The action inside the gates of a Department of Streets yard in North Philadelphia hours before impending snow looks like a ballet.
An ensemble of tri-axle dump trucks wait in the wings (behind an orange traffic cone). Center stage (a salt dome), the excavator scoops up tons of rock salt in its jaws. The first truck makes its entrance and pirouettes (a three-point turn), while the excavator stretches its long arm, unloading heaps of salt into the truck bed. Then, a trumpet (the “beep” of a car horn) ushers the dump truck off (out through the yard’s gates).
“This is a matter of life and death in some cases if we don’t get this right,” Carlton Williams, director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said of the city’s road operations at a news conference Sunday. “We’re fighting it continuously.”
Tackling this snow event is a vast and complicated system, requiring a revolving cast of roughly 600 pieces of equipment and more than 1,000 employees, including contractors, and people and vehicles — like compactor trash trucks with plows attached — pulled in from other departments, officials said. It also calls for some improv, moving and adjusting with the ever-changing weather. This dance is sometimes more akin to organized chaos than choreography.
The curtain call time was 10 p.m. Saturday at the North Philadelphia yard for crews assigned to 151 different routes on the primary thruways, like Broad Street. At 11 p.m., the residential fleet — which handles 133 routes on smaller secondary and tertiary roads — clocked in. More staff were scheduled to arrive at staggered times throughout the storm.
There are roughly a hundred back-end staff working behind the curtain: They are the choreographers, tasked with managing crews, inputting data, monitoring street camera footage, and responding to phone calls or issues. They are in it for the long haul, prepared to spend days in front of a computer armed with spare clothes, a stockpile of food, caffeine, and personal hygiene products.
The drivers are assigned routes and vehicles, then fill up with salt — of which there were roughly 30,000 tons, or more than 66 million pounds, in storage Saturday night. The trucks leave the yard and typically head to the top of their route and await the OK to start plowing.
According to Williams, crews had been clearing since 5 a.m. Sunday. Snow must be expeditiously removed from the streets before salt can be spread. And with this storm, there was limited timing to get that done before the precipitation turned icy and whatever was on the ground froze. Just after noon, the snow was seemingly over, giving way to sleet.
Officials also deployed “lifting operations” Sunday afternoon to scoop up large snow piles amassed in the densest neighborhoods and deposit them elsewhere. One option was a trailer-sized snow melting machine, which liquefies 135 tons of snow per hour
Nearly a quarter century ago, Black activists fought relentlessly to memorialize the lives of nine people enslaved at the first presidential mansion. On Saturday, the leader of that decade-long battle rallied a new fight.
Michael Coard, an attorney and founding member of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), pledged to restore the slavery memorial at the President’s House Site on Independence Mall and said his group will not concede on the exhibit’s location or its content, despite efforts from federal officials to sanitize and erase the outdoor museum.
“Our goal, first and foremost, is to remain at that site — intact,” Coard told a roughly 60-person crowd at an unrelated event at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. “There’s only one first White House where Black people were enslaved. … There are no alternatives.”
This week, the National Park Service dismantled all the educational displays and illustrations, including those titled “Life Under Slavery” and “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” at the memorial on the corner of Sixth and Market Streets. The site was the latest casualty in President Donald Trump’s push to remove all displays and other content that he has said “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” from federal land — what some have called an attempt to whitewash history.
Coard, whose group has been stewarding and championing the exhibits since 2002, said Avenging the Ancestors is mounting a multipronged response; he alluded to a legal strategy but would not elaborate. (Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration filed a lawsuit Thursday arguing that the removal of the exhibits is unlawful.)
There has been an outpouring of sorrow and appreciation for the exhibits and anger at Trump’s administration. On Friday, small tokens — a rose, a bouquet of flowers, and a sign that read “Slavery was real” — were left at the site. A group of teachers on their lunch break taped up dozens of posters reading “Learn all history” and “History is real.” The signs were gone as of Saturday morning; by the afternoon, new tributes had spawned. One event promoted online encouraged Philadelphia artists to craft replicas of the removed displays.
Michael Carver portrays colonial merchant and soldier Mordecai Sheftall during a “History Matters” event Saturday at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park. Displays at the site were dismantled by the National Park Service last week.
“We support and commend those who are doing something,” Coard told The Inquirer after the event, which honored the inaugural graduates of Mother Bethel’s “Freedom School,” a 10-week course on African American history. “If that’s simply liking a social media post about resisting, do that. If it’s taking signs and other items down to the site, do that. … Stand up, fight back, and resist.”
