Philadelphia’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday culminates July 4 with a free concert and fireworks on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The One Philly: Unity Concert for America begins at 5 p.m. in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, featuring Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, Meek Mill, Will Smith, The Roots, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Jordan Davis, Seal, State Property, Kathy Sledge, and more.
This year’s event is no longer part of the longtime Wawa Welcome America festival. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration took over production of the annual July Fourth concert, renamed it the One Philly: Unity Concert for America, and hired ESM Productions to produce the show.
Wanda Sykes will emcee the concert, which concludes with the city’s official fireworks display over the Parkway.
Here’s everything you need to know before you go.
Fans react to the music as the Wawa Welcome America Festival concluded on July 4, 2023, with a free concert featuring Ludacris on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Schedule and entry
Guests must enter through a secure checkpoint at 20th Street and Logan Circle, where security may search attendees and their bags. Gates open at 3p.m.
The concert will start around 5p.m., followed by the fireworks around 11:30 p.m., according to city officials.
Who is performing at Philadelphia’s Fourth of July Concert?
Headliners include Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, Meek Mill, Will Smith, The Roots, and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Other performers include Jordan Davis, Kathy Sledge, State Property, Seal, and several others.
Fireworks over the Philadelphia Museum of Art along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Friday, July 4, 2025.
Fireworks
Following the concert, the city’s official July Fourth fireworks display will begin at about 11:30 p.m. The show will be visible from throughout the Parkway and surrounding neighborhoods.
The concert and fireworks will also air live on NBC10 and Telemundo62.
Road closures
Unless otherwise noted, the following closures will be in effect from approximately 6 a.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday:
1900 Race Street
1800-1900 Vine Street
I-676 off-ramp at 22nd Street
I-676 on-ramp at 22nd Street
I-76 eastbound off-ramp at Spring Garden Street
Spring Garden Tunnel
Park Towne Place between 22nd and 24th Streets
20th Street between Arch Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
19th Street between Callowhill and Cherry Streets
Benjamin Franklin Parkway from 17th Street to Eakins Oval
Eakins Oval
Kelly Drive between Eakins Oval and Fairmount Avenue (inbound traffic closes at Fountain Green Drive beginning about 5 p.m.)
2000-2100 Winter Street
Spring Garden Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and 31st Street
23rd Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Eakins Oval
22nd Street between Winter Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
21st Street between Winter Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
All roads from Arch Street to Spring Garden Street between 18th and 22nd Streets (local access maintained for residents)
All roads from Arch Street to Fairmount Avenue between 22nd and Corinthian Streets (local access maintained for residents)
16th and 17th Streets between Arch Street and Spring Garden Street will close only if conditions warrant.
1600-1700 Benjamin Franklin Parkway will close only if conditions warrant.
Beginning at 4 a.m. Saturday, the following roads also will close:
Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Falls Bridge to Eakins Oval
From 8 p.m. Saturday until approximately 1 a.m. Sunday, Kelly Drive between Fairmount Avenue and Fountain Green Drive and Waterworks Drive also will be closed because of the fireworks display.
Parking
Temporary no-parking signs will be posted along streets affected by closures. Vehicles left in those areas will be courtesy towed to another nearby location.
Most Regional Rail lines will offer additional inbound and outbound service before the fireworks. All Regional Rail lines except the Airport and Cynwyd lines will provide late-night outbound service from Jefferson Station, Suburban Station, and William H. Gray III 30th Street Station after the fireworks.
Other SEPTA service will operate on a Sunday schedule. Routes without Sunday service will not operate.
Routes 7, 32, 33, 38, 43, 48, and 49 will be detoured beginning at 5 a.m. Thursday through 5 p.m. Sunday because of road closures.
SEPTA ambassadors will be stationed at major transit hubs to help direct passengers after the July 4 FIFA World Cup match and the One Philly concert and fireworks.
PATCO will operate on a holiday schedule July 4, with trains running every 10 minutes throughout the day. More information is available at ridepatco.org.
Todd Marcocci (left) and Jeremy Williams work on a float on Monday for this year’s big Fourth of July parade, in Philadelphia.
Fourth of July celebrations happening elsewhere in the area
Fourth of July Freedom Festival at Pleasant Hill Park: 💵 Free, 🕒 July4, 5 to 9:30 p.m., 📍Linden Ave., Philadelphia, Pa 19136
With the eyes of the nation on Philadelphia for America’s 250th birthday, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration this year took over management of the city’s free July Fourth concert, which for years was produced by a nonprofit established by the city: Welcome America.
The mayor instead hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company, to put on the annual show featuring musical acts and fireworks over the Ben Franklin Parkway, and she changed the name from Wawa Welcome America to the “One Philly: Unity Concert for America” — a version of Parker’s well-known slogan, “One Philly: A United City.”
Another change: It will cost taxpayers far more than in the past.
The city is due to pay ESM Productions about $15.5 million for the show, which will be headlined by Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, and The Roots, and feature rapper Meek Mill, according to a copy of the city’s contract paperwork with ESM, obtained by The Inquirer. The city in March signed a $10 million contract with the Philadelphia-based company, as well as a $5.5 million contract amendment.
By comparison, Welcome America’s budget for all of 2024 — including that year’s July Fourth concert,the numerous other events it manages in the build-up to the concert, and the salaries of its staff — was about $6.6 million, only about $5.3 million of which came from government grants, according to the group’s most recent federal nonprofit disclosure.
Welcome America, which is a public-private partnership with the mayor serving as a board member, receives city and state funding, as well as a corporate sponsorship. The organization has been involved in Philly’s July Fourth celebrations since 1993.
Fans react to the music as the Wawa Welcome America Festival concluded July 4, 2023 with a free concert featuring Ludacris on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Last year’s iteration of the Wawa Welcome America concert cost the organization about $3 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to disclose that information.
The Philly taxpayer money paid to the concert’s producers does not cover additional expenses borne by the city, such as pay for police officers and sanitation workers staffing the event.
Parker’s office declined a request from The Inquirer for a copy of the contract or information on the cost of this year’s concert. Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley said in an interview that the administration would publicly disclose the costs and economic benefits of the concert after it was over.
“At a later time, we could certainly be doing a full accounting, as we’re not trying to hide anything and always want to be transparent,” Garrett Harley said.
Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley speaks at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia on May 28.
Following the interview with Garrett Harley, The Inquirer later obtained the contract, and the mayor’s office on Tuesday did not respond to follow-up questions about the cost of the concert.
ESM’s original $10 million contract with the city included a breakdown of costs, ranging from $5,000 for “furniture” to nearly $3.4 million for “talent.” It also included $1.2 million for “ESM Productions Fees” and $1 million for “Above the line Producer’s Unit.”
The contract amendment for $5.5 million, signed June 26, did not include details on costs.
A spokesperson for ESM declined to comment.
Founded in 1996 by Scott Mirkin and Jenny Woo, ESM has previously produced numerous high-profile events on the Parkway, including the 2015 papal visit and Jay-Z’s Made in America concert.
David L. Cohen, a Philly political powerbroker and former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said he has hired ESM to produce events going back to when he was chief of staff for then-Mayor Ed Rendell in the 1990s.
“They’re incredibly competent; they’re incredibly good; they do an excellent job,” he said. “I really do think they’re the best event producers in Philadelphia.”
In paperwork submitted to the city, ESM said it “has a long standing relationship” with Cohen and pointed to events he hired the company to produce at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, Canada, as examples of its past work.
Michael DelBene, president and CEO of Welcome America, said that, despite no longer being the producer for the concert, his organization is still managing more than a dozen Semiquincentennial-related events in partnership with the city. The events kicked off on Juneteenth and will run through the Fourth.
“The celebrations that happen in the city are the implementation of the mayor’s vision, and if she chooses a team to implement that vision, that’s great, and we all support that person and that team,” DelBene said in an interview. “We’re all going to row in the same direction to make sure the city shines.”
Drama and infighting had plagued a series of nonprofit efforts and federal commissions meant to coordinate the festivities. And the COVID-19 pandemic pushed party-planning way down the priority list for the city and for state leaders who could have previously led the charge, former Mayor Jim Kenney and former Gov. Tom Wolf.
Those delays likely squandered any opportunities for a monumental building project, such as the Please Touch Museum building, which was constructed for the 1876 Centennial Exposition, or the Ben Franklin Bridge, which opened for America’s 150th birthday in 1926. They may have also cost Philly the chance for an appearance by a high-profile dignitary, such as when Queen Elizabeth II visited for the 1976 Bicentennial.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker heads to the stage at the Independence Visitor Center Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025 to announce a new initiative that puts city neighborhoods at the forefront of the city celebrations of America’s 250th birthday in 2026.
But the mayor eventually embraced the task in a more public way — following some public prodding from City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas — and the city’s Semiquincentennial celebrations will very much bear her stamp.
Parker has pledged to spend $120 million this year to mark the occasion, and she has made investing in communities across the city, not just the historic district, a major focus as Philadelphia this summer is also hosting World Cup games and the MLB All-Star Game. Much of that spending will pay for street work and beautification projects in neighborhood commercial corridors, 250th-themed block parties, and extra funding for annual events like the Odunde Festival.
“We want to make sure that any and everybody can participate in this regardless of your station in life,” Garrett Harley said.
‘This is her big concert’
With the official Independence Day parade — still organized by Welcome America — scheduled for Friday, July 3, there is surprisingly little in the way of official patriotic proceedings taking place on July Fourth itself.
Parker at 10 a.m. will lead a Philadelphia Freedom Awards ceremony at Independence Mall, honoring seven people, including Cohen and actor and Philadelphia-native Colman Domingo.
At 5 p.m., the concert will kick off on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Performers include Aguilera, Will Smith, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, The Roots, Meek Mill, and Seal. The city’s official fireworks show will begin at the show’s conclusion, around 11:30 p.m.
Fans during the Wawa Welcome America July 4th Concert on the Parkway in Philadelphia, Pa. on July 4, 2022.
Parker has several times compared this year’s show to Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert staged in Philadelphia and London that featured in its 10-hour stateside lineup Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Phil Collins, the Beach Boys, the Four Tops, Santana, Run-D.M.C., and many other musical A-listers.
“If you remember Live Aid and you think about the legacy experience we’re trying to create … that’s what we’re trying to do on July the Fourth,” Parker said in March.
Garrett Harley on Tuesday conceded the concert lineups may not be exactly comparable, but said the mayor was “really talking more about the scope and the magnitude and just the memories.”
“But to certain kids it’s gonna be bigger than Live Aid, because Christina Aguilera means to them what Stevie Wonder and some of the folks who ran Live Aid meant to others,” Garrett Harley said.
Garrett Harley disputed the notion that renaming the concert “One Philly: A Unity Concert for America” meant that it now bears Parker’s branding.
“I don’t know how a ‘Unity Concert for America’ is Parker’s branding because the whole point of this is about unity,” Garrett Harley said. “The branding is really about reminding people that we need to unify, we need to be one America, despite everything that may be going on in the country right now.”
The mayor frequently concludes speeches by asking crowds to raise their index fingers and say in unison, “One Philly: A United City.” She has also had the slogan printed on city trash trucks and cans, along with her name.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker raises a finger with her call-and-response “One Philly, A United City” mantra ending her speech during a ceremonial meeting of the Pennsylvania Senate at the National Constitution Center across the mall from Independence Hall on May 5.
“Even if it is Parker’s branding, if that’s how people see it, what would Wawa Welcome America be if not branding?” Garrett Harley added.
(Wawa, a longtime corporate sponsor for the city’s July Fourth festivities, pays Welcome America to include its branding in the event, defraying costs for taxpayers.)
Branding or not, Parker’s vision guided the planning for the concert, Garrett Harley said.
“At the end of the day, this is [Philadelphia’s] 100th mayor,” Garrett Harley said of Parker. “This was her biggest concert, and probably will be the biggest that she will ever do. She’s the first female mayor. She’s the first African American female mayor. This is her big concert.”
In the dull glow of the overhead Convention Center lights, Todd Marcocci and a band of craftspeople stood next to large wheeled platforms, some housing floral gazebos, others a recreation of a Pennsylvania farm. Sweat dripping from his brow, Marcocci intently drilled palm tree crowns into the base of a platform dedicated to Central and South America.
