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Property values in Kensington went up more than any other Philly neighborhood this year

The biggest jump in Philadelphia’s property assessments this year occurred in Kensington, a measure that means many homeowners in the long-struggling neighborhood are likely to see higher taxes amid a concerted effort by the city to clean up the area.

That is according to an Inquirer analysis of recently released property assessments of single-family homes, which found that, citywide, there was a 3% median change in valuations from the 2025 tax year, the last time there was a mass reassessment.

That increase is far more modest than the widespread jump in valuations that homeowners saw two years ago, which captured multiple years of real estate growth and the volatile post-pandemic market.

What remains the same: who will be most affected.

The Inquirer’s analysis of this year’s property assessment data shows that low-income neighborhoods near gentrifying areas saw the sharpest jumps in valuations compared with the rest of the city.

The four areas that saw the largest percentage increases in median assessments — Kensington, Mantua, Grays Ferry, and Kingsessing — all border more gentrified neighborhoods like Fishtown, University City, and Point Breeze. The results of the analysis are a further sign that market pressures in higher-income areas are pushing into pockets of the city that have long been primarily home to Black and brown working-class residents.

Of the eight neighborhoods that saw the largest increases between the 2025 and 2027 tax years, five have median annual household incomes around $40,000 or less, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data. The federal poverty level is $33,000 for a family of four.

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In a statement, officials with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration noted that many homeowners in those five neighborhoods are benefiting from a popular city tax break. The city said that the median 2027 value in those five neighborhoods is $123,600, so for many homeowners in those areas, the median taxable assessed value is just $23,600.

That is because of the homestead exemption, a tax break for homeowners who live in their house as their primary residence that exempts the first $100,000 in home value from property taxes. Homeowners must sign up to be included in the free program.

At least 60% of homeowners in those neighborhoods have signed up for property tax relief programs, according to the city.

James Aros Jr., the chief assessor of the Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment, and Revenue Commissioner Kathleen McColgan said enrollment rates in property tax relief, including the homestead exemption and multiple tax freeze programs, are “encouraging.”

They said the city will “build on this progress through extensive targeted outreach, community partnerships, and efforts to make enrollment as simple and accessible as possible.”

The current property tax rate is 1.3998% of assessed value, which has not changed for nearly a decade. The revenue is split between the city and the Philadelphia School District.

Rising home values in Kensington

Citywide, the steepest increase in valuations was in Kensington, where the median property value jumped 15.3%, from $115,700 in the 2025 tax year to $133,400 now. That median increase would translate to a roughly $250 annual property tax hike.

That comes after Parker’s administration in 2024 launched a multipronged effort to address the long-entrenched open-air drug market in Kensington, which is the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis and a site of sprawling homelessness.

While the administration has increased law enforcement’s staffing in the neighborhood and scaled up programs for people who are in addiction, Kensington has also for years seen creeping gentrification from Fishtown to its southeast.

In this 2021 file photo, a glass building at J and Tioga sits near a beer store in Kensington.

Some neighborhood leaders have watched with anxiety as luxury housing developers and out-of-town investors gobbled up properties in the neighborhood, fearing that poorer residents and middle-class homebuyers may be priced out.

City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat who represents the 7th Council District, which includes parts of Kensington, said she knew speculators from outside the area would want to make it “the next gentrified neighborhood” once the city changed its strategy to more aggressively clean up trash and improve public safety.

How speculators fueled a nightmare for Kensington residents — and could soon cash in

But Lozada said there are not enough programs specific to Kensington aimed at preventing displacement as a result of rising property values, especially as the city is investing millions of dollars a year to improve the neighborhood. She said her office is exploring additional tax relief measures.

“I’m going to do whatever I have to do to make sure that residents who have lived in that community can stay there, can raise their families there,” Lozada said. “We have witnessed what has happened on the southern end of the district, where there has been rapid gentrification.”

In this March file photo, City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada stands in Council chambers during Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget address.

Lozada also said rising property values in Kensington are part of why she has been “so careful with projects presented to me” and has prioritized what she sees as equitable development in the neighborhood — at times to the chagrin of developers who think she has been too restrictive.

“I’m all about people making a return,” she said, “but you can’t continue to do it on the backs of poor people.”

The 3100 block of Arbor Street in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.

Continuing change in pockets of West Philly

There were also significant property value increases in parts of West Philadelphia.

The median increase in Mantua, the neighborhood north of University City, was the second highest in the city, at 15%, according to The Inquirer’s analysis. The median increase was 12% in Kingsessing, the neighborhood south of University City that in 2025 saw the largest jump of any neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Newly developed buildings along Fairmount Avenue in the neighborhood of Mantua in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, a Democrat who represents West Philadelphia and has made preventing displacement a key initiative, said that there has long been racial bias in the city’s property assessments and that the city must “get serious” about protecting low-income homeowners by revamping its system.

“There has to be a higher level of urgency in making sure that the city doesn’t have a hand in pushing out all of these homeowners that make Philadelphia what it is,” Gauthier said. “It’s unconscionable for us to destabilize our neighborhoods and the longtime homeowners who live there because we didn’t take enough care to make sure that our process was fair and equitable.”

For too long, she said, city officials have said they intended to examine the property assessment practices and identify improvements. In 2024, Parker convened a task force to study the process.

Aros told Council in April that the task force’s report was “being finalized.” He said OPA would look to implement recommendations from the report, including conducting more regular reassessments and improving property-level data such as property condition.

The city is also planning to hire an outside consultant to examine its mass appraisal practices, according to city records. The analyst will be responsible for drafting a report by the end of this year.

Deputy creative director John Duchneskie contributed to this article.

July 8, 2026
What we missed on our roundup of Philadelphia’s 76 most iconic dishes

We knew that a list of 76 iconic Philadelphia foods would leave something out. It did. After hearing from readers — and revisiting a few of our own debates — we had to mention six items that deserve a place in the city’s culinary canon. They don’t replace the original 76; they just expand the conversation.

The ‘combo’: Hot dog and fishcake on a roll

The hot dog-fish cake combo topped with pepper hash at Lenny’s Hot Dogs in Feasterville.

Long before Philadelphia claimed the cheesesteak as its signature sandwich, another pairing drew a following: the hot dog and fishcake combo. Culinary historians generally agree that Abe Levis (rhymes with “crevice”) created it in 1895 by pressing a fried fish cake atop a grilled frank on the same bun at his luncheonette on Sixth Street near Lombard.

Instant surf-and-turf!

Levis also created Champ Cherry, the bright-red, cider-like soda that became the combo’s traditional companion. The Old Original Levis shop changed hands several times, spawned a few short-lived offshoots, and finally closed in 1992 under owner Elliott Hirsh, who later revived Levis as a store in Abington from 2012 to 2017 while marketing Champ Cherry in cans.

