A 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man who were critically wounded in a shooting Thursday night were dropped off by a private vehicle at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, police said.
The shooting “likely” happened on the 2100 block of South Norwood Street in South Philadelphia, where 14 spent shell casings were found, said Chief Inspector Scott Small.
However, the victims have been unable to speak and no witnesses had yet been located to say for certain where the two people were shot, Small said.
Shortly before 8:30 p.m., police responded to a report of gunshots in the area of 21st and Jackson Streets and found the shooting scene nearby on the 2100 block of South Norwood Street, Small said.
Police investigating shooting evidence on the 2100 block of South Norwood Street in Philadelphia on Thursday.
A short time later, police were notified that two shooting victims were taken by private vehicle to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Small said. The vehicle did not remain at the hospital.
There were no other shooting incidents reported to police around the time the victims were dropped off at the hospital, Small said.
Police also did not find blood evidence on Norwood Street, adding to uncertainty about what happened, Small said.
Police were checking to see if any security cameras recorded video in the area, Small said.
Philadelphia police are investigating two reported sexual assaults possibly involving the same Temple University student, school officials said Thursday.
In a statement, Temple officials said the university “has received two credible reports” alleging sexual assault, “one during a social event in a residence hall and a second incident at an off-campus location, potentially involving the same suspect who was positively identified yesterday.”
The university has placed “a student of interest” on interim suspension pending investigations by the Philadelphia Police Department, Temple’s Department of Public Safety, and the university, the statement said.
While suspended, the student is prohibited from being on campus or in university buildings or classes, according to the statement signed by Jennifer Griffin, the university’s vice president for public safety and chief of police, and Jodi Bailey Accavallo, vice president for student affairs.
“As these investigations are ongoing,” the statement said, “we strongly encourage students with information or otherwise in need of support regarding any concerns of sexual misconduct to contact” Temple Police at 215-204-1234 or police@temple.edu, the Title IX coordinator at 215-204-3283 or titleix@temple.edu, or the Dean of Students Office at 215-204-7188 or dos@temple.edu.
Students and other members of the university community or members of the public can also submit an anonymous report at helpline.temple.edu.
Activists rallied outside the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center on Thursday to press their assertion that ICE has been allowed to turn the courthouse into “a hunting ground” for immigrants.
The noon demonstration crystalized months of contention between activists and lawyers who say the courthouse must be a place to seek and render justice ― not to target immigrants ― and federal authorities who insist that making arrests there is legal, safe, and sane.
No ICE Philly, the rally organizer, says agents have been enabled to essentially hang out at the Center City courthouse, waiting in the lobby or scouring the hallways, then making arrests on the sidewalks outside, a pattern they say has been repeated dozens of times since President Donald Trump took office in January.
“ICE is kidnapping immigrants who are obeying the law and coming to court,” said Ashen Harper, a college student who helped lead the demonstration, which targeted Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. “She is capitulating and cooperating with ICE.”
Many people who go to the courthouse, the group noted, are not criminal defendants ― they are witnesses, crime victims, family members, people dealing with alleged offenses like shoplifting or trespassing, and others who are already in diversionary programs.
Organizers said ICE has arrested about 90 people outside the courthouse since January, a dramatic increase over the previous year. And they pledged to return on Dec. 4 ― lugging a podium for Bilal so that, organizers said, she can explain changes she intends to make, including barring ICE.
The sheriff did not immediately reply to a request for comment Thursday.
Members of No ICE Philly rally outside the Criminal Justice Center on Thursday, calling on the sheriff to cut off Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to the building.
“We want to put the sheriff on notice that we’re watching,” said Aniqa Raihan, a No ICE Philly organizer. “We want to raise awareness of the fact … that ICE is using the courthouse as a hunting ground.”
As word of plans for the demonstration spread, Bilal issued a statement aimed at “addressing public concerns” around ICE activity.
“Let me be very clear: the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office does not partner with ICE,” the sheriff said. “Our deputies do not assist ICE, share information, or participate in immigration enforcement.”
Deputies verify the credentials of ICE agents entering the courthouse ― and those agents are not permitted to make arrests in courtrooms or anywhere else inside, she said.
Raihan and other advocates say that is no protection. ICE agents linger in the lobby, they said, then follow their target outside and quickly make the arrest.
A police department spokesperson said at the time that the Spanish-speaking officer offered to walk with the man to help translate, but did not detain him. The Defender Association of Philadelphia and others questioned how the incident squared with the city’s sanctuary policies.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia did not reply to a request for comment.
On Thursday, about 40 demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse, chanting and singing under the watchful eye of city police officers and sheriff’s deputies. No ICE agents were visible. Protesters carried signs to indicate that they, too, were watching, raising colorful cardboard eyeballs, eyeglasses, and magnifiers.
Lenore Ramos, the community defense organizer with the Juntos advocacy group, called on the sheriff and city government officials to protect immigrants at the courthouse. Proclaiming Philadelphia a welcoming city, she said, is not just a slogan ― it’s a promise, one that local government must fulfill.
“The city is not standing behind our immigrant communities,” Ramos said. “It is walking all over them.”
In an interview earlier this week, Whitney Viets, an immigration counsel at the Defender Association, said ICE agents are at the courthouse almost every day, and arrests occur there almost daily.
The government does not publicly release data detailing where most immigration arrests occur, but Viets estimated that dozens of arrests have taken place at the courthouse since the start of the year. Masked plainclothes agents are seen outside the building, in the lobby, in courtrooms, and in hallways, she said.
“Agents are effectively doing enforcement in the courthouse, through identification,” she said.
