A new arts festival will launch in Philadelphia in 2026 as one of the major events marking the nation’s 250th anniversary. What Now: 2026 is planned to be a five-week-long festival from the nonprofit ArtPhilly. The festival aims to showcase the city’s artistry and talent for both tourists and neighbors alike.
Dozens of Philadelphia artists across disciplines will present more than 30 original works, staged from late May to July 2026 in venues around Philadelphia, coinciding with the Fourth of July and FIFA World Cup matches as part of the city’s Semiquincentennial events.
What Now: 2026 will feature new works by Philly artists such as filmmaker Walé Oyéjidé, poet Yolanda Wisher, opera singer/drag queen Cookie Diorio, photographer and pop-up book creator Colette Fu, and sculptor Pedro Ospina. Institutional collaborators in the region will include BalletX, BlackStar, Philadanco!, the Crossing, and Theatre in the X.
One highlight is The Basil Biggs Project, a new play from actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, an alum of Arcadia University. Her great-great-grandfather was a farmer and veterinarian in Gettysburg who, during the Civil War, took a job disinterring and reburying Union soldiers on the battlefield. Smith wrote the work using archival research on her family’s history.
The festival is the brainchild of renowned local philanthropist Katherine Sachs, a longtime trustee and benefactor of the Philadelphia Art Museum, and arts administrator Bill Adair, who previously led programs at the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and the Rosenbach Museum & Library.
Sachs began planning What Now: 2026 in the winter of 2021 to ensure that the arts remained central to the city’s celebration. She gathered a committee of regional arts leaders including Barnes Foundation head Thom Collins, Mann Center for the Performing Arts president Cathy Cahill, and Mural Arts director Jane Golden to brainstorm meaningful ways to spotlight Philadelphia’s artists.
“I just thought we could do a better job than we did in 1976 [for the Bicentennial],” said Sachs, who serves as chair of ArtPhilly. “We want people to see what Philly has to offer every day of the year, so they come back.”
“We’re rah-rah sports. We’re rah-rah about our history and our Independence Hall, and Liberty Bell,” said Adair, ArtPhilly’s creative and executive director. “Those are amazing parts of our identity and who we are, but we know that the arts and culture sector is one of the strongest in the country and the world, and we deserve to be known for that.”
Part of the duo’s work involved creating the nonprofit organization ArtPhilly, that would provide infrastructure and allow for planning the inaugural festival in 2026 and also future years. Sachs and Adair plan for it to be a recurring festival every two or three years.
The pair fundraised about $7.5 million for ArtPhilly and the festival with support from the William Penn Foundation and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage along with private foundations and corporate sponsors. ArtPhilly also received $750,000 from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial.
Working with choreographer Tania Isaac, ArtPhilly’s curatorial and deputy director, they selected 17 Philadelphia curators who proposed 45 projects. The team narrowed down the list to 32 works that received between $20,000 to $400,000 in project funding.
“Other cities have done [festivals like] this, and the return on the investment is about six times, meaning the economic impact is really pretty great, between the hotels and restaurants, and what the artists have to build and all the people that you have involved,” said Sachs.
Los Angeles’ Pacific Standard Time festival was a helpful model. Sachs said the result led to increased attendance at institutions in the city, a major goal for Philadelphia organizations that have struggled with foot traffic since the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Artists are going to interpret this anniversary in a way that no one else can … For us, this festival isn’t a celebration of the anniversary, as much as it is a kind of marking and interrogation of the anniversary. Hence the question, ‘What now?’,” said Adair. “We feel like we’re adding something very important to the public discourse around the anniversary by having artists as the interpreters, but also the provocateurs.”
What Now: 2026 projects include:
Chinatown Pop-Up Book, a look at the neighborhood’s history through a large, hand-cranked pop-up book
In Case of Fire, Speak!, a dance collaboration between Martha Graham Dance Company and Philadanco!
Pepperpot, a combination of live music, poetry, and food surrounding the history of pepper pot soup from jazz musician V. Shayne Frederick and chef Valerie Erwin
This article was updated after receiving a revised total for the amount that the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial granted ArtPhilly.
This article was updated to reflect Jane Golden’s current title.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A.J. Brown believes he has the “best hands in the world.”
The Eagles’ star receiver, who has been open about the need for the passing game and the offense as a whole to meet its potential, and for the team to take advantage of his abilities, reached 100 yards for the third consecutive game.
He had six catches for 100 yards and made a few key plays. But late Monday night inside the visitors’ locker room at SoFi Stadium, it was the passes that hit his hands and landed elsewhere that stood out the most and had Brown looking inward.
The Eagles lost for a variety of reasons to extend their slump to three games. Jalen Hurts was nowhere near good enough. They had untimely penalties. Jake Elliott missed a field goal that proved pivotal. But Brown knows his three drops changed the game.
Each one in isolation could have produced a different result Monday night. He wanted all of them back, he said, and probably was going to spend the cross-country flight home thinking about them before he planned to “flush” the game when the plane touched down in Philadelphia.
Brown touched on all three drops.
There was the first play from scrimmage of the game, a broken play that resulted in Hurts launching a deep ball up the left sideline. “I wish I could have somehow found a way to make that one,” Brown said.
The second came four minutes into the fourth quarter with the Eagles leading, 16-13. One play earlier, Hurts scrambled to his right and connected with Darius Cooper for a 19-yard gain that moved the Eagles to near midfield. The Eagles were on the move and looking to add to their lead and put what had earlier looked like a sure loss to bed. Hurts took a shotgun snap, faked a handoff to Saquon Barkley, and fired a pass over the middle to a crossing Brown near the Chargers’ 40-yard line. The throw was high, and Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman was closing in, but Brown couldn’t haul in the pass as it tipped off his fingertips and into the hands of cornerback Cam Hart.
Los Angeles drove down the field and tied the score with a field goal.
“The ball over the middle, I know it wasn’t perfect, but I’m more than capable of making that catch,” Brown said.
“That was just going to be another tough one. I’m more than capable of making that grab for [Hurts]. He stepped up in the pocket, he’s under pressure.”
The third one hurt the most, though.
On a second-and-11 from the Chargers’ 26-yard line with less than three minutes to play and the score tied at 16, the Eagles got Brown in one-on-one coverage with Hart. Hurts struggled for most of the night, but this throw was one of his best. He dropped a deep pass into a perfect spot for Brown to catch it. Hart made a decent play at the point of attack, but the 28-year-old receiver has made many similar and more difficult plays, and this one probably would have given the Eagles a needed victory.
“He just made a play,” Brown said. “That one hurt the most because we’ve been setting things up all game, and he made a play. That one hurt me. I’m more than capable of making those plays. Jalen trusts me in any situation. I made some plays, but I wasn’t great when it mattered.”
And so the Eagles, and Brown, are going “back to the drawing board,” Brown said.
They have now gone five consecutive games without topping 21 points. It is the first time in the Nick Sirianni era that has happened and a first for any Eagles team since 2005. An impotent offense has been the story of the season, and while there were small flashes Monday, it was more of the same.