With just days until Philadelphia’s Semiquincentennial parade, Marcocci, alongside his crew and John Shaw of Shaw Parades, is assembling 19 parade floats to commemorate the United States’ 250th birthday.
Todd Marcocci works on a float back stage with the crews of Friday’s parade and festival.
The “Salute to Independence” Semiquincentennial Parade is scheduled to begin at noon Friday nearwhere the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, which Marcocci reminded himself of while he designed a historical parade.
“I told all the groups who signed on for the parade that we’ll be lining up in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers,” Marcocci said. “We’ll walk through history.”
In the halls of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where float builders worked on Monday, larger-than-life recreations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman awaited placement on a platform celebrating the Civil Rights movement.
Mike Oyer works backstage on the floats.
The next float over was bathed in white sequins, where a giant “peace dove” sculpture accompanied by a globe would rest. A few paces over sat a 6-foot-tall Wawa smoothie and coffee cups, and right by that were multiple United States-themed layered birthday cakes marking the various anniversaries of the country.
Shaw worked a blade saw, slicing through two-by-fours to construct the float frames that Marcocci and Co. were painstakingly deciding the minutiae of, such as how many American flags or sequins can be threaded through a float.
Annie Woods (left) and Johanna Gelber working on the floats.
Shaw, whose parade float company has passed down through four generations, said Philly Fourth of July parades usually average seven floats. “This year it’s almost tripled,” he said. “Todd designs everything in his head, and then we collaborate back and forth to come up with the plan to actually make these ideas work.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will be on board the “One Philly — A United City” float, which features a large sculpture in the shape of the number 1 and a butterfly-and-floral gazebo symbolizing the city’s commitment to a clean and green city, Marcocci said.
Jeremy Williams, works on a float back stage.
A Liberty Bell float will commemorate some of the Founding Fathers and Betsy Ross with an Independence Hall backdrop. Another celebrates Philadelphia Pride with prominent LGBTQ figures and pride flags atop a vibrant rainbow platform.
“The most important thing for me is that people, whether they’re watching on TV at home across the nation or here in person, is that they see themselves in our parade,” Marcocci said of representing the diversity of America’s history.
Philadelphia’s Semiquincentennial Parade on Friday starts at noon at Fifth and Chestnut Streets, passing such historical landmarks as Independence Hall before heading to Sixth and Market Streets and then west on Market to circle City Hall before ending at Broad and Chestnut Streets after a heat emergency was declared, cutting short the route that was to continue to Logan Circle and loop around before heading back to City Hall.
Fan zones are at Sixth and Market Streets , 11th and Market, and the northeast side of City Hall, where a bar is available for those 21 and over.
Philadelphia officials are planning a major renovation of Market Street’s sidewalks, landscaping, and streetscapes, from Sixth Street toward City Hall.
The announcement of a $2.5 million federal grant to begin the planning and design comes on the heels of the recently completed renovation of the thoroughfare in Old City from Second to Sixth streets. That effort took 18 months of construction and $16 million.
Most recently, the row of storefronts on the 900 block of Market owned by Comcast and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment have begun hosting small pop-up businesses for the summer,as the city celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The Department of Planning and Development is overseeing the revitalization, and the public-private Market East Corridor Advisory Group is helping to craft a vision.
The new $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which the city will match, is limited to planning the streetscape along Market Street between 6th and Juniper Streets.
Construction is years away, said Kelley Yemen, Philadelphia’s director of the Office of Multimodal Planning. Her office is gathering information to evaluate everything from traffic patterns to potential road diets and bike lanes.
“Everything’s on the table at this point,” Yemen said.
Safety remains a primary driver, she said, given that the section of Market Street is situated on the city’s “high-injury network.”
However, she said redesigning the corridor poses unique logistical challenges compared with the recent improvements in Old City.
Market East serves as a major commercial hub with heavy transit use, requiring planners to balance the needs of transit riders, pedestrians, and cyclists.
Additionally, the shallow depth of the underground subway system may constrain surface-level landscaping.
Yemen explained that any trees or plantings must account for the height of the subway ceiling, potentially leading to elevated planters rather than vegetation that’s rooted in the ground.
The city is working with the consulting firm WSP and a team of subconsultants to develop design options.
Yemen anticipates the design will take two to three years, as the city also has to navigate federal environmental reviews.
Though the planning phase is now paid for, the city does not yet have money to fund construction and will likely look to federal or state grants for help in the future.
Public involvement will be a key next step, she said.
The planning commission is expected to launch a broader public engagement push this July to gather community input on the larger Market East revival.
In past years, the city’s budget process has followed a certain pattern for Mural Arts Philadelphia and other groups.
The mayor’s proposed budget lists city funding at one level; City Council and others advocate for modifications at a higher level; and the budget goes back to the mayor and is finalized with the higher allocation in place.
This year was different.
Philadelphia’s nationally acclaimed program that puts colorful murals in neighborhoods and provides jobs was hoping for a boost in city funding.
Instead, the budget ultimately agreed to by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and City Council cut funding to Mural Arts — from $5.1 million in fiscal year 2026 to $3.7 million in 2027.
Likewise the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. The group — which awards hundreds of grants to arts groups throughout the neighborhoods — was looking for increased funding in the city’s newly approved $7.1 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.
But the arts nonprofit, established by the city recently, learned that it will get substantially less — $3.5 million instead of the $5 million it received from the city for the fiscal year now ending.
As a result, both groups say they will have to make deep cuts to programs.
Philadelphia’s arts and culture sector had greeted the start of Parker’s term 2½ years ago with optimism for increased funding. Today, it is “alarmed” by the cuts to Mural Arts and the Cultural Fund, said Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
“We always say that your budget tells a story, and I have to say that the cultural community is disappointed and frustrated with the story being told by this FY27 budget,” she said. “Cutting the budget of signature programs like Mural Arts by 26% or decreasing funding to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, that’s going to have ramifications throughout the city.”
Parker was not available for comment, a spokesperson said.
Valerie V. Gay (left) chief cultural officer with the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and finance director Rob Dubow (right) testify at a Philadelphia City Council hearing, Aug. 8, 2024 on the collapse of the University of the Arts.