She explained that agents may identify a person they are seeking in or near a courtroom, then either follow them outside or alert other agents who are already waiting on the sidewalk.
It is unclear where ICE is obtaining information on who will be at the courthouse on any particular day, although some details about ongoing criminal cases are available in public records.One result of ICE enforcement, she said, is people are afraid to come to court.
“This is about whether our justice system operates effectively,” Viets said. “The actions of ICE have gotten brazen. … What we need at this time is public engagement against this activity.”
No ICE Philly decried “kidnappings” by the agency and demanded the sheriff “protect everyone inside and outside the courthouse,” including “immigrants targeted by ICE as well as citizens observing and documenting ICE arrests.”
The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office is in charge of courthouse security. However, Bilal said in her statement, her office has no authority to intervene in lawful activities that are conducted off the property.
“Inside the courthouse, everyone’s rights and safety are protected equally under the law,” she said. “We are law enforcement professionals who follow the law.”
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal stands to be recognized at City Hall in March.
In Philadelphia and places around the country, courthouses have become disputed locales as the Trump administration pursues ever-more-aggressive arrest and deportation policies.
Under President Joe Biden, limits were set on what ICE could do at courthouses. Agents were permitted to take action at or near a courthouse only if it involved a threat to national security, an imminent risk of death or violence, the pursuit of someone who threatened the public safety, or a risk of destruction of evidence.
Even then, advocacy groups accused ICE of violating the policy by arresting people who were only short distances from courthouses.
The Biden restrictions on ICE vanished the day after Trump took office.
The new guidance said agents could conduct enforcement actions in or near courthouses ― period. The only conditions were that agents must have credible information that their target would be present at a specific location and that the local jurisdiction had not passed laws barring such enforcement.
The guidance said that, to the extent practicable, ICE action should take place in nonpublic areas of the courthouse and be done in collaboration with court security staff. Officers should generally avoid making arrests in or near family or small-claims courts.
The Department of Homeland Security said that the Biden administration had “thwarted law enforcement” from doing its job, that arresting immigrants in courthouses is safer for agents and the public because those being sought have passed through metal detectors and security checkpoints.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said earlier this year. “It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be.”
Philadelphia city officials have said repeatedly that they do not cooperate with ICE, and that the sanctuary city policies created under former Mayor Jim Kenney remain in place under Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
Protesters Elias Siegelman, right, with No Ice Philly, who also works with the groups Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Progressive Victory, outside the ICE office, in Philadelphia on Oct. 30.
Nationally, 10 months into the Trump administration, some Democratic jurisdictions are acting to tighten ICE access at courthouses.
In Connecticut this month, state lawmakers passed a bill to bar most civil immigration arrests at courthouses, unless federal authorities have obtained a signed judicial warrant in advance.
The Senate bill, already approved by the House, also bans law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings in court, Connecticut Public Radio reported. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to sign the measure.
Last month in Chicago, which has faced weeks of controversial immigration enforcement, the top Cook County judge barred ICE from arresting people at courthouses. That came as federal agents stationed themselves outside courthouses, drawing crowds of protesters, CBS News reported.
On Monday, a federal judge dismissed a Trump administration challenge to a New York law that barred the immigration arrests of people going into and out of courthouses. New York passed the Protect Our Courts Act in 2020, during Trump’s first term, a law the administration said had imposed unconstitutional restrictions on enforcement, the Hill reported.
The Thursday rally marked the third recent protest by No ICE Philly, which seeks to stop agency activity in the city. The organization’s Halloween Eve demonstration outside the ICE office erupted into physical confrontations with police, with several people pushed to the ground and four arrested.
The arrests came after some demonstrators attempted to stop ICE vehicles from leaving the facility at Eighth and Cherry Streets.
No ICE Philly organizers said Thursday that they will continue to scrutinize ICE activity at the courthouse.
“There are people watching. We have eyes on this,” Raihan said, adding that ICE is “allowed to hang in the lobby, sometimes in the courtrooms.”
“Somehow they seem to know when somebody vulnerable is in the courthouse. … We’re concerned with how they’re finding out that information.”
Bill Piccinni, 67, was riding his bike by the Franklin Institute when something halted his pedaling. The lunar module looked as if King Kong had ripped it in half, he said.
Concerned, he asked Curious Philly, The Inquirer’s forum for questions about the city and region: What is going on with the Apollo-era lunar module? Is the Franklin Institute getting rid of it?
“It’s been there for so long; it’s like a part of the city almost,” Piccinni said. “If it disappears, it would just be a shame.”
Sadly for Philly space lovers, the disjointed module does signal a farewell. After 49 years at the museum, it is returning to its previous orbit — Washington.
Neil Armstrong’s ride look-alike, a prototype used in preparations for several Apollo missions, was loaned by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in 1976, according to Derrick Pitts, the Franklin Institute’s chief astronomer. Now, that museum has asked for the module’s return.
“All museums, when they are keeping track of their artifacts … set a period of time for how long it’s gonna be borrowed, and then they will ask for it back,” Pitts said.
The Lunar Module was loaned by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in 1976.
The chief astronomer is not sure what awaits the Grumman structural engineering test module near D.C. The engineering prototype served to test how the parts and pieces would fit together in preparation for the real Apollo 11 lunar module that took Armstrong to the moon.
To Pitts, that doesn’t make it any less special. On the contrary, he views the equipment as an epitome of the height of space exploration technology at the time. It’s proof that “we successfully sent explorers to the moon and brought them back safely,” Pitts said.
