Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Wednesday defended the city’s upcoming July Fourth concert, a seven-hour outdoor spectacle featuring performances from Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, The Roots, and more, amid concerns over the nearly 100-degree forecast and revelations that the event will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past.
The city has dealt with high temperatures before and has battle-tested personnel and protocols prepared for the evening, Parker told reporters at a news conference in front of the stage at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
She also addressed the detractors head on.
“I do not apologize to anyone about making sure that the city of Philadelphia, as the sixth-largest city in the nation, the birthplace of democracy, we were going to have a celebration that is fitting to and for our historical significance and prominence,” Parker said. “One that could be seen, respected, and honored, not just in our city and commonwealth and nation but in the world.”
Parker described the concert as the largest July Fourth concert in the city’s history. For an occasion as momentous as the nation’s 250th anniversary in the city that bills itself the birthplace of America, Parker said Philadelphia must rise to the occasion and prove it can achieve ambitious undertakings.
Parker said her administration scaled up the experience, including moving the stage back to accommodate an estimated 300,000 concertgoers, and made the stage larger.
“We won’t get a second chance to do this over again, Philadelphia,” Parker said. “We only turn 250 years old once in a lifetime.”
Ground crews set up speakers on the stage on Wednesday in preparation for the July 4 concert expected to draw thousands to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Parker recalled feeling the mounting pressure to prove Philadelphia could rise to the occasion of honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary shortly after the start of her tenure as mayor.
“‘Philadelphia lacks ambition. They’re thinking too small. We need a leader. Where is the legacy project?’” Parker recalled from the discourse of the time. “The critics were right. Philadelphia, as the birthplace, we couldn’t do what every other city was doing. We couldn’t just do something that was average, something that was mediocre. What we did had to be a reflection of this moment and our history.”
Parker’s news conference came hours after The Inquirer reported online that this year’s July Fourth concert will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past because the mayor’s administration hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company, to put on the annual show. For years, the concert has been produced by Welcome America, a nonprofit established by the city.
The Inquirer reported that the city is set to pay ESM $15.5 million to put on the show, and that last year’s iteration of the Welcome America concert cost the organization about $3 million.
Parker defended ESM and its founder, Scott Mirkin, as “the gold standard in planning large-scale global events, not just in America but across the world.” And she vowed that the city would produce a “fiscal impact report” after the event to account for how much money the city spent on this year’s festivities.
Mayor of Philadelphia Cherelle L. Parker speaks during a news conference under a tent Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Philadelphia, outlining public safety and transportation plans ahead of a July 4 concert expected to draw thousands to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
She also noted that former Mayor Jim Kenney put his own stamp on the annual July Fourth concert when he took office in 2016 — and took some heat for it. The Roots had headlined the concert since 2009, but Kenney’s administration went a different direction and The Roots were sidelined.
Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson didn’t mince words at the time, writing on Facebook that the decision was “arrogance in the HIGHEST order courtesy of your new leader.”
When Parker took office, she knew she wanted the spotlight back on the beloved local hip-hop group.
“I’m proud to have The Roots back home,” Parker said.
In terms of weather and safety, the city has proven this summer that it can host large-scale events in the heat seamlessly, said Philadelphia Police CommissionerKevin J. Bethel.
The city has already hosted five World Cup games, which have gone off without a hitch, Bethel said. For the July Fourth event, the department will be executing one of its largest deployments since the papal visit in 2015. That will include hundreds of officers across Center City and many more at the stadium and along the Parkway.
“I want everybody to come and have a good time. Don’t mess up the party,” Bethel said.
In order to keep people cool, the city will run 40 air-conditioned cooling centers, 150 pools and spray grounds, enhanced homeless service outreach, and extra fire department medics, said Dominick Mireles, Philadelphia’s deputy managing director for community safety. Along the Parkway, there will be misting fans and shade structures, he added.
Parker said she’s confident every Philadelphian interested in participating will be able to do so safely and will look back on the day fondly.
“I want people to remember where they were when America turned 250 years old and what we did here in the place when it all happened,” Parker said.
The players amble into the auditorium on acloudy May morning to run through their schemes and formations and make last-minute adjustments to the roster. Some are already in uniform — waistcoats and breeches — fueling up on Wawa coffee and bagels. Others scroll aimlessly on iPhones or finish off their cigarettes outside the Free Quaker Meeting House near Independence Hall. They discuss contingencies, ready their gear, and buckle their latchet shoes tight.
“Get out there and have fun,” their coach, Historic Philadelphia’s director of storytelling Johanna Dunphy, says as she sends her proud-chested team of historical reenactors off for their preseason opener.
This is the start of the team’s Super Bowl run: the lead-up to the nation’s Semiquincentennial. The cast of Ben Franklins, John Adamses, and Betsy Rosses — actors who have spent months and uprooted their lives to learn about and live as colonial America’s key characters — will be at the front lines of the 250th birthday celebrations, which began with the cast’s opening day on May 23 and reach a fever pitch on July 4. They will become de facto historians, guides, entertainers, and ushers to an expected crush of tourists, all while anchoring how the country’s earliest days are memorialized and whose stories get to be told.
“Fly!” Dunphy says with gusto as the performers shuffle out of the modest redbrick building.