“Our history is our history. It is our willingness to learn from it that makes America exceptional and the greatest country on Earth, on our journey to become a more perfect union,” McCormick wrote on X, responding to The Inquirer’s reporting.
In the same post, McCormick said he also invoked this reasoning when he opposed renaming military bases, like Fort Bragg, after Confederate generals and the park service’s proposal (which was later retracted) to remove a statue of William Penn in Philadelphia in 2024.
Fort Bragg was named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg before former President Joe Biden’s administration changed it to Fort Liberty. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth changed it back to Bragg, but in honor of Roland L. Bragg, whom the Defense Department describes as a “World War II hero,” NPR reported.
McCormick appears to be one of the first Pennsylvania Republicans — if not the only one — to weigh in against the exhibits’ removal. Democratic lawmakers across the region have also expressed their disapproval.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) called the NPS decision “deeply wrong and misguided” in a statement emailed to The Inquirer on Saturday.
“America is the best country in the world. Our history is filled with the greatest sacrifices to the most awful chapters. Teach all of it,” Fetterman said.
The erasure of the site — which captured the somber paradox of a young America that exalted freedom for some but deprived others of it — comes ahead of the country’s Semiquincentennial celebrations, when Philadelphia will be in the national spotlight.
The Rev. Carolyn Cavaness of Mother Bethel said it was a blow to her heart to see the exhibits removed. Mother Bethel is a hub for activism and the oldest church property in the United States to be owned continually by Black people. Bishop Richard Allen, the former slave, educator, and Methodist lay preacher who founded the church, was featured at the site.
“There’s something about the full story being told, and for that piece of this story to just be ripped away, I think it even mobilizes … preserving, protecting, sharing our story and our contributions,” Cavaness said. “It just ups the ante.”
With a snowstorm bearing down, Philadelphia-area restaurant and bar owners spent Saturday weighing whether to stay open, limit hours, or close altogether — balancing safety concerns against the reality that snow days can sometimes drive business.
Heavy snow is historically a mixed proposition for the hospitality industry, especially in the city. After the 30.7-inch snowfall in January 1996, for example, The Inquirer reported that the chef at Moriarty’s restaurant slept overnight in a booth and awoke to record crowds, fueled by nearby hotel guests, hospital workers, and neighborhood regulars trudging through the drifts.
Similar dynamics could still play out in dense neighborhoods, where many bar customers and employees live within walking distance — especially given the fact that Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores will be closed Sunday.
This weekend’s forecast, however, arrives at a sensitive moment. The storm threatens to disrupt Center City District Restaurant Week; of the 120 participating restaurants, most were counting on strong Sunday sales.
A spot check of local restaurants and bars shows a wide range of approaches. Ember & Ash and River Twice in South Philadelphia plan to close Sunday, as do Southgate, Wilder, and Leo in Center City and Fleur’s and Amá in Kensington. Suraya in Fishtown plans to close for brunch but open for dinner. Gather Food Hall in University City will be closed Sunday and Monday. Others, including Uchi in Rittenhouse, and Hannah K’s in Point Breeze, were still evaluating conditions Saturday.
Stephen Starr said he expected his 19 Philadelphia restaurants to be open Sunday, though he planned to reassess conditions in the morning. “Parc never closes,” Starr said of his brasserie, a Rittenhouse Square stalwart. “No matter what.”
Customers crowding the bar at Ponder Bar in Kensington on Jan. 21, 2026.
Matt Kuziemski said his newly opened Ponder Bar in Kensington would be open, in part because he lives nearby. “I’ll set expectations,” he said. “Come in for something simple — cozy up or grab takeout.”
At the Little Gay Pub in Washington Square West, co-owner Dito Sevilla said the bar plans to open. “We have done what we can to make sure staff has places to stay and can commute on foot for the next few days,” Sevilla said. “We’ve got enough booze stored up for a storm or two.”
Other operators are taking a wait-and-see approach. Dave Conn, chef-owner of Alice in South Philadelphia, said Saturday that he would decide Sunday morning. “If it’s eight or nine inches or less [of snow], we’d probably open,” Conn said. “Anything crazy where it might be unsafe for staff coming and going, we’d probably close.”
Hotel restaurants are more likely to remain open, largely because many are housing employees. About 30 staff members are staying overnight at the Logan Hotel, which houses Urban Farmer steakhouse and Assembly Rooftop Lounge, while roughly 20 employees are being accommodated at Hotel Palomar, home to Square 1682.