But tastes have changed and the brands are moribund, as Hirsh, now 80, acknowledged: “I’ve been actively trying to find someone that wants to take it over. And not even sell it. Just take it over. I’d hate to die and take it with me, but that’s what we’re going to do.”

The hot dog-fishcake combo, at least, survives. Just after World War II, Levis rival Lenny’s Hot Dogs also sold them from a stand nearby at Fifth and Passyunk.

Lenny’s secret sauce was the pepper hash — a sweet-and-sour relish of cabbage and bell peppers that cuts through the richness of the dish— created by owner Lenny Kravitz’s mother, Ida.

Kravitz expanded Lenny’s to several locations from Mount Airy to Margate, N.J. In the 1980s, he sold his final shop, at 6620 Castor Ave. in the Northeast, to Wayne Knapp. Kravitz died in 1998.

Hawk Krall’s illustration of the “surf ’n turf” Philly combo (fishcake and frank) was originally done for SeriousEats.com.

Knapp later relocated Lenny’s to Feasterville. That shop as well as Johnny Hot’s, John Danze Jr.’s truck stop on Delaware Avenue in Fishtown, are among the few standard-bearers of this classic. Be sure to add a squirt of yellow mustard and a smattering of diced onions, as illustrator Hawk Krall suggested in his 2009 poster print of the sandwich.

Chicken salad and oysters

Fried oysters with chicken salad from Oyster House.

As for another curious combo, only in Philadelphia would someone look at cool, creamy chicken salad and crunchy fried oysters and think, “Of course those belong together.”

The unlikely pairing has been a local specialty for well over a century, dating to the city’s grand oyster houses, hotels, and taverns in the late 1800s. One popular explanation of its origin holds that tavern keepers paired cheap, plentiful oysters with more expensive chicken to stretch a serving. Food historian William Woys Weaver has noted that Philadelphia’s finest hotels elevated the dish, serving chicken salad dressed with tarragon mayonnaise and encircled by crisp fried oysters. More humble versions turned up in neighborhood brew houses and lunch counters across the city.

Similar dishes appeared in New York, Baltimore, and Boston, and some historians believe that Philadelphia’s influential Black catering families helped popularize the combination. What is certain is that chicken salad and oysters were served at an organizing meeting of Philadelphia’s Union League in 1862.

The combo’s popularity has ebbed in recent years, and its primary home is now Oyster House near Rittenhouse Square, whose family ownership dates back nearly 80 years.

Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter

Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter, founded in 1972, is still available on grocery shelves.

Life was all Skippy and Jif in the early 1970s when a Philadelphia music teacher decided to grind peanuts in his kitchen because he couldn’t find peanut butter that tasted the way he remembered.

Richard Marcus was a conductor, pianist, radio host, and founder of the Society Hill School of Music & Art. Frustrated by the sweetened, homogenized spreads that dominated grocery shelves, he bought five pounds of peanuts at Reading Terminal Market, roasted them, and blitzed them in his blender. The result was nothing more than peanuts — no sugar, salt, or oils.

Friends loved it. By 1972, they convinced him to package it. Marcus produced an initial run of about 144 jars, selling them through Philadelphia delis and health-food stores. He called it Crazy Richard’s, his wink to skeptics who thought he was nuts for marketing a peanut butter that separated naturally and required stirring.

Word of mouth did the rest. Marcus eventually gave up his music school to run the business full time, first contracting production in Conshohocken before opening plants in Pennsauken and later Bellmawr. At its peak under his ownership, Crazy Richard’s sold about 750,000 jars a year throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and by mail. Marcus insisted that there was no secret recipe: “It’s just ground peanuts.”

In 1991, Ohio’s Krema Nut Co. bought Crazy Richard’s and kept Marcus’ one-ingredient recipe intact. Today, 12 years after his death, the brand is sold nationwide. The “Crazy Richard” on the label is still the Philadelphia musician who proved that sometimes the simplest ideas stick.

Fishtown Iced Tea

Canned Fishtown Iced Tea is poured by Interstate Drafthouse co-owner Mike McCloskey into a custom-made ceramic carton.

Long Island has its iced tea. Why shouldn’t Fishtown? Created in 2013 at Interstate Drafthouse on Palmer Street, Fishtown Iced Tea spikes a 16-ounce carton of Arctic Splash iced tea with a shot of Jim Beam bourbon, turning a childhood lunchbox staple into an adult version of the sugary, dangerously smooth cocktail. Its roots are distinctly regional. Besides milk, Lehigh Valley Dairy, Wawa, Swiss Farms, and Turkey Hill also sold iced tea in pint cartons that generations of Philadelphians grew up drinking.

During the pandemic, when Pennsylvania temporarily allowed to-go cocktails, Interstate sold enough Fishtown Iced Tea to keep the bar afloat. In 2022, the popularity inspired a canned version from Rectified Spirits, made with vodka, rum, tequila, and triple sec instead of bourbon.

In a twist, the ready-to-drink cocktail debuted just as Lehigh Valley discontinued Arctic Splash cartons, ending an era for the drink that inspired it.

Edamame dumplings from Buddakan

The edamame dumplings at Buddakan.

One of Buddakan’s signature dishes is the edamame dumpling, filled with mashed soybeans and served in a truffled Sauternes-shallot broth. Michael Schulson, then chef de cuisine at Stephen Starr’s Old City destination, came up with the idea in 2000 while developing the menu for Starr’s next project, Pod, whose opening in University City was six months away. “Every dish I made, Stephen would say, ‘We’re putting this on the menu at Buddakan,’” Schulson said. “I’d say, ‘What about Pod?’”

The original version was an edamame ravioli, featuring a yellow pasta wrapper in a caramelized Sauternes-shallot broth, transforming what was then an unfamiliar ingredient to many American diners — young Japanese soybeans — into one of Buddakan’s signature dishes. (It made it onto Pod’s menu, too.) When Buddakan New York opened in 2006 with Schulson leading the kitchen, the ravioli evolved into the translucent har gow-style dumpling that has since become its best-known form, before it later arrived on the menu in Philadelphia. It’s still a bestseller.

After leaving Starr, Schulson adapted the concept at his restaurant Sampan, serving edamame dumplings in a caramelized shallot and sake broth, and later at Double Knot with truffles.

Cheesesteak egg rolls

The cheesesteak egg roll from Continental Mid-town.

Stuff steak and cheese into an egg-roll wrapper, deep-fry it, and you’ve got one of Philadelphia’s signature mashups: the cheesesteak egg roll.

They’re everywhere now, from neighborhood pubs to white-tablecloth steakhouses, and go by “spring rolls” at some places, but their rise can be traced to two nearly simultaneous Philadelphia stories in the mid-1990s.

