A bus program that shuttles families to Pennsylvania’s far-flung state prisons will soon resume a full schedule of trips after lawmakers approved $600,000 for the service in the state budget, restoring a level of operation the program had not seen since before the pandemic.
The funding followed months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the nonprofit that runs the program. The organization said the money will allow buses to travel to every state prison every other month, a substantial expansion from the patchwork of limited pilot routes it has operated in recent years with short-term funding. The money will also allow the society to add departures from Pittsburgh for the first time, beginning next year.
For nearly two decades, the buses have carried thousands of relatives to prisons scattered across rural Pennsylvania, many of them hours away and virtually impossible to reach without a car. Advocates say restoring the service will preserve those family connections while expanding access to people in Western Pennsylvania.
“Keeping your family whole is really challenged by incarceration,” said Claire Shubik-Richards, the prison society’s executive director. “This program keeps families connected.”
Still, the funding covers only one year, meaning advocates will likely have to fight for it again next budget season. “This is a victory for today,” Shubik-Richards said, “but we always need to be working to ensure that it can go forward into the future.”
The program had operated continuously with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. But during the pandemic, the prison system suspended in-person visits and stopped paying for the bus program. When visits resumed, the money for the buses did not.
For Yvonne Newkirk, 72, the service had become a lifeline. She began riding the buses about a dozen years ago to visit her daughter, Stacey, at the state prison in Muncy, three hours from her West Philadelphia home. Stacey Newkirk, 55, is serving a life sentence for third-degree murder, and her mother said she took the bus to visit her six times a year — every route offered to that prison.
When the service was suspended, Newkirk said, she relied on relatives to drive her. The trips required them to take time off work, and Newkirk paid for gas, tolls, and their lost wages — far more than the bus fare she had once paid.
Newkirk said she was overjoyed to learn the service had been funded for another year. She has not told her daughter yet. Instead, she said, she plans to share the news in person later this month on one of the program’s trips. “I know she’s just going to be really ecstatic,” she said.
Her daughter, she said, often tells her not to visit so frequently because of the long journey.
“But at my age, I told her, ‘I’m going to come as much as I can because there’s going to be one point in time where I will not be able to make it up there,’” Newkirk said.
Four trips from Philadelphia to prisons are scheduled for the fall. Shubik-Richards said service will expand gradually, with the first Pittsburgh routes expected in early 2027.
Families take a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride to visit their love ones at SCI Benner in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Even with funding secured, the expansion poses logistical hurdles. The society must find a coach company willing to operate the Pittsburgh routes, a task its staffers say has become difficult as the number of bus operators has shrunk and costs have risen.
The bus trips also create challenges inside the prisons. On bus-visit days, visitation resources are largely devoted to the program’s families — dozens of visitors at once.
Kirstin Cornnell, the prison society’s family and community support director, said she is working with prison officials to schedule trips on days with lighter visitation and determine the most “responsible way to scale up.”
While the prison system has faced staffing shortages, its spokesperson, Maria Bivens, said Thursday that “existing resources” would be used to make the program work.
Pennsylvania prisons facilitated more than 1 million visits last year — most of them virtual, she said. “While research has shown that video visits provide the same recidivism-reducing benefits as in-person visitation,” she said, ”this program eliminates a barrier to in-person visitation for families who lack the resources, reliable transportation, or ability to travel long distances to correctional facilities.”
Lawmakers carved the $600,000 from a larger appropriation to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Advocates called it a hard-fought win during a budget season marked by intense scrutiny of state spending.
Two of the program’s strongest supporters, State Reps. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia) and Emily Kinkead (D., Pittsburgh), said in interviews that they backed the funding because maintaining family ties improves public safety. Research has found that incarcerated people with strong family connections are less likely to commit violence in prison or return after release, they said.
Harris, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, said the consequences of incarceration extend beyond the person convicted.
“It also affects their family,” he said.
He added that the program helps preserve relationships and gives people returning home the support they need to successfully reenter their communities.
“While I make no apologies for a crime that may have been committed, that doesn’t mean that we dehumanize that person,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that person’s family doesn’t still feel the brunt of that pain. And it doesn’t mean that we still shouldn’t allow children to have relationships with their parents who may be behind bars.”
Kathy M. Winter, 91, formerly of Philadelphia, lifelong artist, art and grade school teacher, author, and former council president at Our Mother of Consolation Parish in Chestnut Hill, died Tuesday, June 9, of complications from pneumonia at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Pa.
Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Winter studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She specialized in portraits, still life, and landscapes, and worked mostly in watercolors, pastels, oils, and acrylics.
She painted portraits of celebrated naval chaplain John F. Laboon and Chinatown icon T.T. Chang, and contributed to a collection called “Lost Dreams on Canvas” that featured portraits of innocent victims of violent crime in Philadelphia. “You get into a portrait like that,” Mrs. Winter told the Chestnut Hill Local in 2012, “and you’re into the person.”
She painted the statue of St. Gianna Beretta Molla for the Shrine of the Nativity of Our Lord in Warminster, and her painting of a restored statue of St. Gabriel for a church in New Orleans was featured in The Inquirer in 2007. She also designed stained glass windows for St. Bede the Venerable Church in Holland, Bucks County, and the chapel at Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, N.J.
“The best thing,” Mrs. Winter told the Chestnut Hill Local in 2012, “is that you don’t have to retire from making art.” Courtesy of the family
Mrs. Winter studied Chinese brush painting with artist Phoebe Shih in Flourtown and showed her work at the Woodmere Art Gallery, the Conshohocken Art League, Daylesford Abbey, the Lutheran Theological Seminary, the Knickerbocker Exhibition in New York, and elsewhere. She also taught art classes at the Abington and Main Line Art Centers, the Conshohocken Art League, Our Mother of Consolation School, and elsewhere.
“The best thing,” she told the Local in 2012, “is that you don’t have to retire from making art.”
She met her husband, sculptor Joseph Winter, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1953, and they opened Winter Art Studio in their Chestnut Hill home in 1983. For several commissions, he created the sculpture, and she painted it.