For future generations of Philadelphians, this means no longer being able to see the module up close without leaving the city. People in Washington won’t be seeing this particular module either. There are currently no plans for it to be displayed at the National Air and Space Museum, according to spokesperson Marc Sklar.
For now, the Franklin Institute is considering an array of options for replacing the module in the backyard, but nothing is set in stone, Pitts said. In the meantime, the museum’s Wondrous space continues to be an option for folks wanting to learn about space.
“I am just really appreciative that people have paid attention to the lunar module enough to wonder what is going on with it,” Pitts said. “We are really very glad that you are aware that it has been here and that you are going to miss it.”
A woman was killed in a hit-and-run crash early Thursday morning in University City.
Meaza Brown, 48, of South Philadelphia, was walking with coworkers when a driver in a silver Chrysler 300 with tinted windows struck and killed her at 4:17 a.m. at 33rd and Market Streets, Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters at the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at 4:59 a.m. at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center with multiple injuries and internal bleeding.
Police later recovered the vehicle they believe struck Brown at 34th and Race Streets. No arrest was reported, and the investigation is ongoing.
Small said that the woman was hit at such a high rate of speed, “she was launched out of her sneakers.” Police say the collision propelled the woman several hundred feet down Market Street.
“The driver of the striking vehicle did not remain on scene, did not render any aid, and just fled the scene,” Small said.
The driver drove away on Market Street, heading toward 30th Street Station. No other people were hit by the car or injured, police said.
The deadly crash occurred in the heart of Drexel University’s campus, in the intersection in front of the school library and student center, and only a few blocks from 30th Street Station.
Philadelphia has experienced fewer traffic deaths in the first half of this year than in any equivalent period since 2019, according to the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Fatalities have been on a downtrend for years; however, the back half of each year tends to get more deadly.
Gloria Cartagena Hart vividly remembers the scenes and sounds of her Kensington block just three years ago: The streets filled with trash. The sidewalks lined with dozens of people openly using drugs. Nightly pops of gunfire from dealers competing for turf, and the haunting screams that followed.
It was 2022, in the heart of one of the most notorious drug markets and poorest zip codes in America.
But Cartagena Hart, a longtime resident at Somerset and Jasper Streets, now says the neighborhood is experiencing something she once believed might never come.
“I see some progress,” she said.
Gloria Cartagena Hart is a community organizer in Kensington who said she will never stop fighting for resources to stabilize the area.
For the first time in decades, under the renewed efforts of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, some residents and city officials alike agree that many of Kensington’s most chronic challenges have been improving — albeit slowly.
Fewer dealers dot the corners. Three times as many police officers patrol the neighborhood, disrupting their business. Half as many people are living on the streets compared with last year, police said. Some residents say quality-of-life issues — trash pickup, abandoned car removals, 311 calls — are being addressed more quickly.
And gun violence — long a byproduct of the drug economy and fragmented crews fighting for turf — is at its lowest level in a generation.
For years, McPherson Square was typically filled with people openly using drugs, as seen in this photo from April 2021. Residents could not let their children visit the park safely.This year, McPherson Square is a different scene. There are often a few people sitting along the edges, but police regularly sweep the park and ask people to leave.
City agencies and healthcare groups say they have also worked to get drug users into treatment more quickly, and have started building a network of care that they hope will keep fewer people from returning to the streets. Riverview Wellness Village, Parker’s new $100 million recovery and treatment facility, now houses about 200 people.
“Neighbors [are] telling me how many more people are sitting on their steps, how many more children are riding their bikes, how many more people may walk the commercial corridor,” Parker said this week. “To me, that’s progress. … We weren’t going to close our eyes and ignore it and walk around like it didn’t exist, or just contain it in one area.”
She’s committed to long-term change there, she said.
More dealers show up to give out free samples of drugs — and free pizza slices to go with them — in an effort to win over customers in a more competitive market, she said. She is constantly asking people to stay off her steps.
Deputy Police Commissioner Pedro Rosario sees the ongoing challenges.
“Am I where I want to be? No. Nowhere close to it,” said Rosario, who oversees the policing strategies in Kensington. “But ‘moving in the right direction’ is not giving us enough credit.”
Deputy Commissioner Pedro Rosario walks through the mini police station on Allegheny Avenue.
Improvements in Kensington, he said, may always be limited by the depths of the drug crisis and economy.
“It’s never gonna be as good as everyone wants it to be,” he said, but “it’s like the first time we’re all kind of rowing in the right direction.”
Some harm-reduction groups said the progress is surface level, and criticized the city for pushing homeless people into other areas where they are harder to reach: Harrowgate, Center City, the SEPTA stops at Broad and Snyder, Erie Avenue, and 69th Street.
“They’ve made it more difficult for people to be visibly homeless,” Sarah Laurel, who heads the harm reduction organization Savage Sisters in Kensington, said of the city’s efforts. “But have they actually resolved the dire need of community members who are unhoused?”
People experiencing homelessness and addiction sleep under blankets on Kensington Avenue in January.
Still, one woman in her 30s, who has come to Kensington on and off since she was 16, acknowledged the neighborhood is no longer the “free-for-all” it was at the height of the pandemic.
“It has changed,” she said, clutching a crack pipe on a quiet block away from police. “You can still get high on the street, you just can’t get caught doing it.”
And that, Rosario said, is progress.
A man who sells drugs holds a collection of empty vials that typically hold meth, crack, and other illicit substances.
A drug ‘flea market’
Rosario has been a police officer in Kensington for 24 years, and saw how the neighborhood became what he calls “the flea market” of the city’s billion-dollar drug economy.