One unfolded at the old Four Seasons Hotel on the Parkway. Former chef David Jansen said that after preparing a banquet for the New York Rangers in 1994 or 1995, prep cook Mui Lim put leftover cheesesteak filling into spring roll wrappers and fried them as a snack for the kitchen crew. They went on the menu soon after at the hotel’s Swann Lounge. Today’s Four Seasons Philadelphia, now at the Comcast Technology Center, serves wagyu cheesesteak spring rolls with sweet-and-spicy pepper relish.

The other story played out in Old City, where the novelty became a menu staple at the Starr-owned Continental. In 1996, Starr hired Sam “Chef Sammy D” DeMarco to develop dishes for the year-old restaurant. DeMarco already served a Philly cheesesteak dumpling at First, his New York restaurant, but Starr wanted something original.

DeMarco turned the dumpling into a cheesesteak spring roll. “It was taking a classic, nostalgic American snack and presenting it in a fresh way,” said DeMarco, now executive chef at Bungalows Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Like the old Buzz Aldrin cocktail, the roll became a classic. Starr said Continental Mid-town, near Rittenhouse Square, now sells 500 a week.

From the Continental, the idea spread rapidly. Davio’s owner Steve DiFillippo was joining staff for a preshift meal at his former Center City Philadelphia location shortly after it opened in 1999 when chef David Boyle served cheesesteak egg rolls that his wife had made at home. DiFillippo insisted that they be added to the bar menu, overruling managers who felt that they were too déclassé for a posh steakhouse. The Boston-based Davio’s turned the line into a frozen-food item, selling millions through supermarkets and QVC until rising beef prices during the pandemic made them impractical, DiFillippo said. They’re still on the restaurant menus in King of Prussia and elsewhere.

Though DiFillippo copyrighted the name “Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls” in 2002, “I’m not going to claim I invented anything,” he said. “But I was the first one to take them into stores and really commercialize them.”

July 2, 2026
Historic church at 42nd and Pine to become apartments after Penn declined to buy the building

The former Woodland Presbyterian Church at 401 S. 42nd St. is being converted to 35 apartments, mostly studios, with seven set aside at affordable rents.

The oldest parts of the church complex date to 1871. But after the COVID-19 pandemic and with a shrinking membership, Woodland Presbyterian merged with several other Philadelphia congregations in a Center City building.

They decided to sell the 42nd Street building after determining it would cost millions to rehabilitate.

In November the property sold for $1 million to a limited liability corporation that shares the address of Bala Cynwyd-based Finch Development.

The company has extensive rental property holdings in Philadelphia and on its website boasts a 37-unit redeveloped former church building at 1629-39 S. 28th St. in Grays Ferry.

“It was the highest offer, and they did have a track record of one or two conversions of a house of worship,” said David Brindley, a Reformed Church leader involved with the sale. “They seemed to be people that could get things through to the finish line.”

The building sold for $1 million at the end of last year.

The company did not respond to requests for comment. The project’s design firm is Raymond F. Rola Architecture.

The former Woodland Presbyterian Church is three blocks from the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. At first Brindley sought to interest other congregations, including those who cater to college students, but when those efforts failed, he approached Penn itself in 2024.

The university made an offer in early 2025, he says.

“It could be a space to bridge the gap between the town and the gown, and they were very interested,” Brindley said.

“They were going to make it the new Rotunda,” a Penn-owned community space at 41st and Walnut, he said. “They were going to move the Rotunda and its activities there, the community art space there, and then be able to expand.”

But as 2025 progressed — a year where Penn and the rest of the higher-education sector faced federal funding loss and other uncertainty — the university decided against moving forward, citing the expense of shoring up the building, Brindley said.

“I don’t blame Penn at all, but at that time, they just couldn’t [take the] risk,” Brindley said.

The university declined to comment.

Plans on the Department of Licenses & Inspection’s website show units ranging from a smallest of 324 square feet to the largest at 848 square feet, which would be housed in a one-story annex on the south side of the property.

The annex on the right-hand side of this photo will have the largest apartment in the new complex.

Due to the proximity to the university, Brindley says he expects that renters will mostly be students associated with Penn.

The project falls within Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s mandatory inclusionary zoning overlay (MIN), which requires that one-fifth of units in large projects be set aside for those earning 40% or less of area median income. That’s roughly $35,000 for a one-person household.

“Project will comply with MIN overlay affordability rules as necessary,” the apartment conversion’s June 25 zoning permit reads.

The project is zoned for duplex construction. But the former church is within the Spruce Hill Historic District, which means that Finch Development can build without a zoning variance — due to a 2019 law passed by City Council that allows historically protected special buildings like churches to be redeveloped beyond their underlying zoning.

The law was created in reaction to the controversy over St. Laurentius Church in Fishtown, where a handful of neighbors fought against the redevelopment for so long that the church deteriorated to the point it had to be demolished.

The Spruce Hill Historic District, like many of the newly created historic districts, is being challenged in court by local property owners, including the major student housing companies in the area like Campus Apartments and University City Housing.

After being rejected by a local judge, an appeal is pending in Commonwealth Court.

“I’m very glad it’s not going to get demolished,” Brindley said. “It’s not a sad story about what the building will become from my perspective. We would have certainly loved for it to have had a community-centered use, but the building was just too far gone.”

July 1, 2026
House of the week: A six-bedroom Victorian twin in University City for $689,000

The six-bedroom, three-bathroom twin in University City is just two blocks from where Emma Steiner was born. Still, it has given her and her husband, Joe Leonard, a totally new housing experience.

Steiner, a psychotherapist, and Leonard, an attorney, had been renting in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood when they decided in 2013 to make the Victorian twin their first house.

The living room. The home has hardwood floors.

The open floor plan was unusual for the neighborhood, Steiner said, and Leonard “was blown away by the big old trees.” And she said both were impressed by the large windows at the front of the house.

The couple and their two children, aged 10 and 7, will be moving three blocks away to a larger house with a bigger yard.

“We’re staying in the neighborhood we love,” Steiner said.

Kitchen

Breakfast nook

Their home had undergone a complete renovation in 2008, opening up the first floor with high ceilings.

Steiner and Leonard replaced the flat roof and mansard roof last year and this year, adding a new skylight. And they replaced the porch steps and basement electrical panel.

Office

Built in 1913, or perhaps a little earlier, the house has hardwood floors, central air, and is 2,760 square feet.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor, including the primary suite and its en suite bathroom. One of the bedrooms is used as a family room.

Back yard

There are three bedrooms on the third floor. The second and third floors each have a hall bathroom.

The house is a short walk to Clark Park, the renovated Kingsessing Recreation Center, Baltimore Avenue stores, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Drexel University.

It is listed by Asher Brooks Chancey of OCF Realty for $689,000.

June 23, 2026
Two Philly high schools are still fighting their proposed closures, even after officials tweaked plans to appease them

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said he heard the public outcry over his recommendations to close 20 schools.