“It’s the same thing every week,” DeVonta Smith said. “Do something good, shoot ourselves in the foot. Nobody is doing nothing to stop us. We’re stopping ourselves every time, putting ourselves back behind the sticks. We get something going, and we just do some dumb s—.”
Like turn the ball over. Hurts threw a career-high four interceptions, but Smith said the receivers were responsible for two of them. Smith blamed himself for the second interception, saying he fell. The other, Smith said, was on Brown.
“I made some plays but I wasn’t great when it mattered.”
— Quay L.Jones🦅 #FlyEaglesFly SBLIX CHAMPIONS!! (@QuayLJones3) December 9, 2025
“S— happens,” he said.
Said Brown: “You always have to look inward and be honest with yourself first and foremost. Take accountability and find a way to fix it as quickly as possible.
“As soon as I get off the plane, it’s going to be flushed because you have to. It’s a part of the game, it’s a part of playing at a high level. I’m catching like 500 balls a day. I pride myself on making those catches.
“I could go out there and drop 100 balls, but I’m still going to believe in me, believe in my hands. I believe that I got the best hands in the world. But sometimes it don’t go your way, and that’s a part of it. You got to have thick skin and go back to work.”
That work begins right away. The Eagles were due to land Tuesday morning and will be back on the practice field Wednesday in a short week with the Las Vegas Raiders coming to town Sunday.
The Eagles still have a 1½-game lead in the NFC East, and they finish the season with a game against the two-win Raiders before playing two of their final three against the three-win Washington Commanders.
“Everything is still right in front of us,” Brown said. “There’s still so much to be optimistic about. These tough losses, tough little stretch, I’m not going to say it’s humbling us, but we are doing what we need to do, going back to work and taking pride into that and [getting] this thing turned around at the right time. It’s one week at a time.”
It gets late early, though, and the Eagles are running out of weeks to make their necessary fixes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — It was all there for Jalen Hurts.
Despite the turnovers, missed throws, and maybe the worst four quarters of his NFL career, the quarterback had an opportunity to drive the Eagles to victory in overtime.
He did not.
Instead, Hurts tossed an interception — his career-high fourth of the game — that was deflected and caught at the 1-yard line and gave the Los Angeles Chargers a wild 22-19 win over the Eagles on Monday night at SoFi Stadium.
“As frustrating as the night was, we had an opportunity to win the game,” Hurts said. “In the end, I had the ball in my hands driving down the field, having everything on our terms to a sense, and I didn’t bring it home.”
It probably was the best decision and throw of Hurts’ four picks. But Chargers cornerback Cam Hart somehow got his hand on a pass intended for wide receiver Jahan Dotson, and safety Tony Jefferson snagged the deflection to seal the outcome.
That Hurts would succumb seemed destined, however.
The loss, by no means, was all on the sixth-year quarterback. The offense was disjointed and produced just one touchdown, on a fake Tush Push. Receiver A.J. Brown had a pass bounce off his hands to a Chargers defender and two deep Hurts teardrops that he failed to pull in could have resulted in scores.
There were penalties that brought back successful plays. A missed field goal. And even the defense, which kept the Eagles alive with repeated stops and forced field goals, had the occasional breakdown.
But Hurts’ imperfections as a dropback passer again were glaring. He threw over and behind his intended targets. He made the wrong reads and missed receivers schemed open downfield or on check downs. He was in a fog and couldn’t see the field, especially over the middle.
There undoubtedly were some good moments. But not close to enough. It seems unimaginable that Eagles coach Nick Sirianni would consider benching Hurts for backup Tanner McKee. Opening that can of worms may cause more harm than good — especially in the long term — but the idea has some merit.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni lamented the turnovers. “Tonight was a little uncharacteristic of us.”
Not just the quarterback
Hurts has been in a free fall since the Week 9 bye. Each week has seemingly been worse, with the quarterback uncharacteristically turning the ball over at a high rate. Sirianni can’t dismiss all that Hurts has accomplished. And he and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo have to take ownership, as well.
But something likely has to change if the reeling 8-5 Eagles don’t want to repeat their collapse from just two years ago.
“It’s never just on execution,” Sirianni said when asked about Hurts. “We look at ourselves as coaches first to help them be in position to succeed and execute. Obviously, you never want to turn the ball over. We’re pretty good at that, and tonight was a little uncharacteristic of us.”
But turning the ball over has become more the norm during the Eagles’ three-game losing streak. They committed nine turnovers over that span after having just four in their first 10 games. Hurts wasn’t involved in two, but the other seven have come from five interceptions and two of his fumbles.
The fumble vs. the Chargers was fluky and came after his first pick. Hurts didn’t see defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand drop into coverage on a simulated third-down pressure. He forced a throw to Brown when it appeared that Dotson was open over the top.
Eagles running back Will Shipley knocked the ball out of Hand’s grasp, and Hurts picked it up. But he, too, lost it for the rare double turnover. How rare? It had been at least 48 years since it last happened.
Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo with A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts.
On the next series, Hurts was intercepted again when he threw behind DeVonta Smith. He settled down as the teams exchanged field goals until Saquon Barkley broke through on the fake Tush Push and scored a 52-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
But with the Eagles finally ahead, 16-13, a high Hurts dart to Brown over the middle went off the receiver’s hands and into Hart’s.
“The ball over the middle — no, it wasn’t perfect,” Brown said, “but I’m more than capable to make that catch.”
Brown, who finished with six catches for a team-high 100 yards, said he also wanted back Hurts’ deep shot to him on the first play from scrimmage and a dime the quarterback dropped into his bucket in the end zone.
“I know there’s definitely some that he wants back,” Hurts said of Brown. “There’s some that we all want back.”
Hurts walked over to the receiver on the bench after the third interception and gave him a fist pump. Brown, whose chemistry with his quarterback on and off the field has come under question, defended Hurts after his rough night.
“You can’t just point a finger,” Brown said. “I think all of us have our hand in that pot and we’re trying to get better. Obviously, he’s the quarterback, he’s going to get a lot of stuff for it.
“But we in this thing together.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts tries to pick up a fumble after throwing an interception in the second quarter.
Still looking for answers
Sirianni, who got more involved in the offense after the Eagles’ mini-bye, has to find a formula that doesn’t require Hurts to drop back as often as he has the last three games. The run-pass ratio favored the latter 45 to 21. Hurts completed just 21 of 40 attempts.
The tinkering of the offense resulted in more motion and passing concepts in the middle of the field. Hurts had some impressive throws in those scenarios, but there were as many bad ones. Against a good defense, the odds weren’t in his favor.
“Nick stepped in, and I think he played a very good role this week, provided some structure and kind of organized some things for us,” Hurts said. “Obviously, we still have ways and room for improvement. But I look at myself first. I look at the man in the mirror first.”
After the Chargers settled for a 54-yard field goal on the opening possession of overtime, Hurts ripped a 28-yard pass to Smith on third-and-16 early in the next drive. Then he avoided a fourth-and-4 test when Chargers pass rusher Odafe Oweh jumped into the neutral zone.
But after two completions to tight end Dallas Goedert, Patullo dialed up a run-pass-run option play that had proved successful earlier in the game and a week ago vs. the Chicago Bears. Rather than have Smith as the read in a high-lo concept route, though, it was Dotson.
