a quarter of streets citywide had received no snow treatment at all — including salting or plowing — after the conclusion of the storm Sunday night.

    Some areas were worse off than others.

    In places like Overbrook and Wynnefield, the city had salted or plowed about 70% of streets by the end of Sunday morning, when the storm began. But the majority of streets in these neighborhoods received no additional plowing or salting since Sunday, according to city data.

    The same was true for about a third of streets in South Philadelphia.

    The streets department said Tuesday it was deploying over 200 vehicles and excavators as part of a so-called lifting operation. Fourteen teams were fanning across the city to scoop up snow from the narrow roads and load it into dump trucks on nearby primary streets.

    The snow hauls were then being taken to storage sites across the city.

    Director of Clean and Green Initiatives Carlton Williams drove through parts of South Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, as dozens of the side-street-size excavators made their way through the city’s narrowest byways.

    “It is the smaller tertiary streets that are challenging,” he said. “There’s more of them. It’s difficult to navigate through those streets.”

    As Williams passed a side street with several inches of snow packed, he noted a car illegally parked on the corner, which would make it difficult for machines to get through.

    Williams said this storm came with additional challenges. Not only did the snow fall in a condensed period of time, but it was followed by sleet and frozen rain.

    “We wouldn’t have many of the challenges that we’re facing today, slowdowns, if those other weather conditions beyond our control did not exist,” he said. “But again, I want to reassure the public that we’re aware. You see us out here today. We’ll be out here tomorrow, and we’ll continue to fight this storm.”

    But for Philadelphians waiting for a plow, time is of the essence.

    311 ringing off the hook

    For Moya Ferenchak, 30, the effectiveness of the operation carries serious health implications. They started pet sitting on the 1500 block of South Capitol, a South Philly side street, for a friend last Tuesday, bringing exactly one week’s worth of food and lifesaving medication — more than they expected to need.

    Ferenchak, who lives with a disability that causes limited mobility, cannot shovel. Calling a car not only is expensive but also would require Ferenchak to travel with all their belongings to an intersection that is not blocked by snow.

    Adding to frustrations across the city were reports of inundated 311 phone lines.

    “I called first thing this morning, and there was a 50-plus-person queue,” Ferenchak said. “Then I called again, and there was like a 70-plus-person queue. I waited for like an hour or so, and then it hung up on me.”

    Alex Wiles of Philadelphia has been hustling during the recent snow, shoveling sidewalks and digging out cars. This photograph was taken along North Second Street near his home, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. He was heading to the bus for a trip to his next client.

    The processing of online 311 tickets has also been a source of confusion for residents who wonder if they are being paid attention to. Williams said the complaints are populating a map used to direct plows to avoid redundancies.

    “We’ll take that data and get it within the operation,” he said.

    Some homes feel the impact more than others

    On the 4800 block of Regent Street in West Philadelphia, Justin Rothrauff described the road as “treacherous” for the mix of families and older residents who live there.

    “One of the big problems, besides the street not being plowed, is that the plowing that they have done on some of those primary roads has blocked the secondary and tertiary roads,” the 43-year-old teacher said, adding even if he could somehow get his car out of his block, he is not sure he would make it back in.

    While Rothrauff had heard of people paying to have their roads shoveled, he feels no one should have to.

    “I refuse to pay anyone money, I pay enough taxes in the city,” he said.

    For some Philadelphians, some information could go a long way. A much-touted live map of plow operations has been reported for mistakenly listing some streets as plowed, according to the residents who live there.

    Ken Wong shovels snow on Waverly Street, in Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.

    Krista Dedrick-Lai, 45, a South Philly resident, hopes the city will do more to tell people about plowing statuses, and explain why their streets are still covered in snow days after the storm, even if the answers are not what they are hoping to hear.

    “Sometimes context can make everyone feel better,” she said, noting her block on Federal Street got a plow Monday and Tuesday, but the snow banks had blocked cars in.

    Fortunately, she said, she and her husband have not needed to leave their house to work or to help their child learn through third-grade virtual learning modules.

    Others, however, do not have that flexibility. Making matters worse, more snow may be on the horizon this weekend.

  • The promise, peril, and whimsy of a potential double-digit snowfall in Philly

    The promise, peril, and whimsy of a potential double-digit snowfall in Philly

    Informal plans for a snowball fight in Rittenhouse Square. Debates on the best snow to craft the most aerodynamic orb.