This set of actors is part of Historic Philadelphia’s Once Upon a Nation program — a series of performances staged throughout the summer and beyond in Philadelphia’s historic district and at Valley Forge. It’s Once Upon a Nation’s 21st season, but this year is expected to be one of its biggest ever, with the most actors, plays, scripts, and events.
And, with tourism agencies expecting this summer’s events to draw upward of one million visitors, it’s almost certain to be the program’s largest audience.
“Philadelphia is ready for you,” Amy Needle, Historic Philadelphia CEO, told the players on the last day of the preseason. “And I know you’re ready for them.”
Shecky Perlman as Ben Franklin, and other historical reenactors receive their diplomas on May 21, 2026, after weeks of intensive, immersive training at the Benstitute.
Fourmonths to game day
Actors, mostly local, file in and out of Jason Greenplate’s office on a chilly January afternoon. Greenplate, program manager for Once Upon a Nation, and his colleagues are seeking the strongest possible players who have the passion, the look, and the improvisational skills to take on the characters and become “history makers” — what Historic Philadelphia calls its reenactors.It’s essential for these coaches to choose players who are not only capable of taking on these roles but are also willing to challenge their own understanding of history.
Spencer Salusky, a 23-year-old fresh William & Mary graduate, walks through the door.
As a draft prospect, Salusky is an impressive pick. He can execute even the most complex of plays (tricky lines and blocking), and his stats (body measurements and head shape) are optimal.
“He kind of looks like John Adams,” Greenplate thinks.
After conferring with his peers, Greenplate chooses Salusky tobecome Once Upon a Nation’s next John Adams, and, one by one, 19 more actors are cast as history makers and storytellers, those who are stationed at the city’s historic sitesin green polos to offer context to visitors. They join the existing 30 company members returning from prior years.
Courtney Mitchell, who portrays Margaret Woodby (left), and Spencer Salusky (right) as John Adams, join other historical reenactors at graduation on May 21, 2026, after weeks of intensive, immersive training at the Benstitute.
Three months to game day
The actors soon begin their training. For Salusky, that looks like receiving a large packet full of biographical information about John Adams — where he was born, his wife’s name, and his perspective on slavery — from Doug Thomas, director of history makers.
Thomas is a player-coach, a star in his own right who can seamlessly transition to the coaches’ box. Like Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, Thomas is a Swiss Army knife on the field, having played every position in the game of historical reenacting, from William Penn and Patrick Henry to Francis Scott Key, and has been doing the work for nearly 30 years. But what makes him truly elite is his position as Mount Vernon’s George Washington.
Out in the field, the players might be blindsided by a granular question from a tourist, an offensive remark from a passerby, or incessant badgering from a child. On the stage — where the history makers also perform a series of scripted plays — they must be prepared to embrace their characters’ conflicting motivations, shifting attitudes on political issues, and complex interpersonal relationships.
Thomas is equipped to help them tackle it all.
He guides them in studying their characters, trains them on redirecting conversations with visitors toward topics they’re knowledgeable about, and teaches them improvisational techniques. He also prepares them to embody the voice, posture, and behavior of historical figures.
Jim Fryer as George Washington checks in on his laptop on May 21, 2026, after the graduation of dozens of historical reenactors after weeks of intensive, immersive training at the Benstitute.
Three days to game day
“Adams,” Thomas says, summoning Salusky during a rehearsal for Cocktails and Congress, a marquee performance in the Once Upon a Nation repertoire.
On a scorching 95-degree afternoon that foreshadows what the players can expect during the steamy home games to come, Thomas scans the script, glasses poised atop silky black hair that grazes his shoulders. He directs Salusky’s attention to a moment in the dialogue: “Slavery is like a great cancer.”
He cautions the actor to be careful with how he utters that line. Adams is torn about slavery at this point in his life, Thomas explains.
“He doesn’t like it, he doesn’t support it, but also he does realize very practically what eliminating slavery would do to the economy,” Thomas tells Salusky.
Salusky contemplates the note, sitting on a Meeting House pew with a mechanical pencil tucked behind his ear.
“Adams is evolving,” Thomas tells him. But “he’s a practical man.”
Shecky Perlman as Ben Franklin, ready for his close-up, on May 21, 2026, as he is interviewed by a documentary film crew, as dozens of historical reenactors graduate after weeks of intensive, immersive training at the Benstitute.
Two days to game day
Even with centuries of primary and secondary sources, and extensive research, there are still gaps in what’s known about 18th-century American life that the actors and program coordinators must contend with. There’s a trove of information on John Adams, for example, but the documented lives of women and people of color are far less complete, like that of Hannah Till, an enslaved cook for George Washington at Valley Forge, who purchased her freedom. What’s known about Till is often centered on her enslavers.
West Philadelphia actor Miranda Thompson, who portrays Till as well as Sarah, a fictional composite character in Cocktails and Congress, relies on more general information about how women of color lived during the colonial era to inform her performance. “You just want to get it right,” Thompson, 43, says. “You want to give truth to who that person was. … I feel like if I’m grounded and honest within that interpretation, I think that I’ve done it justice.”
For historian Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd, who authored many of the Once Upon a Nation scripts and founded the Benstitute — the immersive training program the actors undergo — the American story is about “more than the dead white dudes.”