“I knew it was going to be a tight-window throw,” Hurts said. “I’d have to watch the film to see it from the film’s point of view. Ultimately, it’s a play that I didn’t make.”
This angle of Jalen Hurts' fourth INT that sealed the game for the Chargers 👀 pic.twitter.com/93F7sbxkkc
The Eagles locker room, when it finally opened to reporters, was full of players and coaches with blank stares. As Hurts sat silently on his stool, Smith was in the next stall over with his arms crossed and his head bowed for what seemed like eternity.
“It’s not nowhere close to 2023,” Smith said later when asked about this Eagles’ late-season swoon.
Brown was across the aisle, catty-corner to Hurts. He chatted with rookie Darius Cooper until receivers coach Aaron Moorehead came over and offered consolation.
There were no overt displays of anger for public consumption. The players who didn’t perform took accountability. No one pointed blame. But frustrations with Hurts behind the scenes have been mounting, according to team sources, and may have reached a precipice.
The lowly Las Vegas Raiders offer a chance for the quarterback to get right next week. It’s not all on Hurts. But he keeps showing that he can’t shoulder too much of the offense.
“It starts with me and how I play, how I lead, and how I go out there and do my job,” Hurts said. “So when I look at it at any point, it’s about how I respond to a test, and what level of resilience and resolve I have to push forward and figure things out.”
The division title and more are still there. Can Hurts get the job done?
With 48 teams spread across 12 groups in a World Cup for the first time, the 72 group-stage games next summer will be a lot to take in.
Here are our picks for the top 10 to watch, in chronological order. In two cases, we’ll note the ones we would have put at the top of a ranking by quality.
Canada vs. Italy
If Italy wins its qualifying playoff
Group B, 3 p.m. June 12 in Toronto
There are a lot of great stories across the 48 teams, especially the many first-timers and first-in-a-long-timers. But that doesn’t mean there are a lot of must-circle games. In truth, a tournament this big — too big for a lot of tastes — could create a diluted group stage.
But don’t tell that to the northernmost of the three cohosts. This will be the first men’s World Cup played on Canadian soil, and the Canucks will start against the winner of the European playoff bracket with Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If Italy emerges from that qualifying playoff, a Canada-Italy matchup in a city with a raucous Italian expat community would be electric. (It also likely would be as expensive a ticket at Toronto’s 45,736-seat stadium as a custom Armani suit.)
Among the many Little Italy neighborhoods in North America, Toronto has long had one of the most vibrant.
The Azzuri are favored to win that bracket, but not a slam dunk. They’ve missed the last two World Cups in catastrophic fashion, and if they beat Northern Ireland, they’ll have to face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina on the road. If they get the job done, you’ll hear the cheers from College and Bathurst up north all the way to Passyunk and Snyder down south.
Brazil vs. Morocco
Group C, 6 p.m. June 13 in East Rutherford, N.J.
Group C will have the most fun vibes, with Scotland and Haiti as the other teams — both are ending decades-long waits to return to men’s soccer’s biggest stage. Their fan bases will be boisterous, and the Scots’ Tartan Army will be massive. But in soccer terms, this will be the best matchup.
The Seleçao’s quest for an unparalleled sixth title goes through an African power that is loaded with talent and skill. Fans rightly will dream of watching Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior or Estêvão charge at Morocco’s all-world outside back Achraf Hakimi, and Hakimi will charge the other way at his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Marquinhos.
Paris Saint-Germain teammates Marquinhos (left) and Achraf Hakimi could play against each other in the World Cup.
Netherlands vs. Japan
Group F, 4 p.m. June 14 in Arlington, Texas
This game also will feature lots of skill across the field.
Japan’s Ao Tanaka (right) is teammates with Medford’s Brenden Aaronson at English Premier League club Leeds United.
England vs. Croatia
Group L, 4 p.m. June 17 in Arlington, Texas
England will arrive in its former colonies as one of the favorites to win the World Cup, and for good reason. After decades of underachievement, the Three Lions finally have the right mix of talent, tactics, and chemistry to win it all.
Their toughest group test should be their opener, as Croatia’s ageless playmaker Luka Modrić matches wits with his former Real Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham. Both teams’ fans also haven’t forgotten that in their last World Cup meeting, Croatia memorably beat England on penalty kicks in the 2018 semifinals.
Jude Bellingham (right) on the ball for England in World Cup qualifying.
Mexico vs. South Korea
Group A, 9 p.m. June 18 in Guadalajara, Mexico
Eight years since their last meeting in a World Cup, they will cross paths again in what could be a wide-open game.
Mexico is under huge pressure to reach el quinto partido, a fifth game at a World Cup, for the first time since 1986 — perhaps not coincidentally the last time the tournament was on home turf. If Raúl Jiménez’s squad can topple Son Heung-Min’s squad, El Tri would take a big step in the right direction and toward winning the group.
Expect many eyes south of the Rio Grande to be on Gilberto Mora, a 17-year-old who is Mexico’s newest phenom. He looks like the real thing so far, but the World Cup is a stage beyond anything he’s seen.
Gilberto Mora played for Mexico at the under-20 World Cup this year and could play on the big stage next year.
Ecuador vs. Germany
Group E, 4 p.m. June 25 East Rutherford, N.J.
World Cup upsets don’t have the same stakes as in the NCAA Tournament, but picking them is always trendy. This one goes to the top of the list, with a potential midfield battle of Germany’s Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala vs. Ecuador’s Moisés Caicedo and Kendry Páez.
Florian Wirtz (right) in action for Germany.
U.S. vs. Turkey
If Turkey wins its qualifying playoff
Group D, 10 p.m. June 25 in Inglewood, Calif.
Though the U.S. has one of the easiest groups it could have wanted, this potential matchup is here on merit. Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız are great young playmakers, and they have Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s veteran experience behind them.
It’s just a shame that FIFA and whoever else was in the room decided to stick the kickoff time so late on a Thursday night for most of the country.
Kenan Yıldız (left) on the ball for Turkey when it beat the U.S. in June in East Hartford, Conn.
Norway vs. France
Group I, 3 p.m. June 26 in Foxborough, Mass.
For all the gaudiness of the World Cup draw’s entertainment acts, you could hear a pin drop in the Kennedy Center’s fabled Concert Hall when the serious business started. Then, every once in a while, the crowd would gasp.
The onlookers gasped mightily when Norway landed in France’s group.
It will be the group-stage finale for both teams, too, with France aiming to take another step toward a third straight men’s World Cup final. That makes this game No. 2 behind Brazil-Morocco as the best overall.
Kylian Mbappé (left) and Erling Haaland have played against each other in the UEFA Champions League, but never in the World Cup.
Uruguay vs. Spain
Group H, 8 p.m. June 26 in Guadalajara
This game might turn out to be a dud because Uruguay has been playing pretty badly lately and doesn’t look like it will turn it around before the summer. But Federico Valverde play against a slew of players he knows well as a Real Madrid stalwart.