The Philadelphia School District leader fine-tuned his facilities plan last week, dropping the closure list down to 18 schools — and changing recommendations for Paul Robeson High School and Lankenau High School.

Both schools would still close under the plan, which is now in the school board’s hands. Instead of merging into large neighborhood high schools, however, the small, selective-admission schools would be absorbed by magnets.

Watlington said the tweaks would still allow the district to bring more high-quality academic and extracurricular opportunities into neighborhood schools while acknowledging the need to manage limited resources.

But students, staff, parents — and some powerful allies at both schools — say Watlington’s counter-proposal isn’t enough. Both communities are still fighting.

Under the revised plan, Lankenau would merge with Saul, not Roxborough, and Robeson would merge into Motivation, not Sayre.

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State Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Phila.) recently visited the Philadelphia Flower Show, where she and other officials marveled at Lankenau students’ exhibit, which examines abundance, roots, and connections through culturally important plants. The display won a gold medal and the prestigious Alfred M. Campbell Memorial Trophy.

The dichotomy struck Cephas, she said. Lankenau students “are at the Flower Show, and [the district] is trying to close the school?”

On Wednesday, students, parents, lawmakers, and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers officials gathered at Lankenau to drum up support for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal. But really, it was another save-our-school rally.

A ‘prime example of a successful school’

Lankenau “is a prime example of a successful school,” said Messiah Stokes, an 11th grader at the Upper Roxborough school. The school has a 100% graduation rate, and is Pennsylvania’s only three-year agriculture, food, and natural resources career and technical education program.

The school itself sits on 17 acres, which district officials have proposed giving to the city — though a 1970s legal agreement could foil that plan. Lankenau is also adjacent to 400 more wooded acres via the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. The environmental center shares its land and its opportunities with students, who hold bird-watching clubs on breaks and hold classes outside when weather permits, and have abundant internship opportunities.

“My school is a prime example of a successful school,” said Stokes.

Watlington has said that Saul — the city’s agricultural magnet on a working farm on Henry Avenue — has a mission that’s closely aligned with Lankenau’s, but supporters say Lankenau’s success is closely tied with its wooded campus, its streams, and its ecosystems.

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas speaks at Lankenau High School during a gathering to support the efforts to fight closing recommendations on Wednesday.

Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of City Council’s education committee, is incredulous that the district is attempting to close the school, which educates mostly Black students.

“I wonder if Lankenau did everything that it currently does: graduation rate … community involvement, the educators’ participation — I wonder if Lankenau was 98% white, will we be closing Lankenau?” Thomas said.

Lankenau enrolls 228 students; its enrollment took a hit when the district changed its special-admissions policy. District officials have said that the school system lacks the long-term funding to drive academic improvement while continuing to operate 216 schools that have 70,000 empty seats.

Still, “small schools are worth the investment,” said Amy Szymanski, a special-education teacher at the school. “Shutting down a school doesn’t just impact one community, it shakes other schools that have to absorb the impact as well.”

Szymanski urged district officials and decision makers to come up with different plans.

‘Culture is not transferable’

Robeson did everything the district asked it to do and then some, said Elana Evans, a longtime educator at the West Philadelphia school.

The school was heralded as a model for other Pennsylvania public schools by former Gov. Tom Wolf. It won citywide prizes and sent a student to Harvard University. Its students successfully petitioned district leaders for air-conditioning in their building. And its staff secured donations to have a major cafeteria renovation, though its building is still judged in “poor” condition by district standards.

“Why can’t Paul Robeson have a new school?” said Evans, who previously taught at University City High, closed by the district in 2013. “Haven’t we proved ourselves, haven’t the kids sacrificed enough? Haven’t they shown what they can do and what they’re willing to do?”

Students walk outside Paul Robseon High School with Elana Evans, a Robeson teacher (in blue) in this 2025 file photo.

And though moving to Motivation, in Southwest Philadelphia, may be slightly more palatable for some Robeson parents, for most, it won’t, said Evans.

“Students would still have to go to 60th Street, traveling a distance,” said Evans. “If those parents wanted them to go to Motivation, they would have picked Motivation.”

Motivation had initially been on the chopping block as well, but Watlington removed it from the list last week.

The district has said it wants to preserve the successful Robeson culture, just elsewhere, but Kyana Hopkins, said that won’t work.

“Culture is not transferable,” Hopkins said. “Make it make sense.”

Samantha Bromfield, president of Robeson’s Home and School Association, said the district will lose families if Robeson goes away.

“Understand that a parent like me will send my child back to being homeschooled” if Robeson closes, Bromfield said. “Your choice doesn’t fit my criteria of what I’m looking for my children.”

Inheritance, and questions

The Flower Show was abuzz Wednesday, with a crowd hovering around the Lankenau exhibit. “Inheritance” — a verdant wonderland showcasing plants grown from local seeds, set around a weathered wooden table — asked viewers to think of the question, “What tastes like home to you?”

Lankenau High senior Sasha John (blue hoodie) explains her prize-winning school’s Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit to visitors on Wednesday.

Several Lankenau students staffed the exhibit, answering questions — and showing visitors green “Keep LANK Open” fliers, encouraging passersby to share words of support for the school with the school board and City Council.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Amelia Pennycooke, a Lankenau senior, of the proposed closing. “We have so many opportunities at Lank.”

Lankenau High School’s exhibit, which the school’s eco art class worked on all school year, won a gold medal and the Alfred M. Campbell Memorial Trophy at the Philadelphia Flower Show. “Inheritance” examines the question “what plants taste like home to you?” It was designed and built by Lankenau students.

Noel Alford, a Lankenau parent, said the school needs to remain open, its land not used for any other purpose. The amendment to Watlington’s plan falls short, she said.

“Saul is a mistake,” said Alford. “Saul is an agricultural school. They are two different magnet schools.”

While elected officials have no say in which schools close, Thomas said it’s up to them to keep pressuring the board to rethink some closures, including Lankenau’s.

“This is a legacy moment for us as elected officials,” said Thomas. No one “wants to add that black mark on their career that says you were the person that was in charge when this injustice took place.”

March 5, 2026
Philly’s Greyhound station is one step closer to finding a permanent home
Lights shine from a window of the abandoned Greyhound intercity bus terminal on Filbert Street as construction crews demolish fixtures and begin renovations ahead of a May reopening.

While the old depot is ready for crowds of travelers attending high-profile special events this year, the city Department of Planning and Development has identified three possible locations for a permanent intercity bus station.

Officials sifted through 208 possible locations over the past two years before zeroing in on the three sites:
- Eighth and Arch Streets: A pair of parking lots on Arch Street near Eighth Street next to the African American Museum. The lots, at 701-709 and 721-737 Arch St., are owned by the city and Parkway Corp.
- 15th and Vine Streets: The Philadelphia Gateway Garage at 1540 Vine St. along with an adjoining parking lot. They are owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
- Near 30th Street Station: A parking lot just north of 30th Street Station, at 2931 Arch St., near the Cira Centre office tower.
On Wednesday, the city Planning Commission is holding a public open house at Independence Visitors Center from 6 to 8 p.m. People can learn about the sites, share their ideas, and ask questions about the future home of an intercity bus facility.