Valerie V. Gay, the city’s chief cultural officer, said it was the city’s view that funding for the two groups had remained flat from 2026 to 2027, since the base allocation stayed the same and it was only the added amount that did not come through — though she allowed that “absolutely I can see how it can be perceived.”
A ripple effect
The resulting cuts at both groups promise to be substantial. The Cultural Fund will be forced to reduce the number of grants it had been expecting to distribute in the coming year, from 332 to 232. It has changed its eligibility requirements, which will eliminate grants to a pool of midsize organizations currently eligible.
“It’s going to be a ripple effect. People are going to feel it and communities are going to feel it,” said Philadelphia Cultural Fund executive director Gabriela Sanchez.
“An investment in the Philadelphia Cultural Fund is more than a budget line item,” Sanchez wrote in a statement distributed by the group. “Funding to PCF represents how the city values neighborhood theaters, cultural centers, museums, arts education programs, festivals, dance companies, community storytelling initiatives, music programs, and cultural traditions that bring Philadelphians together. These spaces are where young people discover their creativity, where seniors find connection, where communities celebrate their heritage, and where residents gather across lines of difference.”
Jane Golden (center right) speaks with press at the Wawa Welcome America media preview for the Philly Fair 250, outside the Please Touch Museum in West Philadelphia, June 18, 2026. Mural Arts held a ceremonial unveiling of a 10-story-high mural replica, originally titled ‘CityKids Speak On Liberty,’ and created by Keith Haring.
Mural Arts director Jane Golden declined to comment, but an initial assessment from the group obtained by The Inquirer says that “hundreds of residents in at least 15 Philadelphia communities will lose the opportunity to develop public art projects,” and that opportunities for paid work, job training, and mentorship through the Mural Arts Restorative Justice program will be reduced by 25%.
Mural Arts will also have to cut by 75% its program of restoring and preserving the city’s murals, “putting at risk community landmarks that took years and significant public investment to create,” the impact statement reads.
Of the program reductions at both groups, Gay said: “I am always sad that any cuts are made or that any organizations are unable to do the work they thought they were going to be able to do. That’s always a sad time for us, and I’m looking forward to when we are a fully funded sector.”
A city spokesperson was unable to provide a full list of groups that in past years had received higher allocations after advocacy from City Council and others, but this year did not.
What’s behind the cuts
Aden says arts and culture has seen some significant recent “wins” from city government. Among them is the advancement of a referendum that, if approved by the mayor and then by voters this fall, would enshrine the city’s office of arts and culture, called Creative Philadelphia, in the City Charter.
The city has approved $500,000 a year to develop and implement a cultural plan for Philadelphia that would document financial needs and could identify potential pathways to establishing funding.
The ‘Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design’ exhibition at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 1, 2025.
Sometimes the city’s support is for regular operations, and other times it is for specific capital projects. In an unusually large commitment, the city has pledged $50 million to the African American Museum in Philadelphia for its relocation to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The city is providing nearly $32.5 million to arts and culture in FY27, according to a list provided by Parker’s office. While that total includes small items that might seem mundane — paying utility bills at various facilities, for instance — it also shows multimillion-dollar allocations to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dell Music Center, and Philadelphia Zoo.
But the arts and culture sector often finds itself fighting for adequate funding in the annual budget process. Arts leaders and others say it has been standard practice in recent memory that funding is listed at one level in the mayor’s proposed budget and after City Council testimony in budget hearings ends up being higher.
This year, the mayor “could have funded [the arts] at a higher amount,” as she did last year, but did not do so, Councilmember Rue Landau said.
The cuts came after a budget that passed without a series of tax increases proposed by Parker, including a $1 tax on rideshare services, after failing to win support from City Council. After Council signaled it would reject Parker’s tax proposals, the administration would not agree to any last-minute line items for new funding requests from lawmakers.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a consistent arts supporter who, like Landau, is an ex-officio Mural Arts board member, said that with the lack of new tax revenue and the city’s extra allocation of $48 million to cover the Philadelphia School District’s budget shortfall, the funding pie for other allocations got smaller.
“This budget year, a lot of attention and advocacy went toward schools,” Thomas said. The funding cuts to Mural Arts and the Cultural Fund were “extremely unfortunate,” he said, “and I wish we could have done something different.”
The need for ‘predictable, stable, reliable’ funding for the arts
While the city’s budget is now final, there is another potential window of opportunity for funding through a midyear budget transfer process in which the city might see expenditures in certain areas coming in lower than expected, and then transfer money from those categories to other areas.
Asked whether funds might be restored through a budget transfer to Mural Arts or the Cultural Fund, Gay said:
“I think anything is on the table, but I also think nothing is guaranteed.”
Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, at S. Broad Street and Walnut along the Avenue of the Arts, Feb. 15, 2023.
Any restoration of funds would happen after arts groups have already put cuts in place, and this kind of unpredictability “makes planning by these organizations very, very difficult,” Aden said.
“The practice of underfunding the arts and having Council and other entities have to go on an advocacy campaign to increase funding is illogical,” Landau said. “It is clear as day that we should be supporting the arts with additional funding every single year, so we don’t have to go through this and it won’t ever be a question mark for them.”
What is really needed, Aden said, is a dedicated arts fund in Philadelphia and the region.
“We’ve seen other regions benefit from this predictable, stable, reliable funding. And instead, here in Philadelphia, each year we have this conversation about increases and decreases and their impact. We are sometimes left to the will and whim of elected officials, and we would like to take the creative economy out of the political realm and put it solidly within our larger civic interest, so that it is stable and has the investment that is required to reach its full potential.”
Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
Noted in the feds’ lawsuit: When the ordinance was making its way through the legislative process, City Solicitor Renee Garcia advised the mayor it would be “inaccurate” to suggest the city can “legally and practically enforce the Bill.”
The city responded Thursday afternoon to the Trump administration’s request for an injunction preventing the ordinance from taking effect next month by arguing the federal government doesn’t have standing until the city attempts to enforce its provisions.
Even if the administration had standing to sue, the bill’s provisions don’t interfere with the federal government’s work and “at most imposes an incidental burden,” the city’s response said.
Additionally, the filing contended the Trump administration can’t show irreparable harm because of exceptions that allow officers to conceal their identity. The city, meanwhile, has “a significant interest in protecting its residents and law enforcement officers,” it said.