“It’s not a straight line,” Lloyd says. “We are people who have been through many difficult periods and ups, downs. This is a country that was created by people from many places with different beliefs, and that’s historic, and it’s contemporary.”
Organizers were intentional about the stories and figures they chose to platform this summer, centering diverse and layered voices in the narrative of the nation’s founding, including those of Black Americans whose stories have been omitted in the retellings of the story of 1776.
“Our history is being erased, voting rights [are being erased], certain books are banned,” Thompson says. “Representation matters … to know that we were there, and we played an important role.”
Prominently featuring Black history during the 250th, she says, is also an opportunity to dismantle racist, archaic stereotypes about enslaved people through authentic storytelling and connection.
“You can change a person’s mind,” Thompson says. “We’re human, we can always change our minds.”
Historian Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd, founder of the Benstitute, delivers the commencement address on May 21, 2026, as dozens of historical reenactors graduate after weeks of intensive, immersive training.
One day to game day
Preparations for the reenactors include not only character work, but also tourism and hospitality training. They learn how to guide someone to the best cheesesteak or nearest toilet while staying in character and using period-appropriate vernacular. The actors also learn how to beat the heat in wool frocks and petticoats and stay safe.
“Make sure to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate,” Dunphy, the storytelling director, tells her team during a morning gathering at the Meeting House before they hit the streets in costume, and a set of volunteer fake tourists heads out to test the reenactors’ skills before they’re faced with real tourists.
She points them to a packet in their supply bags full of powder to pour into their water for extra hydration.
“Drink this,” she instructs them.
Most importantly, Dunphy reminds both the history makers and the storytellers what to do if they’re out in the field and feeling unsafe.
“History makers, please remember this: If a storyteller says, ‘Have you seen John Adams?’ Don’t be cute. That is a plea for help; they need you to stay with them. It is not a joke. They need you to stay,” she says. “Things can turn on a dime.”
And, as this is live performance, things often don’t go according to plan.
During an April news conference at which a Betsy Ross and a Benjamin Franklin from the company stood onstage beside Gov. Josh Shapiro, a giant poster reading “America 250 PA” fell forward, scraping Franklin’s behind.
Carol Spacht, the Betsy Ross at the event, acted quickly.
“This is such an exciting announcement that the world is falling apart over it,” she exclaimed after the poster came down, gesticulating with a scroll clasped in her hand before turning to the Benjamin Franklin reenactor, Bill Robling.
“Quite all right, Dr. Franklin?” she asked as he nodded. “We’re sturdy at our age. 250 years does that.”
At a recent event at Reading Terminal Market, Salusky, as John Adams, had to navigate how to handle tourists approaching him, thinking he was Benjamin Franklin.
“As John Adams, how do I react to people thinking I’m Ben Franklin. Well, he was a mentor of his. He really admired him, found him annoying, but would still be a little flattered,” Salusky says. “It’s kind of just like in-the-moment problem-solving.”
Over the course of their four months of training, the actors finally reach a place of feeling ready for anything … mostly.
“Speaking in 18th-century tongue continuously, I am nervous about that,” Thompson says. “I want to portray it real.”
Cause for celebration
Before the actors are on their own on the Philly streets, they and their mentors celebrate the completion of their Benstitute training with a graduation ceremony at the Free Quaker Meeting House.
Graduates file in, some in polos and slacks and some in costume, all wearing red, white, and blue tassels dangling from the center of their mob caps and other historical hats. They sit in the pews, players awaiting the game-time whistle, as their coaches offer them final words of encouragement before they put their drills to the test and tackle the real world, beginning with their season’s opening day — their fervor not letting up until they run through the proverbial tunnel onto the championship field for July 4.
“History is not just about buildings, artifacts, and famous moments. It is about people — their choices, their struggles, their disagreements, their courage, their hopes for the future,” says Steven Sims, superintendent of Independence National Historical Park. “Long after visitors leave Philadelphia, they may not remember every date they heard or every building they toured, but many will remember how someone made them feel connected to history. Many will remember you.”
One by one, the reenactors and storytellers cross the stage, graciously accept their diplomas, smile for photos, and return to their seats.
“Class of 2026, please stand up,” says Amy Needle, the Historic Philadelphia CEO.“Change your tassels. Congratulations! George Washington?”
“Class of 2026,” aWashington reenactor calls. “Hip hip.”
“Huzzah,” they respond.
“Hip hip,” he repeats.
“Huzzah!” they conclude as audience members deploy tiny silver confetti cannons and red, white, and blue rain down upon them.
Shecky Perlman as Ben Franklin, his cane and feet, Thursday, May 21, 2026, among the confetti as dozens of historical reenactors graduate after weeks of intensive, immersive training at the Benstitute.
Pennsylvania health officials and doctors on Friday said several people have been hospitalized amid a growing measles outbreak that has spread to six counties in the southeastern and central parts of the state.
At a news conference in Lancaster on the outbreak, which has sickened 72 people in the area since April, health officials stressed that vaccination was the best defense against the highly contagious disease.
Secretary of Health Debra Bogen said she could not comment on the exact number of people hospitalized to protect their privacy, as the number was still relatively small.
About one in 10 people who contract measles will require hospitalization, and three people were treated at hospitals in Lebanon County at the onset of the outbreak in late April.