There’s also an online survey collecting opinions about what the intercity bus station needs and where it should go, due March 13.

The former Greyhound terminal at 1001 Filbert St. “is not a long-term solution for the city’s intercity bus needs,” city officials say, though it will provide a safe and comfortable indoor station for travelers, as opposed to the current, haphazard outdoor curbside loading zones along Spring Garden Street near Columbus Boulevard.

It is scheduled to reopen in plenty of time for events celebrating America’s 250th birthday and World Cup soccer tournament matches in the summer.

That’s why the city turned to the old station as a stopgap solution. The Philadelphia Parking Authority will operate the facility under a 10-year renewable lease with the private group of New York investors that owns it.

The city says its goal is a modern “transportation hub” with amenities for travelers and bus operators and, ideally, some development built around the facility. It would be owned by the city.

“Public ownership means it won’t be closed down by a landlord or private bus company,” the planning department said in a statement. In addition, the forever depot “could be designed to have housing in the floors above the station or retail spaces within the station. These uses could help support … construction and operation.”

Why was Philly’s Greyhound terminal moved?

Greyhound ran the terminal at 10th and Filbert for more than three decades but pulled out in June 2023, ending its lease with the owners amid the bus company’s push to cut costs by shedding real estate it owned or rented nationwide.

Other intercity bus carriers have done the same, operating from curbsides in a number of cities.

Greyhound may have had to leave the property anyway because the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022 proposed building a new arena on top of it and Filbert Street.

When those plans fell through, the building was empty again, while Greyhound, its parent company FlixBus, and family-owned Peter Pan Bus Lines were operating at curbside on the 600 block of Market Street. That site, chosen by city officials, lacked benches, bathrooms, or shelter for customers.

Traffic was a mess, and SEPTA had to reroute some of its metro bus routes for a time.

In November 2023, Greyhound and the other carriers moved operations to a corner in Northern Liberties along Spring Garden Street with more space than the Market Street block. City officials promised it was temporary, but the “station” is still there, with attendant trash and disruptions to local business.

Plans to move intercity bus operations elsewhere collapsed amid community opposition, notably to a proposal to use the first level of an Old City parking garage at Second and Walnut Streets as a temporary terminal.

Consultants and city planners picked 35 potential sites for closer analysis. They were looking for places that could accommodate a multistory, mixed-used development in addition to a station and that were close to Center City or University City, transit, and highway ramps.

They also preferred a publicly owned space not already marked for development, according to a document prepared for the public meeting.

In the end, three places checked most boxes.

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Site pros and cons

Eighth and Arch Streets

The Eighth and Arch site has room for 18 bus parking spots, the planning department said. It could fit a 113,000-square-foot station and an overall 640,000-square-foot development.

Strengths: Proximity to several transit stops and to I-676 and I-95, as well as the potential to build public parking above the station and to use the African American Museum building when that entity moves to the Parkway.

Challenges: The ownership, split between the city and a private corporation, could require coordinating with the Federal Detention Center there on the southwest corner, and buses may need to be routed through Chinatown.

15th and Vine

At 15th and Vine Streets, the Gateway garage could fit 16 bus slips, a 112,000-square-foot station, and a 1.37 million-square-foot development, planners say.

Strengths: It’s next to I-676 and close to transit. Plus, it is owned by PennDot and operated by PPA.

Challenges: The parcel is split in ways that could hinder bus circulation, and Spring Street nearby would need to be converted to one-way.

Near 30th Street Station

The site at 30th and Arch Streets could fit 12 bus slips as is, or the deck on which the lot sits could be expanded to fit 24 spaces.

Strengths: The site has quick access to SEPTA and NJ Transit stops, Amtrak, and I-76. There are dining options in the area.

Challenges: Amtrak owns the property, however, and the city would have to coordinate with the company to develop over the railroad tracks and the structural work needed to strengthen the lot and ramps for heavy bus traffic. PennDot also has said there would have to be substantial work to the entrance and exit ramps to the Schuylkill Expressway.

What’s next?

The city plans to consider the feedback it gets Wednesday, update the schematics, and then hold another public event later in the year. It hopes to have a final report by the end of 2026 that names the site.

And then begins the long process of acquiring the site, designing the project, and figuring out how to pay for it.
February 25, 2026
‘Courage is contagious.’ How Philadelphia churches and neighborhood groups are preparing to confront ICE.

Within the serpentine halls and stairways of Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, congregants have established several private, off-limits rooms ― each a potential last-stand space where members would try to shield immigrants from ICE, should agents breach the sanctuary.

Church leaders call them Fourth Amendment areas, named for the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The plan would be to stop ICE officers at the thresholds and demand proof that they carry legal authority to make an arrest, such as a signed judicial warrant.

“It’s a protective space,” said the Rev. Peter Ahn, pastor of the Spring Garden church. “While you’re here, you’re safe, is what we want to assert.”

Could it come to that? A pastor confronting armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the hallway of a church?

It’s impossible to know. But across Philadelphia, churches, community groups, immigration advocates, and block leaders are actively preparing for the time ― maybe soon, maybe later, maybe never ― that the Trump administration deploys thousands of federal agents. People say they must be ready if the president tries to turn Philadelphia into Minneapolis ― or Los Angeles, Chicago, or Washington, D.C.

People participate in an anti-ICE protest outside of the Governors Residence on Feb. 6, in St. Paul, Minn.

Know-your-rights trainings are popping up everywhere, often to standing-room-only attendance, and ICE-watch groups are abuzz on social media.

The First United Methodist Church of Germantown held a seminar last week to learn about nonviolent resistance, “so that we will be ready for whatever comes,” said senior pastor Alisa Lasater Wailoo.

“That may mean putting our bodies in the path to protect other vulnerable bodies,” she said. “We’re seeing that in Minnesota.”

In Center City, Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel has ordered 300 whistles ― portable and efficient tools to immediately alert neighbors to ICE presence and warn immigrants to seek safety.

“There was a sense of needing to support our neighbors if it comes down to it,” said Rabbi Abi Weber. “God forbid, should there start to be ICE raids in our neighborhood, people will be prepared.”

In other places around the country, immigrant allies have similarly readied themselves for ICE’s arrival, and organized to react in concert when agents show up.

In Washington state, the group WA Whistles has distributed more than 100,000 free whistles to create what it calls “an immediate first line of community defense.” Chicago residents set up volunteer street patrols to warn immigrants of ICE and to contact family members of those detained. In Los Angeles, people raised money to support food-cart vendors, and organized an “adopt a corner” program to protect day laborers who seek work outside Home Depot stores.

