Philadelphia lawmakers on Thursday approved two changes to city law that are aimed at boosting business for restaurants and the hospitality sector ahead of an expected influx of tourists visiting the city next year.
Legislators also voted to ban so-called reservation scalpers, which are third-party businesses that allow people to secure tables and then resell them without authorization from the restaurant.
Both measures passed Council unanimously and were championed by advocates for the restaurant industry, who lobbied lawmakers to ease burdens on the tourism and hospitality industry ahead of several large-scale events in the city next year, including celebrations for America’s Semiquincentennial, when Philadelphia is expected to host a flurry of visitors.
They both now head to the desk of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who has never issued a veto.
The outdoor dining legislation, authored by Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat who represents the city at-large, expands the number of so-called by-right zones, where businesses can have sidewalk cafes without having to obtain a special zoning ordinance.
Currently, by-right areas are only in Center City and a few commercial corridors in other neighborhoods. Restaurants outside those areas must undertake a sometimes lengthy process to get permission to place tables and chairs outside.
The expanded zones, which were chosen by individual Council members who represent the city’s 10 geographic districts, include corridors in Manayunk and on parts of Washington Avenue, Passyunk Avenue, and Point Breeze Avenue in South Philadelphia.
The legislation also includes all of the West Philadelphia-based Third District, which is represented by Jamie Gauthier, the only Council member who chose to include her entire district in the expansion.
The cafe area on the sidewalk outside of Gleaner’s Cafe in the 9th Street Market on Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Nicholas Ducos, who owns Mural City Cellars in Fishtown, said he has been working for more than a year to get permission to place four picnic tables outside his winery. He said he has had to jump through hoops including working with multiple agencies, spending $1,500 to hire an architect, and even having to provide paperwork to the city on a CD-ROM.
“There are a lot of difficult things about running a business in Philadelphia,” Ducos said. “This should not be one.”
At left is Philadelphia Council President Kenyatta Johnson greeting Rue Landau and other returning members of council on their first day of fall session, City Hall, Thursday, September 11, 2025.
Council members also approved the reservation scalping legislation authored by Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat who represents the city at-large. He has said the bill is modeled after a similar law in New York and is not aimed at popular apps and websites like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock that partner directly with restaurants.
Instead, it is a crackdown on websites that don’t work with restaurants, such as AppointmentTrader.com, which provides a platform for people to sell reservations and tickets to events.
Jonas Frey, the founder of AppointmentTrader.com, previously said the legislation needlessly targets his platform. He said his company put safeguards in place to prevent scalping, including shutting down accounts if more than half of their reservations go unsold.
But Thomas has cast the website and similar platforms as “predatory” because restaurants can end up saddled with empty tables if the reservations do not resell.
Zak Pyzik, senior director of public affairs at the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said the legislation is an important safeguard for restaurants.
“This bill provides clear, sensible protections that will keep restaurants in the driver’s seat,” he said, “and in control of their business and their technology services.”
Kevin Bean was a frail 125 pounds last February when he entered a brand-new recovery house, a facility where he landed after spending four years in the throes of addiction — at times on the streets of Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis.
The Frankford native was one of the first residents to enter the Riverview Wellness Village, the 20-acre recovery facility that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration opened in Northeast Philadelphia nearly a year ago as part of City Hall’s efforts to address opioid addiction and the Kensington drug market.
Bean, now 46 and boasting a healthier frame, just celebrated one year of sobriety and is preparing to move out of Riverview early next year.
He described his transition simply: “whole new life.”
Much of the mayor’s agenda in Kensington has been visible to the neighborhood’s residents, such as increased law enforcement and a reduction in the homeless population. But the operations and treatment outcomesat Riverview, located down a winding road next to the city’s jail complex, happen largely outside of public view. Last spring, some city lawmakers complained that even they knew little about the facility operations.
An inside look at the Riverview complex and interviews with more than a dozen residents and employees showed that, over the last year, the city and its third-party healthcare providers have transformed the facility. What was recently a construction zone is now a one-stop health shop with about 75 staff and more than 200 residents, many of whom previously lived on Kensington streets.
Those who live and work at Riverview said the facility is plugging a hole in the city’s substance use treatment landscape. For years, there have not been enough beds in programs that help people transition from hospital-style rehab into long-term stability. The recovery house industry has been plagued with privately run homes that are in poor condition or offer little support.
The grounds and residence buildings at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia.
At its current capacity, Riverview has singularly increased the total number of recovery house beds in the city by nearly 50%. And residents — who are there voluntarily and may come and go as they please — have much of what they need on the campus: medical care, mental health treatment, job training, and group counseling.
They also, as of last month, have access to medication-assisted treatment, which means residents in recovery no longer need to travel to specialized clinics to get a dose of methadone or other drugs that can prevent relapse.
Arthur Fields, the regional executive director at Gaudenzia, which provides recovery services to more than 100 Riverview residents, said the upstart facility has become a desirable option for some of the city’s most vulnerable. Riverview officials said they aren’t aware of anywhere like it in the country.