    A run on ice salt. Public denunciations of said runs.

    Searches for snow shovelers.

    Love it or hate it, Philadelphia could be racking up its first double-digit snowfall since 2016, and residents are bursting at the seams of their snowsuits with the peril and promise of a real, old-school winter wonderland.

    Alex Janconski, a manager at Stanley True Value, a hardware store in Roxborough, said the recent snow dustings in the city had already proved to be good for business but this weekend’s forecast had made it hard for suppliers to keep up. People seem to be stocked up on shovels at this point, Janconski said, but in recent days salt has been a hot commodity.

    People are taking whatever they can get — rock salt, fast melt, magnesium chloride.

    Janconski said the urgency felt by his customers is reminiscent of the COVID-19 days. Three pallets of ice melt sold within 15 minutes of opening Thursday. He suspects the demand has to do with the significant snow projections.

    “In terms of the inches, it’s hard to get away from that number and feel like, oh, I can get away with just having nothing,” he said.

    While the traditional run on stores before a storm is a strongly held American tradition, there is an added novelty in a city like Philadelphia, where some generations can still wax poetic about staring at the TV waiting for school closure announcements that would give them the all-clear to sled down the Art Museum steps, at Clark Park, or on Fairmount Park’s Belmont Plateau.

    Snowfall in the digital age, as the rarity that it is, has lost much of the whimsy.

    The specter of a dusting feels more like a chore. The kids can learn virtually and the responsibilities for homeowners and renters are the same — six hours to shovel or risk up to a $300 fine in Philadelphia.

    And is it true that the teens no longer do shoveling side-hustles anymore?

    The online space has also given the cynics multiple platforms from which to thumb their nose at the forecasts.

    Meteorologist Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz, formerly of NBC10 and legendary for his bow tie collection, is one voice pushing back.

    “Forecasts of any type are going to be imperfect,” he said in a TikTok video, after announcing Wednesday that he would be doing two weather updates a day until the storm hits.

    “You got any sports forecasts that are correct? Political forecasts? Economic forecasts? It’s hard to predict the future.”

    @hurricane.schwartz i’ll be back later today with a more detailed update… #winterstorm2026 #philly ♬ original sound – Hurricane Schwartz

    Fans delighted in Schwartz’s coming “out of retirement,” even if it meant sharing his prognostication talents with the rest of the country.

    Whether or not the storm ends up being more modest than expected, there are plenty in Philadelphia who want to make the most of the occasion.

    A Reddit thread echoed childlike wonder as a poster asked if there was chatter of a collective snowball fight Sunday.

    “Dual [sic] at high noon?” asked the poster, whom, sadly, The Inquirer could not reach to ask about what makes a great snowball fight setting.

    Another thread pitched a pond hockey game at FDR Park should the ice be thick enough. Supportive commenters already began work to get the Philadelphia Flyers and Gritty to join.

    Meanwhile, contingency plans abound ahead of the potential weekend dump. Businesses are calling it and closing their doors, and state agencies are fully activated, adjusting their various plowing and emergency response plans.

    Even the 25th Annual Keystone Sacred Harp Convention at the Rotunda finds itself adjusting to potential snow.

    The members of the group, who don’t actually play any harps, practice a style of early American a cappella singing called shape-note singing that uses a series of different shapes rather than typical oval-shaped note heads. The notation was invented in Philadelphia in the 1700s, according to the convention’s chair, Rachel Hall.

    About 200 people from across the country were originally slated to come to the events over the weekend, Hall said. But, if the snow falls as predicted, Hall plans on hosting the singers in the living room of her West Philly home Sunday for those willing to make the trudge. She said she likes how the activity brings people together.

    “We have a lot of traditions that enable us to come together and think about things that are beyond ourselves,” Hall said.

    Besides, what’s an inch (or 14) of snow?

  • How N.J. ended up having some of the most restrictive e-bike regulations in the country

    How N.J. ended up having some of the most restrictive e-bike regulations in the country

    With a flick of his pen, outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Monday that makes New Jersey one of the most restrictive states for e-bikes, much to the dismay of cycling enthusiasts within and beyond the Garden State’s borders.