Spain will be worth watching no matter what. Electric teenager Lamine Yamal is the world’s game’s new superstar, and La Roja’s list of talents is among the sport’s longest: Gavi, Pedri, Rodri, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams, Martín Zubimendi, and more.
Uruguay’s Federico Valverde (right) and Spain’s Pedri (bottom) play on opposite sides of the Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry, one of soccer’s most famous clashes.
Colombia vs. Portugal
Group K, 7:30 p.m. June 27 in Miami Gardens, Fla.
If Jamaica wins its intercontinental playoff bracket, Andre Blake would face Cristiano Ronaldo in the Reggae Boyz’ first men’s World Cup game since 1998. But since that’s not guaranteed — and really not guaranteed right now, given how Jamaica failed in Concacaf qualifying — we’ll pick a certainty.
In particular, we’ll pick the certainty of Colombia’s outstanding fan base. The Cafeteros always have boisterous backing in the United States, thanks to the big expat community here, and they will be deafening in South Florida.
On the field, the marquee will have Ronaldo and Colombia’s Luis Díaz. But these days, Ronaldo isn’t his country’s best player. Vitinha, João Neves, and Rafael Leão are ahead of the biggest name.
Thinking of selling your business? Or starting a business? You may want to consider a worker cooperative.
This type of business structure is different from a consumer cooperative, where customers each own a piece of the organization in exchange for a membership. It’s also different from an employee stock ownership plan where ownership is assigned to employees based on other factors such as compensation, responsibility, and tenure; retirement value builds up; and day-to-day control is given up to management.
A worker cooperative is a form of business organization where all workers equally own the business. There are no majority shareholders. Management is elected by the workers and reports to the workers. All profits are shared equally.
One example is Home Care Associates of Philadelphia, a worker-owned, women-led cooperative providing in-home personal care, mobility support, and household assistance to seniors and people with disabilities in the Philadelphia region. Employees can buy one share of the company for $500 via payroll after a probationary period.
“You have full rights at that point to run for a seat on the board, to participate in the worker-owner meetings, and to vote,” said CEO Tatia Cooper. “If anyone decides not to be a worker-owner anymore, they get the full amount back that they invested.”
Pennsylvania is one of the easier places in the country to form a worker’s cooperative, according to Kevin McPhillips, the CEO of the Havertown-based nonprofit Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership, because the commonwealth has designated this type of organization separately from other business forms like corporations and partnerships. New Jersey also has specific regulations enabling the formation of worker cooperatives.
Why should a business consider the worker cooperative structure?
For many it builds stronger retention and loyalty to the organization. When people are owners, they have more devotion to the company, so turnover is generally lower, resulting in lower costs for recruiting, hiring, and onboarding.
Some believe worker cooperatives are more apt to deliver better service because the employees care more about their end work product. They’re more devoted to safety, quality, and minimizing waste.
“Home care agencies struggle with retention and providing consistent care,” says Cooper. “For the simple fact that you have workers who stay longer, it really impacts your bottom line.”
Cooper also believes that when workers have a say in how the business is run and the work that they do, they feel more empowered and that then translates to better care.
Scott Moon, the executive director at Baker Project, an employee ownership advocacy group related to the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership, says that while worker cooperatives can be a good vehicle for succession planning, owners will need to make some hard decisions about their objectives if they’re looking to sell their business.
“Business owners who are having a difficult time finding a buyer for their company but want to see it continue to exist and support their employees can use a worker cooperative as a way to pass their work to a new generation of owners,” he said.
Jobs and the company’s brand can be kept in place and the owner can be paid for the value of their company by the workers via a seller’s note or through a bank loan, which is serviced by the company.
“There are many owners who feel it’s not just about selling and that their business has an ongoing responsibility to their employees, their customers, and their community,” Moon said. “So this type of strategy best fits those goals.”
Cooper has found that their organization has a unique culture because of their employee ownership structure.
“It’s the kind of environment where workers can say, ‘Hey, listen, I see a problem, I see a gap. Here’s how I think we should solve it. What do we need to do to make it happen?,” she said. “We have a happiness committee, we have a policy action group, we have a safety committee all led by board members who are worker-owners.”
Downsides of worker cooperatives
Worker cooperatives have their drawbacks. Owners need to understand that they’re giving up complete control.
Because decisions are being made by elected groups of managers that need approval from employees, processes can be slower and potentially messier. Everything is open for scrutiny, and sometimes this level of transparency can hinder decision-making. Some employees may be enthusiastic about attending meetings and paying attention to the organization’s management, but others may not be up for the time and responsibility it takes.
Financing is also harder. According to Cooper, banking is a “real challenge” because, in her experience, worker cooperatives can’t apply for typical small-business loans.
“Most financial entities are looking for someone who owns 5% or more of the company, and we’re constantly explaining to banks and other institutions that this is a different model,” she said. “This is something that we’ve been advocating for with legislators, but it still continues to be a struggle.”
Kevin Bean was a frail 125 pounds last February when he entered a brand-new recovery house, a facility where he landed after spending four years in the throes of addiction — at times on the streets of Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis.
The Frankford native was one of the first residents to enter the Riverview Wellness Village, the 20-acre recovery facility that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration opened in Northeast Philadelphia nearly a year ago as part of City Hall’s efforts to address opioid addiction and the Kensington drug market.
Bean, now 46 and boasting a healthier frame, just celebrated one year of sobriety and is preparing to move out of Riverview early next year.
He described his transition simply: “whole new life.”
Much of the mayor’s agenda in Kensington has been visible to the neighborhood’s residents, such as increased law enforcement and a reduction in the homeless population. But the operations and treatment outcomesat Riverview, located down a winding road next to the city’s jail complex, happen largely outside of public view. Last spring, some city lawmakers complained that even they knew little about the facility operations.
An inside look at the Riverview complex and interviews with more than a dozen residents and employees showed that, over the last year, the city and its third-party healthcare providers have transformed the facility. What was recently a construction zone is now a one-stop health shop with about 75 staff and more than 200 residents, many of whom previously lived on Kensington streets.
Those who live and work at Riverview said the facility is plugging a hole in the city’s substance use treatment landscape. For years, there have not been enough beds in programs that help people transition from hospital-style rehab into long-term stability. The recovery house industry has been plagued with privately run homes that are in poor condition or offer little support.
The grounds and residence buildings at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia.
At its current capacity, Riverview has singularly increased the total number of recovery house beds in the city by nearly 50%. And residents — who are there voluntarily and may come and go as they please — have much of what they need on the campus: medical care, mental health treatment, job training, and group counseling.
They also, as of last month, have access to medication-assisted treatment, which means residents in recovery no longer need to travel to specialized clinics to get a dose of methadone or other drugs that can prevent relapse.
Arthur Fields, the regional executive director at Gaudenzia, which provides recovery services to more than 100 Riverview residents, said the upstart facility has become a desirable option for some of the city’s most vulnerable. Riverview officials said they aren’t aware of anywhere like it in the country.
“The Riverview Wellness Village is proof of what’s possible,” Fields said, “when we work together as a community and move with urgency to help people rebuild their lives.”