“Since Joe was a sculptor and I’m a painter, we complemented each other very well,” Mrs. Winter told the Chestnut Hill Local in 2021. “If we had both been painters or both been sculptors, it would not have worked out so well. There would have been too much competition.”
Mrs. Winter painted fruit and flowers.Courtesy of the family
In 2021, she self-published a 48-page children’s book called How the Bears Got to the Park.It features illustrations by her husband, and the plot she wrote is based on his award-winning 1966 sculpture Family of Bears that is displayed at Three Bears Park at Third and Delancey Streets in Society Hill.
Mrs. Winter was a longtime member and onetime council president at Our Mother of Consolation Parish. She and her husband moved to Chestnut Hill from Southwest Philadelphia in 1962 so their children could attend the parish school, and she taught all subjects to third and fourth graders for a few years.
Parish members scheduled Mass intentions to honor her on June 28, July 5, and July 10. “She was very determined,” her daughter Genienne Navarro said. “She never let anything stand in her way and would move mountains to get something done.”
Kathleen Marie McKenna was born April 21, 1935. Her family moved to Virginia when she was young and returned to Philadelphia a few years later, and she graduated from West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Girls.
Mrs. Winter and her husband, Joe, married in 1956. Courtesy of the family
A perceptive nun recognized her artistic skills in high school and arranged for an admission interview with officials at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She received a full scholarship, met her husband there, and they married in 1956 and had daughters Kathy and Genienne and a son, Joseph.
Her husband died in 2020, and she moved to the Pittsburgh area a few years ago to be close to family. Mrs. Winter kept in touch with former classmates at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for years and took additional art classes later at Temple University and Chestnut Hill College.
She played piano, doted on her family, and survived cancer in the 1970s. A longtime friend called her a “true, loving, nourishing, protective, guiding, steadfast Blessed Mother to me.”
Her family said in a tribute: “She will be remembered for her friendship, spiritual support, listening ear, humor, deep caring, generosity, and undaunted optimism.”
Mrs. Winter (rear left) enjoyed time with her family.Courtesy of the family
Her daughter Genienne said: “Her favorite saying was, ‘Nothing is impossible with God.’”
In addition to her children, Mrs. Winter is survived by six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.
A memorial service is to be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at Our Mother of Consolation Church, 9 E. Chestnut Hill Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19118.
Donations in her name may be made to Our Mother of Consolation Church and School, 9 E. Chestnut Hill Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19118.
Mrs. Winter and her husband, Joe, pose in their Chestnut Hill home studio. Courtesy of the familyMrs. Winter was an expert in designing stained glass. Courtesy of the family
Members of Philadelphia City Council say they are concerned that the city’s recently released property reassessments will mean tax hikes for thousands of residents, and they are demanding to know more about the methodology used to determine property values.
Councilmember Mike Driscoll, a Democrat who represents the Lower Northeast, authored aletter sent Monday to Chief Assessment Officer James Aros Jr. and other top officials in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, expressing concerns on behalf of a half dozen Council members.
He wrote that his office has received “numerous” calls from constituents whose homes will see sharp increases in valuation, the measure that is used to calculate property tax bills.
“Many residents are struggling to grasp how their assessments were calculated. Others are worried about what these increases will mean for their property tax bills,” Driscoll wrote. “At a time when families are already facing higher costs for housing, utilities, groceries, and other daily expenses, these concerns need clear answers.”
He outlined six questions for the Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment related to its process and methodology, and set an Aug. 15 deadline for the administration to reply, saying “property owners deserve answers now as they review their assessments and consider whether to file an appeal.”
The 3100 block of C Street in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Property values sharply increased on this Kensington block.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The letter — which was signed by six Council members who are cosponsors of previously introduced legislation to probe the city’s property assessment process — is one of the first formal steps that lawmakers have taken to challenge the citywide revaluation since last month, when property owners received notices of their new assessments.
Citywide, there was a 3% median change in valuations from the 2025 tax year, the last time there was a mass reassessment, according to an Inquirer analysis of assessments of single-family homes.
But some neighborhoods saw much steeper increases. The biggest jump was in Kensington, where median values increased 15.3%. Driscoll represents part of the neighborhood, which has been long beleaguered by the open-air drug market there and where the city has made a concerted effort to improve the quality of life.
There was also a 15% median increase in property assessments in Mantua and a 12% rise in Kingsessing, both of which are in West Philadelphia and border University City.
Parker administration officials have said that the city offers a variety of property tax relief programs, including the popular homestead exemption, which erases the first $100,000 in valuation from being taxed for owners who live in their home as their primary residence. Property owners must sign up for the free program.
But for years, dating back long before Parker took office in 2024, Council members have criticized the city’s property reassessment process, saying its methodology is opaque and its results have a disproportionate impact on low-income homeowners.
Multiple reviews are already underway.
In addition to a yet-to-be-scheduled Council hearing, the city controller is conducting a performance audit of the property assessment office and the city’s appeal process, according to Driscoll’s letter. Controller Christy Brady’s office has sought feedback from residents and left flyers in neighborhoods where property values are rising.
The Parker administration convened a task force in 2024 to develop recommendations for how the city can improve its appraisal practices.
And the city is in the process of hiring an outside consultant to examine the fairness of its reassessments. According to city records, that analyst will be expected to draft a report by the end of this year.
Data reporters Yaelle Tang and Lizzie Mulvey contributed to this article.
Hundreds of trees fell in Philadelphia within a matter of minutes during a weekend storm that left a narrow but destructive band of what one official called “unprecedented” damage in its wake in the region.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Parks and Recreation commissioner Susan Slawson said. “We’ve never seen a 15 and 20 minute storm come through an isolated area and take down that many trees.”
Those downed trees came following a series of four “microbursts,” which brought wind gusts traveling 60 to 70 mph. Those isolated instances of high winds primarily impacted parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
Microbursts, the National Weather Service said, happen when a thunderstorm experiences a rapid increase in updraft. When that updraft stops, the mass of the storm system comes crashing back down, resulting in severe winds that sent trees tumbling into homes and vehicles, damaged public parks, and left neighborhoods grappling with cleanup efforts days later.