“The Riverview Wellness Village is proof of what’s possible,” Fields said, “when we work together as a community and move with urgency to help people rebuild their lives.”
While the facility launched in January with much fanfare, it also faced skepticism, including from advocates who were troubled by its proximity to the jails and feared it would feel like incarceration, not treatment. And neighbors expressed concern that the new Holmesburg facility would bring problems long faced by Kensington residents, like open drug use and petty theft, to their front doors.
But despite some tenets of the mayor’s broader Kensington plan still facing intense scrutiny, the vocal opposition to Riverview has largely quieted. Parker said in an interview that seeing the progress at Riverview and the health of its residents made enduring months of criticism “well worth it.”
“I don’t know a Philadelphian who, in some way, shape, or form, hasn’t been touched by mental and behavioral health challenges or substance use disorder,” said Parker, who has spoken about how addiction shaped parts of her own upbringing. “To know that we created a path forward, to me, I’m extremely proud of this team.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker places a new block on the scale model of the Riverview Wellness Village on Wednesday, Jan. 8 during the unveiling of Philadelphia’s new city-operated drug treatment facility. At left is Managing Director Adam Thiel. City Councilmember Michael Driscoll is at right.Isabel McDevitt, executive director of the Office of Community Wellness and Recovery, points to a model with upcoming expansion at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia on Nov. 25.Staffers move photos into place at the Riverview Wellness Village on Jan. 8 before the unveiling of Philadelphia’s new city-operated drug treatment facility.
Meanwhile, neighbors who live nearby say they have been pleasantly surprised. Pete Smith, a civic leader who sits on a council of community members who meet regularly with Riverview officials, said plainly: “There have been no issues.”
“If it’s as successful as it looks like it’s going to be,” he said, “this facility could be a model for other cities throughout the country.”
Smith, like many of his neighbors, wants the city’s project at Riverview to work because he knows the consequences if it doesn’t.
His son, Francis Smith, died in September due to health complications from long-term drug use. He was 38, and he had three children.
Getting a spot at Riverview
The sprawling campus along the Delaware River feels more like a college dormitory setting than a hospital or homeless shelter. Its main building has a dining room, a commercial kitchen, a gym, and meditation rooms. There are green spaces, walking paths,and plans for massive murals on the interior walls.
Katherine Young, director of Merakey at Riverview Wellness Village, talks with a resident at the city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia on Nov. 25.
Residents live and spend much of their time in smaller buildings on the campus, where nearly 90% of the 234 licensed beds are occupied. The city plans to add 50 more in January.
Their stays are funded through a variety of streams. The city allocated $400 million for five years of construction and operations, a portion of which is settlement dollars from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that manufactured the painkillers blamed for the opioid crisis.
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To get in to Riverview, a person must complete at least 30 days of inpatient treatment at another, more intensive care facility.
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Still, residents at Riverview have come from more than 25 different providers, according to Isabel McDevitt, the city’s executive director of community wellness and recovery. The bulk were treated at the Kirkbride Center in West Philadelphia, the Behavioral Wellness Center at Girard in North Philadelphia, or Eagleville Hospital in Montgomery County.
They have ranged in age from 28 to 75. And they have complex medical needs: McDevitt said about half of Riverview’s residents have a mental health diagnosis in addition to substance use disorder.
She said offering treatment for multiple health conditions in one place allows residents to focus less on logistics and more on staying healthy.
“Many of the folks that are at Riverview have long histories of substance use disorder, long histories of homelessness,” she said. “So it’s really the first time a lot of people can actually breathe.”
When new residents arrive, they go through an intake process at Riverview that includes acute medical care and an assessment for chronic conditions. Within their first week, every resident receives a total-body physical and a panel of blood work.
“They literally arrive with all of their belongings in a plastic bag and their medications and some discharge paperwork,” said Ala Stanford, who leads the Black Doctors Consortium, which provides medical services at Riverview. “We are the ones who greet them and help get them acclimated.”
Stanford — who this fall announced a run for Congress — said doctors and nurses at Riverview have diagnosed and treated conditions ranging from drug-related wounds to diabetes to pancreatic cancer. And patients with mental health needs are treated by providers from Warren E. Smith Health Centers, a 30-year-old organization based in North Philadelphia.
Physician Ala Stanford in an examination room at the primary medical care center run by her Black Doctors Consortium at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia, on Nov. 25.Francesca Colon (right), a recovery support professional with Gaudenzia, brings people in recovery to the main entrance of the Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village on Nov. 25.
Residents’ schedules are generally free-flowing and can vary depending on their wants and needs. About 20% have jobs outside the campus. Culinary arts training will be available in the next month or so. And residents can meet with visitors or leave to see family at any time.
They also spend much of their time in treatment, including individual, family, and group therapy. On a recent day, there were group sessions available on trauma recovery, managing emotions, and “communicating with confidence.”
Vernon Kostic, a 52-year-old Port Richmond native who said he has previously been homeless, has been in and out of drug treatment facilities for years.
He said he’s been content as a Riverview resident since July, and called it “one of the smartest things that the city has ever done.”