There have always been drug organizations that run specific blocks there — crews from Weymouth, Jasper, and Rosehill Streets, each with its own product, stamp, and employees to sell it.
But in the last five years, he said, blocks have been “leased out.” Someone in New York City or the Dominican Republic will often “own” a block, Rosario said, and rent it out to a local dealer to use for a week to make a stack of money and move on. Dealers even started using drug users to sell in the last few years, he said, because they are less obvious to police, can be paid less, and are seen as “expendable.”
That structure makes it challenging for police to identify and arrest the people in charge, he said. If a lower-level dealer is arrested — or killed — the top distributors can easily find a replacement.
Philadelphia police officers have a shut down the 3100 block of Weymouth Street after federal agents raided the block and arrested 30 people last month.
And the dealers are fearless, he said. Just before the police department was set to open a mini station near F Street and Allegheny Avenue in November 2020, the building was firebombed, he said. He suspects it was dealers attempting to prevent a growing police presence. (The department has since opened a station at 1952 Allegheny Ave.)
Deputy Commissioner Pedro Rosario faces the challenge of overseeing the policing one of Philadelphia’s poorest and most challenging neighborhoods. He sees progress so far.
When Parker tapped Rosario to lead the police department’s plans in the neighborhood, his first order of business was to reduce the violence so that city workers felt safe enough to go into the neighborhood.
Last summer, the department assigned about 75 rookie cops to buttress existing patrols in the neighborhood, and it has continued to send in more officers. There are now three times as many police patrolling the main drag along Kensington Avenue as there were in 2021 — most of them on foot.
Rosario says the expanded police presence has contributed to a historic decline in violence.
(function() {
var l2 = function() {
new pym.Parent(‘kensington_2025’,
‘https://media.inquirer.com/storage/inquirer/projects/innovation/arcgis_iframe/kensington_2025.html’);
};
if (typeof(pym) === ‘undefined’) {
var h = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0],
s = document.createElement(‘script’);
s.type = ‘text/javascript’;
s.src = ‘https://pym.nprapps.org/pym.v1.min.js’;
s.onload = l2;
h.appendChild(s);
} else {
l2();
}
})();
While shootings citywide are down about 55% compared to three years ago, they have fallen even more in Kensington.
Through the second week of November, 46 people had been shot in the 24th Police District — an 82% drop from 2022, when, during the same time period, 259 people were shot. And there are half as many shooting victims as there were a decade ago.
“I cannot emphasize how important that is to resetting the norms in that community,” said Adam Geer‚ the city’s chief public safety director. “That is 82% less families dealing with the trauma. That is 82% less gunshots heard ringing in the night.”
Philadelphia police take a man into custody at Kensington Avenue and G Street on March 20, 2024. Police searched the man and said they found small plastic bags containing what was believed to be illegal drugs (top left).
Through Nov. 15, arrests for drug dealing in the neighborhood were up 23% since Parker came into office. Still, overall, the city is on pace to see the fewest number of drug-related arrests in at least 15 years, city data show, and as law enforcement largely focuses in Kensington, arrests for selling drugs in other parts of the city are down about 34% compared with the 23 months before Parker was elected mayor.
Geer said the city is still in the beginning phases of its efforts. Illicit drug sales will likely always persist, he said, “but what we are really, really going after is the open, blatant, in the air using drugs and selling drugs toxic to this community.”
Rosario also said that reducing the area’s homeless population — by disbanding encampments and generally “being as disruptive as possible” — was critical to reducing the strain on the area’s services and residents, and lessening the open-air drug use and dealing.
A woman in a wheelchair looks down Kensington Avenue after police cleared a large encampment in May 2024.
It has worked. Last September, there were about 750 people living on the streets in the area, according to a weekly count by police. During the same time this year, there were about 400.
But homelessness in the city generally has not improved, city data show.
There are actually about 400 more people experiencing homelessness this year than last, according to data from the Office of Homeless Services. Police and care providers believe some have simply moved to other neighborhoods to avoid the police presence.
Rosario acknowledged the dispersal, but said Kensington didn’t deserve to bear the burden of those crowds alone.
Because shutting down the drug market in Kensington, he said, “is like trying to stop a wave” at the beach.
“You can disperse it,” he said. “Maybe you can reengineer to kind of push it to a different direction.”
But you can’t stop it.
A man fans out the cash he has made on a recent day selling drugs. It’s not much — in part, he said, because there are fewer people in Kensington buying from him.
The view from the streets
One drug dealer can see the shift — and feel it in his wallet.
The 47-year-old man, who asked not to be identified because he sells illegal drugs, said he came to Kensington from New York in 2012 after serving time in prison for robbery. He’s been in the drug trade since he was 12, he said, taught by his parents, who hustled in the Bronx.
Today, he spends his days and nights on a quiet, trash-strewn corner, smoking K2 and selling crack, meth, and dope — whatever the man in the maroon Crown Victoria drops off that day.
During the pandemic, he said, business was booming. When he worked the overnight shift on Jasper Street, he said, he made at least $1,500 a week. Today, with more police on the corners and fewer customers on the streets, he’s lucky to clear $400.
A 28-year-old dealer along Kensington Avenue scoffed at the police enforcement. Where does the city expect the drug economy to go if not here? he asked. The drug trade is a constant, a viable employer with a stable customer base, and it has to go somewhere.
“They can’t put a cop on every f― block,” said the man, who asked not to be identified to discuss illegal activity.
A woman smokes crack on a quiet street in Kensington.
A few streets over, a 36-year-old man who smokes fentanyl and crack said that, a year or two ago, there would be five or six dealers on the corner of Jasper Street and Hart Lane.