Slawson’s department, which handles downed trees in the city, had responded to at least 340 emergency requests as of Monday afternoon, and inspected about 220 trees. The hardest hit areas, she added, were in South Philadelphia, Wynnefield, and Southwest Philadelphia.
The harsh winter’s heavy caps of ice and snow that lasted for weeks likely left some trees weakened or damaged, Slawson said, making them more vulnerable to being toppled. Those that fell were being taken to the city’s Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center in West Fairmount Park.
Evidence of the damage was apparent around the region Monday. In Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia, piles of giant fallen trees, cut into large chunks, sat waiting for disposal. And nearby on Spruce Street, a downed tree blocked a busy two-way road between 53rd and 54th Streets, its corpse resting atop a crushed red pickup truck.
“They need to cut these trees down, they’re too tall,” said Schonder Pickney, 61, who lives across the street from the wreckage. She and her neighbors had asked the city to remove some of the old trees that appeared dangerous, but she said nothing came from it.
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation workers throw debris into an auxiliary chipper at Wharton Square Playground in Point Breeze, on
Monday.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
Private tree management companies, like Rapid Tree Care in Grays Ferry, were inundated with service requests following the storm. Caleb Coome, the company’s founder, said that the storm’s intensity knocked down large trees across densely populated city blocks, and across multiple homes.
“It’s definitely unprecedented in terms of the amount of volume over a couple-day span,” said Coome, whose company has been in operations for three years.
Homeowners impacted by fallen trees, he said, were largely concentrated near FDR Park and the stadiums in South Philly, as well as the Cobbs Creek and Cedar Park neighborhoods in West Philly. Homeowners face logistical and financial hurdles for cleanup, as much of the damage occurred in areas with tight rowhouses.
In those tight quarters, a single fallen tree can span up to six properties, creating liability issues and disputes among neighbors over who is responsible for removal costs. A downed tree spanning multiple properties must be removed all at once, rather than limb-by-limb, for safety reasons, Coome said.
Some parts of the suburbs also saw shared tree damage. For example, in Narberth, Hugh Parker and his family hurried home from the Shore Saturday after they heard from neighbors that a 40-foot tree had been knocked down in their front yard.
Hugh and Grace Parker continue the cleanup in the basement of their Narberth home Monday. It flooded during weekend’s storm.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Located on their neighbor’s property, the tree landed to cover their driveway, as well as a car belonging to Parker’s wife, Grace. As it came down, the tree’s canopy also took down power lines and blocked the street, and the damage it did to the vehicle remained unclear Monday.
A day later, Peco reconnected their power, which Parker said had been out for a little more than 24 hours. Then, he smelled smoke, thanks to a power line that started a fire after power had been restored. After about 30 minutes, the fire went out, but no one from the utility had come to check the power lines as of Monday morning.
“It was like something from a movie scene — there were sparks flying 10 to 15 feet in the air,” said Parker.
In Lower Merion Township, the local fire department responded to 98 incidents over the weekend, including numerous water rescues. Montgomery County communities were some of the hardest hit.
“It became apparent that nearly every street in Narberth had a tree down, a substantial tree on a car,” said Narberth Council Vice President Cyndi Rickards said.
The episode also highlights what many local officials have said is a need to further discuss improving local infrastructure and resources for extreme weather events.
“I think this is the reality of storms now,” said Lower Merion Commissioner Ray Courtney. “They are hard, they are intense, and they dump a lot of precipitation in a short period of time, and all local governments, and our state and federal government, need to be thinking about improvements to our infrastructure, and the resiliency against this kind of weather event.”
In addition to downed trees in the area, roughly 1,500 Peco customers remained without power across 119 reported outages as of late Monday afternoon. That number is down significantly from the height of the storm, when some 60,000 customers experienced extended outages. Overall, 105,000 Peco customers experienced some loss of power during the course of the storm, the company said.
Power for all customers in the region, Peco added, was expected to be restored by 11 p.m. Monday.
Among those impacted were West Philadelphia resident Lisa Phillips, who lives on the 5100 block of Hazel Avenue. A tree on her block went down Saturday, taking power lines with it. Electrical workers arrived Monday to take care of the downed lines, but she was still waiting for the city to clear the tree from her street.
“Never in my life have I experienced anything like this,” she said.
Staff writers Isabel Maney, Olivia Prusky, and Fallon Roth contributed to this article.
The groans were audible outside Philadelphia’s Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts, where pop singer Louis Tomlinson was slated to take the stage.
Tomlinson had been scheduled to perform at the venue’s Skyline Stage on Saturday. Then the skies opened up.
“Due to impacts of severe weather on our campus, we are not able to proceed with tonight’s performance,” the venue said in a statement. The show was not rescheduled. Ticketmaster is in the process of issuing refunds.
For rabid fans of the singer, a former One Direction member with a devoted army of admirers, the last-minute cancellation cut deep.
“I came all the way from Italy,” a fan who goes by Crystal wrote on X. “I spent so much time and money to be here. I know this isn’t Louis’ fault, but right now I’m angry, exhausted, and my bank account is empty.”
One Directioners and Tomlinson superfans are pretty common in the area. There’s a One Direction-themed smoothie shop in Scranton that enthusiasts travel hours to visit. And Tomlinson’s former bandmate and collaborator Zayn Malik has expressed his own devotion to the region.
Tomlinson’s Philadelphia show would have been the 19th on his 27-stop North American tour, part of the “How Did We Get Here?” world arena tour in support of his third studio album of the same name. His show a few days earlier at Madison Square Garden was sold out.
On Reddit, a purported venue employee said there was flooding, downed trees, and power outages.
The venue did not respond to a request for comment.
“[I’m] absolutely gutted that the show can’t happen tonight,” Tomlinson said in an X post. “I understand how frustrating it is and how gutted you all must feel. I wish I had better news for you all.”