A small sign at the Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, where the Rev. Peter Ahn is creating space to shield immigrants if necessary.

Ask Philadelphia groups that advocate for immigrants — 15% of the population, including about 76,000 who are undocumented — and they say ICE isn’t about to land in the city. It’s been here.

The agency’s Philadelphia office serves as headquarters not just for the city but for all of Pennsylvania and for Delaware and West Virginia as well. Arrests take place every day in the Philadelphia region.

“You all seem to be ‘preparing’ for something that’s already happened,” veteran activist Miguel Andrade wrote on Facebook.

What has changed, however, is the dramatic escalation in ICE enforcement, particularly visible in Democratic-run cities like Minneapolis, where agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in January.

ICE detained 307,713 people across the country in 2025, a 230% increase over the 93,342 in 2024. What federal immigration agencies record as detentions closely mirror arrests.

Today residents in communities like Norristown and Upper Darby see ICE agents on the streets all the time. Cell phone videos have captured violent footage, including the smashed front door of a Lower Providence home after agents made an arrest on Feb. 9, and two people roughly pulled from a car in Phoenixville earlier this month.

For immigrants who have no legal permission to be in the U.S. ― an estimated 14 million people ― the rising ICE presence steals sleep and peace of mind. They know not just that they could be arrested and deported at any moment, which has always been true, but also that the U.S. government is expending vast resources to try to make that happen.

A woman who came to Philadelphia from Jamaica last year, and who asked not to be identified because she is undocumented, said she rarely leaves her home. She said she steps outside only to go to the grocery store, a doctor, or an attorney.

She recently asked her daughter to check something on the computer, and the girl balked ― afraid to even touch the machine, worried that ICE could track her keystrokes and identify their location, the woman said.

“How can I tell her it’s going to be OK when I don’t know it’s going to be OK?” asked the woman, who came to the U.S. to escape potential violence in Jamaica. “You come here expecting freedom, but here it’s like you’re in jail except for the [physical] barriers of the four walls.”

Even as arrests have soared, Philadelphia has been spared the federal intrusions visited on other American cities.

Why?

Some say President Donald Trump doesn’t want to ruin the summer celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday, or spoil the grandeur of the World Cup or Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. Others suggest that he might be timing an ICE deployment to do exactly that.

City Council President Kenyatta Johnson speaking at the City Council’s first session of the year Jan. 22. He said this month that it’s time to stand up for immigrants in Philadelphia. “It’s my responsibility to step up in this space and be more vocal,” he said.

That as Philadelphia City Council prepares to consider “ICE Out” legislation that would make it more difficult and complicated for the agency to operate in the city.

Trump told NBC News this month that he is “very strongly” looking at five new cities.

Some people are not waiting to see if Philadelphia is on the list.

The monthly Zoom meeting of the Cresheim Village Neighbors usually draws about 20 people. But a hundred logged on in January to hear a presentation: What to do if/when ICE comes to our neighborhood.

The short advice: If it happens, get out your phone and hit “record.”

“If I see ICE agents, I will film,” said neighbors group coordinator Steve Stroiman, a retired teacher and rabbi. “I have a constitutional right to do that.”

Federal immigration enforcement agents shatter a truck window and detain two men outside a Home Depot in Evanston, Ill., on Dec. 17, 2025.

In a sliver of University City, Miriam Oppenheimer has helped lead three block meetings where neighbors gathered to discuss how they would respond.

They set up a Signal channel so people can communicate. And they formulated a loose plan of action: People will come outside their homes and take video recordings ― and try to get the names and birth dates of anyone taken into custody, so they can be located later.

“Courage is contagious,” Oppenheimer said. “Everybody is waiting for somebody else to do something, but we have to be the ones.”

Inside Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, doorways to some rooms now bear black-and-white signs that say, “Staff and authorized personnel only.”

Issues around ICE access to churches have become more urgent since Trump rescinded the agency policy on “sensitive locations,” which had generally barred enforcement at schools, hospitals, and houses of worship.

Legal advocates such as the ACLU say ICE agents can lawfully enter the public areas of churches, including the sanctuaries where people gather to worship. But to go into private spaces they must present a warrant signed by a judge.

“There are many front lines right now,” said Ahn, the Olivet pastor. “We’re not trying to be simply anti-ICE, or anti-anybody. We’re just trying to be for the rights of the Fourth Amendment.”

Staff writer Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.

February 18, 2026
The Philly School District tried to close Paul Robeson HS before. Now, it’s back on the chopping block.

In 2022, the governor of Pennsylvania stood on a stage at Paul Robeson High in West Philadelphia and hailed the small school as “a model for what can happen in Pennsylvania.“

But four years later, the Philadelphia School District has recommended closing Robeson, suggesting its small size limited students’ opportunities. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. wants its students to attend Sayre High, where Robeson would become an honors program, losing its separate identity, administration, and staff.

A hallway at Paul Robeson High School, which the district is attempting to close for the second time.

Having Robeson listed among 20 schools slated for closure was the worst kind of déjà vu for some in the Robeson community: In the last round of large-scale Philadelphia school closures, district officials recommended closing Robeson and sending students to Sayre, which is about two miles away.

“This is the exact same plan,” said Andrew Saltz, who helped organize the Robeson community against closure in 2013 and who is doing it again 13 years later. “We need a different plan.”

The community is speaking out, hoping to persuade the school board to save Robeson again when it votes on Watlington’s recommendations later this winter.

An upward trajectory

Robeson soared after successfully fending off its last attempted shutdown.

By 2017, it was named the district’s most-improved high school. It built upon its core of dedicated teachers and students; though most Robeson students come from its own West Philadelphia neighborhood, it is a citywide school, meaning they have to apply to be there.

Robeson expanded existing partnerships and formed new ones that gave students opportunities to get onto nearby college campuses. Richard Gordon, who came to lead the school in 2013, was recognized as national principal of the year. (Gordon has since been promoted to assistant superintendent in the district.)

Multiple Robeson teachers have been honored as among the district’s best.

The school sent a student to Harvard, a coup for any district high school, let alone one without strict academic criteria. Its students successfully pushed to get their school air-conditioned. School staff secured outside funding to renovate the cafeteria.

Then-Principal Richard Gordon (front, tie), then-assistant principal Lawrence King (rear, gray sweater) and members of the Robeson High student body in the newly renovated cafeteria in this 2022 file photo.

Then-Mayor Jim Kenney visited Robeson to tout its success. So did then-Gov. Tom Wolf.

Elana Evans, a beloved Robeson teacher and the school’s special education compliance monitor, has already weathered one school shutdown — she taught at the old University City High School, closed in 2013

That loss was brutal, Evans said. But she is proud of what the community has built at Robeson.