    Under the new regulations, all e-bikes must be registered and insured, whether they are low-speed e-bikes, which require pedaling and cannot exceed 20 mph, or high-speed bikes, called motorized bicycles or e-motos, that can go up to 28 mph.

    Riders will need to be at least 15 years old and they will need a motorized bicycle license to ride. People 17 and older can ride an e-bike using a driver’s license.

    The New Jersey law treats all e-bikes as the same, whereas most other states that regulate e-bikes tend to focus on e-motos when it comes to license and insurance requirements. The slower pedal-assist bikes face a patchwork of regulations across the country, with some restrictions on where they can go. By requiring insurance for the pedal-assist bikes people use for exercise and commuting, New Jersey now has some of the toughest regulations in the country for e-bikes, and cycling enthusiasts across the country fear their states might follow suit.

    The new regulations mark a dramatic shift in how New Jersey sees e-bikes. It was only in 2019 that state leaders, including Murphy, touted them as an alternative to cars with the potential to cut emissions and congestion in the state, allowing them to operate on streets, highways, and bicycle paths.

    Introduced in the legislature in November, the bill with e-bike restrictions traveled quickly across both chambers as lawmakers felt moved to action by fatalities in the state, including that of a Scotch Plains 13-year-old boy who collided with a landscaping truck while riding his e-bike in September and died.

    “It is clear that we are in an age of increasing e-bike use that requires us to take action and update regulations that help prevent tragedies from occurring,” Murphy said Monday.

    This is a point that even the most ardent critics of the new law have long agreed with. It had been six years since the last update to e-bike laws, and they agree that reckless riders abound.

    If New Jersey Facebook groups are any indicator, the law has plenty of supporters, sick of fast e-bikes taking up sidewalk space and e-motos zipping through residential neighborhoods.

    Ocean City Mayor Jay A. Gillian said in a statement Tuesday that the city had long called for the change.

    “Nobody likes more red tape, but the benefits of the new law far outweigh the inconvenience of the new registration requirements,” he wrote.

    Still, cycling advocates maintain the law is creating an unnecessary insurance requirement on a slew of people, such as tourists going down the Shore with their low-speed e-bikes, delivery drivers, and people who use pedal-assist bikes for exercise.

    Critics worry the law is not addressing some of the main issues plaguing the industry, such as misleading advertisements marketing e-motos as e-bikes and the sale of modification hardware that makes bikes go faster.

    State Sen. President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat whose district includes Scotch Plains, introduced the bill in November, arguing that the increase in e-bikes created dangers for riders, motorists, and pedestrians.

    “Requiring registration and licensing will improve their safe use, and having them insured will protect those injured in accidents,” he said Monday.

    The 2019 e-bike laws did include insurance requirements for e-motos, which had to be registered and titled with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, but cycling advocates say these have never been enforced.

    Debra Kagan, executive director of the New Jersey Bike Walk Coalition, said she has asked for state data on e-moto registration and there does not seem to be any.

    The MVC did not immediately respond to a request asking for e-moto registration data.

    A fiscal analysis by the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services anticipated an increase in administrative costs for the MVC to update its technology systems, for communications, and to prepare an annual registration report for all e-bike classes. It did not give an estimate of how much that could cost the state. The law comes with no money attached.

    “Now this new legislation will require that all e-bikes, even the lowest speed e-bikes that don’t have throttles, would require licensing and registration, and there is no system and no funding to implement that across the state there,” Kagan said.

    The new law, critics add, will also carry a negative economic impact for the state, despite the expected fees the OLS says will be collected through registrations and eventual penalties for violations.

    While low-speed e-bikes can exceed $2,000, budget models can start at around $400, making them a suitable affordable transportation alternative.

    Patrick Cunnane, who sits on the board of directors of the trade organization People for Bikes and is an adviser to a bike shop in Gloucester County, worries that may no longer be the case for many with the new added costs of registration and insurance.

    Shore town boosters and small bike-rental businesses also feel threatened, Cunnane said. He said it was not out of the realm of possibility that the ability to travel on e-bikes could be what tips the scales between a stay in Ocean City, N.J., or one in Ocean City, Md., or at the Delaware beaches.

    “It’s just crazy for New Jersey to isolate themselves from an activity that’s really a lot of fun and safe,” he said.