“We have the doctor’s office right over here,” he said. “They’ve got counseling right here. Everything we need. It’s like a one-stop recovery place.”
Resident Vernon Kostic heads to a group meeting at Riverview Wellness Village on Nov. 25.The dining room and meeting room in the Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village. At rear left is a brand-new, industrial, restaurant-quality kitchen that was not operational yet on Nov. 25.
Finding ways to stay at Riverview
Finding success in recovery is notoriously hard. Studies show that people who stay in structured sober housing for at least six months after completing rehab see better long-term outcomes, and Riverview residents may stay there for up to one year.
But reaching that mark can take multiple tries, and some may never attain sobriety. McDevitt said that on a monthly basis, about 35 people move into Riverview, and 20 leave.
Some who move out are reunited with family and want to live at home. Others simply were not ready for recovery, McDevitt said, “and that’s part of working with this population.”
Fields said a resident who relapses can go back to a more intensive care setting for detoxification or withdrawal management, then return to Riverview at a later time if they are interested.
“No one is punished for struggling,” he said. “Recovery is a journey. It takes time.”
Providers are adding new programming they say will help residents extend their stays. Offering medication-assisted treatment is one of the most crucial parts, said Josh Vigderman, the senior executive director of substance use services at Merakey, one of the addiction treatment providers at Riverview.
Entry to the primary medical care center run by the Black Doctors Consortium at Riverview Wellness Village.The main entry Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village.Naloxone (Narcan) in an “overdose emergency kit” at Riverview Wellness Village.
In the initial months after Riverview opened its doors, residents had to travel off campus to obtain medication that can prevent relapse, most commonly methadone and buprenorphine, the federally regulated drugs considered among the most effective addiction treatments.
Typically, patients can receive only one dose of the drug at a time and must be supervised by clinicians to ensure they don’t go into withdrawal.
Vigderman said staff suspected some residents relapsed after spending hours outside Riverview, at times on public transportation, to get their medication.
This fall, Merakey — which was already licensed to dispense opioid treatment medications at other locations — began distributing the medications at Riverview, eliminating one potential relapse trigger for residents who no longer had to leave the facility’s grounds every day.
Interest in the program has been strong, Vigderman said, with nearly 80 residents enrolling in medication-assisted treatment in just a few weeks. Merakey is hiring more staff to handle the demand.
What’s next at Riverview
The city is eying a significant physical expansion of the Riverview campus, including a new, $80 million building that could double the number of licensed beds to more than 500. That would mean that about half of the city’s recovery house slots would be located at Riverview.
Parker said the construction is “so important in how we’re going to help families.” She said the process will include “meticulous design and structure.”
“The people who come for help,” she said, “we want them to know that we value them, that we see them, and that we think enough of them to provide that level of quality of support for them.”
In the meantime, staff are working to help the center’s current residents — who were among the first cohort to move in — plot their next steps, like employment and housing.
A rendering of the new, $80 million five-story building to be constructed on the campus of Riverview Wellness Village. It will include residences and medical suites.
That level of support, Vigderman said, doesn’t happen in many smaller recovery houses.
“In another place, they might not create an email address or a resumé,” he said. “At Riverview, whether they do it or not is one thing. But hearing about it is a guarantee.”
Bean is closing in on one year at Riverview. He doesn’t know exactly what’s next, but he does have a job prospect: He’s in the hiring process to work at another recovery house.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to help some people,” he said. “I hope.”
Philadelphia could soon become the first American city to establish its own retirement savings program for residents whose employers don’t offer one.
City Council is poised to pass legislation that would enable the plan, called PhillySaves, which is modeled on similar state-facilitated “auto-IRA” programs that have been increasingly established across the country.
The idea is that workers would be automatically enrolled in the city-managed plan and would contribute through payroll deductions at no cost to their employer. The plan would then follow employees, even as they change jobs.
Council President Kenyatta Johnson, a Democrat, said during a committee hearing on the legislation last week that the program is an anti-poverty measure aimed at generating wealth for more than 200,000 Philadelphians who do not have access to a retirement savings plan through their job.
“We want to make sure we are lifting all Philadelphians out of poverty, building generational wealth, and ensuring our seniors are financially stable in retirement,” Johnson said.
A Council committee approved the legislation following a hearing last week, and the full Council is expected to pass it. Voters would have to approve the creation of an investment management board through a ballot question, which could come as early as the May primary election.
Councilmember Cindy Bass, a Democrat who represents parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia, called the plan a “game changer.”
“There was a time when you could retire just on Social Security alone,” she said. “That day has come and gone.”
How would the program work?
Workers would be automatically enrolled in the plan with a default contribution rate of 3 to 6% of their wages, however they can opt out or change their contributions at any time.
Employers that do not offer their own retirement plans would be required to sign up. Their only responsibility would be facilitating the payroll deductions for their employees. There is no matching program for employers or the city.
City Councilmember Mike Driscoll, a Democrat who represents parts of Northeast Philadelphia and is sponsoring the legislation, emphasized last week that there is “no cost” to employers and no fiduciary liability.