Now, he said, there’s one.
“It’s harder to get drugs,” he said.
As police have cracked down on retail theft — once an easy way for people in addiction to make quick cash by reselling the items — it’s also gotten harder to fuel his habit, he said. He usually gambles online on his phone to scrape together a few extra dollars, he said, getting paid through CashApp, which some dealers use to accept payment now.
Many people in addiction said life overall is harder in Kensington — police clear away their tents, shoo them out of parks, and remove the often-stolen grocery carts used to carry belongings. It makes them feel subhuman, said one 36-year-old woman who has struggled with addiction since she was 13.
“We just want to be safe and warm,” she said.
But the biggest fear on the block these days, people said, is the withdrawal.
A used hypodermic needle rests on Allegheny Avenue at Kensington Avenue on March 17, 2024.
The withdrawal symptoms, which can begin within two hours, are so intense they can send people into cardiac arrest. Only hospitals can offer the most effective treatments for medetomidine withdrawal, and more people are ending up in intensive care units.
Dave Malloy, director of mobile services for Merakey, one of the city’s main addiction treatment providers, said the city has made strides in streamlining access to treatment in the last two years.
Evaluations that once required a daylong wait at a hospital can now happen in the field through mobile units like Malloy’s, getting people to rehab within hours. Doctors can also start patients on medications like Suboxone or methadone, to lessen their withdrawal symptoms, in as little as 45 minutes.
Malloy said that treatment providers, hospitals, police, and city agencies are working together better than they have in years.
“There was a realization that everybody had been siloed,” he said.
Only about 6% of the city’s homeless people who accepted help fromoutreach workers went to drug treatment and detox centers in recent years, according to city data — a statistic that, as of February, had not improved under Parker’s tenure.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker places a new block on the scale model of the Riverview Wellness Village Wednesday during the January unveiling of Philadelphia’s new city-operated drug treatment facility. At left is Managing Director Adam Thiel.
The city said it has also expanded the number of beds available for people in recovery by 66% through the opening of the Riverside Wellness Village, where people can live for up to a year after completing 30 days of inpatient drug treatment. Once construction is complete, the facility will house over 600 people.
Another 180 people are living in a shelter at 21st Street and Girard Avenue, which the city expanded last spring.
And the Neighborhood Wellness Court — a fast-track diversion program where people in addiction who are arrested for low-level offenses are brought before a judge the same day, in hopes of getting them into treatment more quickly — is growing.
In the first three months of the court, which Parker’s team launched in January and runs one day per week, only two of the approximately 50 people who had come through completed the program. Most who opted to go to rehab immediately left and absconded from follow-up hearings. At one point, operations were so disjointed that court leadership threatened to shut it down.
But Parker is committed to the court’s success and wants it to operate five days a week. The city recently hired a new director to oversee the court, and is in the process of hiring 14 additional staff members to provide better follow-up care.
Still, through early September, of the 187 people who had come through the court, only 10 completed the program and saw their criminal cases expunged, according to city data.
And while most people still do not come to court, the city said that it expects the situation will improve with the additional hires, and that there is success in the 130 people who have accepted some form of service through the court, even if they weren’t ready to enter recovery.
The “Lots of Lots of Love” mural by artist J.C. Zerbe is on the 3200 block of Kensington Avenue.
‘Kensington is love’
The increased police enforcement has sent more people in addiction to jail, and several people have died in police custody after they overdosed or had medical emergencies while going through withdrawal.
And not all residents feel the progress, or see the increased police presence as a good thing.
Theresa Grone, 41, who lives next to McPherson Square Park, said she and her children still cannot sit outside without someone in addiction asking them if they have free drug samples or clean syringes.
Theresa Grone, 41, and her daughter Abagail, 2, live near McPherson Square Park in Kensington.
And, she said, the police in the neighborhood have gotten more aggressive and harass people who aren’t doing anything wrong. Drug dealers and users still dominate the block.
“They’re not in the places they used to be, but they’re still there,” she said — on side streets, in abandoned houses, moving to corners as soon as the police leave.
She feels like the city is expanding resources for people in addiction more than for families like hers — a group of eight people renting a rowhouse in disrepair who want to move but can’t afford to.
But other residents, like Cartagena Hart, hope to never leave.
She said she has always seen the beauty and strength of Kensington, even at its lowest — the neighbors who care for each other’s children and feed the homeless, the police officers who will show up as soon as she texts them for help.
“Kensington,” she said, “is love to me.”
And she’s proud, she said, that her advocacy and that of her neighbors has helped city leaders finally invest in helping them.
Staff writers John Duchneskie, Max Marin, Anna Orso, Dylan Purcell, Sean Walsh, and Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.
Gloria Cartagena Hart interacts with neighbors during a Halloween party and giveaway that she organized at the Butterfly Garden in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood.
The longest ever federal government shutdown is now in the rearview mirror, but not for federal workers.
With their jobs back to normal, some local federal employees said worries created by the shutdown remain — one said their credit score suffered, others noted their Thanksgiving tables will be less festive. And for many, another shutdown in a matter of weeks is a real concern.
Federal employees — whether furloughed or required to work during the shutdown — missed paychecks during the 43-day lapse in federal appropriations, the longest ever in United States history. Workers sought out food pantries, delayed payments on bills, and tried to make ends meet for their families ahead of the holidays.
“I will be paycheck to paycheck for the next couple of months maybe, before I can start accumulating my savings again,” said a Philadelphia Veterans Benefits Administration employee, who was working without a paycheck during the shutdown.