Aleks Alimpijevic of Restaurant Aleksandar in Rittenhouse said the restaurant would be open for lunch Sunday, serving its Restaurant Week menu, but would close for dinner and remain closed Monday, its normal day off.
In the suburbs, Sydney Grims of Fearless Restaurants said she was monitoring conditions but hoped to open Triple Crown at the Radnor Hotel and Rosalie at the Wayne Hotel. “Our staff’s safety is priority number one,” she said, noting both properties have generator backup.
Justin Weathers, co-owner of several suburban restaurants, including Stove & Tap, said staffing decisions depend heavily on who lives nearby. “If the snow starts to accumulate, then we cut third-party apps as well,” he said.
Third-party delivery from companies such as DoorDash and Grubhub was not a thing in 1996. Philadelphia’s snow emergency declaration, issued ahead of the storm, does not automatically ban driving. A Grubhub spokesperson said the company may proactively pause deliveries in certain areas ahead of severe weather and continue doing so on a rolling basis to prioritize safety. If deliveries remain available and restaurants stay open, customers are encouraged to be patient, as delivery times may be longer.
Large-scale caterers face additional logistical challenges. Joe Volpe, owner of Cescaphe, said his company, which handles events at nine local venues, was relieved that the storm was forecast to begin late Saturday night rather than earlier. Cescaphe had four weddings and a 300-person anniversary party scheduled for Saturday, but only one wedding on Sunday.
Cescaphe is preparing extra food for guests who may arrive early or stay overnight due to travel disruptions, Volpe said, adding that safety remains the priority. Weddings, he noted, leave little room for rescheduling. “It’s rain or shine — there are no makeups, no do-overs,” he said. “We’re going to be there, and we’ll do everything possible to make it happen.”
The storm is also rippling through the supply chain. Mark Oltman, chief financial officer of Foods Galore, said the South Jersey distributor urged customers to complete deliveries by Saturday for food needed through Monday. “Most places are telling us they won’t be open Sunday and possibly not even Monday,” Oltman said. “As much as we want to service our customers, we’re never going to put our people at risk.”
Winter weather, he added, compounds an already slow season. “January and February are tough,” Oltman said. “You finally get into a rhythm, and then winter shows up and wipes it out.”
Still, some view snow days as part of the city’s fabric. “Bar-hopping during snowstorms in Philadelphia are great memories of mine,” Weathers said.
After the coldest morning of the winter, Philadelphia could experience more snow this weekend than it did during the entire winter of 2024-25, accompanied by a potentially nasty mix of ice.
The National Weather Service on Saturday was holding serve on its call for 8 to 12 inches in and around Philly, and those amounts may be tweaked depending on the best guesses on how much sleet and freezing rain enters the mix. AccuWeather Inc. was going with 6 to 10.
Subtle changes to accumulation forecasts are likely, but that merely would mean, “We’re just getting a different blend of horrors,” said Mike Lee, a meteorologist in the Mount Holly office.
One thing is certain: Whatever falls won’t melt. Temperatures dropped into single digits throughout the region, and got as low as 11 at the Philadelphia International Airport banana belt. . Temperatures won’t get above the mid-20s while anything is falling from the skies Sunday and early Monday.
The weather service has issued a profoundly predictable winter storm warning, in effect from 7 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. Monday.
Whatever the outcome, the storm still in its formative stage already has had significant impacts on the region and may have set an unofficial record for pre-storm buildup and preemptive closings.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker declared a state of emergency for Sunday, as did Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. PennDot is imposing speed restrictions. SEPTA is expecting issues.
Some schools already were planning for multiple-day closings, as the snow and ice will be accompanied by one of the region’s more impressive cold snaps of the last several years.
Were it not for the storm, in fact, the cold might be getting headlines.
Wind chills Saturday morning are expected to drop below zero. Sunday’s high of 25 degrees may make it the warmest day of the week.
It is likely that layers of snow and ice will harden into a frozen mass that the January sun won’t be able to do a whole lot about.
As a public service, for now we will hold off on mentioning another potential storm threat.
The latest on the timing of the storm in Philly
While the weather service warning goes into effect 7 p.m. Saturday, flake sightings could hold off until daybreak Sunday, said Alex Staarmann, a weather service meteorologist.
Snow may accumulate rapidly Sunday morning with temperatures in the teens. Models were suggesting sleet could mix in as soon as early afternoon, said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
Temperatures in the bottom 5,500 feet of the atmosphere are going to remain well below freezing. However, as the coastal storm intensifies, its onshore winds from the northeast are forecast to import warmer air from over the ocean into the upper atmosphere, which would change the snow to sleet and rain.