“The goal is to make it easy for employees who want to save,” he said, “and not burden employers who are already managing their many responsibilities.”
In this 2023 file photo, Council President Kenyatta Johnson (left) greets 6th District Councilmember Michael J. Driscoll (center) and Councilmember At-Large Katherine Gilmore Richardson (right) before the last City Council meeting of the year.
The legislation includes minimal fines for employers who don’t enroll employees. But Council members said the city will launch a significant public education and outreach campaign before levying fines.
Who is the program for?
Under the current version of the legislation — which could still be amended — the program applies to businesses with at least one employee. It must have been operating in Philadelphia for at least two years.
Auto-IRA plans are especially geared toward hourly workers who generally have fewer employer-covered benefits, such as 401(k) plans, as well as people who work for small businesses that can’t afford to provide retirement benefits.
Pennsylvania is not among them, but New Jersey launched a state-run retirement savings program last year. That plan, called RetireReady NJ, was first established in 2019 and signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
It is more limited than Philadelphia’s would be, in that it only applies to businesses with at least 25 employees. Philadelphia’s would apply to businesses with just one.
Gov. Phil Murphy speaks with members of the media after meeting with Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill at the governor’s office in Trenton on Nov. 5.
Two other cities — New York and Seattle — passed legislation enabling auto-IRA programs, but neither was implemented because both New York and Washington states enacted state-run programs that include the cities.
The Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania State House passed legislation in 2023 along party lines enabling a similar program called Keystone Saves, but it stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The city would create a nine-member Retirement Savings Board, which would include four appointees by the mayor, four by the City Council president, and one by the city controller.
That board would be responsible for facilitating the program and may contract third-party consultants, financial advisers, actuaries, and other experts to manage the investments.
The program defaults to a Roth IRA, though people covered can elect to switch to a traditional IRA.
John Scott, director of the retirement savings project at Pew Charitable Trust, said during the Council hearing last week that Roth IRAs are often the default in auto IRA programs because participating employees can pull money out of those accounts at any time without taxes or penalty.
He said that’s especially appealing to workers “who sometimes have fluctuations in their work schedule or they might have a financial shock.”
“For many of these workers in these programs, this is really the first opportunity to save money,” Scott said. “So, you know, life happens. And sometimes they do need to pull that money out, and the Roth IRA is really the best vehicle to do that.”
When will this become reality?
Creating the board that will oversee the investments requires a change to Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter, the city’s governing document.
If Council passes legislation and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signs it — both are expected to support it — then voters could approve the change through a ballot question as early as May.
The legislation says the program must be launched by July 2027, however there are exceptions in the case of legal challenges or a state-level program superseding the city’s.
Philadelphia City Council is escalating its clash with some harm reduction providers, with lawmakers on a key committee voting Monday to ban mobile addiction services from parts of Kensington and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Members of Council’s Committee on Licenses and Inspections voted, 5-1, to advance the legislation, which covers the Lower Northeast-based 6th District, represented by Councilmember Mike Driscoll, the bill’s sponsor.
The area stretches from the eastern side of the intersection at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues — long the epicenter of the city’s opioid epidemic — north along the Delaware River and up to Grant Avenue.
The full Council could vote on the legislation as early as next month.
Map of the 6th Council District, the target of proposed legislation to ban mobile addiction services.
Some Kensington residents who have begged lawmakers for years to address the sprawling homelessness and addiction in the neighborhood said they support the legislation because the providers draw people who use drugs into residential areas.
“I have grandkids who can’t come and see me because of where grandmom lives at,” said Darlene Abner-Burton, a neighborhood advocate. “It’s not fair that we have to endure what we have to endure. No one should live like we do, and no one should go through what we go through.”
However, a half dozen harm reduction advocates testified that the legislation would not reduce homelessness or addiction, but would instead erect barriers to medical care that vulnerable people rely on and would lead to more overdose deaths.
“Every member of our community deserves dignity and compassion, not punishment,” said Kelly Flannery, policy director at the Positive Women’s Network, an advocacy organization for people with HIV.
Flannery called the measure a “cruel ban.”
Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who represents the 6th District and authored the legislation, greets Mayor Cherelle Parker after her first budget address in City Council in March 2024.
It’s the second time Council appeared poised to pass a bill aimed at restricting mobile service providers, which are groups that operate out of vans or trucks and offer a range of assistance to people in need, including first aid, free food, and overdose reversal medication.
Earlier this year, Council voted to pass restrictions on the providers operating in the nearby 7th District, which covers the western parts of Kensington.
But that bill — which passed the full Council 13-3 and was signed by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — was not a blanket ban.
That legislation, authored by 7th District Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, requires providers obtain a license, and it limits organizations that provide medical services to specific areas designated by the city. Groups that offer nonmedical services like distributing food are prohibited from parking in one place for more than 45 minutes.
The city is expected to begin enforcing that law on Dec. 1.
Driscoll said he introduced his own legislation to ban the services from his district entirely because he was concerned that providers who faced restrictions in the 7th District would migrate into the neighborhoods he represents.