Absolutely gutted that the show can’t happen tonight. The storm damage to the venue and our equipment made it impossible for the show to take place and the decision was made to cancel for the safety of everyone attending and working on the site.
Online, fans swapped stories about how far they had traveled for the show and how many of Tomlinson’s tour stops they had caught so far.
One fan drove eight hours from North Carolina. Others attempted to snag tickets to shows scheduled for later dates.
The extent of the Highmark Mann’s damage was unclear. Bob Dylan was scheduled to perform on the main stage — which has covered amphitheater seating, in contrast to the all-outdoor Highmark Skyline Stage — on Tuesday evening.
Tomlinson’s next show was also set for Tuesday, at the TD Garden in Boston.
Michelle “MiMi” Gravley changed addresses frequently during her childhood in the 1990s, but rarely with a moving truck.
With her belongings in boxes and plastic bags, she would often find herself lodging at others’ houses in rooms her single mother could afford to rent. So it meant the world to Gravley, herself a single mother, last fall when she bought her first house, a rowhouse in North Philadelphia.
Gravley, 38, is no longer battling housing instability. But she has spent much of her adult life poor, including nearly two decades straight of government assistance, and wants a different fate for her three children. So she’s looking at wealth — specifically her house and her high-yield savings accounts — as something that can help her children avoid poverty as adults.
“I just want them to be OK,” Gravley told me, referring to her daughter, Buttons, 17, and her sons, Chippy, 14, and Boots, 11. “And when they have their kids, their kids is OK. And just, just breaking up generational curses.”
Gravley is one of the parents I spoke with recently in the Philadelphia area who wants to help their children build wealth to break the cycle of poverty in their families. Their goal is to bequeath something — whether it be modest savings or a piece of real estate — to help counter the pull of intergenerational poverty.
They face long odds: Only 16% of children who spend at least half their childhood poor go on to be economically successful, one study found. But there are emerging ideas and policies designed for children that some believe could improve those odds.
I’ve been a business reporter for more than a decade, with a keen interest in how wealth is built and deployed. I’ve had conversations with people from across the economic spectrum, from workers earning minimum wage to C-suite executives and billionaires. I closely follow developments about wealth and personal finance. And lately, I’ve been noticing growing momentum and innovation around wealth-building policies for children — some of which could impact the children or grandchildren of people like Gravley.
In my reporting, two relatively new wealth-building programs stand out. The first is baby bonds, which are government-run trust funds designed to benefit poor children. The other program is Trump Accounts, which are private investment accounts available to all children that allow nonprofits, philanthropic groups, and other entities to target contributions at low-income zip codes. Each has its pros and cons.
Because the creation of baby bonds and Trump Accounts are relatively recent developments (Connecticut approved the first statewide baby bond program in 2021; Trump Accounts were launched this year), there aren’t yet any long-term studies that directly assess their impact on poor populations. But advocates of early wealth accounts, as they are often called, point to supporting evidence from similar initiatives, including Education Savings Accounts. They also argue that structural changes in the economy necessitate a new kind of social contract with America’s young people.
Of her children’s financial future, MiMi Gravley says, “I just want them to be OK.”Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
“Younger generations face economic headwinds that older generations have not — student loans, unaffordability of housing, starting a family, probably declining Social Security benefits,” said Ray Boshara, a senior policy adviser with the Aspen Institute and Washington University in St. Louis who helped design the framing for Trump Accounts and a similar precursor plan by former Sen. Bob Casey, 401Kids.
He added: “They face a transformed economy. So part of the real purpose of Trump Accounts, I think, is … to give them start-up capital at age 18 to counter these economic headwinds.”
Gaining steam
Across the country, efforts rooted in baby bonds or Trump Accounts are either active, forthcoming, or undergoing serious consideration.
The framework for baby bonds was proposed in a 2010 paper by Darrick Hamilton, founding director of the Institute of Race, Power and the Political Economy at the New School, and William Darity Jr., an economist and social scientist at Howard University and Duke University.
Connecticut launched its CT Baby Bonds program in 2023. It automatically enrolls children whose births are covered by Medicaid. The idea is straightforward enough: When participants turn 18 and complete a financial literacy course, they can claim at least a five-figure sum that can only be used for specified wealth-buildingactivities, such as buying a home or starting a business.
Trump Accounts, also known as 530A accounts, were signed into law last year and took effect this month. Children who are enrolled in the program by their parents could potentially receive $1,000 from the U.S. government. When the enrollee turns 18, the account becomes a traditional IRA and can be used for a variety of purposes, though the tax consequences are lower if used for postsecondary education, a first home, or retirement.
Unlike baby bonds, Trump Accounts were not specifically designed for poor children. And one criticism is that wealthier families will likely contribute more than poor families, which would worsen wealth inequality. But what’s notable about them is that they allow third parties such as employers or philanthropists to contribute cash or stock directly to children in low-income neighborhoods.
For instance, the Dell family pledged funds for every American child in specific zip codes, while the Dalio family and financier Brad Gerstner pledged funds to children in Connecticut and in Indiana, respectively.
Attention in the Keystone State
It’s still early, but for now, the idea of helping poor children build a foundation of capital for the future appears to be drawing bipartisan interest. And in Pennsylvania, policymakers have started paying attention.
“Baby bonds have been a topic of a lot of focus because we all want to make sure that we are creating long-term economic mobility and really breaking the cycles of financial insecurity early,” said State Rep. Morgan Cephas, a Democrat whose district covers West Philadelphia. “So these are some models that we’ve been looking at … and are absolutely looking to do more.”
State Rep. Martina White, a Republican whose district covers Northeast Philadelphia, said Trump Accounts can be a “great tool for working families” and planned to look further into the concept of baby bonds.
Her initial preference, she said, would be to model baby bonds like a college endowment, in which the funding source for the program would come from interest or investment earnings, as opposed to directly from taxpayer dollars.
“I think that the fact that more legislative bodies and governments are looking into ways that we can provide the tools for working families to build their wealth — I think that’s phenomenal, and we should be doing more of that,” White said. “But also helping make sure that government is getting out of the way, too.”