    Niclas Elmer, owner of Tuckahoe Bike Shop, which has a handful of locations in Atlantic and Cape May Counties, said even as the threat of added regulation loomed, parents balked at buying their children low-speed e-bikes.

    “It was hard for us because we couldn’t give a straight answer [regarding regulations],” said Elmer, who has been in the retail business for more than 20 years.

    Further worrying Elmer is the status of bike rentals, a key part of his business model. He doesn’t know if these will be exempt from the new laws.

    To Elmer and others, cycling advocates say the fight over e-bike regulations is not over.

    Cunnane said People for Bikes has already been in touch with the administration of new Gov. Mikie Sherrill on the matter. The hope is that in the year the state has to set its new registration framework, advocates will be able to influence new legislation that walks back some of the restrictions.

    Cunnane was encouraged by the comments of the legislators who supported the law. They clearly want to tackle what they perceive to be a large problem, he said. Cycling advocates are not against all regulation; they simply want more targeted ways to address safety concerns.

    “We think we can really help make it better,” he said.

  • Arrest made in the fatal hit-and-run of beloved Philly DJ

    Arrest made in the fatal hit-and-run of beloved Philly DJ

    A 17-year-old Philadelphian turned himself in on Monday in connection with the fatal hit and run of June Rodriguez, a beloved and decades-long presence at Bob & Barbara’s Lounge.

    Philadelphia police said they had already obtained a warrant for the teen’s arrest when he turned himself in, accompanied by his mother and attorney.

    The teen, whose name is not being released because he is a minor, was charged with multiple felonies, including homicide by vehicle, as well as involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, driving without a license, and related offenses.

    But for the victim’s son, Skye Rodriguez, the arrest brings little solace.

    “I feel relieved, but I’m still angry,” he said in between sobs. “I know I’m called to forgive because that’s my faith, I just don’t know how to. It’d be different if this kid hit my dad and went straight to the police station.”

    But the teen didn’t.

    The younger Rodriguez said his father did everything right as he rode his bike home after a shift at Bob & Barbara’s on Dec. 20.

    “My father was very cautious — he even had reflectors on his boots,” said Skye Rodriguez, who learned of the added precaution when the morgue gave him his father’s things.

    June Rodriguez, 54, was turning onto North 56th Street from Lancaster Avenue in Overbrook around 3:45 a.m. when the driver of a red SUV swerved into him and drove away, according to Philadelphia police.

    Rodriguez’s death devastated Philadelphia’s queer community, where he was a known DJ, and the city’s house music scene. Friends remembered Diaz as a warm, welcoming individual, and a strong ally and presence in the LGBTQ+ community, though he was straight himself.

    One remembrance feature on a GoFundMe page for Rodriguez’ funeral expenses said the DJ created “a sanctuary on the dance floor.”

    His death also mobilized safe-streets advocates, who noted that stretch of Lancaster Avenue is one of the city’s most dangerous, part of the 12% of city streets that account for 80% of traffic deaths and serious injuries.

    Rodriguez’s son said he had yet to watch the surveillance video procured by investigators. Police have told him that his father had his reflectors on and was in the bike lane.

    Still, Rodriguez doesn’t know if he wants to see the moment of impact. His father’s belongings were covered with blood, he said. He doesn’t want to see the severity of the impact play out.

    For now, he is grateful to have a break in the case.

    “If it wasn’t detectives or police making it a big deal, what if it had been swept under the rug?” he said.

  • 93-year-old, Mummer-obsessed Welsh grandma was banned from Instagram, part of a growing fight with Meta’s use of AI

    93-year-old, Mummer-obsessed Welsh grandma was banned from Instagram, part of a growing fight with Meta’s use of AI

    Avril Davidge, a 93-year-old Welsh grandmother, captured the hearts of Philadelphians on New Year’s Day as she lived out a yearslong dream to see a Mummers Parade in person.

    During her visit, Davidge posed with the string band captains from her wheelchair, collected an assortment of beads, made a TV appearance, had lunch at Marathon Grill, and drove by the Philadelphia Art Museum to see the Rocky statue.

    She’s 93, from Wales, and obsessed with the Mummers. She flew to Philadelphia to meet them.