It’s possible the precipitation will flip back to all snow and accumulate maybe another inch early Monday, Staarmann said. But at that point it would have all the impact of drizzle in the ocean. The mass of snow and ice evidently will be vacationing in Philly for a while.
“It will stick around for a week, maybe two weeks,” Staarmann said.
How much for Philly?
Just how much snow and ice would be on the ground remained unclear Friday. And it’s all but certain the projections are going to change. For the record, a grand total of 8.1 inches fell all of last season in Philly.
Louis Uccellini, former head of the National Weather Service and one of the nation’s most prominent winter-storm experts, said some later modeling was cutting back on the ice in areas west of the city, suggesting the possibility of higher snow amounts.
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“It’s not that we’re getting 2 to 4 [inches],” said Staarmann. “We’re going to get a lot of snow.”
However, some icing was a near certainty throughout the region.
The ice potential for the Philly region
The weather service is predicting a quarter-inch of freezing rain, which is probably about the last thing the people at Peco wanted to hear. Freezing rain is a greater threat to power lines and trees than sleet.
Yes, Peco is well aware of the storm and has crews on standby, said spokesperson Candace Womack.
Sleet develops when a partially melted snowflake or rain drop freezes on the way to the ground. It doesn’t accumulate efficiently like snowflakes. Freezing rain is rain that doesn’t turn to ice until it lands on a surface and freezes on contact.
During a winter storm, both hold down snow accumulations. Typically, an inch of liquid precipitation can yield a foot of snow. A similar amount of liquid would yield about 4 inches of sleet.
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Both can fall when surface temperatures are well below freezing, if the upper air is warm enough.
A big difference is that sleet bounces off surfaces, but ice gloms onto them, a menace to power lines and tree branches.
An ice storm resulted in over 700,000 Peco outages in 2014, a winter record. In that case, freezing rain came 18 hours after a heavy snowfall.
An overnight freezing rain storm swept through the Philadelphia region Feb. 5, 2014, leaving downed trees and power lines in its wake, along with icicles everywhere as evidenced by these streets signs in Downingtown.
When will the snow and ice disappear?
The snow and ice are going to be around for as far as the computer models can see. Temperatures may not get above freezing the rest of the month, as NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has the odds favoring below normal temperatures through Feb. 6.
The U.S. model was indicating another storm threat for around Groundhog Day, a week from Monday, Uccellini said.
But as large and disruptive as this storm will likely be, it will have a difficult time cracking the list of the top January snowstorms in Philly history.
This storm isn’t that, though thanks to a dangerous component of sleet and ice it will impact a large swath of the country, from West Texas to Maine.
It would take 12.3 inches of snow for this latest storm to make its way on to the list of the snowiest January storms in Philly history. That would match a 1922 event dubbed the “Knickerbocker storm” because snow caused the collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C., killing 98 people, which remains the worst natural disaster in the city’s history.
Here’s the full list of the Philly snowfalls of a foot or more in January history:
30.7 inches: Jan. 7-8, 1996
22.4 inches: Jan. 22-23, 2016
16.7 inches: Jan. 22-23, 1935
15.1 inches: Jan. 26-27, 2011
13.5 inches: Jan. 21-22, 2014
13.2 inches: Jan. 19-20, 1961
13.2 inches: Jan. 19-20, 1978
12.6 inches: Jan. 22-23, 2005
12.3 inches: Jan. 28-29, 1922
Top 10 snowstorms in Philadelphia history
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I have walked through Independence National Historical Park many times looking at the many interpretive panels, exhibits and historical materials after President Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025 Executive Order 14253.
“You Are Here” sign in the square behind Independence Hall July 23, 2025.
Titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the order directed the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, to review over 400 national sites to remove or modify interpretive materials that it deems “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).” The order aimed to focus on the “greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
At first I looked at the many interpretive panels, videos, exhibits and historical materials in Independence Hall, Liberty Bell Center, President’s House and Ben Franklin Museum, wondering which ones the Interior Secretary might identify that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology.”
An Uncle Same hatted headband is left on a park bench Philadelphia’s Historic District during the Independence Day weekend celebrations Jul. 2, 2025.
I took a lot of photos, but realized there wasn’t a way I could write a caption reading, “the administration doesn’t like what this panel says about slavery.” So I put any photos I made in a file for later use.
In July, the New York Times broke the story that employees of the National Park Service had been flagging descriptions and displays at scores of parks and historic sites around the country for review — and they had examples of a few here in Philadelphia.