Democratic State Rep. Morgan Cephas said baby bonds have been a focal point for her party “because we all want to make sure that we are creating long-term economic mobility.”Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Although baby bonds haven’t been proposed in Pennsylvania’s legislature, the state does have an early wealth initiative through its Keystone Scholars program, which puts $100 into an account that Pennsylvania students can use toward their education costs.
In Philadelphia, there aren’t any initiatives specifically targeting wealth building for children. But there are programs that aim to advance overall wealth access and accumulation. One of the latest is Philly Saves, which, upon implementation, would give workers a way to save for retirement if their current jobs don’t offer retirement plans.
Last month, Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick made a joint appearance in Nicetown, where they urged parents to sign up for Trump Accounts. Fetterman seemed to anticipate that some listeners might be dubious about the program and presume it is politically partisan because of its name.
“Do not fall into that political trap,” Fetterman said. “This isn’t some radical thing. … Do this for your child.”
Even if early wealth initiatives arrive soon in Pennsylvania, it may be too late to have a big impact on older children because the accounts need time to grow.
For Gravley, that means early wealth policies could impact her children but will likely yield larger sums for her future grandchildren. Gravley said she welcomes them as long as there’s some kind of financial literacy involved.
“If you give these children … $10,000 with no instructions, good luck with that,” she said. “It has to be instructions with it, but I think it could be a big stepping stone.”
Darity, the social scientist who helped conceive the idea for baby bonds, said early wealth accounts will have different maximum outcomes based on their design, even if they each grew at 1% above the inflation rate.
For instance, the baby bonds plan he coauthored would turn $60,000 into $72,000 over 18 years at that growth rate (no annual contributions allowed). A federal baby bonds plan proposed by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker ($1,000 deposit; maximum yearly government contributions of $2,000) would grow to about $41,000 at those terms. For Trump Accounts, a $1,000 deposit and maximum yearly private contributions of $5,000 would grow to $100,000 in 18 years.
While Trump Accounts have the highest growth potential, low-income families who don’t have thousands to contribute annually won’t have “a transformative sum of money at the end of the 18 years,” Darity said.
Because both programs are still so new, we’re decades away from seeing the results of any long-term studies on the efficacy of baby bonds or Trump Accounts once participants reach adulthood. But research into other programs suggests that external interventions in wealth building can have positive outcomes.
For instance, a long-term study of Oklahoma’s SEED OK program found that newborns who randomly received $1,000 in state funds had, by age 14, higher educational expectations, greater social-emotional development, and more family-contributed savings for college compared with those who didn’t.
A 2015 global study of roughly 10,000 households found that asset interventions — like giving impoverished families an income-producing asset, cash assistance, and skills training — had positive economic outcomes well after the program stopped.
Those findings are part of a growing body of evidence from other asset-building experiments that “already points in a consistent direction,” said William Elliott, founding director of the Center on Assets, Education, and Inclusion at the University of Michigan.
That direction, Elliott said, indicates that early wealth accounts should be a pillar of a new social contract with Americans — especially in an age when higher education debt can stall wealth creation.
“The current policy setup strongly favors those who already have wealth,” Elliott said. “And so you don’t have meritocracy happening. To get there, you can’t just give [people] a job anymore, because there’s a gap between wages and productivity. You also have to give them some wealth to make their effort and ability pay off.”
During an appearance in Nicetown with Sen. Dave McCormick, Sen. John Fetterman urged parents to sign up for child wealth-building accounts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The landscape in Philadelphia
There are more than 300,000 Philadelphians living below the poverty line, according to Pew Charitable Trusts — that translates to about $33,000 annually for a family of four. While the poverty rate here has declined to 19.7% from 26% over the past decade, Philadelphia still has the second-highest poverty rate among large U.S. cities.
Other figures show the prevalence of low-income households in our city.
Gravley, the only worker in her household of four, makes about $40,000 annually.
Raising Pennsylvania’s minimum wage above $7.25 may help workers locally; all of the commonwealth’s neighboring states have higher wage floors. But it could also be untenable for some small businesses.
For Gravley, her home is an asset that could help her family long term, but there’s little it can do to improve her economic prospects today. Despite holding three degrees — an associate in culinary arts, an associate in early childhood education, and a bachelor’s degree in leadership and organizational change — she still regularly grapples with the challenge of making ends meet.
As a program coordinator at Strawberry Mansion High School, Gravley said her expenses are usually about $2,200 per month, which means she typically has about $100 per month for the high-yield savings accounts she manages for herself and her children.
At one point she invested in the stock market but pulled out because she didn’t understand it.
It’s been this way for more than a decade for Gravley. As a recipient of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid benefits, she is making enough to cover needs, but financial security and financial growth for her family appear largely out of reach.
“[Welfare] helps, but it’s nothing programmed to get me out of the food stamp thing. Because you tell me to get the degrees and get the better job, and I’m trying to do that, or I did that, and it’s still not enough money. So where is the money?”
Jared Council is a business journalist based in Philadelphia. He was part of a team at the Wall Street Journal recognized as a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a series about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. He is currently a program manager at Every Voice, Every Vote, a civic information and engagement program at the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
The Inquirer is one of two dozen news organizations powering the Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative. Follow us at @PHLJournoCollab. This article is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com.
When Home Appétit moved into a space just off City Avenue in West Philadelphia in 2020, founder and CEO Lee Wallach thought the company would stay five to 10 years.
But given the business’ quick growth, particularly during the pandemic, the company is already “bursting at the seams,” Wallach said. The meal delivery company is moving to East Falls in September, to a former catering facility Wallach bought and is renovating.
Home Appétit, founded in 2013 in Wallach’s Center City apartment, is on track to bring in $10 million in revenue this year, Wallach says. His company delivers roughly 16,000 to 20,000 meals a week within a 50-mile radius.
Wallach sees untapped customers and opportunities he can now pursue.