The only committee member to vote against Driscoll’s legislation Monday was Nicolas O’Rourke, a member of the progressive Working Families Party who represents the city at-large and also opposed the 7th District legislation.
Philadelphia-based independent contractors and others who are self-employed could soon become exempt from paying certain business taxes as part of a measure aimed at easing tax burdens on small businesses.
City Councilmember Mike Driscoll, a Democrat who represents parts of Northeast Philadelphia, introduced legislation Thursday to carve out entrepreneurs, sole proprietorships, and businesses that have only one employee from having to pay the city’s business income and receipts tax, commonly known as BIRT.
Also on Thursday, members floated legislation to address the rising cost of water bills and introduced a bill to make it easier for restaurants to secure outdoor dining permits.
What was the meeting’s highlight?
Relief for the small(est) businesses: The bill is likely to find support in Council, where lawmakers have been searching for ways to provide relief to small businesses after earlier this year eliminating a popular tax break that allowed companies to exclude their first $100,000 in income from business taxes in Philadelphia.
That exemption effectively meant that thousands of small businesses did not have to pay the tax. However, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration in June successfully moved to eliminate the exemption, saying the city was likely to lose a court battle over the matter.
The change came after a medical device manufacturer sued the city, saying the exemption violated state law, which includes a “uniformity” clause that prohibits municipalities from creating different classes of taxpayers.
Now, thousands of businesses newly have to pay the BIRT beginning with 2025 tax bills that are due in April. If Driscoll’s measure is adopted, it would begin in the 2026 tax year, meaning that eligible business owners would see the exemption when paying taxes due in April 2027.
He said the legislation addresses concerns from small businesses that the impending tax bills will be financially unsustainable for them.
“A $50,000 business should not face a $3,200 tax hike,” Driscoll said. “That is not policy. That is displacement.”
Driscoll said that the city’s law department approved his legislation and that he is confident it does not violate the uniformity clause.
What else happened this week?
Making water more affordable: Council will consider a package of legislation to address rising water bills. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier of West Philadelphia introduced three measures:
A bill that expands eligibility for payment assistance programs to people who earn up to 300% of the federal poverty level. (This year, the FPL is $32,150 for a family of four.) There is currently a tiered assistance structure for people who earn up to 250%.
A bill requiring that the city reduce a resident’s water bill if it rose because of a water meter failure that lasted more than a year.
A resolution to hold hearings on whether lawmakers can expand assistance programs to renters. The Philadelphia Water Department does not allow bills to be in renters’ names.
A spokesperson for Gauthier said the package of legislation has 10 cosponsors — a majority of Council — making it likely to pass.
Parker opposes incineration ban: A Council committee on Monday advanced a bill to ban the city from incinerating trash, over the objections of Parker’s administration.
Currently, the city sends about two-thirds of the trash it collects to landfills and one-third to a waste-to-energy incinerator in Chester operated by Reworld, formerly known as Covanta.
Both of those contracts expire June 30, and Gauthier wants to prohibit the Parker administration from signing a new deal.
Chester resident Zulene Mayfield, left, Philadelphia Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, right, and Chester Mayor Stefan Roots meet to discuss Gauthier’s “Stop Trashing Our Air Act,” which would ban the city from incinerating waste, during a visit with lawmakers and staff in Chester, Pa., on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025.
On Monday, Chester officials pleaded with Philly to end its relationship with the facility, saying it contributes to high rates of illness.
Reworld defended its record, saying it exceeds government regulations.
Carlton Williams, who leads the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, asked lawmakers to hold off approving a ban on incineration to allow the city time to study the issue.
But the committee approved the measure, sending it to the full Council for a vote as early as Dec. 4.
The outdoor dining area at Booker’s Restaurant and Bar at 5021 Baltimore Ave. in 2021.
Councilmember Rue Landau, who represents the city at-large, said it can take more than a year and a half for restaurants to get licensed if they are not in areas around Center City and a handful of commercial corridors in other neighbors.
Beyond those locations, restaurants must get their district Council person to sponsor zoning legislation, which can take months.
Landau introduced legislation Thursday to expand the “by-right” areas where sidewalk cafes can exist without special zoning. Where the areas are expanded to will be up to district Council members.
Quote of the week
Danny Garcia trains for an upcoming fight in August 2024.
All in the family: Council members on Thursday honored boxer Danny Garcia, a North Philly native and an illustrious fighter who is retiring from the sport. He appeared in Council chambers to thank members and tell the city how much he loves it back.
Staff writers Jake Blumgart and Beatrice Forman contributed to this article.
The ACLU’s Pennsylvania chapter slammed Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration for invoking the organization’s name during a news conference this week, saying the group was not involved in what its leaders described as the mayor’s “DEI rollback.”
In a blistering statement issued late Wednesday, the ACLU-PA said Parker’s use of the organization’s name during a news conference announcing controversial changes to the city’s contracting policies created “the impression that the city’s decisions were vetted by our constitutional experts and aligned with our values.”
That was not the case, the group said.