Fahmida McGann, an infectious disease doctor at Penn State Health, said the health system’s Lancaster Medical Center has treated patients who needed to be hospitalized for several days with symptoms including serious electrolyte abnormalities and liver and kidney dysfunction.
Measles can infect up to 90% of unvaccinated people who come into contact with the disease, which can linger in the air for up to two hours.
Newborns and young children are at higher risk for serious complications, but adults can also experience them, especially if their immune systems are weakened. Doctors at Friday’s news conference said they had treated both adults and children in hospitals.
The state response
In the current outbreak, state officials have recorded 41 cases in Lancaster County, 20 in Lebanon County, six in Northumberland County, two each in Berks and Dauphin Counties, and one in York County.
Overall, the state has seen 84 measles cases this year, more than five times the cases recorded in all of 2025.
The outbreak is spreading largely among people who are unvaccinated, Bogen said.
“These are not numbers,” Bogen said. “They are children, parents, neighbors and friends.”
The health department is conducting contact tracing to detect cases, and working with local healthcare providers and community organizations to ensure residents have access to vaccines and accurate information on their efficacy and side effects.
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Health providers in Lancaster have said they believe there were more cases in the area than officials were aware of. Bogen said the department was working with community members to build trust and ensure that cases get reported.
“People who are part of the community are really the key to the response, because we want people to know that if they call the department, we are here to help them,” she said.
The department has vaccinated more than 430 people at pop-up clinics in the region in the last two months, she said, and state-run health centers around Pennsylvania have administered more than 1,300 measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine doses this year.
“We’re not sitting back and just watching the virus spread,” Bogen said. “We will not slow down until this outbreak is over.”
It’s crucial that residents get vaccinated, she said, to protect people who cannot safely get the vaccine, like newborns and pregnant women, and people whose immune systems are weakened, like organ transplant recipients and cancer patients.
On Wednesday, the department recommended that physicians vaccinate infants and young children against measles early, beginning at 6 months, in affected areas. The same precautions should be taken by families with infants traveling to these areas.
The department has also hosted webinars for hundreds of healthcare providers across the state. Measles was considered eradicated decades ago, and many doctors practicing today have never seen a case, Bogen said.
Jeffrey Martin, a physician at Penn Medicine’s Lancaster General Hospital, said he last encountered a measles case 30 years ago, as a medical student in Colorado.
“I still remember that patient, a child with a high fever, red eyes, and the classic rash we learned about in textbooks. At the time it was an illness we were trained to recognize,” he said. “None of us imagined that one day measles would become so rare that most physicians would go their entire careers without ever seeing a case.”
Now, he said, physicians in Lancaster must keep measles in mind when they’re treating patients with respiratory symptoms. The virus’s early symptoms include a fever, a cough, and a runny nose — similar to other respiratory diseases — before patients develop a telltale rash.
“It underscores the importance of being especially thoughtful about how we identify and respond to possible cases,” he said.
It’s also key for families to call ahead to doctors’ offices if they’re experiencing measles symptoms, so physicians can prepare to treat them without exposing other patients, Martin said.
Lower vaccination rates
Vaccination rates among kindergarteners have decreased across Pennsylvania in recent years, and some counties affected in the current outbreak have particularly low rates, including Lancaster, where about 88.5% of kindergarten students are vaccinated.
Health experts say 95% of a community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.
A map showing vaccination rates in kindergarteners for the 2024-2025 school year. Counties in yellow have vaccination rates between 95% and 90%. Counties in red have vaccination rates below 90%. To halt the spread of measles, at least 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the disease.
The state is working with schools to increase vaccination rates, Bogen said Friday.
Bogen said she hoped the new database would encourage schools with lower vaccination rates to reach out to healthcare providers to ensure students have access to vaccines.
“We want to make sure as a public health department that we’re ensuring that anybody who wants access to a vaccine has that,” she said.
“It is a defining characteristic of our community to help others, especially the most vulnerable, during times of crisis,” he said.
Residents now have an opportunity to help protect vulnerable people from measles by getting vaccinated, raising awareness about the disease, and helping doctors decrease exposures in care settings, he said.
“When vaccination rates are high, the virus has very little opportunity to spread. When gaps emerge, even small ones, measles can find a way back in because it is so contagious,” Martin said. “Ultimately what keeps measles rare is not luck. It’s the choices we make together to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
Amid rising inflation and business costs, many Philadelphia corner stores, bars, laundromats, and smoke shops have turned to skill games, the slot machine look-alikes, to help keep their slim margins afloat.
The machines, which shop owners say also encourage their customers to linger in stores and make additional purchases, are particularly profitable because theyare not taxed or regulated like slot machines — and they have been operating without state oversight in a legal gray area for more than a decade. But a recent state Supreme Court ruling may force that tochange.
Last week, Pennsylvania’s highest court handed down a decision deeming skill games the same as slot machines. That means the skill game terminals proliferating around the state will soon be illegal if not operated and taxed at 52%, and housed in a highly regulated casino or truck stop with a license to carry slot machines. Those terms will take effect in less than four months unless the state legislature intervenes.
Owners and clerks at several corner stores throughout Philadelphia that offer the games say they do not contribute a lot of revenue to their establishments directly, but they foster more of a lounge atmosphere in the shops that leads patrons tostay longer and purchase more snacks, drinks, lottery tickets, and other goods. Many of the business owners said they are willing to stomach a tax on skill games, but additional regulations would make them rethink keeping the machines.