While the facility launched in January with much fanfare, it also faced skepticism, including from advocates who were troubled by its proximity to the jails and feared it would feel like incarceration, not treatment. And neighbors expressed concern that the new Holmesburg facility would bring problems long faced by Kensington residents, like open drug use and petty theft, to their front doors.
But despite some tenets of the mayor’s broader Kensington plan still facing intense scrutiny, the vocal opposition to Riverview has largely quieted. Parker said in an interview that seeing the progress at Riverview and the health of its residents made enduring months of criticism “well worth it.”
“I don’t know a Philadelphian who, in some way, shape, or form, hasn’t been touched by mental and behavioral health challenges or substance use disorder,” said Parker, who has spoken about how addiction shaped parts of her own upbringing. “To know that we created a path forward, to me, I’m extremely proud of this team.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker places a new block on the scale model of the Riverview Wellness Village on Wednesday, Jan. 8 during the unveiling of Philadelphia’s new city-operated drug treatment facility. At left is Managing Director Adam Thiel. City Councilmember Michael Driscoll is at right.Isabel McDevitt, executive director of the Office of Community Wellness and Recovery, points to a model with upcoming expansion at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia on Nov. 25.Staffers move photos into place at the Riverview Wellness Village on Jan. 8 before the unveiling of Philadelphia’s new city-operated drug treatment facility.
Meanwhile, neighbors who live nearby say they have been pleasantly surprised. Pete Smith, a civic leader who sits on a council of community members who meet regularly with Riverview officials, said plainly: “There have been no issues.”
“If it’s as successful as it looks like it’s going to be,” he said, “this facility could be a model for other cities throughout the country.”
Smith, like many of his neighbors, wants the city’s project at Riverview to work because he knows the consequences if it doesn’t.
His son, Francis Smith, died in September due to health complications from long-term drug use. He was 38, and he had three children.
Getting a spot at Riverview
The sprawling campus along the Delaware River feels more like a college dormitory setting than a hospital or homeless shelter. Its main building has a dining room, a commercial kitchen, a gym, and meditation rooms. There are green spaces, walking paths,and plans for massive murals on the interior walls.
Katherine Young, director of Merakey at Riverview Wellness Village, talks with a resident at the city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia on Nov. 25.
Residents live and spend much of their time in smaller buildings on the campus, where nearly 90% of the 234 licensed beds are occupied. The city plans to add 50 more in January.
Their stays are funded through a variety of streams. The city allocated $400 million for five years of construction and operations, a portion of which is settlement dollars from lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that manufactured the painkillers blamed for the opioid crisis.
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To get in to Riverview, a person must complete at least 30 days of inpatient treatment at another, more intensive care facility.
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Still, residents at Riverview have come from more than 25 different providers, according to Isabel McDevitt, the city’s executive director of community wellness and recovery. The bulk were treated at the Kirkbride Center in West Philadelphia, the Behavioral Wellness Center at Girard in North Philadelphia, or Eagleville Hospital in Montgomery County.
They have ranged in age from 28 to 75. And they have complex medical needs: McDevitt said about half of Riverview’s residents have a mental health diagnosis in addition to substance use disorder.
She said offering treatment for multiple health conditions in one place allows residents to focus less on logistics and more on staying healthy.
“Many of the folks that are at Riverview have long histories of substance use disorder, long histories of homelessness,” she said. “So it’s really the first time a lot of people can actually breathe.”
When new residents arrive, they go through an intake process at Riverview that includes acute medical care and an assessment for chronic conditions. Within their first week, every resident receives a total-body physical and a panel of blood work.
“They literally arrive with all of their belongings in a plastic bag and their medications and some discharge paperwork,” said Ala Stanford, who leads the Black Doctors Consortium, which provides medical services at Riverview. “We are the ones who greet them and help get them acclimated.”
Stanford — who this fall announced a run for Congress — said doctors and nurses at Riverview have diagnosed and treated conditions ranging from drug-related wounds to diabetes to pancreatic cancer. And patients with mental health needs are treated by providers from Warren E. Smith Health Centers, a 30-year-old organization based in North Philadelphia.
Physician Ala Stanford in an examination room at the primary medical care center run by her Black Doctors Consortium at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia, on Nov. 25.Francesca Colon (right), a recovery support professional with Gaudenzia, brings people in recovery to the main entrance of the Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village on Nov. 25.
Residents’ schedules are generally free-flowing and can vary depending on their wants and needs. About 20% have jobs outside the campus. Culinary arts training will be available in the next month or so. And residents can meet with visitors or leave to see family at any time.
They also spend much of their time in treatment, including individual, family, and group therapy. On a recent day, there were group sessions available on trauma recovery, managing emotions, and “communicating with confidence.”
Vernon Kostic, a 52-year-old Port Richmond native who said he has previously been homeless, has been in and out of drug treatment facilities for years.
He said he’s been content as a Riverview resident since July, and called it “one of the smartest things that the city has ever done.”
“We have the doctor’s office right over here,” he said. “They’ve got counseling right here. Everything we need. It’s like a one-stop recovery place.”
Resident Vernon Kostic heads to a group meeting at Riverview Wellness Village on Nov. 25.The dining room and meeting room in the Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village. At rear left is a brand-new, industrial, restaurant-quality kitchen that was not operational yet on Nov. 25.
Finding ways to stay at Riverview
Finding success in recovery is notoriously hard. Studies show that people who stay in structured sober housing for at least six months after completing rehab see better long-term outcomes, and Riverview residents may stay there for up to one year.
But reaching that mark can take multiple tries, and some may never attain sobriety. McDevitt said that on a monthly basis, about 35 people move into Riverview, and 20 leave.
Some who move out are reunited with family and want to live at home. Others simply were not ready for recovery, McDevitt said, “and that’s part of working with this population.”
Fields said a resident who relapses can go back to a more intensive care setting for detoxification or withdrawal management, then return to Riverview at a later time if they are interested.
“No one is punished for struggling,” he said. “Recovery is a journey. It takes time.”
Providers are adding new programming they say will help residents extend their stays. Offering medication-assisted treatment is one of the most crucial parts, said Josh Vigderman, the senior executive director of substance use services at Merakey, one of the addiction treatment providers at Riverview.
Entry to the primary medical care center run by the Black Doctors Consortium at Riverview Wellness Village.The main entry Meetinghouse at Riverview Wellness Village.Naloxone (Narcan) in an “overdose emergency kit” at Riverview Wellness Village.
In the initial months after Riverview opened its doors, residents had to travel off campus to obtain medication that can prevent relapse, most commonly methadone and buprenorphine, the federally regulated drugs considered among the most effective addiction treatments.
Typically, patients can receive only one dose of the drug at a time and must be supervised by clinicians to ensure they don’t go into withdrawal.
Vigderman said staff suspected some residents relapsed after spending hours outside Riverview, at times on public transportation, to get their medication.
This fall, Merakey — which was already licensed to dispense opioid treatment medications at other locations — began distributing the medications at Riverview, eliminating one potential relapse trigger for residents who no longer had to leave the facility’s grounds every day.
Interest in the program has been strong, Vigderman said, with nearly 80 residents enrolling in medication-assisted treatment in just a few weeks. Merakey is hiring more staff to handle the demand.