“ACLU-PA was not consulted nor involved,” the statement said. “We welcome genuine collaboration with city leadership on policies that advance justice, liberty, and equity, especially for historically marginalized communities. Until such a partnership occurs, we ask that the administration refrain from using our name as a buzzword seal of approval.”
The Parker administration pushed back, with City Solicitor Renee Garcia saying Thursday that officials “were clear” that the administration consulted with an attorney who worked for the city’s outside counsel and who later went to work for the ACLU.
“We didn’t give ‘impressions,’” Garcia said, “we just gave the facts.”
Still, the civil rights group’s distancing from Parker was the latest criticism the mayor faced over her decision to eliminate a decades-old program that aimed to direct a significant portion of the city’s contracting dollars to firms owned by people of color, women, and people with disabilities.
Parker and her administration said the decision was made to align city policies with shifting legal precedent that has threatened affirmative action-style government programs. But critics have said the city preemptively conceded to the conservative legal movement that has sought to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the country.
In announcing her decision to make the city’s procurement policies race- and gender-neutral, Parker did not say that her administration worked directly with the ACLU in crafting its policy shift, nor did she mention the organization’s Pennsylvania chapter.
But Parker and members of her administration invoked the group’s name during the Tuesday news conference as they described the timeline of events that led up to the city’s decision to quietly change its policies this fall before announcing them publicly.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker with city solicitor Renee Garcia (right) at City Hall Feb. 5, 2024.
Garcia said that the administration consulted in June with constitutional law experts, including Carmen Iguina González, who was at the time a Washington-based attorney at Hecker Fink, a law firm. Iguina González is a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, considered one of the most liberal jurists on the high court.
About three months after the meeting with city officials, Iguina González became the deputy director for immigration detention at the ACLU’s National Prison Project.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Vanessa Garrett Harley, a deputy mayor and a top aide to Parker, cited the meeting with Iguina González in response to critics who have called the administration’s policy shift “conservative.”
She said Iguina González counseled the city to strike race- and gender-based diversity goals from its contracting policies.
“People [are] saying, ‘Oh, it was a conservative move. It was a conservative way of looking at the law,’” Garrett Harley said. “She had clerked for Justice Sotomayor. She’s currently at the ACLU. So this was not somebody who would have had a conservative mindset.”
Garrett Harley continued: “If we’ve got people on all sides… saying, ‘You have no other choice,’ then we’ve got to pivot and do what we have to do to protect the fiscal responsibility of the City of Philadelphia.”
Vanessa Garrett Harley, a deputy mayor, speaks during a press conference in June.
Later in the news conference, Parker also mentioned the ACLU, saying she was glad the city sought outside an outside opinion from Iguina González.
“I remember that meeting clearly,” Parker said. “And again — although she’s not with the firm, she made the transition and she’s now with the ACLU — I believe in her.”
This week was not the first time the ACLU has been at odds with Parker, a centrist Democrat who ran for mayor in 2023 on a tough-on-crime platform.
And once Parker took office last year, Pennsylvania ACLU leaders expressed opposition to parts of her plan to address the open-air drug market in Kensington, including the so-called wellness court, a fast-track court for people accused of minor drug-related offenses.
Philadelphia City Council is attempting once again to change city law to allow members to keep their jobs while running for higher office, an effort that has already failed three times in the last 20 years.
Maybe the fourth time’s really the charm?
This attempt is a little bit different. A Council committee on Wednesday advanced legislation to change the 70-year-old resign-to-run rule that requires city officeholders to leave their jobs while campaigning for another office.
But the legislation — which must be approved by a majority of voters through a ballot question — doesn’t repeal the rule entirely. It merely narrows it to allow members to keep their seats if they are seeking state or federal office, such as seats in Congress or the state General Assembly.
Under the new proposal, Philadelphia’s resign-to-run rule would remain in place for members seeking a city office, like mayor or district attorney.
That distinction makes the rule change more likely to become reality, said Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who sponsored the legislation even though voters rejected attempts to eliminate the rule in 2007 and 2014.
More than a year ago, Thomas proposed that the city try again to eliminate the rule entirely. But this week, he amended his proposal to apply only to those seeking state or federal office, calling that a compromise.
“I personally think that you should be able to run for mayor and keep your seat in City Council,” Thomas said. “But that’s not what the majority of people who I’ve talked to feel. And I don’t think that this should be about how I feel. It should be about what’s best for the city.”
A necessary measure or a barrier to entry?
Thomas, a Democrat in his second term who represents the city at-large, is one of several Council members rumored to have aspirations for higher office. But there is not currently an obvious seat for him or his colleagues to seek.
Thomas said he is not currently interested in serving in Washington — he has two young children — but said he has some “amazing colleagues” who may want to run for Congress in the future.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas speaks during a City Council Committee on Legislative Oversight hearing held at the Museum of the American Revolution in April.
The resign-to-run rule has been codified in the Home Rule Charter since 1951 when the charter was established. Proponents have long said that public servants should not be influencing policy while campaigning for another office.