    “I fell in love with Philadelphia and would love to go back,” she said from her Swansea flat, marveling at how total strangers stopped her during the parade asking if she was “the grandma from Wales.”

    “I will never ever forget it and I would love to go back tomorrow,” she said.

    Still, Davidge’s granddaughter, Fiona Smillie-Hedges, reports not all is well back home. Davidge’s Instagram account, “grandmas.adventures,” was suspended for allegedly failing to follow the platform’s “community standards on account integrity.”

    The family has inadvertently found itself among thousands of people who claim to have been erroneously banned thanks to faulty and overzealous artificial intelligence models. Like so many before her, Smillie-Hedges has not been able to get hold of a human.

    At stake for the grandmother, who jokes about never leaving her flat and the possibility of death with the slightest illness, is her window to the world, specifically Philadelphia. She had amassed about 400 followers who shared her passion for the Mummers.

    Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment.

    The whole ordeal has been a blow to the family. Instagram was how the family was able to connect with Mummers in the first place and touch base with other Philadelphians who offered parade advice.

    “She wouldn’t have been in the paper, or gone to the Mummers Museum, or met [Quaker City String Band captain] Jimmy Good, or had any of the other captains,” Smillie-Hedges said. “It would have been a completely different trip.”

    The family doesn’t know how to broach the subject with Davidge, though they feel they can’t keep her in the dark much longer. While Davidge doesn’t know how to navigate the platform, she likes to hear what people are saying and have her niece respond to comments. For now, she’s still responding to her TikTok followers.

    Smillie-Hedges doesn’t want to tarnish the Philadelphia experience and she doesn’t know how to relay Instagram’s reason for the ban. She’s not quite sure she understands herself.

    “We don’t allow people on Instagram to pretend to be someone well known or speak for them without permission,” read a standard explanation from Instagram, which also said no one would be able to see the account and Davidge’s information would be permanently deleted.

    The only peccadillo Smillie-Hedges can think of is calling Davidge “Queen Mumm” on some posts, a nickname given to her by Jim Donio, host of the String Band Sessions podcast. To the British, Queen Mum can be a reference to Queen Elizabeth, who was also known as the Queen Mother, and is long dead.

    While the stakes are somewhat low for Davidge and her granddaughter, they have found themselves in what Reddit forums claim is becoming a growing problem. Meta artificial intelligence models are inaccurately flagging and disabling accounts with little recourse for users.

    Smillie-Hedges can’t get past the automated responses to request another review of the decision.

    According to the BBC, paying for Meta Verified is one way to speak to a human, but even that is not a surefire way to address account issues.

    Businesses have reported losing thousands of followers after years of building their platform and in extreme cases, parents report being banned and accused of violating Meta’s child sexual exploitation policies.

    Reports of the bans extend to Meta’s other platforms Facebook and WhatsApp. A Change.org petition with more than 54,000 signatures demands the tech company address the AI banning issues across its platforms.

    For now, Smillie-Hedges made a quick post on TikTok telling people about the suspension and letting fans know the family was trying to get it back. She also began uploading some of Davidge’s videos on Facebook as an additional way to connect with people.

    “I was worried people were going to think something bad had happened,” Smillie-Hedges said. “Some people are really invested in her.”

    Donio, who first connected with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge on Instagram and made much of the VIP visit to Philly possible, said he has tried to spread the word of the account mishap. He can now communicate with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge through email and video calls but he understands their frustration.

    “I think the frustration that a lot of people feel is if you do something wrong or if you’ve miscommunicated something and then you want to resolve it, it’s virtually impossible to try to resolve it and explain your situation to a live person,” he said.

    Smillie-Hedges is still hopeful that something can be done to change Meta’s mind about the account. In the meantime, she and her grandmother continue to reminisce and upload snippets of video from the visit.

    Of the highlights there are many. There was the moment she met Good, who leads the Quaker City String Band. He surprised her while she visited the Mummers Museum.

    Davidge woke up in her Center City hotel overlooking Broad Street just in time to greet 2026. Down below she saw two children play-fighting with Mummers umbrellas.

    Then there was the parade itself, where Davidge was treated like a VIP. Though the string band competition was postponed because of heavy winds that led to performer injuries, she still got to see bands show off their costumes and perform. The string bands were the main draw when Davidge discovered the Mummers weeks after her longtime husband’s death. She felt it was something they would have enjoyed together.