José Pérez, who runs a corner store on Opal Street in South Philadelphia, said his store runs on incremental profits. And, he said, when people play the skill game machines and start feeling lucky, they often are inclined to make other purchases there.
“This business is about getting a little bit of money from every product, and the machines are a tiny source of income that adds up to that,” he said in Spanish between transactions at the store’s register. “While people play, they buy other stuff in the store. And if they win, they buy lottery tickets. Because when someone has one vice, they probably have two.”
Tax proposals from Harrisburg
Lawmakers in Harrisburg have for years failed to reach an agreement on how to tax and regulate the so-called skill games
The issue has proved to be tricky in Pennsylvania’s split legislature, where Democrats narrowly control the House and Republicans control the Senate. The skill games industry leader, Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic, long maintained a friendly relationship with the Senate GOP, and the Republican lawmakers appeared willing to support policies that benefited them. But last year, the goodwill began to sour after the company backed political campaigns against incumbent Republican state lawmakers who did not support its requested low tax rate on the machines.
State Rep. Danilo Burgos (D., Philadelphia) and State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Philadelphia) have introduced a bipartisan bill in their chambers to impose a $500-per-month fee on each skill game machine operated in Pennsylvania, with a 50,000-machine cap across the state. There are currently an estimated 70,000 skill game machines in Pennsylvania, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Skill games can be seen through the door of a mini mart on Kensington Avenue in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
The proposed legislation would split revenues among transit and infrastructure, local governments, and state police for enforcing the cap and fee. The bills also prohibit small businesses whose “primary source of net revenue” is from skill games, in an effort to prevent mini casinos in stop-and-go corner stores around the city. Burgos estimates the regulations would bring in $300 million in new revenue to the state in their first year.
The bill includes additional protections for Philadelphia, where City Council voted in 2024 to ban the machines. The ban never went into effect, after a lawsuit was filed seeking to block it. In the legislation before the General Assembly, Philadelphia has specific carve-outs that would allow city officials to block stop-and-go businesses or “chronic nuisance” businesses from getting a license to carry the games.
Surrounded by hundreds of skill games supporters at a news conference Wednesday on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg, Williams said rank-and-file lawmakers would hold up passing the state budget, due June 30, if there is not a deal to protect small businesses from losing their skill games altogether.
“In this time when everybody talks about affordability, I can’t afford a 52% tax,” Williams said.
The fee-per-machine option offered in the Democratic-sponsored bills is backed by Pace-O-Matic, which has spent millions of dollars on political campaigns and lobbying in the state, in addition to millions more spent by other parts of Pennsylvania’s booming gambling industry.
Meanwhile, a separate proposal backed by the Senate GOP and penned last year would set the tax at 35% on gross terminal revenue, in addition to annual license fees. A small portion of those fees would go toward the state’s resources for problem gambling.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, has proposed taxing the machines at the same rate as slot machines — a hefty 52% levy on each machine’s net revenue — in his last two budget proposals. As the machines have continued to proliferate around the state, Shapiro’s office estimated the newly regulated industry could bring in nearly $800 million in revenue in its first year.
Uncertain future with uncertain revenue
Philly store owners were divided on whether it would be worth keeping the machines if they needed to pay a lofty tax on either housing the devices or the profits they made on them.
Andrew Karki, who operates a laundromat near Pérez‘s store in South Philadelphia, said the machines occupy the customers while they wait for their laundry to finish and, as at Pérez‘s store, lead to purchases of candy and soda from the small bodega he runs inside the laundromat.
He estimated the machines make up 15% to 20% of his monthly revenue, and he said he would likely be willing to take on a tax on the games, even a rather large one, to keep them around.
“It’s hard, but we got to pay it. We got to pay it,” Karki said.
For others, like Diego Reyes, who runs a secondhand shop on Kensington Avenue with about a dozen skill machines inside, taxing the small businesses for the machines does not seem fair. The terminals are often owned by small amusement companies, and are largely operated by Pace-O-Matic. The business owners get a cut from the machine’s revenue for allowing the terminal in their building.
“They should tax the owner,” Reyes said in Spanish, wearing a Phillies cap and T-shirt with a size-medium sticker still stuck on the back, as three people played the machines.
Pérez agreed that any tax should be on skill games companies and not on the businesses that carry them.
It is frustrating to think another tax may be coming down the line,he said,when small-business owners already pay so many of them and see little return on the investment in the community.
“Look outside, that pothole has been there for six months. We have no safety,” Pérez said. “What do you want me to pay more taxes for if you are not doing anything to better the conditions with it?”
Staff writer Isabel Maney contributed to this article.
If you’ve ventured out for a stroll in Fishtown in recent months you may have observed what looks like a page torn out of an oceanography textbook tacked to a lamppost or electrical pole.
It probably features a clinical-looking photo of a fish, that species’ Latin nomenclature, and a short blurb about the slithering sea dweller.
However, upon closer inspection, you’ll find these posters are only marginally educational.