The next day, armed with the specific panels at the Liberty Bell and the President’s House they reported, I went back and re-photographed them all for our own story.
My colleague Fallon Roth obtained and reviewed the internal comments submitted by NPS employees here with many more details so in the following days I made many more photos.
I was even told to re-photograph some panels for a third time, grumbling (to myself) when told “we need higher resolution versions, shot head on, without any distortion,” for an interactive project. Which, I had to admit later (again, to myself) turned out great!
The President’s House came under particular scrutiny, and the removal of noncompliant displays was initially slated to come on Sept. 17.
Farugh Maat, with Avenging the Ancestors, Coalition, takes down signs at the President’s House exhibit following a ceremony on the site Dec. 21, 2025 marking the 15th anniversary of its opening. The photo at left, known as “The Scourged Back” is copy of one that was removed from display at Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia following an order from President Trump’s “disparaging” executive order.
The administration’s deadline came and went. We got tips that signs had been altered, but I checked, and nothing actually happened. Until Thursday.
I was on assignment near Independence Hall, and as always, walked through the President’s House. It was quiet except for a local TV news crew using Independence Mall as a location for their report on this weekend’s coming winter storm.
Later while editing that assignment, we got a tip that workers with tape measures where looking and poking around “behind the panels” there. I rushed down where my colleague Maggie Prosser was already asking them what they were up to.
I photographed the entire removal, and was joined by photographer Elizabeth Robertson who even made an overall photo from our newsroom overlooking the site.
Finally, I ended up returning after dark, just because.
A single rose and a handwritten cardboard sign – “Slavery is part of U.S. history learn from the past of repeat it”- are inside an empty hearth at the President’s House site Thursday night, Jan. 22, 2026 after workers removed display panels.
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
January 19, 2026: A low-in-the-sky winter sun is behind the triangular pediment of the “front door” of the open-air President’s House installation in Independence National Historical Park. The reconstructed “ghost” structure with partial walls and windows of the Georgian home known in the 18th century as 190 High St. is officially titled, “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” (2010). It is designed to give visitors a sense of the house where the first two presidents of the United States, George Washington and John Adams, served their terms of office. The commemorative site designed by Emanuel Kelly, with Kelly/Maiello Architects, pays homage to nine enslaved people of African descent who were part of the Washington household with videos scripted by Lorene Cary and directed by Louis Massiah. Deepika Iyer holds her niece Ira Samudra aloft in a Rockyesque pose, while her parents photograph their 8 month-old daughter, in front of the famous movie prop at the top of the steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Iyer lives in Philadelphia and is hosting a visit by her mother Vijayalakshmi Ramachandran (partially hidden); brother Gautham Ramachandran; and her sister-in-law Janani Gautham who all live in Bangalore, India.January 5, 2026: Parade marshals trail behind the musicians of the Greater Kensington String Band heading to their #9 position start in the Mummers Parade. Spray paint by comic wenches earlier in the day left “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” shadows on the pavement of Market Street. This year marked the 125th anniversary of Philly’s iconic New Year’s Day celebration.Dec. 29, 2025: Canada geese at sunrise in Evans Pond in Haddonfield, during the week of the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. December 22, 2025: SEPTA trolley operator Victoria Daniels approaches the end of the Center City Tunnel, heading toward the 40th Street trolley portal after a tour to update the news media on overhead wire repairs in the closed tunnel due to unexpected issues from new slider parts.December 15, 2025: A historical interpreter waits at the parking garage elevators headed not to a December crossing of the Delaware River, but an event at the National Constitution Center. General George Washington was on his way to an unveiling of the U.S. Mint’s new 2026 coins for the Semiquincentennial, December 8, 2025: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and pedestrians on the Delaware River Trail are reflected in mirrored spheres of the “Weaver’s Knot: Sheet Bend” public artwork on Columbus Boulevard. The site-specific stainless steel piece located between the Cherry Street and Race Street Piers was commissioned by the City’s Public Art Office and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and created and installed in 2022 by the design and fabrication group Ball-Nogues Studio. The name recalls a history that dominated the region for hundreds of years. “Weaver’s knot” derives from use in textile mills and the “Sheet bend” or “sheet knot” was used on sailing vessels for bending ropes to sails. November 29, 2025: t’s ginkgo time in our region again when the distinctive fan-shaped leaves turn yellow and then, on one day, lose all their leaves at the same time laying a carpet on city streets and sidewalks. A squirrel leaps over