In addition to buying the new headquarters for a little over $2 million, he plans to spend between $3 million and $4 million on renovations and business upgrades, which he’s been able to do through bank financing. He’s building out a fleet of delivery vans, opening a pickup window, and setting up the business to make and sell more meals. That includes hiring dozens more employees.
With that, Wallach predicts, Home Appétit will “have almost unlimited potential for growth.”
Why Home Appétit grew as some competitors fizzled
In Home Appétit’s early days, Wallach planned to discontinue chicken cutlets. Breading the chicken by hand and cooking it was very labor intensive for his small team, he says.
“I tried to take them off the menu, and I had many customers messaging me that I couldn’t do that,” Wallach said. “They’ve been on the menu ever since.”
It was an early lesson in what keeps people coming back to Home Appétit. Wallach’s earliest customers were doctors. Today, customers include doctors, nurses, and professors, as well as young families, and new parents who receive meal delivery as a gift. Of his original first five customers, two still buy his meals.
In recent decades, plenty ofmeal kit companies such as Blue Apron and HelloFresh have tried to shake up home cooking, providing customers with premeasured ingredients and detailed instructions. But they have faced retention challenges.
Home Appétit, on the other hand, offers fully prepared heat-and-eat or ready-to-eat meals — so do several competitors.
Factor has Keto and vegan options; Thistle offers gluten-free and dairy-free meals; and CookUnity brings together distinct chefs to craft menus.
They’re all helped by a trend of people eating fewer meals out, said Michael Infranco, a RetailStat analyst who covers businesses such as Wegmans, HelloFresh, and Kroger.
But the industry is facing competition from grocery stores that offer prepared meals and delivery, he says. Some are partnering with Uber Eats or DoorDash.
There’s a lot of industry pressure around trends, says Wallach, who has steered clear of them.
“People are looking for protein, and people look for macros, and everybody wants to count calories, and everybody wants to know how many carbs are in [their food],” he said. “That’s not really us.”
His business doesn’t cater to a specific diet, he says. Instead, his team aims to make “restaurant quality” food.
“We’re not just dumping butter or dumping salt into a dish to make it taste good,” Wallach said. “We’re finding different ways and using different techniques to really elevate the flavor and the profile of the meals that we prepare.”
Home Appétit sets itself apart because of its focus on the long-term, Wallach said. He wants it to be an “essential service” to its customers.
That’s been true for Ricky Grenis of Northern Liberties. He and his wife, Bonnie, have been considering a move to the suburbs and often joke that they must stay in the Home Appétit delivery range, Grenis said.
“It’s hard to put a price on the convenience that it provides us as two working parents,” said Grenis, 37, who has two young children andworks in the wine industry. The couple tried out a few national meal-kit companies, but they were unimpressed by the ingredients and still had to cook.
Grenis is a vegetarian, but Bonnie isn’t, and Home Appétit allows them to order meals that both can enjoy, as well as kid-friendly options. “It literally feels like we have a private chef,” said Grenis.
The only downside, he said, is the amount of plastic packaging. “If we could figure out how to even be more sustainable, that would be a plus,” he said.
Lee Wallach at the company’s kitchen.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Staying competitive, and focused on the Philly area
On a recent day in July, Home Appétit’s entree menu included a miso-glazed salmon bowl with bok choy and brown rice, a pulled buffalo chicken sandwich, and a “Southwest Salad” with tortilla strips and buttermilk dressing. The company also offers small plates and add-ons such as roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, and hard-boiled eggs.
Customers can order anytime between Tuesday and Friday night, to receive their meals the following Monday.
The minimum order costs $100 and covers four to six meals for a single person. Customers can also increase their order size for more people.
While some businesses have struggled with rising food costs, Wallach says Home Appétit has been partly insulated because it sources products from cooperatives and small farms.
“That’s kind of been a bit of a competitive advantage for us, and has allowed us to control our prices a little bit more,” he said.
Still, economic conditions have changed since 2013, particularly the costs of labor. He increased prices for the first time last year. While the basic order still costs $100, adding more people to an order now costs more.
The new headquarters is 23,000 square feet, up from the current 3,500-square-foot space, as well as a leased office in South Philly. With the move, the company will consolidate under one roof.
Wallach plans to have a staff of 200 to 250 by 2028. He currently employs roughly 50 full-time kitchen staff and 10 corporate employees. Meals are delivered by 40 to 50 drivers, who are mostly contractorsin their own vehicles.
Tech company founder Lilly Chen, 30, orders most of her food to her Chinatown apartment, where she lives with her cofounder. She has tried every food delivery service under the sun, she says, but Home Appétit stands out because of its delivery model. She says it’s because the company doesn’t outsource delivery.
“There’s a lot of other meal providers, that because they don’t own it, if something goes wrong — the food spoils or it’s late or you can’t find a delivery — they just kind of have to refund you and then you’re on your own,” Chen said.
Wallach plans to launch pickup at the new location, which customers have been asking for. Home Appétit also got its first refrigerated van.
Under the company’s current model, food gets delivered in insulated bags with ice packs in contractors cars, which puts a limit on how far meals can travel — but Wallach plans to expand the company’s delivery zone as he adds additional refrigerated vans.
He also plans to deliver on more days, not just Mondays, starting next year.
“If we can start delivering [closer to the weekend] and deliver to the Shore, I think it’s a home run for us for the summer months,” Wallach said.
He might pursue other markets in the future, perhaps Boston or Washington, D.C. But for now, Wallach is focused on the Philadelphia region, he says.
“There’s a ton of untapped opportunity here,” he said. “I’m excited to finally be able to take advantage.”
The first week of July has typically been one of Philadelphia’s most violent, with recent Independence Day weekends marked by mass shootings, police officers shot, and bursts of violence that left a dozen dead.
But this year, amid a dramatic decline in violence and a flood of visitors to the city, the holiday weekend was noticeably calmer than in years past, offering another encouraging sign that the dramatic decline in shootings held through one of its toughest tests.
Twenty-three people were shot from July 1 through July 7 — a slightly higher total than most weeks in 2026, but nearly half the average number of shooting victims during the same period over the last decade, according to city data. In 2021, at the height of the city’s gun violence crisis, more than 70 people were shot in that week alone.