But others contend that the rule — which applies to Council members, row office holders, and members of the mayor’s administration — creates an unnecessary barrier for people who want to run for higher office but can’t financially withstand giving up their salary.
The rule also recently led to a handful of lawmaker vacancies. In 2022, six of City Council’s 17 members — including now-Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — resigned to run for mayor, at times making it complicated for the city’s legislative body to govern.
Ethics questions emerge
Multiple ethics officers said they oppose the change as it’s currently proposed. Jordana Greenwald, general counsel for the city’s Board of Ethics, said the board was not involved in drafting the rule change, and has a handful of “technical” concerns about its implementation.
“What we don’t want is for this to be passed and then it to become something where there are unintended problems or pitfalls for people who choose to take advantage,” Greenwald said.
Thomas said there is “plenty of time” to address the board’s concerns before passage. He is hopeful the legislation can be passed in time for a question to appear on the 2026 primary election ballot in May.
But Lauren Cristella, CEO of the good-government group Committee of Seventy, questioned the urgency and said Council should give the Board of Ethics time to do its “due diligence.”
While the Committee of Seventy has supported past attempts to repeal resign-to-run, Cristella said she does not understand the purpose of a carveout for members seeking state or federal office.
And she said any repeal should be paired with a three-term limit for Council members, who are currently not term limited.
“Philadelphians deserve comprehensive, not piecemeal, reform here,” she said.
Several Council members said they support Thomas’ legislation, pointing out that state and federal lawmakers do not need to resign from their jobs to seek higher office.
“It’s an issue of consistency across the board,” said Councilmember Cindy Bass, a Democrat who represents parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia. “It’s crazy when everyone’s doing something different.”
That’s the message Philadelphia city officials want to send to people considering illegally dumping garbage in the city as a new enforcement unit hits the streets.
The officers are armed with violation notices that could cost dumpers $5,000 per item. That means that tossing four tires into a vacant lot — which several years ago would have resulted in a ticket for a couple of hundred bucks, max — can now run a violator the price of a Honda and result in arrest.
The new unit of 40 officers focused on identifying the people who dump is part of an expanded task force that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced on Thursday. The group also includes a dozen people who monitor 400 surveillance cameras placed near frequent dumping sites, as well as partners in the police department who investigate severe cases.
“Part of the reason why people think it’s open season to illegally dump in the city of Philadelphia … it’s because they never thought that enforcement would occur,” Parker said. “Besides it being unsightly and unhealthy for people, it’s a crime.”
City officials said they have brought 17 cases against people who dumped waste illegally so far this year, resulting in more than $3.7 million in collected fines.
The mayor said her administration would ramp up that effort with the initiation of the task force.
“Philly ain’t playin’,” she said.
Members of the new Illegal Dumping Task Force stand during an introductory press conference with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at 10th and Courtland Streets in Philadelphia.
Parker made the announcement while standing in North Philadelphia’s infamous Logan Triangle, the 35-acre plot that has been an eyesore for the better part of 50 years. It was once home to hundreds of rowhouses, but the families moved out in the 1980s when it became clear their homes were sinking into the bed of the Wingohocking Creek.
Today, the triangle is a cautionary tale of failed redevelopment — a place where ideas like a basketball center or a dirt bike track or an apple orchard have never been realized. It is now, and has long been, a dumping site.
It’s also the site where, last week, two people were arrested for unloading trash, said Carlton Williams, the city’s director of clean and green initiatives.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker (right) and Carlton Williams (left) of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives announce stricter laws to combat illegal dumping during a news conference at Logan Triangle, a frequent dumping site at 10th and Courtland Streets, on Thursday in Philadelphia.
Not only could those people face criminal penalties, but the administration is focused on levying hefty fines and holding dumpers responsible for cleanup costs. The city is also newly fining people who hire contractors to short dump.
“We’re gonna hit you where it hurts: in the pocketbook,” Parker said.
Despite the spending, many in the city say dumping sites are a major problem. A 2023 Lenfest Institute for Journalism/SSRS poll of 1,200 Philadelphians found that six in 10 residents believed reducing dumping should be a top priority for the mayor. Concern was most acute among residents who are low-income, Black, and Latino.
City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat and a Parker ally whose district borders Logan Triangle, said the administration’s focus on illegal dumping can begin to remedy what she described as “extremely stressful” situations for residents who have long watched waste pile up near their homes without abatement.
“Our residents have done their part, and those calls for help went unanswered for a really, really long time,” Lozada said. “But today feels different.”
How to report illegal dumping
Anyone who sees illegal dumping happening can call 911. Residents who want to report illegal dumping after the fact can file a complaint through 311.
Philadelphia lawmakers are for the third time trying to pass legislation requiring that stores charge customers a fee for paper bags. And for the third time, it’s facing opposition from the mayor.
A City Council committee on Monday advanced legislation requiring all grocery stores, convenience shops, and other retailers in the city charge 10 cents per nonreusable bag. The goal is to update the city’s already existing ban on the plastic variety and encourage shoppers to bring their own bags.