“Striped Bass or Morone saxatilis,” one poster reads, above an image of an open-mouthed, beady-eyed, gray-and-white fish with translucent fins. “Slappadabass mon! Striped Bass live in Philadelphia water slurp slurp. Striped Bass born in saltwater, but live in fresh water. Stripe Bass lay 3,000,000 eggs. not in this economy!!!”
Disclaimer: Don’t rely on the facts in these posters to ace your next marine biology test. They’re not always accurate. Striped bass actually live in saltwater and spawn in freshwater typically, not the reverse.
Fishtown fish facts, this series of more than a hundred posters across the area, was never an endeavor to turn a profit or rally support for a cause like some similar lamppost literature. It was just a modest attempt to make his neighbors smile, said 32-year-old Niall Paredes, the brain behind the piscine production.
The posters contribute to a rich history of both professional and unsanctioned public art across the city. Mural Arts Philadelphia has facilitated more than 4,000 works of public art since its 1984 founding as an anti-graffiti network, while artists and amateurs alike have taken to the streets to plaster their own ephemeral works across Philadelphia.
Paredes, a native Philadelphian, got the idea for the series about a year ago after moving to Fishtown. As a creative, both professionally producing TV commercials and recreationally working with photo and video, he saw artistic potential in the telephone polls around his new neighborhood.
They were covered in flyers. Some asked for help. Some asked for attention. Some asked for money.
None simply asked for a laugh.
“I just kind of was inspired and started playing around with some funky fish,” he said.
Because, you know, Fishtown.
Since then, Paredes estimates he’s created hundreds of Fishtown fish facts posters highlighting dozens of species of fish.
His write-ups are infused with his own unique brand of humor. The descriptions read like a Mad Libs of Gen Z slang with some 2000s texting lingo sprinkled in the mix.
He punctuates each poster with the same tagline — “take a moment and realize the moment you took has already passed.”
The sentiment is intended to encourage the reader to stop, reflect, and “keep pushing” wherever they’re at in life, Paredes said.
Along the way, Paredes, whose only real relationship with marine biology is through surfing, has boned up on his knowledge of aquatic vertebrates.
Shad are quickly angling their way to the top of his ranking of most interesting fish, he said. That’s partly due to a legend that asserts that shad saved George Washington’s troops from starvation in 1778 at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.
“When Jeopardy! hits fish, I’m ready to roll,” Paredes said.
As far as the future of Fishtown fish facts go, Paredes said pedestrians can expect to be enlightened on many more species soon. And he’s planning to expand his fish facts to other neighborhoods; he’s already sprinkled some in Manayunk, Center City, and South Philly.
“I’m definitely going to be working on it for a bit,” he said. “I mean, there’s a lot of fish in the ocean.”
The quaint mustard yellow former home of La Locanda Del Ghiottone, a former Italian restaurant in Old City, is slated for demolition, according to city records.
Brian Zoubek, the developer behind the hotel down the block, Sosuite at the Loxley, plans to turn the lot into luxury condos.
The property will take on a new character, Zoubek said. Gone will be the vibrant, squat structure decorated in colorful plates. In its place will stand a sleek, narrow five-story mixed-use building. The bottom floor will be retail and the four floors above will each feature one condo. Prices will range from around $1.6 million to about $1.95 million per unit, he said.
A rendering of a new five-story building coming to the corner of Third and Cherry Streets in Old City.
Zoubek said he’s expecting demolition to start this month and construction to take about 12 to 14 months. He’s hoping the condos will open next summer. He purchased the building in 2022, according to city property records.
To align the new building with the historic aesthetic of that block, he said the building will be covered in brick with a stone facade on the first floor.
A rendering of a new five-story building coming to the corner of Third and Cherry Streets in Old City.
Residential use is a change for the property anchoring the southwest corner of Third and Cherry Streets. It hit the market in 2020 when La Locanda Del Ghiottone relocated to Port Richmond.
The restaurant’s history at the property dates back to 1989, when Giuseppe Rosselli, an immigrant from northern Italy, took over the building at 130 N. Third St.
Rosselli, a character who used to post screeds outside the restaurant, originally named the 35-seater Trattoria Dell’Artista. In 1992, Rosselli opened L’Osteria dell’Artista down the block at 114 N. Third St., and a year later, renamed his original restaurant Ristorante der Ghiottone (”the glutton”). He later tweaked the name to La Locanda Del Ghiottone. Rosselli died at age 51 in 2000.
Ghiottone was a favorite of Inquirer critic Jim Quinn, who raved about the “rough and ready cuisine moded on the bargain-price restaurants of Italy. Portions are huge, prices extremely low, and all food is rushed directly from the stove to you.”
La Locanda Del Ghiottone’s building, seen on March 3, 2026, will be demolished and replaced with luxury condos.
Reporter Michael Klein contributed to this article.
Walmart Spark Program Delivery drivers in Pennsylvania will receive about $1.4 million as part of a multistate settlement in which the retail giant was accused of pocketing a portion of tips and other payments meant for drivers.
Pennsylvania’s share is part a larger $100 million settlement from the complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission and 11 states, according to a news release from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.
Of that total, $79 million will go to drivers, $11 million will go to states, and $10 million will be paid to the FTC to provide refunds to customers.
Walmart allegedly deceived both customers and delivery drivers, leading them to believe that drivers would get the entire tip customers left for them when, in fact, Walmart was retaining a portion and in some cases the entire tip.