If the current pace continues, Philadelphia is on track to record fewer than 200 homicides for the first time since the 1960s, a remarkable turnaround from just five years ago, when nearly three times as many people were killed.
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Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in an interview that the July Fourth weekend is historically one of the most challenging for urban police departments.
Bethel said he and other city, state, and federal law enforcement officials spent about two years planning for this holiday weekend, preparing for potential crises that never came.
Anticipating hundreds of thousands of visitors for FIFA Club World Cup events and the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations, the department canceled many officers’ vacation requests over the last month and, on the Fourth, deployed more than 2,000 members of local and state law enforcement across the city, he said.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel, speaks at a press conference on the details for the Roots Picnic in May 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Reinforcements from the Pennsylvania State Police and neighboring municipalities helped the city maintain staffing levels in neighborhoods that have historically seen more violence, Bethel said. Officers worked in the record-breaking heat, he said, with some starting their shifts at 7 a.m. and clocking out only after the concert on the Parkway ended at 3 a.m.
The FBI took the lead on monitoring the skies, Bethel said, intercepting several drones that were flying illegally. (None of the drones, he said, was flying with “nefarious” intent.)
He called the weekend a validation of the city’s planning and broader work that has contributed to the decline in gun violence.
“I can’t tell you how many people grabbed me and said they felt welcomed and felt safe,” he said of the events over the last month. “Let’s own the win. Let’s not hide from it.”
Bethel also said there had been no acts of violence around the approximately two dozen bars that were approved to stay open until 4 a.m. from June 11 to July 19 to accommodate crowds attending the FIFA, July Fourth, and MLB All-Star celebrations.
“We’re seeing zero issues,” he said.
Soccer fans gather to watch Mexico play South Africa on a giant screen during the opening day of the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Philadelphia.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The reduction in violence over the holiday weekend fits a broader pattern. Shootings and homicides in the city began to decline in 2023, mirroring a national trend, and have continued to fall. So far this year, 90 people have been killed in homicides — less than a third of the number recorded at the same time three years ago, according to police data.
Just as there was no clear explanation for the spike in crime that began in 2019, criminologists and law enforcement officials say, it is similarly difficult to pinpoint the reasons for its decline. But there are theories: an overall return to normal life after the pandemic, expanded community-based violence prevention programs, more arrests in shootings and homicides, and targeted prosecutions of some of the city’s most violent gangs.
One measurable change has been the police department’s improved clearance rates, which researchers have long viewed as a potential deterrent to future violence.
The homicide clearance rate — the share of killings solved, including arrests made this year in both new and older cases — has climbed to nearly 99%, up from about 47% in 2022. The clearance rate for nonfatal shootings has risen to about 41%, roughly double what it was in 2021.
Bethel said those arrests take would-be shooters and victims off the streets and interrupt cycles of violence.
“We’re impacting retaliation, we’re impacting somebody being shot again, we’re impacting someone who may shoot and kill somebody,” he said.
Jeff Asher, a New Orleans-based national crime analyst, said because the decline is likely driven by many programs and societal changes, it is hard to know what will sustain the progress.
“I keep expecting [the crime rate] to stop falling, and it’s just not,” he said in an interview. “So, maybe this is the new normal. We just can’t say with a ton of confidence.”
Still, the quieter weekend was not wholly peaceful.
Three men were killed between Friday and Monday morning, leaving families and neighbors to mourn loved ones even as the city showed signs of sustained progress.
On Monday morning, Shawn Caddell, 32, was killed during a robbery inside a Logan beer deli, police said. And on Sunday, two men were slain in areas that have long been hot spots for shootings: Emanuel Aguirre, 27, was fatally shot in the Hunting Park section of North Philadelphia, and Donald McPhaul, 51, was gunned down on Salford Street in West Philadelphia.
A 16-year-old in South Philadelphia was among more than a dozen people who were shot and survived.
Philadelphia police examine a car with a bullet hole after a man was fatally shot along the 500 block of East Wyoming Avenue on July 5, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Bethel said the pockets of the city that have long experienced higher rates of violence — and that continue to see shootings, albeit fewer, today — remain a priority.
“We are never going to give up in those communities,” he said. “We are going to keep working in those areas.”
Recent polls have found that a majority of Philadelphians have noticed the decline and feel safer. But for residents on blocks where shootings remain a recurring threat, a citywide trend line can feel distant from daily life.
Chantay Love, president of the victim-advocacy organization EMIR Healing Center, said the communitiesseeing recurring violence are still grappling with “the trauma and collateral damage that is left behind” from the last six years.
Linda Days, 72, who lives in the area, said the shooting that killed McPhaul was another reminder of the violence she has come to expect since moving there seven years ago from Olney.
Standing in her doorway on Tuesday, Days said it feels as if gunfire has become part of the soundtrack outside her home. But during the Fourth of July weekend, she said, she is especially careful to stay inside.
“I don’t even come out to watch the fireworks,” she said.
Brenda Beiser knows firsthand how difficult buying a home in the Philadelphia area can be. She’s not only a Redfin real estate agent, but she’s also an empty nester who wanted to downsize.
Her six-bedroom house in Mount Airy sold right away when she put it on the market in May. But she decided not to buy a replacement.
“I went for a rental because I didn’t really want to compete with everyone who’s trying to get into a smaller house,” Beiser said. “A lot of people who are in their 60s and would have traditionally downsized into a smaller house just aren’t doing it. They can’t find a place to go.”
Brenda Beiser, a Redfin real estate agent in the Philadelphia area, decided not to buy another home when she sold her Mount Airy house, because she didn’t want to enter the region’s competitive housing market.Courtesy of Brenda Beiser
The Philadelphia region has a housing supply problem, just like large swaths of the country, and that’s impeding both repeat and first-time buyers. Inventory is particularly low across the Northeastern United States, where construction has not kept up with demand. In the beginning of this year, Zillow predicted that the Philadelphia metropolitan area would be one of the country’s 10 most-competitive housing markets of 2026.