“The Bill was enacted in response to the confusion and fear generated by the federal government’s deployment of large numbers of federal agents who subsequently applied aggressive enforcement tactics behind the mask of anonymity, undermining public safety and trust,” the city said.
The defendants in the case — the city, Parker, Garcia, and District Attorney Larry Krasner — are represented jointly by attorneys from the law firm Ballard Spahr.
“In essence, the city’s argument, which we have joined, is that this ain’t the right time,” Krasner said in an interview. “The City Council ordinance is not in effect yet. There has been no enforcement by the Philadelphia Police Department yet. You don’t even have a real case to consider.”
Krasner added that while he was in lockstep with the Parker administration on Thursday’s filing, further developments could necessitate his office to seek separate representation.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on the new filing.
A city Law Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ordinance at the heart of the litigation makes it a crime for law enforcement officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, to wear face coverings or conceal personal identifiers like badges and nameplates while carrying out their official duties in Philadelphia, and requires officers to identify themselves. It also prohibits the use of unmarked vehicles.
The bill includes exceptions allowing officers to wear masks in certain circumstances, such as medical emergencies or SWAT operations.
An officerwho violates the ordinance could be prosecuted, and risks up to 90 days in jail plus a fine.
The ICE Out package, including the mask law, goes into effect July 7.
The Trump administration has sued other jurisdictions, including New Jersey, over similar requirements. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a California bill requiring agents to “visibly display identification” violated the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which bars states from regulating federal government activities.
An awkward position for Parker
Defending the bill puts Parker and her administration in an awkward position.
Councilmember Kendra Brooks speaks during a news conference outside Philadelphia City Hall, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Philadelphia. Organizers called on local and state officials to restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement involvement in public safety operations during the FIFA World Cup.
Brooks said she did not want the lawsuit to hold up the Parker administration’s implementation of the law.
“There is nothing in the lawsuit stopping the administration from implementing our ICE Out package on time,” she said.
Brooks had good reason to question the administration’s commitment to the legislation given Parker’s handling of it.
After the bills’ passage, Garcia advised Parker not to sign the bill banning law enforcement officers from concealing their identity, saying doing so “would send an inaccurate signal to the public that the Administration can legally and practically enforce the Bill.”
Parker followed her solicitor’s advice, signing six bills and allowing the seventh to become law without her signature.
As for Garcia’s concerns about the bill, the new filing from the city only notes that her letter advising Parker didn’t address the issue of standing or whether the issue is ripe for litigation.
In tricorn hats and tail coats, their locs, microbraids, and wavy tresses gathered into 18th-century low ponytails, 27 Philadelphia-area high school students transformed into America’s Founding Fathers on Wednesday evening at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.
The young thespians debated and deliberated the benefits of forming a sovereign nation. Their well-practiced Southern accents and New England inflections echoed in the full auditorium.
In 2½ hours, Massachusetts congressman John Adams (played by Jackson Preisser), Ben Franklin (Jayden Duvene), and Thomas Jefferson (Maxwell Henderson) made the case for liberty, overcoming the petty aristocratic concerns of Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson (Greg Rist).
Former Mayor Ed Rendell meets cast members (L-R) Abigail Adams (played by Chloe Chau), John Dickinson (played by Greg Rist) and Ben Franklin (played by Jayden Duvene) during opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
On a set that looked remarkably like Independence Hall, the students staged the Tony Award-winning 1969 Broadway musical1776 and argued for and against liberty with witty songs and sophisticated dialogue.
The reenactment of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was everything Ed Rendell, the elder statesman and the brain behind the production, wanted it to be.
“It’s been my dream for quite some time to see this production happen,” Rendell said to The Inquirer, his voice a raspy whisper, worn and weary from Parkinson’s disease. Sitting in his wheelchair at the red, white, and blue step and repeat, Rendell smiled as CAPA’s lobby was turned into a dining room for dignitaries hours before the play began.
“In honor of America’s 250th birthday, we wanted to use 1776 to teach high school students the sacrifices and compromises it took to form this great nation,” he said.
Rendell’s love for 1776 is rooted to the night in 1969 when he watched the colonial drama unfold on Broadway, starring William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson, and Howard da Silva as Benjamin Franklin. Daniels, Howard, and da Silva starred in the 1971 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.
“I loved it,” Rendell said, whose favorite ballads from the play are Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson’s quirky performance of “The Egg,” in which the forefathers humorously choose the bald eagle as America’s national bird. (That didn’t really happen during the Second Continental Congress, but it’s a nice touch.)
Another of Rendell’s favorite songs is “Is Anybody There?,” a melancholy number during which Adams asks himself if his dedication to the cause of independence is worth it.
“It struck the right chord, giving all the facts about how we came to our freedom, our independence,” Rendell said. “When I became mayor, I went back and studied it and began to think of it as an important civics lesson. There were so many things I didn’t even know.”
A former president, a mayor, a speaker walk into a play
The 1776 opening night saw the attendance of a who’s who in Philadelphia politics, business, and civics.
Former President Joe Biden was in the house on the opening night of Rendell’s theatrical milestone. After he was presented with a copy of the declaration signed by the cast, the former president delivered a nine-minute speech about the importance of teaching American history in present-day America, although he did not mention President Donald Trump by name.
“What I can tell you is that from the moment the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, we have been in a consistent battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said as guests prepared to dig into barbecued chicken, brisket, and ribs, Rendell’s favorite.
Former President Joe Biden displays a signed poster from the cast as former Mayor Ed Rendell looks on during the opening night celebration of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
“Even when there is darkness,” Biden said, “we’ve summoned our angels and crawled back from the brink. We are trying to do that now.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia), and State Rep. Joe Ciresi (D., Montgomery) were also in attendance. Philadelphia School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.; Temple University president John Fry; and David L. Cohen, the former senior executive vice president to Comcast and U.S. ambassador to Canada, were on hand, too.
“When Mr. Rendell calls, people come out,” said Adrian R. King, a partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Ballard Spahr and a former Rendell staffer.
Their attendance reflected their respect for Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia who, in his political heyday in the 1990s, led the efforts to reimagine South Broad Street as the now-bustling Avenue of the Arts. CAPA’s 1997 opening was a part of that plan.