The Inquirer agreed to withhold the names of federal employees interviewed due to their fear of retaliation for speaking out. Despite workers beginning to receive retroactive paychecks from the shutdown, they spoke of lingering financial damage and worries that yet another lapse in funding could happen in just a couple of months.
The bill to end the shutdown, signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 12, funds the government through Jan. 30. It includes protections for federal employees such as reversing layoffs that took place during the shutdown, and ensures back pay for all government workers throughout that time, which had been put into question by the Trump administration. And certain government agencies, such as Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration, have been allocated a year’s worth of funding.
But after Jan. 30, if lawmakers once again fail to agree on keeping the government open, some federal workers could once again face a lapse in their pay.
“We’re bracing for Jan. 30,” said Philip Glover, national vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees District 3, the union that represents federal employees in Pennsylvania.
Philip Glover, AFGE District 3 national vice president, speaks at a news conference focused on federal workers amid the government shutdown, near the Liberty Bell on Oct. 7.
Federal workers have been “dealing with a layer cake of trauma,” said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a federal government management organization.
“This is not simply one incident, but it’s one on top of a bunch of them that this administration has put in their way,” Stier said.
The financial strain
At the Social Security Administration in Philadelphia a benefit authorizer said Monday that she and her coworkers had started getting their back pay, but she had already felt the impact of missing checks.
“We assumed we could just call and everybody would place everything on hold, and that was not the case,” said the Social Security employee.
The benefit authorizer had put her mortgage and car payments on hold, but some banks and utility companies weren’t as accommodating, and she accumulated overdraft fees from a credit union.
Her role required her to work through the shutdown without pay. (In Pennsylvania, furloughed workers may apply for unemployment benefits, but those who continue to work, even without pay, may not.) The benefit authorizer looked for additional work, unsure how long the shutdown would last. Some of her colleagues in Philadelphia picked up gigs with Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart, she said.
Union officials from AFGE gathered on Oct. 7 in front of Independence Hall to protest the government shutdown.
Another Philadelphia Social Security employee, who has been with the agency for 15 years, noted that some colleagues picked up night shifts at Amazon or work in home healthcare.
“People living paycheck to paycheck, they needed something to pay those bills that were absolutely essential that they had to pay,” the 15-year Social Security employee said.
For one federal employee from Central Jersey, 2025 already came with an unexpected career turn when they lost their job at U.S. Housing and Urban Development, as part of a mass layoff of probationary employees. They found a job at the U.S. Department of Commerce, in Virginia, which allowed them to support their mother and three kids back in New Jersey.
Wary of permanently moving to Virginia during such a volatile time in the federal workforce, the Commerce employee commutes eight hours by Amtrak twice a week and stays in a $200 per night hotel on workdays.
During the federal shutdown, the Commerce employee had to work without a paycheck. They used up their savings paying for the commute, hotel, and other expenses. Ultimately, they took out a bank loan to cover their expenses.
The government shutdown exemplifies a lack of stability in the workforce, the Commerce employee said. “To be honest, you feel unsafe all the time, and you feel like you’re not deserving that.”
National Park Service ranger Christopher Acosta talks with tourists outside the Liberty Bell Center on Nov. 13 after returning to work from the shutdown.
Worries remain ahead of the holiday season
The Philadelphia VBA employee, who worked without pay during the shutdown, received their back pay Monday. The single parent said they were one more missed paycheck away from turning to food pantries and living off credit cards.
“Usually I’m the one donating around this time,” the employee said last week. “I usually adopt a family and provide them with the meal and then their gifts and stuff from our local community churches and outreach programs.”
Thanksgiving is the time they “splurge,” but now the shutdown has made them contemplate their finances. “I haven’t even thought about the process of even having a Thanksgiving dinner on the table because I didn’t want to spend the money,” the VBA employee said. By Christmas, they hope to be caught up on payments.
It’s a similar story for one Philadelphia VA Medical Center employee who worked without pay through the shutdown. Speaking days before the shutdown’s end, the employee said their credit score had taken a hit. They reached out to creditors and got some of their payments deferred, but relief won’t set in until the employee can catch up on their water, electric, gas, mortgage, and car bills.
A “big feast” for Thanksgiving is off the table. “You can’t do that now because you don’t have the funds,” they said.
The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia.
‘Fear of what’s to come’
Throughout the funding impasse, Philadelphia’s federal workers turned to each other for assistance.
At the VBA, supervisors set up a small food pantry several weeks into the shutdown. The VBA employee said that didn’t feel especially helpful. “That was our second paycheck missed, and that was the best that they could come up with,” the employee said.
“It’s business as usual in the eyes of the VA, and they expect us to work like nothing’s going on in our real lives.”
At the Social Security Administration, workers banded together to start an impromptu food pantry, the Philadelphia benefit authorizer said.
“Everything was taken. People needed it. People were really pinching pennies,” she said.
The national office of AFGE, the largest federal workers’ union, backed the deal to end the government shutdown. “Government shutdowns not only harm federal employees and their families, they also waste taxpayers’ dollars and severely diminish services depended on by the American people,” AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a statement on Nov. 10.
But some thought it should have ended differently.
In the days leading up to the deal, dozens of AFGE Local 3631 members, who are employed at the Environmental Protection Agency, said in a local union survey that they did not want their local to support budget legislation such as what passed. Their concerns were with an expected rise in healthcare expenses across the country.
The union local had polled members at the end of October, according to local union officer Hannah Sanders. The survey got more than 100 responses, and over85% said the local should only support a deal if it preserved subsidies for Affordable Care Act healthcare plans and avoided cuts to Medicaid.