What’s next at Riverview
The city is eying a significant physical expansion of the Riverview campus, including a new, $80 million building that could double the number of licensed beds to more than 500. That would mean that about half of the city’s recovery house slots would be located at Riverview.
Parker said the construction is “so important in how we’re going to help families.” She said the process will include “meticulous design and structure.”
“The people who come for help,” she said, “we want them to know that we value them, that we see them, and that we think enough of them to provide that level of quality of support for them.”
In the meantime, staff are working to help the center’s current residents — who were among the first cohort to move in — plot their next steps, like employment and housing.
A rendering of the new, $80 million five-story building to be constructed on the campus of Riverview Wellness Village. It will include residences and medical suites.
That level of support, Vigderman said, doesn’t happen in many smaller recovery houses.
“In another place, they might not create an email address or a resumé,” he said. “At Riverview, whether they do it or not is one thing. But hearing about it is a guarantee.”
Bean is closing in on one year at Riverview. He doesn’t know exactly what’s next, but he does have a job prospect: He’s in the hiring process to work at another recovery house.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to help some people,” he said. “I hope.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — So we know what kind of team the Eagles are now. It took 13 games, and to watch most of them was to experience the same amount of pleasure as when you slam your fingers in a door. But they have revealed themselves, and there’s no use disputing the diagnosis.
The Eagles are an excellent defensive team, and that is all, and that is not enough, not even close. Not with an offense like this. Not with this team’s tendency to commit untimely and inexcusable penalties. Not with so many questions that don’t get answered and so many problems that don’t get solved.
They lost Monday night to the Los Angeles Chargers, 22-19 in overtime, and we know now that the most basic assessment of their status is deceiving. They still are 8-5, still in first place in the NFC East, still on track to make the playoffs and, in theory, have a shot at winning another Super Bowl in a conference without a dominant team. But anyone who has watched them can see through that spin, that false representation of who they are and how the rest of this season could play out.
Coach Nick Sirianni complains to the officials after the Eagles were called for holding late in the second quarter at SoFi Stadium.
They have lost three straight games, and they are poised for a breakdown as bad or worse than their collapse in 2023. That was six losses in seven games and a franchise that faced an inflection point with its head coach. This is different. This disintegration, if it continues, will be harder and graver, because it will mean their season is transforming from an attempt to defend a championship into a referendum on the coach, the quarterback, and any number of players who were presumed to be part of a talented and tested team’s core.
“Who said it was going to be easy?” Brandon Graham said. “This year, coming off a Super Bowl, man, all we got to do is make sure we stay together.”
Easy to say. Challenging to do. The dynamic within the Eagles right now, the divide in performance between one side of the ball and the other, is fertile ground for dissension to bloom. Anyone who has paid attention to them over the last five games could tell you what Monday made clear: that they are regressing on offense, that some of their best and highest-compensated players are letting them down, and that there’s little or no reason to believe that anything about the unit is going to improve in the short term.
Since their bye five weeks ago, the Eagles have played one good stretch on offense, and that stretch was brief. In their loss to the Cowboys on Nov. 23, they scored 21 points in the game’s first 18½ minutes, then didn’t score again. Those 18½ minutes seem like a mirage now. They marked the only game in a month and a half that the Eagles put up more than 19 points, and the offense’s performance against the Chargers only reinforced the reality that something about it has to change.
Jalen Hurts was a mess. Kevin Patullo’s play calls are too predictable too often, the offensive line didn’t help Hurts much, and A.J. Brown helped him even less, dropping a deep ball on the game’s first play, then T-Rex-arming an over-the-middle pass in the fourth quarter that led to an interception. But even with those excuses or extenuating circumstances, Hurts was still a mess.
He threw four interceptions. He failed to see some open receivers and threw wildly to others. His play this season is raising the question of whether, assuming he remains their starting quarterback for several more years, the Eagles will be able to win another Super Bowl, or even come close again, if they don’t surround him with the best roster in the NFL.
Jalen Hurts is sacked by Chargers linebackers Tuli Tuipulotu and Odafe Oweh during the first quarter.
We’re getting to the point where removing Hurts and inserting Tanner McKee would be helpful, just to create a control in this ugly experiment that is the Eagles offense. It’s unlikely to happen, and it’s possible, even probable, that such a change would do more harm than good. It would create an instant controversy, no doubt. Hurts might take the demotion as an insult, in the same way Carson Wentz viewed the decision to draft Hurts in 2020, and demand to be traded. There are an infinite number of scenarios that could play out from such a seismic move. One of them, though, could be that the Eagles would acquire some certainty about who and what have been the real problems with the offense all along.
That decision would come with enormous risk for the man who presumably would make it. Nick Sirianni would be acknowledging that he and his handpicked offensive coordinator can’t fix Hurts, can’t help him get back to being someone who at least didn’t hurt the Eagles’ chances of winning. Once Sirianni crosses that bridge, there’s no going back, and there’s nothing Jeffrey Lurie is less willing to forgive than a head coach who fails to allow the franchise quarterback to thrive.
“The people we have in there have won a lot of football games,” Sirianni said. “Right now, we’ve lost three in a row. Again, I saw a great, great week of preparation, and I’m confident in the coaches that we have, the players that we have, the owner that we have, the front office that we have — that we’re built to overcome. We know how to do that.”
Then they’d better get to doing it. Fast. No, this wasn’t just another loss for the Eagles, and this is no small slump. This is a test for everyone in that locker room. And let’s be honest here: Have they given anyone any reason to believe that they’re going to pass it?
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — On Monday night, the Hollywood lights were too bright for Jalen Hurts.
The fifth-year starting quarterback tossed a single-game career-high four interceptions in the Eagles’ 22-19 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Backup safety Tony Jefferson called game, picking off Hurts near the end zone on a pass intended for Jahan Dotson.
The game went to overtime after Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker tied it, 19-19, with eight seconds remaining in regulation. The Eagles won the toss, and the Chargers had the first possession. Vic Fangio’s defense got gashed on the ground, but limited the Chargers to a field goal, giving the offense a chance to win the game with a touchdown.
On the first play of the drive, Justin Herbert kept the ball and rushed right for a 12-yard gain punctuated by a stiff-arm on Reed Blankenship with his injured left hand. Omarion Hampton followed it up with an 18-yard run to the same side.
Ultimately, the Chargers were forced to settle for a 54-yard field goal.
The Chargers and the Eagles scored one touchdown apiece. Los Angeles scored on its opening drive on a 4-yard pass to Hampton, while Saquon Barkley notched a 52-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter off a Tush Push fake.
Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ third straight loss:
Hurts throws four picks
Entering Monday, Hurts had thrown two interceptions all season. He tossed four against the Chargers and also fumbled the ball away as he went 21-of-40 for 240 yards (31.2 quarterback rating).
No play better encapsulated Hurts’ struggles than his second-quarter interception and the chaos that ensued. On third-and-2, with the Eagles in the red zone for the first time that evening, Hurts dropped back out of an empty set. He tried to fit the ball into a tight window over the middle for A.J. Brown, but Chargers defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand was lurking underneath and made the interception.