John Adams (played by Jackson Preisser, middle) and John Dickinson (played by Greg Rist, right) are seperated during a scene from the opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
Rendell’s baby
Rendell has dreamed of this production for years. He began working on it in earnest last year, bringing on veteran Philadelphia arts administrator Karen Corbin to executive produce. Phillip Sean Brown, director of theater at Bryn Mawr’s Shipley School, was roped in to direct.
“The governor had very specific ideas of what he wanted,” Brown said. “He wanted to show the history of our country, show the drama of the birth of a nation, and have the students learn everything they could about the craft of theater.”
The first order of business was securing the rights to the late composer Sherman Edwards’ script and music. That will cost about $45,000 by the end of the run, Corbin said.
Casting began in February and auditions began in March. Forty actors from eight area high schools were picked for the multicultural, gender-fluid rotating cast, giving the revival of the 57-year-old production Hamilton vibes.
In addition, Brown said, more than 30 students were hired as musicians and production crew.
Cast members posed with guests before opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
“They worked with professionals in theater lighting, costume, sound, and props,” Brown said.
Students were paid $150 a week during rehearsal weeks, and will make $300 a week through the eight-week performance. The entire production cost $850,000 including a $150,000 grant from the state.
There will be 50 shows through Aug. 15 at CAPA. Actors will also perform vignettes of the musical throughout Philadelphia’s historic district, including Carpenters Hall.
‘All good things take compromise’
Students’ exposure to the arts and history has been priceless.
“This experience represents striving forward — as an actor with my cast,“ said Mason Daly, a CAPA graduating senior whose biting Southern accent for South Carolina congressman and segregationist Edward Rutledge was chilling.
Daly’s role as Rutledge is particularly eye-opening. 1776 tells us that Jefferson’s original draft of the declaration included a clause abolishing slavery in America. Rutledge, however, would support America only if that part of the declaration were struck.
Jefferson laments to Franklin, saying, “Mark me, Franklin … if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us.” But he does give in.
“Playing him, I learned to value the nuances of the perspectives of even those we disagree with,” Daly said.
“It’s about his personal compromises to get to the yea vote that allowed independence to go forward. That dialogue, that discussion, that back-and-forth between him and the various colonial representatives is the basis of our democracy and government.”
Former Mayor Ed Rendell during opening night of 1776: The Musical at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
The actors’ parents bubbled with excitement.
“My child is really being taken seriously as an actor in this production,” said Justina Barrett, chief learning and engagement officer at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and mother to Sage Wentz, who played Col. Thomas McKean of Delaware. “This whole play is about the messy business of making the United States. It was hard. These guys weren’t nice. It wasn’t pretty. In many ways, we are divided then as we are now.”
Although difficult, this idea of forming a new nation through compromise is what Rendell hopes is the ultimate lesson for all involved.
“We can’t get anything done without compromise,” Rendell said. “We have to get back to a government that is working toward the good of the government. The Civil Rights Act took compromise. Women’s rights took compromise. All good things take compromise.”
“1776″ will be performed at CAPA, 901 S. Broad St., through Aug. 15. Tickets start at $11. For more information, go to the Celebrating 1776! website.
An overwhelming majority of Philadelphians feel safe in their neighborhoods and more than 40% believe that the city has become cleaner under the leadership of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, according to a new poll, suggesting that city residents see significant progress on the mayor’s key campaign promises.
However, there is not a broad citywide consensus on Parker’s tenure as she heads into an expected reelection campaign next year, and there were also red flags for her and the city, including alarmingly bad evaluations of the public school system.
That is according to a recent Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer poll that surveyed 500 Philadelphians across the city on issues including crime, quality of life, city services, and education. More than half of those surveyed said they would rate Philly as a “good” or “excellent” place to live.
About 83% of residents reported feeling safe in the city just five years after record-high rates of gun violence in Philadelphia, with respondents in neighborhoods most affected by violent crime most likely to say they feel that crime has decreased since Parker took office in 2024.
And the city’s public school system emerged as a primary concern, with 45% saying they would rate Philadelphia’s schools as of “poor” quality, while more than half of the poll’s respondents said that schools play an important role in whether they stay in the city or move out.
The survey was conducted last week, after the financially struggling Philadelphia School District and its controversial school closure plan dominated local headlines for more than a month.
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, said the poll provides Philadelphia policymakers with a blueprint for how to keep people in the city: continue progress on crime and improve the public schools.
“If that happens,” he said, “then Philadelphia is poised to be a renaissance city.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker attending the Juneteenth Block Party at the African American Museum in Philadelphia on June 19.
Parker said in a statement that her administration “values both qualitative and quantitative information.”
“The real-life, lived experiences of people in this city are what matters most,” she said. “Polling is not my North Star in how I govern. My solutions always come from the ground up, from what people can see, touch, and feel.”
For Parker’s political fortunes, the poll represents mixed results. It showed that the substantial base of support that lifted the mayor to office in 2023 is holding up, with Black residents and older Philadelphians most likely to say they have a favorable view of her and see progress on her campaign promises.
But Parker has not consolidated broad citywide enthusiasm, with 44% of respondents saying that they have a favorable view of the mayor and 35% saying they have an unfavorable one. That is positive territory for Parker more than halfway through her first term, but not overwhelmingly so.
Her biggest vulnerability is with young people — respondents under age 45 were more likely to say that they had an unfavorable view of the mayor than a favorable one. White residents were also more sour on Parker.
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Paleologos said that the poll shows there are “pockets of strength” that make Parker, a centrist Democrat, electorally strong, but that he would not consider her support broad-based.
Those results come as the city’s most prominent progressive political groups are weighing whether to mount a challenge against Parker next year. As the incumbent, Parker would be the hands-down favorite in any contest, as no Philadelphia mayor has lost a campaign for reelection in modern history.
Aren Platt, the executive director of People for Parker, the mayor’s political arm, said in a statement that Parker’s support “has always been under-counted, especially in public polling.” He cited polling conducted during the 2023 mayor’s race that showed her tied with or trailing her top opponents in the Democratic primary, in which Parker prevailed by a commanding 10 percentage points.
Platt also said the Suffolk University/Inquirer poll is not necessarily predictive of how the mayor could perform in a theoretical reelection race. The poll was of Philadelphia residents, not likely primary voters.