EPA workers and supporters gathered outside their office for a solidarity march around Philadelphia’s City Hall in March.
Sanders said there are few changes between the recently passed deal and the bill that could have averted the shutdown back in September. “We would have not had this shutdown, and people wouldn’t have, you know, gone without pay or gone without SNAP benefits and all these things. So it’s super frustrating to see that this is how it all resolved,” said Sanders.
Now, the benefit authorizer at the Social Security Administration says, people are concerned that another shutdown could be on the horizon come Jan. 30.
“We are in complete fear of what’s to come,” she said.
Philadelphia’s trolley tunnel has been closed for most of the last two weeks as SEPTA contends with glitches in the connection between the overhead catenary wires and the pole that conducts electricity to the vehicle.
The tunnel will remain closed at least until next week for repairs, and city trolleys will operate from West Philadelphia. Riders can take the Market-Frankford El to get to and from Center City to 40th and Market Streets.
At issue is a U-shaped brass part called a slider that carries carbon, which coats the copper wires above that carry electricity.
“There’s a lot of friction and heat. The carbon acts as a lubricant,” said John Frisoli, deputy chief engineer for SEPTA.
A 3-inch slider (left) and a 4-inch slider, which coats electric-powered wires with carbon to reduce friction. When they fail, trolleys are stranded.
Earlier in the fall, SEPTA replaced 3-inch sliders with 4-inch models in an effort to reduce maintenance costs, but the carbon in the longer units wore out sooner than they should have, causing metal-on-metal contact between the trolley and the copper wires.
Soon after, there were two major incidents when trolleys were stranded in the tunnels. On Oct. 14, 150 passengers were evacuated from one vehicle and 300 were evacuated from a stalled trolley on Oct. 21.
SEPTA went back to the 3-inch sliders.
On Nov. 7, SEPTA shut down the tunnel to deal with the issue, which had cropped up again, then reopened it on the morning of Nov. 13, thinking it was solved. But it discovered further damage to the catenary system and the tunnel was closed at the end of the day.
“It’s just unfortunate that we’re dealing with the damage that decision caused,” said Kate O’Connor, assistant general manager for engineering, maintenance, and construction.
The transit agency is running test trolleys and has found minimal wear of the wires rather than the extensive wear earlier, O’Connor said. Her department is working on a plan to replace wires by sections and will continue test runs until it’s determined the tunnel is safe for passenger traffic again, she said.
“We have far more traffic in the tunnel than on the street — all five routes use it — and the overhead system there is more rigid,” O’Connor said.
Trolleys have been unaffected traveling on the street. Jason Tarlecki, acting chief deputy engineer for power, said that the wires have “a lot more upward flexibility to absorb the shock,” he said, leading to less friction.
The Federal Transit Administration on Oct. 31 ordered SEPTA to inspect the overhead catenary system along all its trolley routes.
Philadelphia police are seeking to question two men in connection with the death of an American Airlines flight attendant who investigators believe was attacked inside his South Philadelphia home last week, then fell — or was thrown — out of his third-floor window.
Amadou Thiam, 50, was found lying naked on the pavement behind his home, on the 2400 block of Federal Street, with severe injuries to his face, neck, and body on the night of Nov. 10, police said. He was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he later died from his injuries, they said.
The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause or manner of Thiam’s death, but homicide detectives are investigating, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore. Vanore stopped short of saying Thiam was attacked, pending the coroner’s decision, but law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said Thiam’s injuries, coupled with witness interviews and evidence recovered inside his home, suggest he was assaulted.
Residents of the Grays Ferry block this week recalled the harrowing moments when they found Thiam — and the chilling departing words of the men police are now looking to question.
Two neighbors, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, said they heard loud noises coming from Thiam’s condo around 6:30 p.m. last Monday but assumed he was having guests over.
Then, they said, they heard a loud crash behind the building.
Shortly after, they said, they saw two men walk out of Thiam’s home.
“Is everything OK?” one neighbor recalled asking the men. “They just kind of chuckled and said, ‘We hope so.’”
Amadou Thiam lived on the 2400 block of Federal Street. This image shows the third-story window, second from left, from which neighbors say Amadou Thiam fell on Nov. 10.
The neighbors said they approached Thiam’s door, which was left cracked open, and found blood smeared across his kitchen and third-floor bedroom. Thinking Thiam was not home, they called the police to report a burglary.
As the couple waited for police, they said, they noticed a stream of blood on the sidewalk outside. And then, they said, they saw Thiam’s body on the pavement.
Vanore said it was not clear how Thiam ended up on the ground, but police believe he went through a third-story window.
“We still don’t know if he fell or was thrown,” he said.
Thiam suffered injuries throughout his body, including fractures to his face, ribs, and skull, Vanore said.
Detectives have recovered video from the block showing two men — one older, one younger — in the area around the time Thiam’s body was found, he said.
Vanore described one of the men as a thin Black male wearing a black leather jacket over a red hoodie and jeans and carrying a bag. The second man, he said, was older, bald, and wearing a gray jacket.
Philadelphia police are seeking to question two men who they believe could be connected to the death of Amadou Thiam in South Philadelphia last week.
“We’re looking to talk to them to see if they had anything to do with this,” he said.
Law enforcement sources, who asked not to be identified to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the men appeared to be carrying clothes out of the building. There were no signs of forced entry into Thiam’s home, the sources said.
Relatives of Thiam, who was originally from Côte d’Ivoire, could not be immediately reached.
His Instagram account showed a man who enjoyed exploring the world: standing before Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and eating in Key West, Fla., and Las Vegas.