“It’s an amazing story that continues to stay amazing because we still keep growing,” Evans said. “To say, ‘OK, you’re going to merge with this school, and your name is just going to fade to nothing,’ is, to me, disrespectful.”

District officials are pitching Robeson’s closure — and the closings writ large — as a move to expand opportunities for all students.

Sayre, with Robeson as a part of it, would get modernized career and technical rooms and equipment in the facilities plan, Sarah Galbally, Watlington’s chief of staff, told the Robeson community. Sayre would get more accessibility features; renovated stormwater management, roof, and restrooms; and new paint.

But that didn’t convince Evans.

“You say one thing, ‘This is how it’s going to look like,’ but for real for real, stop gaslighting me,” Evans said.

‘They needed something small’

Samantha Bromfield homeschooled her twins for seven years, and was wary when she enrolled her children in public school — until Robeson made her believe.

The move to shut the school frustrated and saddened her, Bromfield said. She and many other Robeson parents said they would not send their children to Sayre.

“If you as a board choose to close Paul Robeson, I choose to pull my children from the public school system,” Bromfield said at meeting held at Robeson on Saturday. “They needed something small. They needed a family. They needed someone who could hold their arms around the children and say, ‘Hey, are you having a bad day?’”

Multiple parents echoed Bromfield’s statements.

The district is choosing to invest in some schools but not others under the facilities proposal, they said.

“Cassidy got a new school, why not us?” one parent told district officials, referring to a $62.1 million new building for a West Philadelphia elementary school.

‘Y’all don’t know’

Ahrianna DeLoach, a Robeson ninth grader, struggled in middle school but is soaring at Robeson, she said, because of the nature of a place where teachers know every student’s name.

“I don’t want it to close down,” DeLoach said. “I was looking forward to graduating from this school. It would devastate me if I couldn’t.”

Antoine Mapp Sr., a West Philadelphia resident, expresses frustration that the Philadelphia School District is attempting to close Paul Robeson High School. Mapp spoke at a district meeting on the subject.

West Philadelphia resident Antoine Mapp Sr. graduated from University City High, but has been spending time at Robeson since he was 11. Mapp’s West Powelton Steppers and Drum Squad rehearses inside the Robeson gymnasium.

It feels especially cruel to lose Robeson as gentrification creeps in, Mapp said, and with gun violence still plaguing Philadelphia. He worries about the routes children would have to take to get to Sayre, and about neighborhood rivalries.

“You guys don’t understand what it’s like living in the community or our neighborhood, or what we go through,” Mapp said. “Y’all don’t know how hard it is just to go to the store in our community. Y’all don’t know what it’s like trying to go to an activity in our neighborhood. We have none of those things. Now you want to take this school away from us and send our kids to different communities. I want you to know that the crime rate and the murders are going to increase and there’s nothing y’all can do about it.”

February 16, 2026
Big-money and out-of-state donors helped Josh Shapiro raise $30 million while Stacy Garrity raised $1.5 million from Pa.’s grassroots

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is racking up contributions from out-of-state billionaires as well as thousands of individual donors across the country.

His likely Republican challenger, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, meanwhile, is capturing small-donor donations from Pennsylvanians.

That’s according to an analysis of the latest campaign finance filings in the Pennsylvania governor’s contest, as a clearer picture of the race emerges nine months out from Election Day. Shapiro entered 2026 with $30 million on hand — money raised over several years as he has built a national profile — while Garrity raised $1.5 million in her first five months on the campaign trail as she tries to unseat the popular Democratic incumbent. Last year, Shapiro brought in $23.3 million.

The race between Josh Shapiro and Stacy Garrity for Pa. governor has officially begun. Here’s what you need to know.

Here are three takeaways from the first campaign finance filings in the race, tracking fundraising heading into 2026.

Almost all of Stacy Garrity’s contributors are from Pennsylvania, while 62% of Shapiro’s are in state

Nearly all of Garrity’s individual 1,155 contributors — more than 97% — live in Pennsylvania, and on average gave $889 each.

Shapiro — who has amassed a national following and is a rumored 2028 Democratic presidential contender — had a much further reach and attracted many more donors from around the country. He received contributions from 4,981 individual donors, 62% of whom are from Pennsylvania. The average individual donor to Shapiro contributed $3,461, a number buoyed by multiple six- and seven-figure contributions.

Shapiro received most of his remaining individual donations from California (7.1%), New York (6.3%), New Jersey (2.5%), Florida (2.5%), and Massachusetts (2.4%), according to an Inquirer analysis.

(The analysis includes only donors who contributed more than $50 in 2025. Campaigns are required to list only individual donors who contribute above that threshold.)

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Shapiro’s broad donor base is a result of his status as a popular incumbent governor who is liked among people of both political parties, said Robin Kolodny, a Temple University political science professor who focuses on campaign finance.

“These amounts that you’re seeing is a very strong signal that ‘This is our guy,’” Kolodny said. “That underscores he is a popular incumbent.”

Kolodny also noted that Shapiro’s state-level fundraising cannot be transferred to a federal political action committee should he decide to run in 2028. But his war chest shows his ability to raise money nationally and his popularity as the leader of the state, she added.

Governor Josh Shapiro during a reelection announcement event at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.

Only a small percentage of the population contributes to political campaigns, Kolodny said. And sometimes, it’s the smallest contributions that pay off the most, she said. Small-dollar donations suggest grassroots support that can translate into a person assisting the campaign in additional ways to get out the vote, she said.

Both Shapiro and Garrity have received a significant number of small-dollar donations that illustrate some level of excitement in the race — though Shapiro’s more than 3,000 in-state donors outnumber Garrity’s total by nearly 3-1.

“Think of fundraising as not just a money grab, but also as a campaign strategy,” Kolodny said.

Since announcing his reelection campaign in January, Shapiro has run targeted social media ads and sent fundraising texts, asking for supporters to “chip in” $1 or $5. The strategy worked, bringing in $400,000 in the first two days after his announcement, with an average contribution of $41, according to Shapiro’s campaign. This funding is not reflected in his 2025 campaign finance report.

Most of Shapiro’s money came from out-of-state donors, including billionaire Mike Bloomberg and a George Soros PAC

While Shapiro garnered thousands of individual contributions from Pennsylvania in all 67 counties, according to his campaign, the latest filings show it was the big-money checks from out-of-state billionaires that ran up his total.

Approximately 64% of the $23.3 million Shapiro raised last year came from out-of-state donors.

And more than half — 57% — of Shapiro’s total raised came from six- or seven-figure contributions by powerful PACs or billionaire donors.

By contrast, only 31% of Garrity’s total fundraising came from six-figure contributions.

The biggest single contribution in the governor’s race came from billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave Shapiro $2.5 million last year.