“This poll may reflect the demographics of Philadelphia, but elections are decided by the people who show up to vote on election day,” he said. “In Philadelphia, those are two very different universes.”
The poll also showed relatively positive marks for one of Parker’s potential successors: City Council President Kenyatta Johnson. He has said that he supports Parker for reelection, but Philadelphia mayors are limited to two terms and Johnson is widely seen as a potential future contender for the city’s top office.
Overall, 48% of respondents said they had a favorable view of Johnson and only 12% had an unfavorable one. Johnson is also far less publicly known than Parker, with 40% of those surveyed saying they had either never heard of him or were undecided on their view of him.
Negative reviews of the Philadelphia School District
About one in five respondents said that schools and education are the most important issue in the city, making it second only to crime. Paleologos said that is somewhat unique to Philadelphia — in other major cities where he has polled public opinion, he said, respondents often rank jobs and the economy as greater concerns.
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Nearly 75% of respondents said they would rate the quality of Philadelphia’s public schools as “fair” or “poor.” Younger residents were far more likely than older ones to rate the schools as “poor,” and more than half of all respondents said the public schools are an important factor in determining whether they and their family stay in the city or move away.
“That’s a big number,” Paleologos said. “That research alone gives the policymakers a bird’s-eye view of what they need to do to keep people here in Philadelphia.”
The survey also shows that residents see issues across the school system. When asked what should be the highest priority in improving the schools, there was little consensus among respondents: About a third said teacher pay, while a quarter said school safety, and another quarter said building repairs.
Just 4.4% said the highest priority should be instituting year-round school, an initiative that Parker campaigned on and that the district is piloting.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., School Board President Reginald L. Streater, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker stand together during an announcement at the School District of Philadelphia Headquarters on June 10.
In a statement provided to The Inquirer after the initial publication of this story, Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the School District of Philadelphia, said district leaders share “the public’s sense of urgency to significantly improve public schools in the City of Philadelphia.”
She said the district is making progress toward the superintendent’s goal of making the district the “fastest improving large urban district in the nation.”
Braxton added that the district’s own survey suggests most parents are satisfied. The district’s 2024-25 survey, Braxton said, found that 90.3% of more than 26,000 parents whose students attend district schools said they were pleased with the quality of education their child received.
The quality of Philadelphia’s public schools has been a perennial concern, and city leaders have long pointed to the chronic underfunding of the Philadelphia School District. In 2023, the state Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania had for years unconstitutionally deprived students in low-wealth districts of an adequate education, and state lawmakers are now funding schools under a new formula.
District leaders have undertaken significant efforts in recent years to improve academic performance. There have been some positive results, including improvement on test scores and a recent report that said Philadelphia School District students’ learning post-pandemic was tops in the nation among large urban districts.
The district also earlier this year adopted a sweeping, $3.3 billion effort to renovate and modernize 169 schools. That multiyear plan was hotly debated, as it included the closure of 17 schools.
Councilmember Nina Ahmad shows off her T-shirt during a rally outside of the School District of the Philadelphia School District headquarters building on May 28. Council members rallied to oppose the school closure plan.
Parker said the Commonwealth Court “got it right” in declaring that low-wealth districts like Philadelphia’s are chronically underfunded.
“If we had all the resources we need, we’d see even more enhanced improvements in our schools,” Parker said. “I’ll never stop fighting for our children and their right to a high-quality education.”
Crime is the top concern, but most residents feel safe
Despite rates of violent crime in the city plummeting to record lows under Parker, public safety remains the top concern for three in 10 Philadelphia residents, suggesting that people who live in the city are still anxious about crime.
When asked about whether they believe crime in their neighborhood has increased or decreased over the last two years, a third of respondents said they believe it has increased, about 32% said it has decreased, and 28% said they believe it has stayed the same.
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A closer look at the results shows that a plurality of respondents in the neighborhoods most affected by violent crime, including North and West Philadelphia, believe that crime has decreased.
The respondents most likely to say that they believe crime in their area has increased live in Northeast Philly. But public data maintained by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office show overall crime has decreased there, too. There are five Northeast Philadelphia police districts, and the total number of crime incidents reported to police declined in all of them between 2023, the year before Parker took office, and last year.
Despite the mixed poll results, a vast majority of Philadelphians — nearly 83% — said that they feel safe in their own neighborhood.
That is good news for Parker, who ran for office as a tough-on-crime Democrat amid a historic wave of gun violence and who vowed often to “bring order back to our city.”
Philadelphia police officers stand along the 2800 block of Kensington Ave. after a police involved shooting on May 23. Police shot a robbery suspect.
Parker said in a statement that the polling results are evidence that her public safety strategy is working, calling it her “number one priority.”
She also vowed to continue her administration’s efforts in Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis. The Parker administration has deployed a multipronged approach, including increased police patrols in the neighborhood and an expansion of offerings for people in addiction.
But 53% of poll respondents said they do not believe the mayor’s efforts there are working, and those who live closest to the problem were the least supportive. In the region that encompasses the Lower Northeast and the river wards, where Kensington is located, 68% of people said Parker’s strategy is not working while only 18% said it is.
The mayor’s overall favorability was also lowest in that area of the city, the only region where more respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the mayor than a favorable one.
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Parker acknowledged that there is “much more work to do” in Kensington and said that “changing culture and going to war with the status quo is never easy.“
Parker’s ‘clean and green’ message is landing
For a city derisively called “Filthadelphia” and where cleanliness has been a longtime concern, a significant number of people seem to think Philadelphia is getting cleaner.
When asked about trash and litter, 41% of poll respondents said they believe the city has gotten cleaner over the last two years. Just 19% said Philadelphia has gotten dirtier, and 38% said it has stayed the same.
A sanitation department truck is seen along Cresson Street at West Earlham Street in Philadelphia on the first day of trash collection after a strike on July 14, 2025.
Those are positive marks for a mayor whose slogan is “safer, cleaner, greener” and who has instituted new programs including twice-weekly trash pickup in the densest parts of the city.
Despite those efforts, Philadelphians gave worse reviews to the overall quality of city services in their neighborhood. About six in 10 respondents said the quality was either “fair” or “poor,” while 40% said “good” or “excellent.”