Will Shipley tried to save the day, punching the ball out of Hand’s hands. Hurts grabbed the loose, bouncing ball, but Chargers defensive lineman Jamaree Caldwell then knocked it free from the quarterback’s grasp. Linebacker Troy Dye fell on the ball at the Chargers’ 43, bringing the wonky — and extremely rare — play to an end.
Da'Shawn Hand picks off Jalen Hurts. Da'Shawn Hand fumbles. Jalen Hurts recovers. Jalen Hurts fumbles. Troy Dye recovers. @Chargers ball.
Hurts turned the ball over a third time on the ensuing drive. On second-and-10 from the Eagles’ 28, Hurts attempted a pass for DeVonta Smith, but cornerback Donte Jackson undercut the pass and picked it off.
The third interception came halfway through the fourth quarter on a pass over the middle intended for Brown. The ball bounced off Brown’s hands and into cornerback Cam Hart’s.
Jalen Hurts had one of the worst performances of his NFL career in LA.
Hurts nearly had two more interceptions. On the first play of the second quarter, Hurts overthrew Jahan Dotson in the slot on third-and-4 from the Eagles’ 15-yard line. His pass was nearly intercepted by safety R.J. Mickens, but the ball hit the turf before he corralled it, making it an incomplete pass.
He also missed Brown late in the fourth quarter as the Eagles attempted to break the 16-16 tie. Hurts was hit by outside linebacker Khalil Mack as he tried to fit a pass into a tight window. Jackson got a hand on the ball, forcing the Eagles to punt.
When it was pointed out to Hurts after the game that not turning the ball over has typically been a point of pride for the quarterback, he reframed the statement.
“I think winning is a point of pride to me,” Hurts said. “That’s why we play the game. And I’ve got to find ways to lead our team to victories. It’s not something that’s foreign to us. We’re just not able to do it at the moment. It starts with me and how I play, how I lead, and how I go out there and do my job. So, when I look at it at any point, it’s about how I respond to a test. How I respond to it and what level of resilience and resolve I have to push forward and figure things out.”
Hurts wasn’t the only player who faltered. Drops plagued the Eagles receivers in critical moments. With just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Brown dropped a would-be 26-yard touchdown pass. On the following play, Hurts got the ball out to Smith while being blitzed, but the wide receiver failed to control it.
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown drops a pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter Monday.
Near defensive domination
The Chargers ultimately had just six points to show for Hurts’ turnovers.
The defense, especially Nakobe Dean, tightened up after conceding a touchdown on the Chargers’ opening drive that gave them a 7-0 lead. Dean failed to pick up Chargers running back Kimani Vidal on a dump-off pass, a desperation play that turned into a 60-yard gain.
Linebacker Nakobe Dean was part of a group that made life rough on Justin Herbert.
But Dean was one of the keys to the Eagles’ ability to generate pressure up front in the absence of Jalen Carter. On the Chargers series following Hurts’ second interception, Dean blitzed the A gap, and Hampton didn’t hold up in pass protection.
Dean took down Herbert and knocked the ball out in the process. Byron Young fell on top of the loose ball, ensuring that the Chargers wouldn’t capitalize on the interception.
The defensive line also got pressure on Herbert by taking advantage of a weak offensive line. On third-and-4 from the Chargers’ 37, Jaelan Phillips pushed third-string right tackle Bobby Hart back and managed to get a hand on Herbert’s right arm as he launched a pass for tight end Oronde Gadsden. But the ball fluttered in the air short of its intended target, allowing Adoree’ Jackson to leap up and snag it.
Zack Baun also got a piece of Herbert when he blitzed the A gap late in the third quarter, breezing past Hampton for a sack split with Jordan Davis on second-and-13.
After Hurts’ third interception, the Eagles defense limited the Chargers to a 31-yard field goal, which tied the game, 16-16. Once again, the Eagles’ defensive front swarmed Herbert on the third-and-3 drop back beforehand, forcing the quarterback to throw the ball away.
Davis earned a full sack late in the fourth quarter as the Chargers sought to break the tie. He cleaned up the initial pressure generated by Nolan Smith that forced Herbert to step up in the pocket on third down.
Jake Elliott made four field goals but also had a critical miss just before halftime.
Special-teams woes
It’s been a tough second half of the season for Jake Elliott, the Eagles’ ninth-year kicker. In his last six games entering Monday, he missed four field goal attempts and an extra point.
His struggles continued against the Chargers. At the end of the first half, Elliott missed a 48-yarder wide left. The Eagles trailed, 10-6, at halftime.
After the game, Elliott said that he felt like he struck the ball well on the miss, even though he was forced to prepare for the attempt quickly on the heels of Herbert’s interception and before the end of the half. Still, he lamented his misses in recent weeks.
“They need to stop,” Elliott said. “I feel like I’m striking the ball well. Last week [against the Chicago Bears], obviously, windy conditions. But no excuses here indoors. It’s frustrating.”
Elliott wasn’t the only special teams player who made mistakes. On the Chargers’ 36-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter, Moro Ojomo used leverage to boost himself on the back of left tackle Jamaree Salyer, earning Ojomo an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The play gave the Chargers a fresh set of downs from their own 9-yard line.
Luckily for Ojomo, the Eagles defense held up in the red zone again. Young sacked Herbert on second down, and the Chargers quarterback threw an incomplete pass for Vidal on third. Los Angeles settled for a field goal again for a 13-6 lead late in the third quarter.
Elliott attempted to make up for his miss late in the third quarter. The Eagles had sputtered at the Chargers’ 36, partially thanks to Barkley’s shotgun run for a loss of four yards on second-and-10. This time, Elliott made the 54-yard field goal, cutting the Chargers’ lead to 13-9.
Injury report
Late in the second quarter, Landon Dickerson exited the game with a calf injury. Brett Toth took over for him at left guard.
However, Dickerson returned late in the third quarter with the Eagles down, 13-9.
The Philadelphia school board on Monday signaled its intentions to play ball: Later this week, it will hold a special action meeting to vote on a resolution authorizing Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and his team to consider handingover a portfolio of unused school buildings to the city.
Watlington, the resolution states, “recommends that, in the best interests of the district and its students, the district explore and pursue negotiations with the city to potentially convey certain vacant and surplus district property.”
Parker, in a statement, said the process was about “public health and public safety” and the school buildings can be used to improve residents’ quality of life.
Officials “cannot let blighted buildings in the middle of residential neighborhoods lie vacant — many of which have been vacant for many years — from two years to over 30,” Parker said. “It’s unconscionable to me that we are in the middle of a housing crisis and we have government buildings sitting vacant for years or even decades. That cannot continue.”
School board president Reginald Streater said that no decisions are final and that public deliberation will still happen at the special meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday. But, he said, the move makes sense with “the board moving toward being much more willing to be intergovernmental partners” with the city.
“Many of these properties have not been used in the last decade or more, and they require a significant amount of upkeep and maintenance,” Streater said. “These properties are unused, for the most part, and unnecessary for K-12 education.”
The district is in the business of running schools, Streater said.