leaves in the 18th Century Garden in Independence National Historical Park Nov. 25, 2025. The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is considered a living fossil as it’s the only surviving species of a group of trees that existed before dinosaurs. Genetically, it has remained unchanged over the past 200 million years. William Hamilton, owner the Woodlands in SW Phila (no relation to Alexander Hamilton) brought the first ginkgo trees to North America in 1785.November 24, 2025: The old waiting room at 30th Street Station that most people only pass through on their way to the restrooms has been spiffed up with benches – and a Christmas tree. It was placed there this year in front of the 30-foot frieze, “The Spirit of Transportation” while the lobby of Amtrak’s $550 million station restoration is underway. The 1895 relief sculpture by Karl Bitter was originally hung in the Broad Street Station by City Hall, but was moved in 1933. It depicts travel from ancient to modern and even futuristic times. November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.” November 8, 2025: Multitasking during the Festival de Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – in South Philadelphia.November 1, 2025: Marcy Boroff is at City Hall dressed as a Coke can, along with preschoolers and their caregivers, in support of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2017 tax on sweetened beverages. City Council is considering repealing the tax, which funds the city’s pre-K programs. October 25, 2025: Austin Gabauer, paint and production assistant at the Johnson Atelier, in Hamilton Twp, N.J. as the finished “O” letter awaits the return to Philadelphia. The “Y” part of the OY/YO sculpture is inside the painting booth. The well-known sculpture outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was removed in May while construction continues on Market Street and has been undergoing refurbishment at the Atelier at the Grounds for Sculpture outside of Trenton.October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.
Rocky already has a perfectly good spot. People find it. They take photos. They run the steps. They leave happy. The city gets its tourism moment without blocking views, rerouting pedestrians, or turning the top of the Art Museum steps into a permanent selfie bottleneck.
Moving the statue to the top isn’t about improving the experience — it’s about maximizing it. More drama. More branding. More spectacle. And, quietly, more privatization of space that used to just be… there.
That’s the part that grates. The Art Museum grounds have been slowly filling up with things that make sense individually — pop-ups, shops, events, installations — but collectively start to feel like you need a reason, a ticket, or a purchase to exist there. Rocky at the top isn’t just a statue move; it’s another inch taken from a public place that worked fine as-is.
There’s also the price tag. Spending up to a quarter-million dollars to relocate a movie prop in a city that can’t reliably maintain sidewalks or fund its parks feels, at best, tone-deaf. At worst, it sends the message that the view matters more than access.
Rocky is supposed to represent the everyman. Putting him on a pedestal, literally, kind of misses the point.
Leave him where he is. Let the steps belong to everyone.
Doug Taylor (center) of Collingswood, sledding with his 3-1/2 year old grandson Will, waits for a space to open up on the crowded hill in the Haddonfield Friends Meeting cemetery on Jan. 6, 2025. “This is the best day ever!” said Will, about his first real experience with snow.
Snow is beautiful. Everything else about it is not: A for the initial excitement and beauty, F for the cleanup
The snow itself? Gorgeous. Magical. Instagrammable. The Wissahickon is about to look like a snow globe and for about 12 minutes, we will all pretend winter is charming.
The problem is everything that comes with it.
The grocery stores are already stripped bare like a snowstorm personally offended them. Bread is gone. Milk is gone. Eggs are gone. Somehow the rotisserie chickens are gone. People who have never once made French toast are suddenly preparing for a weeklong siege.
Then there’s the shoveling. The bending. The freezing. The part where you convince yourself it won’t be that bad and then immediately regret every life choice once your boots hit the sidewalk. And that’s before you remember some forecasts are floating numbers as high as 17 inches.
Group chats will fill with radar screenshots and passive-aggressive optimism. “Let’s see how it looks Sunday morning,” someone will say, knowing full well no one is leaving the house.
And yes, we’re all rooting for the plows. We always do. We say their names like prayers. We lower our expectations just enough to avoid heartbreak, but not enough to stop hoping.
An F because while snow may be pretty, it is also disruptive, exhausting, and a logistical nightmare that turns adults into meteorologists and grocery shoppers into survivalists. Enjoy the view. Then grab a shovel.
An artistic rendering of the hologram PETA is offering to replace Punxsutawney Phil.
PETA wants Punxsutawney Phil replaced with a hologram. Pennsylvania says absolutely not: A
Every January, right on schedule, PETA shows up with a new proposal to fix Groundhog Day. And every January, Pennsylvania responds with the same energy it reserves for people who suggest putting ketchup on a cheesesteak.
This year’s idea: Retire Punxsutawney Phil to a sanctuary and replace him with a massive, color-changing 3D hologram. A digital marmot. A Bluetooth rodent. Phil, but make it Coachella.