Tips were only one payment the drivers were misled about, the lawsuit alleged. Drivers were also shortchanged on pre-tip amounts, base pays, and incentive pays that were inaccurately advertised to them, according to the suit.
“Walmart was aware almost immediately of issues with the program, and drivers being paid less than face value, yet did nothing to remedy the situation,” Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday said in a statement. “Time and time again, Spark drivers did not receive tips they were entitled to — this settlement goes a long way to making those harmed Pennsylvanians whole.”
In response to the settlement, Walmart said that it was working to improve procedures and ensure fairness and transparency with drivers and that it was issuing payments to impacted drivers. When asked whether those were the payments legally mandated by the settlement, a Walmart spokesperson said they were.
“We value the hard work and dedication of the drivers who deliver great service and products to our customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The Spark program started in 2018 and enrolled nearly one million drivers across the country who collectively made more than 272 million deliveries, according to the Attorney General’s release.
Walmart now will be required to operate an earnings-verification program and submit annual reports to the FTC for the next 10 years. The company is not allowed to modify orders after drivers have accepted them nor misrepresent how much a driver will earn from an offer.
Everything at Land of Little Horses animal theme park in Gettysburg must go this weekend. That means tractors, picnic tables, porta potties, and about 30 miniature horses.
Sparkle, Pumpernickel, Russel’s Majestic Princess Gingerbread, Summer Wish, Shortcake, and the others will head for greener pastures at the Saturday morning auction, which will mark the end of the 55-year-old park.
In December, the park owners announced on social media that they’d decided to retire and close the facility, which hosted horse shows, trail rides, and grooming activities. They declined to be interviewed for this story.
Selling horses, let alone miniature horses, is a first for auctioneer Larry Swartz.
“We have had strong interest from really across the nation, even a breeder from Hawaii has reached out,” Swartz said.
(If you’re wondering if a mini horse can be transported on an airplane, it can, Swartz said.)
Swartz predicts one particular miniature horse, an 11-year-old chocolate mare with a bald face, to fetch the highest price.
“Cameo was the star of their show here,” Swartz said. “We expect her probably to be the high seller.”
Cameo, an 11-year-old miniature horse for sale at the Land of Little Horses auction, can wave, smile, untie, and sit down.
Not only does she have distinctive markings, she can wave, smile, untie, lay down, and sit.
As of Wednesday afternoon, she was already going for $3,550 in the online prebidding which started Feb. 14 and ends when the live auction starts Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Gettysburg farm at 125 Glenwood Dr. The auction will also be available to view on livestream. Swartz expects each miniature horse to sell for around $2,000 to $3,000.
The origins of miniature horses in the United States may date back to the 1800s, according to the American Miniature Horse Association, a Texas-based nonprofit that sets regulations and compiles registries of miniature horses around the country and world.
Sparkle, a 16-year-old miniature horse who will be available at the Land of Little Horses auction, is food motivated.
The horses were originally brought over from Britain to assist in the mining industry for hauling wagons of coal, said Valerie Shingledecker, the association’s operations manager. The United States now has around 100,000 of them, according to the association’s registry.
Texas, California, and Florida have the largest number of association-registered miniature horses in the country as of this month. States along the Appalachian Mountain range, where much 19th-century coal mining activity was concentrated, have the next-highest number. Pennsylvania has the fifth-largest population of association-registered miniature horses at about 3,800.
Can you own a miniature horse?
In recent decades, miniature horses are more commonly seen at petting zoos and in horse shows performing tricks, like pulling people in wagons.
They can also be kept as pets. In Philadelphia, residents can apply for a license to own a horse if they have a stable or one quarter acre of land per horse, according to a 2013 law. If residents have neither, they can still keep one so long as they have fewer than three horses in the same space and submit an equine veterinarian-approved exercise plan for the horses.
Most importantly manure must be disposed of every 24 hours.
Macy is a 30-year-old Falabella miniature horse who knows how to smile. She’ll be up for auction at the Land of Little Horses sale.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a miniature horse can function as a service animal for people with disabilities. Facilities covered by the ADA are required to adopt policies detailing where and when service miniature horses are permitted. Facilities may elect to not allow them inside if they’re not housebroken.
If you’re interested in owning one, get ready for a long-haul commitment, Shingledecker said. These horses “cannot exceed 34 inches in height at the withers as measured from the last hairs of the mane,” according to the American Miniature Horse Association. They’re about a quarter the size of a regular horse and can live for over 30 years. However, they’re “easy keepers,” she said, meaning they don’t require a lot of food — about $2 of hay a day or $730 a year.
They also need vaccines and have to have their feet trimmed every six weeks by a farrier, but they don’t need horseshoes.
All in all, Shingledecker estimates one miniature horse costs about $1,500 a year to take care of.
Though they’re generally well-behaved, it’s important to remember they’re still animals with their own set of defense mechanisms.
“It is a horse, it’s not a dog,” she said. ”They can kick and they can bite if they were not socialized well. Don’t put them in the house.”
If they become afraid, they’ll either run, kick, or bite, Shingledecker said. “On the whole, they’re very friendly, very easy to work with.”
Inside a large exhibition room at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Monday morning, where workers are setting up next week’s Philadelphia Flower Show, one could be fooled into believing that spring has somehow arrived early in Philly.