    And who could forget the freezing cold, joked Davidge, adding people could hardly see her face because she was bundled deep in layers of blankets at certain points.

    “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she mused. “What a wonderful opportunity to be able to go there and see it myself.”

  • Two whale deaths in one week: How authorities and scientists plan to investigate the N.J. and Delaware fatalities.

    Two whale deaths in one week: How authorities and scientists plan to investigate the N.J. and Delaware fatalities.

    The waves rocked a dead 30-foot juvenile humpback whale that lay belly-up near Delaware’s Bethany Beach Friday as marine rescue workers prepared for the open-air postmortem examination that would take place on the sand.

    The whale was first seen “floating at sea,” two miles off the Indian River Inlet earlier in the week, according to the Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute, also known as MERR. It finally beached Thursday.

    As Suzanne Thurman, executive director of MERR, waited for heavy machinery Friday morning, she guessed the whale might weigh about 20,000 pounds, posing a serious challenge for the people investigating the mammal’s cause of death.

    The weight, the constant movement at the behest of the ocean, and the slippery feel of the oil in the whale’s blubber made cutting it open for a necropsy — the examination to determine cause of death — inherently risky, said Thurman. The heavy machinery would have to stabilize the whale on land so the scientists could do their work.

    “It can’t be towed,” Thurman said. “There are no other effective ways to move the whale.”

    Unlike other animal necropsies, the whale’s postmortem examination would have to take place on the open beach, she said.

    “A necropsy is very important because we can’t always tell what happened to the whale simply by looking at it,” she said, adding even if a whale is injured, scientists have to check for signs of human impact and if there was an underlying disease that led to its death.

    Finding the cause of death for whale fatalities is crucial for conservationists. Though whale populations have largely rebounded since their peak hunting days, they face more trafficked waterways and a changing climate, which put them at risk all the same.

    In recent years headlines such as “6 Whales Wash Ashore in NY, NJ in 33 Days” have been cause for alarm for scientists.

    Whenever there’s a significant die-off of any marine population that “demands immediate response,” the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets involved, declaring what’s called an unusual mortality event. This allows scientists to investigate the deaths and study the remaining population in real time.

    There are three active unusual mortality events, all involving whales in the Atlantic — the Atlantic minke whale, the North Atlantic right whale, and the Atlantic humpback whale.

    How the Delaware fatality factors into the larger picture of whale population health remains to be seen.

    The speed at which MERR staff can finish the necropsy depends on environmental factors and equipment availability from the state.

    After MERR is done with the necropsy, Thurman said the whale will be buried in the beach because it’s too heavy to move anywhere else and it will become an important source of nutrients.

    The Delaware whale is the second such mammal death in the region this week.

    A 25- to 30-foot fin whale was discovered on the bow of a ship Sunday night at a marine terminal in Gloucester City, N.J., though the necropsy process has been much slower.

    Fin whales are the second-largest whale species on earth and endangered, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    The Marine Mammal Stranding Center took the lead in the New Jersey investigation, limiting public comments to its social media posts. By Wednesday, the Stranding Center said it had a necropsy plan in place for the 12- to 13-ton whale, but staff couldn’t move forward with it until they had a suitable burial location secured.

    NOAA’s law enforcement arm, which is tasked with enforcing about 40 different marine laws, has opened an investigation into the whale death despite the incomplete necropsy. A spokesperson could not expand on what drove the decision, citing the pending investigation.

    Stranding Center data, dating back to 2002, shows that whale strandings peaked in New Jersey in 2023, with a total of 14 cases. The following year saw a drop in strandings with a total of nine cases reported. Last year, strandings in New Jersey dropped to four.

  • Donkey’s Place’s walrus bone was stolen from the bar. Staff want it back.

    Donkey’s Place’s walrus bone was stolen from the bar. Staff want it back.

    Rob Lucas Jr. is not exactly sentimental about the 27-inch walrus penis bone that for decades has adorned the bar he inherited from his father.

    But on Dec. 29, a patron was captured on video stealing the Donkey’s Place oddity, Lucas said, and it’s not something he takes lightly.

    He wants his walrus penis bone back on his bar stat.