Staff writer Michelle Baruchman contributed to this article.
A significant majority of residents want Philadelphia to remain a sanctuary for immigrants, according to a new poll that shows the overwhelmingly Democratic city is undeterred by President Donald Trump’s threats to defund so-called sanctuary cities.
A recent Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer poll that surveyed 500 city residents asked respondents if Philadelphia should remain a sanctuary city, “even if it means losing federal funding.” A commanding 59% answered “yes,” with only 28% saying “no” and the remainder undecided or unwilling to say.
The support for Philadelphia’s sanctuary status was consistent across age and racial groups. The only geographic region where a plurality of respondents answered “no” was far Northeast Philadelphia, which is among the most politically conservative areas of the city.
The survey question did not elaborate on what a loss of federal funding could mean for the city in terms of the impact on residents. Philadelphia received $2.2 billion from the federal government in fiscal year 2024 to pay for a wide range of critical services, including infrastructure needs, as well as healthcare, food, and housing assistance for low-income people.
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Still, the results of the poll show relatively widespread support in Philadelphia for the city’s sanctuary policies, which include its practice of not complying with detainers issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order. Those detainers are effectively requests submitted by federal agents to local law enforcement agencies that ask to hold undocumented immigrants in custody.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration does not refer to Philadelphia as a “sanctuary city” — she and her top aides instead call it a “welcoming city,” language that has been increasingly adopted nationwide as Trump and his allies in the Republican Party have sought to crack down on sanctuary cities.
President Donald Trump travels to the Lehigh Valley to visit Mack Trucks in Macungie on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
The sanctuary policies predate Parker’s tenure and were in place under an executive order signed by former Mayor Jim Kenney. They were codified into law earlier this year after City Council passed a package of legislation aimed at limiting ICE’s operations in the city and instituting some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on ICE.
In May, Parker signed six of the seven bills in the package, but took no action on one that bars law enforcement officers from concealing their identities, including by wearing masks. City Solicitor Renee Garcia wrote in a letter to Parker that the legislation may not be legally enforceable, but the mayor did not veto the bill, allowing it to become law.
Last week, the Trump administration sued Philadelphia and some of its top officials, including Parker, over the mask-ban ordinance. The Trump administration contended that the law is “blatantly unconstitutional” and undermines federal law enforcement’s ability to do its job.
The lawsuit is one of several filed across the nation by the Trump administration challenging local laws related to immigration as federal authorities carry out the massive deportation campaign promised by the president.
That effort is also tied up in litigation. Last year, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from denying funding to jurisdictions that limit cooperation with ICE, saying the White House could not impose funding conditions without authorization from Congress.
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
But that may not jibe with what many Philadelphians want to see.
A new Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer CityView poll of 500 city residents found that a quarter of respondents believe the city’s primary responsibility to the nation is to protect its historical sites for future generations. Nearly 27% said the city’s primary responsibility to the nation is to serve as a model for “diverse, multicultural urban progress.”
The poll, conducted from June 16 to 20 and released this week, comes after a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in favor of the Trump administration and just weeks ahead of celebrations in Philadelphia for the nation’s 250th birthday.
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The appeals court’s ruling last week was a turning point in a legal battle waged by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration that questioned the federal government’s authority to interfere in what information is presented at the President’s House. Both the Third Circuit ruling and a recent decision by a Boston-based federal appeals court regarding National Park Service exhibits nationwide have started to pave the way for the Trump administration to make unprecedented changes to displays of U.S. history in the region.
Alacia Maxton, 36, a respondent to the poll, said frustration with the attacks on the President’s House has been at the forefront of her mind as the city prepares to celebrate the Semiquincentennial.
For nearly two decades without opposition, the site — which opened in December 2010 — has memorialized the nine people George Washington enslaved at his Philadelphia residence during the founding of America and detailed the brutality of slavery.
Last month, it was designated as an endangered historic site by a major national historic preservation organization. The new panels proposed by the Trump administration to replace the removed exhibits at the President’s House soften Washington’s role as an enslaver, according to those working to protect the site.
“I don’t like the idea that certain groups of people want to whitewash history and erase what doesn’t make them feel comfortable,” said Maxton, who lives in Overbrook Park.
Carolyn Keys, 61, another resident who responded to the poll, said the absence of the some of theoriginal panels is like “missing pieces to a puzzle.”
“Every piece was specifically put together for a purpose,” said Keys, 61, a veteran who lives in the Tacony neighborhood.
David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said Philadelphians valuing preserving history and being a model for progress is a particularly localized issue.
“Which I think makes this really important information for the nation to see,” Paleologos said.
Philadelphia Lawyer Michael Coard speaks at a rally at the President’s House Site in response to the removal of the President’s House exhibit in Old City, in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Philadelphia
A bipartisan grassroots group of Philadelphians — called the President’s House/Slavery Memorial Coalition — has been spearheading efforts to protect the historical site, which has been under scrutiny from the Trump administration since last summer.
Michael Coard, an attorney and founder of one of the leading groups in the efforts to protect the President’s House, said in a statement Wednesday that the poll results show that “Philadelphians understand the importance of protecting our shared history.”
“Black history is American history, and we have both an obligation and, based on these results, a clear mandate to ensure that the stories of enslaved Africans and their descendants are preserved, honored, and accurately told,” Coard said.
Other respondents had different ideas for Philadelphia’s primary responsibility as the birthplace of democracy: Roughly 23% said “leading national conversations on civil rights and economic justice” was a top priority, while almost 17% said the city’s duty to the nation is “proving that a large, complex city can govern itself equitably.”
These insights come as Philadelphia is bracing for an influx of tourists, with particular emphasis on its history as the nation’s birthplace, ahead of the Semiquincentennial celebrations.
The Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park Feb. 2, 2026.
Almost 28% of the Philadelphia residents polled see the Liberty Bell — in comparison to Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center, and the Rocky Steps — as the city landmark that best embodies American democracy.
But hanging over the impending 250th celebrations is the uncertain fate of the President’s House, said Leeanna Lundy, 34, of West Philly.
“For them to remove where the most impactful part of where history took place, it’s like mind-boggling,” Lundy said.
Staff writer Michelle Baruchman contributed to this article.