The scent of mulch permeates every corner, tendrils of pink and red flowers are delicately laid over massive tree trunks, a mobile hanging from the ceiling dangles dozens of iridescent butterfly cutouts over the floor, and bright green shrubbery dots the halls.
It seems as if Punxsutawney Phil maybe got it wrong this time.
But one thing gives it away: the gaping open loading dock door ushering in a channel of 35-degree air that slices through the center of the exhibition hall. Clusters of snowflakes billow in toward a mint-colored wooden fence and a tree house.
For the organizers of the Philadelphia Flower Show, an annual week and a half-long event that features dozens of horticultural exhibits, the 14-inch snow dump over the weekend was less than ideal, said Seth Pearsoll, theshow’s creative director and vice president with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. But it wasn’t a surprise.
“We have been watching the weather for weeks on end,” Pearsoll said. “You just got to stay on top of it.”
The show, which opens to the general public on Saturday —the Horticultural Society members preview is Friday — and ends March 8,is typically held in the late winter/early spring. That’s led to some historically dicey weather.
A 1993 blizzard forced the show to close early. Meteorologists predicted huge snowfalls in 2001 and 2013 as well. And, in 2018, a nor’easter hit the city on the opening night of the show. When the show was held outside during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was shuttered or postponed for short stretches because of inclement weather.
Despite the weather challengesthe show, which has been running for nearly 200 years, is typically held at this time of year partly due to tradition. The show dates to an era long before the internet when the event was designed to present the season’s products to florists, landscapers, farmers, and others in the horticultural industry so they could place their orders in time for spring planting.
“After that it was just part of the DNA of the show,” Pearsoll said.
The show brings in a quarter million visitors each year, he said, and requires meticulous planning and constant pivoting.
The original schedule for Monday included a 7 a.m. load-in time, he said, but his team later pushed that to noon to ensure that all the trucks could get to the facility safely. Many of the plant deliveries for Monday were moved to Tuesday or Wednesday, by which time the team hopes roads will be clearer.
Trucks won’t just be contending with the weather in Philly but across the country as the event is getting shipments in from Minnesota, Florida, and New York, among other states.
Most of the plants themselves are protected in climate-controlled trucks.
“I think, for me, having been a part of outdoor shows, having worked a million flower shows, weather is always a thing,” Pearsoll said. “So I’ve really come to see it as just another one of those planning variables in the event industry.”
The way he views it, the snowy, slushy, frigid weather outside enhances the magic of walking through rows of plants that have, through “sorcery,” as he calls it, been manipulated into blooming out of season.
“It’s this crazy thing, right?” he said. “It mean it’s science. It’s art.”
The Philadelphia Flower show is scheduled for Saturday through March 8 (with a Horticultural Society members preview on Friday) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 11th and Arch Streets. Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., except until 6 p.m. on March 8. Admission varies depending on person’s age and day and time of entrance. Information: phsonline.org or 215-988-8800.
When the Media-area NAACP was selecting a few Black figures to spotlight throughout Black History Month, adding Marie Whitaker to the list was a no-brainer, said Cynthia Jetter, president of Media’s NAACP chapter.
Within the community, “I think most people know the story,” Jetter said.
The story, that is, of when Whitaker sat down for a meal at the Tower Restaurant at the corner of State and Olive Streets with her baby in her arms and her sister by her side in 1943.
No one waited on them.
This bothered Dorothy James, a white Quaker woman who was dining at the restaurant. So she approached a worker there who explained that the waitresses did not serve Black people,James recounted in a letter she wrote a few days after the incident.
Whitaker soon left the restaurant with her baby and sister and went elsewhere. Soon, James joined them, she wrote.
Whitaker and James became fast friends and cofounded Media Fellowship House the following year. The goal was to bring together Media residents of all races and religions for events and meals. It grew over the course of its first decade, and in 1953, they raised enough money from community members to buy a property on South Jackson Street, where the organization flourished.
Whitaker died in 2002, but the fellowship house lived on. In its 82 years, it has gone from hosting sewing circles and childcare events to helping Black people buy homes in restricted neighborhoods to now offering assistance to first-time homebuyers and helping those facing foreclosure.
For Amy Komarnicki, who now runs the Media Fellowship House, the values Whitaker championed — inclusion, resilience, and courage — are always guiding her.
“I think you have to move toward the injustice that you see and not ignore it,” Komarnickisaid.
That is especially difficult to do when you’re on the receiving end of the injustice, she added.
“Being willing to accept an invitation to talk about it takes enormous bravery and trust,” Komarnickisaid. “It’s good to be uncomfortable. It’s good to make people uncomfortable for the greater good. It opens up space for dialogue.”
Living in Media and going to Fellowship House growing up exposed him to people from all kinds of demographics and religions, Bill Whitakersaid. And that was no accident; it was something his mother and Fellowship House helped lay the groundwork for.
“She was resolute and knew what she wanted, not just for her family, but for her community and for her world,” Whitaker said. “She had a vision of what Fellowship House stands for, bringing people together and having people speak across what seems now to be a chasm of our differences — she wanted people to speak across that, to reach across that and come together.”
As long as Fellowship House stands, that work, just as important now as then, will continue, Bill Whitaker said.