Shapiro also received $1 million from a political action committee led by billionaire Democratic supporter George Soros; and $500,000 from Kathryn and James Murdoch, from the powerful family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Kolodny noted that big contributions from people like Bloomberg are a drop in the bucket of his total political or philanthropic spending.

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“This is not something extraordinary,” Kolodny said. “He’s got nothing but money.”

In Pennsylvania, Shapiro received notably high contributions from Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton, who gave $125,000, and Nemacolin Resort owner Maggie Hardy, who gave $250,000, among others. He also received a number of five-figure contributions from private equity officials, venture capitalists, and industry executives in life sciences, construction, and more.

Garrity’s single biggest donation was $250,000 from University City Housing Co., a real estate firm providing housing near Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. Her largest contributions from individuals included $50,000 from her finance chair, Bob Asher of Asher Chocolates, and another $50,000 from Alfred Barbour, a retired executive from Concast Metal Products.

Garrity has served as Pennsylvania’s state treasurer since 2020 and has led the low-profile statewide office with little controversy. She did not join the race for governor until August and raised only a fraction of the funds Shapiro did in that same time. Meanwhile, Shapiro spent 2025 at the political forefront as a moderate Democrat trying to challenge President Donald Trump in a state that helped elect him. Shapiro also benefited from his national name recognition after he was considered for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.

Shapiro has so far outraised Garrity 30-1, and top Pennsylvania Republicans have said they want to see Garrity fundraising more aggressively nationally.

Facing an uphill battle against Gov. Josh Shapiro’s $30 million war chest, Stacy Garrity still has to convince top Republicans she’s worth investing in

Kolodny said Garrity’s low fundraising is a reflection of the state of the race: Republicans put up a weak candidate in 2022 against Shapiro during his first run for governor, and now many powerful donors want to keep the relationship they have formed with Shapiro over the last three years.

“That will reflect as a lack of enthusiasm for her,” Kolodny said. “Now she could turn that around, but from what I see, I don’t see her that much, only recently. She had the last six months; she could have done a lot more.”

Controversy over donations tied to associates of Jeffrey Epstein

Shapiro’s top contributions from individual donors also included a $500,000 check from Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley-based billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn. His name showed up thousands of times in the trove of documents recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice related to the investigation into financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Garrity has highlighted the donations Shapiro received from Hoffman, and has publicly called on Shapiro to return the tech billionaire’s campaign contributions from last year and prior years, totaling more than $2 million since 2021.

Hoffman has claimed he had only a fundraising relationship with Epstein, but publicly admitted he had visited his island. He has not been charged with wrongdoing.

A spokesperson for Shapiro said Garrity should “stop playing politics with the Epstein files.”

“Donald Trump is mentioned in the files over 5,000 times. Is she going to ask him to rescind his endorsement?” asked Manuel Bonder, Shapiro’s spokesperson.

Garrity has previously downplayed Trump’s appearance in the Epstein files, and argued that Democrats would have released them much sooner if there was clear evidence of Trump partaking in any inappropriate behavior.

Trump endorsed Garrity for governor last month.

GOP candidate for Pennsylania Governor, Stacy Garrity and Jason Richey hold up their arms in Harrisburg, Pa., Saturday, February 7, 2026. The PA State Republican Committee endorsed the two in their quest for the governor’s mansion. (For the Inquirer/Kalim A. Bhatti)

If Shapiro were to return the funds from Hoffman, it would be bad for Garrity, Kolodny said, because she has made very few other political attacks against him.

“That’s her [main] issue,” she said.

February 12, 2026
Philly biotechs are getting a small funding boost from a new city program, but it doesn’t replace ‘America’s seed fund’

Philadelphia biotechs are worried about losing a key source of federal funding for early-stage innovation.

Known as “America’s seed fund,” the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs help small companies develop innovative technologies. In recent years, they’ve allocated $4 billion annually to more than 4,000 businesses nationwide. However, after Congress failed to reauthorize the decades-old programs last fall, their funding officially expired in September.

The fallout has affected more than a dozen local life sciences companies, raising concerns about whether they can maintain staffing and make up for the delay in funds promised months ago, said Heath Naquin, senior vice president of innovation and new ventures at University City Science Center, a nonprofit commonly known as the Science Center that provides startup support.

For many, staffing and financing plans could be disrupted by funding shortfalls, as companies either haven’t gotten their payment yet or can’t get their funding for next year approved, he said.

An exact figure is unknown, but Naquin estimated that some affected companies could be short up to a million dollars for the year.

At the same time, the city of Philadelphia launched last spring a new program that provides additional funding to those who have already earned SBIR/STTR grants. The 21 awardees who will share $450,000 from the city were announced publicly in January.

The city money is earmarked for technical assistance, such as the cost of attorneys, marketing, and anything else needed for commercialization, while SBIR/STTR money normally goes toward research and development.

“There is no overnight solution to SBIR right now,” said Tiffany Wilson, chief executive officer of the Science Center, which is partnering with the city to implement the program. “It’s just another layer of uncertainty that we’ve got to navigate through.”

New city-led program

Pennsylvania is not one of the dozens of states that offer matching programs to supplement the federal SBIR/STTR funds.

To fill that gap, Philadelphia launched its new city-level program, which is one of the first in the nation and the only one of its kind in the state.

The idea was to boost companies already vetted by the federal government that could still benefit from smaller amounts of money.

“Life science companies need millions of dollars, but this was a way that we could help Philadelphia-based companies thrive,” said Rebecca Grant, who runs the program and serves as senior director of life sciences and innovation for the city.

This year, the city offered funding to all eligible applicants.

The $450,000 is doled out in three tiers: companies with the earliest stage grants received $20,000 while those in the next phase received $40,000. Those whose grants were no longer active received $2,500.

The program is still a pilot, and city leaders hope to run it on an annual basis, Grant said.

Naquin has heard from at least three companies in the last six months that are formally considering moving to Philadelphia as a result of the program’s existence.

Why Philadelphia loses promising biotech firms to Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego

Pivoting

The SBIR/STTR grants are valuable to early-stage biotechs for two reasons: They provide funding without asking for ownership or equity in return, and signal to potential investors that the company is less risky, Wilson explained.

The programs traditionally have been reauthorized every few years without major lapses. However, recent debates over reforms have created a deadlock.

Policymakers from both parties want to address companies that are repeatedly going back for more funding, concerns over foreign involvement, and how to better support commercialization, Naquin said.

“We’re still in a waiting game,” he said, adding that the programs were not reauthorized in the latest government funding bill passed this week.

With the SBIR/STTR pipeline stalled, the Science Center has had to pivot. Federal support for science has been particularly precarious under President Donald Trump’s second administration, with widespread cuts and pauses to millions of dollars worth of programs and grants.

Late last year, the center launched an initiative to help startups figure out which agencies still have available funding opportunities.

The aim is to help them better shop around for the grants that they can apply to, Wilson said.

February 5, 2026