    “I do have a credit card, but I can’t get the information from my credit card company unless I file a police report and that would mean going down to the police station and spending hours,” he said Wednesday. “We’d rather just get it back.”

    The provenance of the bone is unknown to Lucas, third-generation owner, who grew up in the local cheesesteak spot and bar.

    His grandfather, Leon “Donkey” Lucas, a heavyweight boxing contender in the 1928 Summer Olympics, opened the bar more than 80 years ago.

    In Camden for 75 years, Donkey’s Place serves cheesesteaks – and so much more

    Donkey’s got a major boost in 2015 when Anthony Bourdain featured it in an episode of his travel food show Parts Unknown. Bourdain said “the best cheesesteak in the area might well come from New Jersey,” referring to the Donkey’s Place staple served on a seeded Kaiser roll.

    Donkey’s ambience has not changed much since Bourdain’s visit. It has the feel of a bar where everyone knows your name, cozy and packed to the gills with random decor, from beer memorabilia, boxing gloves, a megalodon tooth, and of course, the walrus penis bone, also known as a walrus baculum, for the citizen scientists.

    Lucas grew up with the megalodon tooth and walrus bone but never learned what they actually were until he took the bar over from his father about a decade ago and endeavored to take stock of what he had on his hands.

    Since then, the bone has been a great conversation piece — patrons guess what it is and pose for photos with it — and just another part of the local cheesesteak spot’s charm.

    It’s why the waitress working a Dec. 29 shift didn’t think anything of the three men’s interest in the bone. Lucas said they spent a few hours at the bar while the waitress juggled patrons and the grill that’s within sight of where the patrons were sitting.

    “They weren’t wasted or anything, but they had some sandwiches, bought some merchandise, and then walked out with the walrus bone,” he said.

    But after paying their tab, Lucas said security footage shows one of the men wrapped the bone in a large pashmina-like scarf and walked out.

    Little is known about the men. Lucas said they told the waitress they’d come to the area for HiJinx Fest, the two-day dubstep, electronic music festival, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center across the river. Lucas said the man who took the bone claimed he was a traveling tattoo artist, originally from Cleveland.

    By Wednesday, Donkey’s Bar had posted a public plea on its TikTok account, asking for help in finding the bone, sharing screenshots of the trio walking out of the restaurant, bone in scarf.

    @donkeysplacecamden

    We want our “bone” back! Please help!

    ♬ original sound – Donkeys Place Camden

    The local response has been swift so far and one of downright indignation. Lucas said some tattoo friends have circulated the story and NJ Advance Media published an article about the search. Lucas imagines internet sleuths will do their own digging, though he does not want to get anyone in trouble.

    “They could mail it back if they want,” he said of the trio. No questions asked.

  • She’s 93, from Wales, and obsessed with the Mummers. She flew to Philadelphia to meet them.

    She’s 93, from Wales, and obsessed with the Mummers. She flew to Philadelphia to meet them.

    Seeing the Mummers’ New Year’s Day parade became something of a running joke to Avril Davidge and her family.

    You see, they live in Wales and Davidge is now a 93-year-old grandmother who rarely leaves her flat. She didn’t have a passport, nor had she been on a plane in 30 years. She’d never been to the United States and she jokes she could die tomorrow.

    But after going down a YouTube rabbit hole and becoming what can only be described as obsessed with the tradition two years ago, she would often say things like “when we go to Philadelphia” or “when I see my Mummers.”

    “It’s done a lot for me,” Davidge said. She had her granddaughter set her Mummers YouTube videos on autoplay since she can’t figure out the search function. “Even having breakfast, I put it on. It starts the day right for me.”

    While the Mummers Parade can draw drastically divergent opinions at home, where some see it as a beloved multigenerational tradition and others paint it as an excuse for people to get drunk on Two Street, Davidge sees it as a connection to her late husband. She doesn’t know anyone in Wales who has even heard of Mummery, but deep in her heart, she knows it’s something her husband of 70 years would have loved. He died two years ago and she discovered her first Mummers video weeks later.

    Quaker City String Band Captain Jimmy Good pushes the wheelchair of “Queen Mumm” Avril Davidge doing a Mummers strut. Davidge is a 93 year old Welsh grandma who came to the United States for the first time to see the Mummers.