The problem isn’t animal welfare — it’s that Groundhog Day is not a TED Talk. It’s a pre-dawn ritual involving cold fingers, bad coffee, and a collective agreement to believe in something deeply unserious. Turning Phil into a hologram misses the point entirely. If people wanted a clean, efficient, high-tech weather forecast, they would simply look at their phones and go back to bed.
The most Pennsylvania response came from Josh Shapiro, who posted a photo of Phil with “DON’T TREAD ON ME,” effectively summarizing the state constitution in four words. This is not a debate about projections versus puppets. It’s about tradition versus disruption, and Pennsylvania will pick tradition every time, even when it makes no sense.
Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez throws during the third inning of Game 3 of baseball’s NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Wait, we loved Ranger Suárez. How did we get his name wrong?: C
This one landed like finding out you’ve been calling a close friend by the wrong nickname for years… not out of malice, just momentum.
Because Philly didn’t just like Ranger Suárez. Philly loved him. He was homegrown. Trusted. October-tested. His walk-up song was literally “Mr. Rager.” We chanted it. We printed it. We built a whole vibe around it. And somehow, in all that time, nobody stopped to say, “Hey, by the way, is this right?”
The funny part is that this revelation didn’t come with tension or correction. It came with grace. Of course it did. Suárez wasn’t scolding anyone. He wasn’t reclaiming anything. He was just explaining, gently, to a new city, while reassuring the old one that we didn’t need to panic.
A mock front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer as seen in Season 5 of “Abbott Elementary.”
‘Abbott Elementary’ puts The Inquirer on the front page and nails the vibe: A
This could’ve gone sideways fast. A fictional front page cameo is exactly the kind of thing that can feel smug, indulgent, or weirdly self-important.
In this week’s episode, the paper shows up to cover Abbott’s unexpected success while the school operates out of an abandoned mall. The headline is glowing. The teachers react. Janine beams. Melissa checks whether her quote made it in. Barbara does a victory lap. And then, crucially, the moment passes.
Because in Philly, a front page is not the finish line. It’s a moment.
The district still drags its feet. The construction crew gets reassigned. The attention becomes something administrators can point to instead of acting on. That’s the joke, and it’s a sharp one. Abbott understands that recognition often arrives right before progress stalls, not when it accelerates.
The Four Seasons drops a $25,000-a-night penthouse and Philly blinks twice: B-
Look, nobody is confused about who this is for. It’s still jarring to see the number written down.
For that price, you get 4,000 square feet, sweeping views, curated art, wellness rooms, and menus tied to Vernick Fish and Jean-Georges. Luxury, in other words, is being taken extremely seriously.
And to be fair, this makes sense on paper. Philly is bracing for a monster tourism year with the World Cup, the Semiquincentennial, and a calendar stuffed to the margins. High-end visitors are coming, and the city would like to make sure they don’t stay in New York and commute down like it’s a day trip.
Still, there’s something very Philly about the collective reaction here, which is less awe than quiet disbelief. Not outrage. Not moral panic. Just a pause, followed by: Who is actually booking this?
Because this is a city where luxury tends to coexist awkwardly with reality. A $25,000-a-night penthouse sits a few blocks from potholes, delayed trains, and a whole lot of people who are very proud of finding a good deal.
Maria Cozamanis and Romina Ustayev in episode 101 of “Members Only: Palm Beach.”
Philly somehow gets dragged into a Palm Beach reality show: D
This isn’t fun, campy reality TV. It’s stiff, glossy, and deeply invested in rules that feel made up for the sole purpose of excluding someone. The clothes are loud, the behavior is small, and the hierarchy is treated like gospel. Everyone is performing wealth as if it’s a full-time job, and no one seems to be enjoying it.
Set in the orbit of Mar-a-Lago, the show mistakes proximity to power for personality. Conversations revolve around who belongs where, how to dress “properly,” and which customs are acceptable. It’s uncomfortable in a way that feels less accidental than the show probably intends.
The Philly connection only adds to the weirdness. Aside from one recognizable name, these aren’t women who reflect anything most people here recognize as Philly culture. They don’t feel local. They feel imported, like a version of “high society” that got lost on the way to a country club and wandered onto Netflix instead.
And yet, it’s weirdly watchable. Not because it’s good, but because it’s baffling. The kind of show you finish not feeling entertained, just slightly grimy and confused about how this became the vibe.