“I do believe that the city possesses considerably more expertise and capacity than the district does regarding property development,” Streater said. “We are an education institution. To build the capacity to do such things is out of our wheelhouse, and economic development would take us out of our lane.”
According to the language of the resolution, the district is urging Watlington to consider all angles — bond obligations, property conditions, financial protection of the district, any legal processes that would need to happen, and more.
The action comes as something of a surprise, happening just a week after what was to be the final voting meeting of the year. Streater said he did not want to add it as a walk-on resolution to the December school board meeting, but wanted to give members of the public time to understand it and provide testimony, if desired.
Giving unused school buildings to the city could further academic outcomes, the school board president said.
“It’s possible,” Streater said, “that conveying these vacant and surplus properties to the city for redevelopment and revitalization could help stabilize and grow the city and district’s tax base … and consequently positively impact future revenues to the district and educational experiences for students.”
Asked for a list of the unused buildings the resolution would cover, school board officials said more internal evaluation is needed before such a list is released.
The possible transfer of district properties to the city comes as officials debate the specifics of one of Parker’s signature initiatives.
The mayor wants to spend $800 million on her housing initiative, Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E. In a rare sign of division, Council last week allotted more housing funds to the city’s poorest residents over the Parker administration’s objections.
Because of Council’s move, more legislation is now needed to advance H.O.M.E. It will not come until January at the earliest.
Thomas, chair of Council’s education committee, has long been pushing for a school facilities plan.
“It’s unclear to say what this step forward means, but I want to understand how it fits into a larger plan for Philly’s educational institutions,” Thomas said in a statement.
“Without getting into hypotheticals, and due to a lack of communications with City Council, there are a lot of moving pieces and still many questions about what this means and what is the overall plan for the future of our school buildings,” Thomas said.
When the World Cup arrives in town next summer, diehard soccer fans and casual followers will tune in to see the action. If you’re one who doesn’t know everything about all the teams that will play at Lincoln Financial Field, we’re here to help.
Here’s our ranking of the five group games Philadelphia will host.
5. Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast
Group E, June 25, 4 p.m.
Curaçao will be one of this World Cup’s great underdog stories. The former Dutch territory leveraged its diaspora in the Netherlands to recruit talented players like brothers Leandro and Juninho Bacuna. Their manager is a Dutch legend, Dick Advocaat.
Curaçao’s celebrations at the final whistle of its tie at Jamaica last month that clinched the Caribbean island’s first World Cup qualification.
The Blue Wave will probably be routed by Germany and Ecuador in their first two group games, so this could be their tournament farewell. Hopefully, though, they will get a nice send-off from a city that loves underdogs.
Ivory Coast is led by midfielder Franck Kessié and forwards Amad Diallo and Sébastien Haller. You’ll also want to keep an eye on 19-year-old winger Yan Diomande. He lived for a few years in the United States as a young teen, and played high school and youth club soccer in Florida before turning pro in Europe in November 2024.
The other upside to this matchup is that since the teams’ fan bases aren’t huge, there’s a chance local fans will be able to get tickets for it. Perhaps only a small chance, because there will be huge demand — and exorbitant prices — for every World Cup game no matter who’s in it.
Yan Diomande celebrates scoring a goal for Ivory Coast in a World Cup qualifier in October.
4. Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador
Group E, June 14, 7 p.m.
Picking the game to rank fourth was even harder than picking the game to rank fifth. It came down to star power vs. potential atmosphere in the stands, and the tie went against the atmosphere.
So we apologize to Ivory Coast for putting both of its games at the bottom. We also apologize to the tens of thousands of Ecuador fans who will ensure that Philadelphia’s first men’s World Cup game is a fast sellout. La Tri’s faithful have a long track record of traveling all over the U.S. when their team plays here, and creating boisterous atmospheres.
Kendry Paez (center) played for Ecuador against the United States in October.
3. Croatia vs. Ghana
Group L, June 27, 5 p.m.
We said players break ties, and no one’s better for that than legendary Croatian playmaker Luka Modrić. He will be atop the marquee for this game, and he won’t just draw Croatia fans in their famed red-and-white checkerboard jerseys. Anyone who has relished watching his club career with Real Madrid and AC Milan will want to be there, as Modrić plays in his final World Cup at age 40.
Even at age 40, Croatia’s Luka Modrić (left) remains one of the soccer world’s great midfield wizards.
2. France vs. Bolivia, Suriname, or Iraq
Group I, June 22, 5 p.m.
Now for the easy part. France commands attention with star power and success. Kylian Mbappé led Les Bleus to the 2018 World Cup title and the 2022 final, and there’s every reason to believe they could make another deep run next year.
From reigning world player of the year Ousmane Dembélé to fast-rising youngsters Bradley Barcola, Désiré Doué, and Michael Olise — just a few of the many names that could go here — France has a depth of elite talent that almost no other national team can match.
They also have a national anthem in “La Marseillaise” that’s perfect for belting out from the stands, even on a hot summer evening.
We’ll know which team France will face after the intercontinental playoffs in March. Bolivia hasn’t been to a men’s World Cup since 1994, when Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno played before becoming some of MLS’s first stars. Iraq hasn’t been on this stage since 1986.
From here, and from the view of many followers of soccer in North and Central America, there will be a soft spot for Suriname. Like Curaçao, the nation that’s officially in South America’s land mass has leveraged its Dutch connections to rise up Concacaf’s ranks.
The Natio are led by forward Sheraldo Becker, who played with Medford’s Brenden Aaronson in 2023-24 at Germany’s Union Berlin. He then moved to Spain, first at Real Sociedad and now at Osasuna.
Sheraldo Becker (left) in action with Spain’s Real Sociead last season.
1. Brazil vs. Haiti
Group C, June 19, 9 p.m.
The top pick was obvious, but just in case, here’s a little more juice for it. A few hours after the World Cup schedule was announced, this writer went to the Big 5 Classic and was asked by a few friends and colleagues about the games coming here.
The answer always started with Brazil, and every time it didn’t finish before that one word produced an amazed reaction.
That’s the power of the most decorated team in men’s World Cup history. The Seleçao’s five championships are the record, and they are the only team to play in every men’s World Cup there’s ever been. Philadelphia will be the 60th all-time city in which Brazil has played a men’s World Cup game.
Nor can any team match the nation’s history of superstars, from Garrincha to Pelé to the original Ronaldo — all wearing the eternal yellow-and-green jerseys.
Dunga lifted the trophy and paraded it around the Rose Bowl when Brazil won the 1994 men’s World Cup in the United States for its fourth title.
Now comes what might be the final piece of the puzzle, famed manager Carlo Ancelotti. He coached many of these players at Spanish club Real Madrid, and has the clout to make the big decisions necessary to pick the World Cup team.
What makes this specific game even better is Brazil’s opponent. Haiti is in its first men’s World Cup since 1974. Its vibrant diaspora across North America will flock to town, even if the Trump administration bans travelers from the nation itself.
Les Grenadiers also have two players with Philadelphia ties, Union midfielder Danley Jean Jacques and Penn alumnus Duke Lacroix. As rare as it is to play in any World Cup, it’s even rarer to get a homecoming game on soccer’s biggest stage.