    Eventually, her family decided to give Davidge the trip of a lifetime to witness the 10,000-person spectacle that has ushered in the new year for Philadelphians for 125 years. Davidge will be among the many spectators watching the Mummers Parade take Broad Street on Thursday.

    Using the power of social media and propelled by her family, Davidge landed Tuesday at Philadelphia International Airport, greeted by a Rocky statue — another bit of culture she loves. On Wednesday she was surprised with a trip to the Mummers Museum in South Philadelphia, where she delighted in a private tour: Yes, they’re real ostrich feathers on the costumes, and one of the more elaborate costumes can weigh 150 pounds.

    Then she met Jimmy Good, captain of the Quaker City String Band, and a personal favorite of Davidge’s. Her family said Davidge often quiets them down with a “my Jimmy is on.”

    “I’ll never forget this,” she told Good, complimenting what she called his beautiful smile and showing him her golden shoes, a nod to dem golden slippers. “Never.”

    The two even strutted in the museum, Good pushing Davidge in her wheelchair as she lifted a gifted satin umbrella.

    It was a scene Davidge’s family could hardly believe was playing out. Just a few weeks ago, they thought Davidge was at death’s door.

    Divine intervention brings the Mummers to Wales

    When Davidge’s husband died, she was “feeling low,” as she calls it.

    Then the YouTube algorithm, programmed by her granddaughter to show her United Kingdom marching bands, showed her a clip of the Quaker City String Band performing “Make Believe,” a song Davidge and her husband loved. Her family felt it was almost a form of divine intervention.

    Something about the string bands, the costumes, the performances offered a comfort Davidge needed. Soon, the Mummers were all she was watching and she quickly developed an encyclopedic knowledge of the longtime Philadelphian tradition.

    The 1999 Quaker City String Band theme of “Reflections of Old Moscow” is a legendary performance, Davidge said, and then-captain Bob Shannon Jr. remains her all-time favorite.

    She was in awe as she learned Shannon stood at 6-foot-10; the old YouTube clips are grainy and don’t do the performances justice.

    Connecting Philly and Wales through social media

    Davidge’s love for the Mummers has been contagious, family members say, not that they’ve had much of a choice.

    Last year, Fiona Smillie-Hedges, Davidge’s granddaughter, asked a friend, American expat Wendy Ratcliffe, if she had heard of the Mummers.

    Ratcliffe, whose maternal side of the family is scattered around Southeastern Pennsylvania, was floored.

    “I said, vast swaths of the country would have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said.

    When Ratcliffe’s family visited her, they brought a Mummers mug and other Philly merch for the grandmother they had heard so much about. The mug is not for use and remains propped in front of Davidge’s television.

    Last Christmas, Davidge even got a Mummers book, which she calls her bible.

    By 2025, the joke of going to Philly felt more like an inevitability. Smillie-Hedges, 38, tried to figure out how to maximize the experience and took to TikTok and Instagram to get some advice. She needed to know how people kept warm, how to get a good view of the string bands, and where to stay.

    Soon she was in touch with Jim Donio, host of the String Band Sessions podcast, a longtime Mummer who led the broadcasts from 1985 to 1987.

    Donio arranged for the museum tour and asked Good to set some time aside to meet Davidge.

    “I need[ed] to step in here and do what I can to make this dream happen and make this dream come true,” Donio said.

    But as Donio — who calls Davidge “Queen Mumm” — worked stateside, Davidge caught some sort of virus a few weeks ago, which at her age can be deadly.

    Davidge said she thought she wouldn’t make it.

    But Smillie-Hedges said the family used the Philadelphia trip to motivate her into eating and staying positive.

    “She’s worked very hard to be here, to be well enough,” Smillie-Hedges said. “Every time I was like, you must eat this, you must drink that. Come on, Rocky training for Philly.”

    On Wednesday, Davidge was all smiles. Her hotel overlooks Broad Street should she get cold and need to duck in for warmth. Unbeknownst to her, Donio also arranged for a golf cart to get her, Ratcliffe, Smillie-Hedges, and Davidge’s daughter Kay Hedges to their VIP seats by the judges’ table.

    The whole trip feels implausible to the family, yet the only natural outcome.

    “[Davidge] didn’t find the Mummers until it was literally a couple of weeks after my granddad had passed,” Smillie-Hedges said. “I swear it was meant to be.”