The full Council could vote on the new legislation in the coming weeks. It is cosponsored by a majority of Council members, meaning it is likely to pass the chamber.
City Councilmember Mark Squilla, the architect of the plastic bag ban that first passed in 2019, said during the hearing Monday that he’s aiming to “change behavior.” The city says the use of paper bags has skyrocketed since the plastic bag ban took effect — studies show that while they are recyclable, unlike plastic, paper bags are still less energy efficient than reusable ones.
Squilla’s original plastic bag ban legislation included a required 15-cent fee on paper bags, but he stripped it from the bill after opposition from former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. In 2023, Council passed legislation to institute it, but Kenney issued a pocket veto, meaning he left office without taking action on the legislation, effectively killing it.
It wasn’t clear at the time if Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who was the incoming mayor, would support the legislation if it were reintroduced. She made cleaning and greening the city a top campaign promise, and environmental advocates hoped she’d support efforts to reduce single-use bag reliance.
But one of Parker’s top officials testified in opposition to the legislation Monday.
Carlton Williams, the director of Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, called Squilla’s effort well-intentioned. But he said charging bag fees could disproportionately impact low-income Philadelphians experiencing high grocery costs, “especially given the current economy.” He also said the fees could push shoppers out of the city and harm mom-and-pop businesses that already operate with low margins.
Councilmember Mark Squilla takes his seat in Council chambers on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, before a scheduled committee vote. Squilla authored legislation requiring stores charge a fee for paper bags.
If the legislation passes Council, Parker could sign or veto it. She could also let it lapse into law without her signature. If she vetoed the legislation — it would be her first since taking office last year — Council could override her veto with 12 votes out of the 17-member chamber.
When the paper bag bill was introduced in 2019, members of Kenney’s administration also said at the time that they were concerned that fees on paper bags would hurt the poorest Philadelphians. Former City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez similarly described it as akin to a regressive tax.
However, proponents of the legislation said Monday that they don’t think the argument holds up.
Maurice Sampson, the eastern Pennsylvania director of the environmental group Clean Water Action, said prices on essentials such as food could rise for everyone if stores absorb the costs of paper bags.
“There is no foundation or basis,” he said, ”in the idea that fees on bags will hurt low-income people.”
There’s a smoke shop in North Philly peddling recreational drugs across the street from a daycare. A West Philly storefront that sells loose cigarettes on a residential block. A convenience store in Spring Garden that advertises urine to people looking to pass a drug test.
These are among the so-called nuisance businesses that City Council members and neighborhood association leaders cited Monday as lawmakers advanced legislation to make it easier for the city to shut down stores that sell cannabis and tobacco products without licenses.
And legislators said their next target could be the landlords who rent space to those businesses.
“We have to work with our city departments and our state partners to clamp down on these businesses,” said City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who represents the city at-large. “We’re just being inundated.”
Members of Council’s Committee on Licenses and Inspections passed two bills Monday that city officials say seek to close loopholes store owners exploit to avoid being cited for failing to obtain proper permits.
In introducing the legislation earlier this year, Gilmore Richardson cited an Inquirer report about Pennsylvania’s unregulated hemp stores, which sell products advertised as legal hemp that are often black market cannabis or contaminated with illicit toxins.
One bill makes it easier for the city to shut down nuisance businesses by removing language that classifies some violations as criminal matters, requiring that the police investigate them as crimes rather than civil violations that are quicker to adjudicate.
The second piece of legislation makes it illegal for businesses to essentially reorganize under a new name but conduct the same operations as a means of evading enforcement.
Both pieces of legislation could come up for a full vote in the Democratic-dominated City Council in the coming weeks. Members of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration testified in favor of them, meaning the mayor is likely to sign both.
A smoke shop in South Philadelphia.
Neighborhood association leaders also testified Monday in favor of the changes, but several said more aggressive enforcement is needed. They said smoke shops in particular have popped up throughout their commercial corridors, as have convenience stores that don’t even have licenses to operate as businesses, let alone sell recreational drugs.
“We’ve seen firsthand the selling of illegal drug paraphernalia and [loose cigarettes], many of which children walk past in order to get to the candy bars and seniors walk past to get to the milk,” said Heather Miller, of the Lawncrest Community Association. “We need to address this.”
Elaine Petrossian, a Democratic ward leader in Center City and a community activist, called for “much” higher fines and penalties for landlords. She cited progress the municipal government has made in New York City, where authorities cracked down on building owners who knowingly rented space to tenants selling cannabis or tobacco without licenses to do so.
Several lawmakers said they’d support a similar approach. Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents a district that spans from South Philadelphia to Kensington, said landlords must be held “more accountable.”
“If they had some skin in the game, maybe they’d think twice about renting to an illegal operation,” he said.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, agreed. She said she recently attempted to meet with a building owner who rents space to a problematic smoke shop in her district, but was rebuffed.
“He was like, ‘These people pay me rent, and that’s the extent to which I basically care,’” Gauthier said. “We need something that forces property owners to be more accountable than that, because neighbors are suffering.”
Staff writers Max Marin and Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.