We’ll show you a photo taken in the Philly-area, you drop a pin where you think it was taken. Closer to the location results in a better score. This week’s theme is all about snow! Good luck!
Round #17
Question 1
Where is this person waiting for the bus?
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ClickTap on map to guess the location in the photo
ClickTap again to change your guess and hit submit when you're happy
You will be scored at the end. The closer to the location the better the score
Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
This is the Independence Hall hole at the Philly Mini Golf course in Franklin Square Park. Until February 16, the entire course will be Winter themed with lights, seasonal music, and occasional inflatable snowman.
Quiz continues after ad
Question 3
Where are these folks shoveling?
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Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
Service workers at the Philadelphia Zoo are shoveling snow on a parking lot near the new “Pherris Wheel.” This new observation wheel that will remain through America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
Your Score
ARank
Amazing work. A Winter wonderland of knowledge.
BRank
Good stuff. You’re a real snowman.
CRank
C is a passing grade, but you nearly slipped.
DRank
D isn’t great. That was an avalanche of bad answers.
FRank
We don’t want to say you failed, but you didn’t not fail.
You beat % of other Inquirer readers.
We’ll be back next Saturday for another round of Citywide Quest.
Kelsey Fuentes of Philadelphia (front) chants “No more money for ICE’s crime” as she marches east on Market Street during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest march that began at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.A transgender woman from Philadelphia holds up her sign during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.Protesters gather during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.Alex Kilcullen of King of Prussia (seated) participates during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. Kilcullen is from the Deer clan of the Cherokee tribe.Community College of Philadelphia leaders Maritsa Hernandez-Orsini (left) and Maria Baez were vocal during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.Protesters gather during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.Protesters march up Eighth Street, towards the immigration offices, during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.Courtney Mitchell of Philadelphia (right) during the Philly stands with Minneapolis Ice Out For Good protest at Philadelphia’s City Hall on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.
Brace yourself for the cold, Philadelphians, because the first double-digit snowfall in 10 years is potentially heading our way, followed by sub-freezing temperatures that could last the rest of the month.
Since nowhere is safe from the cold, here are some tips on how to keep yourself from freezing and your property from damage (no burst pipes in sight):
Staying indoors is the best way to keep frostbite and hypothermia at bay, but some must brave the temperature for work, other needs, or emergencies, as even waiting for the bus can take longer if SEPTA experiences storm-related service delays.
With temperatures forecast in the teens and lower 20s, it is important to keep an eye on your core temperature.
When you rapidly lose heat or stay wet for too long, it can cause hypothermia, even indoors. This can affect your brain and body, causing slurred speech, confusion, clumsiness, and extreme tiredness.
Continued exposure to the cold can cause frostbite, as blood stops reaching your fingers, nose, ears, and extremities properly. You can get frostbite even under winter clothing, and it can lead to losing the affected body parts. If you start feeling tingling, numbness, or your skin looks gray or pale, head indoors.
Frostbite can happen without hypothermia symptoms, and vice versa. Children, older adults, and people with circulation issues are especially at risk
To prevent both afflictions, stay dry, covered, and layered up, keeping your skin from being exposed.
Four out of five warming centers reached capacity on Thursday, but the city plans to open more and add beds as needed.
The warming centers remain open at select libraries from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. And shelter beds have been added under the Code Blue declaration.
Some recreation centers will also serve as warming centers from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. Find the selected libraries and recreation centers closest to you on the city’s interactive map of warming centers.
Folks in need of a warm place can go to their local police precinct to be transported to the nearest warming center.
Broken bones and head trauma are no fun. Stay grounded by wearing footwear with enough traction (no sneakers or dress shoes), or traction cleats.
You can’t control the city roads, but salting your sidewalk properly can help avoid starting your day on the ground, or worse, in the emergency room. As you walk, make sure to lean slightly forward and take shorter steps. You may look like a penguin, but it’s worth it to avoid the pain and medical bills.
Much like your body, your home also loses heat in the cold, putting pipes at risk for freezing and bursting. Disconnecting garden hoses and shutting off the valve that feeds them, and keeping faucets slightly open and running can prevent expensive repairs.
Pipes will begin to freeze when a thermostat is at 39 degrees and lower. Maintaining the thermostat at 50 degrees or above is ideal.
Though they won’t burst, cars get cold too, reducing battery power and creating a risk of being left stranded, especially if the battery is older than two or three years.
Be ready to jump-start your car. Jumper cables and a portable jumper pack can be helpful. Remember, red clamps to the positive post of the dead battery; black clamps to the negative post of the working battery and to the unpainted metal surface on the engine of the dead car.