His death has shocked many who knew him, including his colleagues at American Airlines.
A spokesperson for the airline did not respond to a request for comment. But in a memo shared online, an operations manager for the Philadelphia region said Thiam had worked as a flight attendant with the airline since 2011 and, as a French speaker, he frequented international flights to Paris and Zurich.
“His presence and natural charisma was always something felt throughout a room,” the employee wrote. “He was a loyal friend whose kindness, positive attitude, and radiant smile touched everyone around him.”
John Stanley, a fellow American Airlines flight attendant, said that every July, there is a benefit for flight attendants at Voyeur, a nightclub in the Gayborhood, with dancers and drag performers. He recalled how one year, Thiam dressed up as Glinda from Wicked and performed for the crowd.
“He was as well-liked a flight attendant in Philadelphia as I know exist,” Stanley said.
Thiam’s neighbors also said he was exceptionally friendly, and loved to dress in eccentric clothing. He was also a dog lover, a passion that neighbor Nicole Colamesta said they bonded over.
“Everybody is having a really hard time processing it. This is a really quiet block. Everybody just looks out for each other here,” Colamesta said. “You can’t stop thinking about it because it’s right in our backyard.”
Police asked anyone with information to contact homicide detectives at 215-686-3334 or to call the police tip line at 215-686-8477.
Staff writer Maggie Prosser contributed to this article.
An affordable housing project slated for a junkyard in Cedar Park took a step forward Wednesday, when a Philadelphia judge rejected a neighbor’s challenge. The courtroom victory brings the 104-unit, two-building project, which was conceived in 2020, closer toreality.
Common Pleas Court Judge Idee Fox ruled that the new zoning of a triangular group of parcels on Warrington Avenue, which allows for buildings up to seven stories, was legal.
Melissa Johanningsmeier, who lives next to the planned development, sued the city to stop the project in 2023, arguing that the building was inconsistent with the city’s goal of preserving single-family homes in Cedar Park.
Johanningsmeier said in court filings she would be harmed by the parking, traffic, and loss of green space if the project were to proceed.
The homeowner told Fox during a two-day October bench trial that there was widespread discontent with the project in the neighborhood.
The judge seemed skeptical, as Johanningsmeier’s attorney didn’t provide witnesses or evidence to support claims ofwidespread backlash to the project that has been promoted by City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
It was not for her to decide whether the project was the best idea, Fox said, but whether the zoning was constitutional.
“If the community is unhappy with what’s being done, they have the right to express their concerns to the councilwoman at the ballot box,” Fox said.
Junkyard controversy
The project dates to 2020, when New York affordable housing developer Omni formulated plans to add 174 reasonably priced apartments to the West Philadelphia neighborhood.
But the developer’s plans for the junkyard at 50th and Warrington met opposition due to theproposed buildings’ height — six stories — and parking spaces for less than a third of the units.
Omni’s plan required permission from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to move forward, which was more likely to succeed with neighborhood support. So they compromised.
A new design unveiled in 2021 pushed the buildings back to the edge of the site,to avoid putting neighboring homes in shadow. A surface parking lot would offer 100 spaces for the 104 affordable apartments.
These concessions appeased almost all of the critical neighbors and community groups.Many of them supported Omni before the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which granted the project permission to move forward.
But Johanningsmeier remained a critic. She lives on the border of the property and challenged the zoning board’s ruling in Common Pleas Court. Judge Anne Marie Coyle ruled in her favor, arguing the new building “would unequivocally tower over the surrounding family homes.”
In the aftermath, Gauthier passed a bill to allow the project to move forward without permission from the zoning board. Johanningsmeier then sued over that legislation as well.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier in City Council in 2024.
Affordable housing and fruit analogies
The issue at the heart of the case was whether a zoning change to allow for large multifamily buildings was considered spot zoning on the small parcel, which Johanningsmeier’s lawyer argued was inconsistent with the types on buildings on surrounding properties.
Just because the “mega apartment buildings” are for residential use doesn’t make the project similar to the surrounding zoning, which mostly allows single-family homes and duplexes, Edward Hayes, a Fox Rothschild attorney representing Johanningsmeier, toldJudgeFox on Wednesday.
“A cranberry and a watermelon are fruit,” Hayes said. “They are not the same.”
And while affordable housing is a laudable cause, the attorney said, that doesn’t mean that the city should “shove it down the throat of a community” in the form of large buildings that are out of character with the rest of the neighborhood.
An attorney representing the developer, Evan Lechtman of Blank Rome, told the judge existing buildings of similar height are nearby, across the railroad track in Kingsessing.
“We are transforming a blighted, dilapidated junkyard into affordable housing,” the developer’s attorney said.
Johanningsmeier’s lawyer, Hayes, declined to comment after the ruling, which could be appealed.
Gauthier celebrated the outcome as a victory against gentrification.
“Lower-income neighbors belong in amenity-rich communities like this one, where they can easily access jobs, healthcare, groceries, and other necessities,” said Gauthier. ”I hope the court’s ruling puts an end to gratuitous delays.”
Housing advocates note that the years of neighborhood meetings and lawsuits over the project are an example of why housing, and especially affordable units, has become so expensive to build in the United States.
In the face of determined opposition from even a single foe, projects can incur millions in additional costs.
“It’s a travesty that one deep-pocketed opponent has been able to block access to housing for over 100 families in my neighborhood for years,” said Will Tung, a neighbor of the project and a volunteer with the urbanist advocacy group 5th Square. “It’s more expensive than ever to rent or buy here, and this project would be a welcome change to its current use as a derelict warehouse.”