Home supply, however, has also ticked up a bit in the region compared with last year, and homes are staying on the market a bit longer before they sell. For the four weeks ending June 21, the region was in the top five markets with the highest annual increase in new home listings, according to a Redfin analysis of the 50 most-populous metropolitan areas.
“The market’s encouraging,” said Jake Markovitz, president of the board of directors for the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors. “It’s certainly more balanced than it has been the last four, five years.”
Erin Thompson, CEO of the Montgomeryville office with Keller Williams and leader of the Erin Thompson Team, agrees. She said buying and selling is “ebbing and flowing but trending toward a more stabilized market.”
“Although I feel like I’ve said that twice in the recent past, and then it’s gone bonkers,” she said.
The region’s market is a mixed bag.
Some homes are sitting for a while, and some owners are at risk of selling properties for less than they bought them for a few years ago. Other homes have inspired five or more buyers to compete against each other, hiking up prices, said Markovitz, an associate broker with the Karrie Gavin Group at Elfant Wissahickon Realtors.
This Graduate Hospital home went under contract last month a few weeks after it was listed for sale.Courtesy of Jake Markovitz
“As an example, I’m seeing more inventory in Chestnut Hill than I have in a long time, which is giving buyers a little bit of power,” he said. But if the right property hits the market, it will go fast.
He’s seen the same happen in neighborhoods such as Graduate Hospital and Fishtown.
Because of strong demand for homes in the region, “I just don’t think we’ll see any major shift in prices coming down,” he said.
‘Weird’
Markovitz and Thompson both used the same word to describe the recent real estate market: weird.
They said housing activity isn’t always following time-tested rules.
Philadelphia homes that sat on the market for months last fall, typically a busy season, suddenly went under contract in the winter, typically a slow one.
A house that sits on the market for 30 days that a buyer thinks can be theirs at a lower price can suddenly attract two other buyers at the same time. And now they all need to be ready to pay more.
Housing markets have always been hyperlocal, with buyer demand varying from neighborhood to neighborhood and block to block. But now, “it’s almost like a property-by-property basis,” even for comparable homes, Thompson said.
Owners bound by ‘golden handcuffs’
Even with recent upticks in home listings, the region’s housing supply is nowhere near enough to meet demand.
“Most people are anticipating this year will continue to be a little tough,” Thompson said, “and then next year we’ll start to see some more inventory.”
Markovitz said homeowners who bought properties five years ago with 3% or 4% mortgage interest rates are still experiencing “some sticker shock” from current rates, which lately have been averaging about 6.5% for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage.
“Those people, even if they’re ready to leave, are kind of bound by their golden handcuffs,” not wanting to sell and then have to buy a home at a higher interest rate, he said.
But for many homeowners, “the reality of the market has set in a little bit,” he said. “Where people were sort of hoping, wishing that rates would come back down, they’re not.” And life events such as births, deaths, and job moves mean that people need to sell their homes.
This recently sold Graduate Hospital home has skyline views from the roof deck.Courtesy of Jake Markovitz
And buyers show up to purchase them.
Thompson said she was nervous when she listed a Phoenixville home for sale during Memorial Day weekend,when many homebuyers might be traveling. But a lot of people came to see it, and the seller ended up with seven offers and a final price that was well over what they expected.
Buyers, however, aren’t accepting just anything. They are more selective and less likely than in past years to skip home inspections. If sellers want to get the highest price, they have to prepare their properties for sale, agents said.
Homes, and especially kitchens and bathrooms, need to be up-to-date, and central air-conditioning is a plus, said Annette Collier, owner and real estate broker at Able Real Estate, based in West Philadelphia.
“That’s what buyers are looking for, and I don’t think they’re willing to settle,” said Collier, who works in the city and surrounding areas. “I find that less buyers want to do any renovations. Most buyers want a move-in-ready situation.”
Homebuyers want updated kitchens, like this one in a Graduate Hospital home that recently sold.Courtesy of Jake Markovitz
And sellers need to be realistic about how much they can get for their home.
“If you overprice by even just a little bit,” Thompson said, “you’ll end up sitting.”
Buyers ‘ready to pounce’
Generally speaking, buyers now have more time to make decisions than they did last year, since homes are staying on the market longer.
But, in some submarkets, especially in Philadelphia’s collar counties, “there’s so much demand that certain houses are just going to fly off the shelves,” said Beiser, who works in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.
“I have some buyers in the suburbs, and they‘ve kind of stopped looking because it’s too challenging,” she said.
This home in Upper Merion Township is listed for sale for $699,900 by agent Erin Thompson.Jacob Schroeder, Left Bank Real Estate Photo Services
Beiser has been working with a couple with children who live in Philadelphia but want to move to the suburbs. Each spring for the last three years, her clients make a plan to try to find their next home. But every year, they decide that continuing to live in the city is more convenient than facing competitive markets in which they’re expected to skip home inspections to win a property, Beiser said.
Thompson has seen a growing trend of frustrated buyers putting in offers above the asking price even when they’re not facing direct competition. One client recently went under contract on a Fishtown home they had immediately put an offer on.
“They came in aggressive, because they’d just lost out on a house, and they’d been looking for a while,” she said. “You have these buyers who are scarred and tired, so they’re coming in more aggressive.”
Thompson tells buyers to make sure they’re as prepared as possible before starting their home search.
“You have to be ready to pounce the second [a home] comes to the market,” she said.
This home on the market in Upper Merion Township spans more than 2,800 square feet and has three bedrooms.Jacob Schroeder, Left Bank Real Estate Photo Services
North Philadelphia’s Francisville is getting an apartment building at 801 N. 19th St. after years of delay and a complexchange in ownership.
The six-story project, clad in red brick, will include 110 apartments and 49 underground parking spaces. The foundations are built, and construction is underway.
The project sits on an oddly shaped lot between 19th Street, Cameron Street, and Wylie Street, which neighbors call “the triangle lot.”
The property used to be owned by the Exton-based Hankin Group, which secured building permits for a 115-unit apartment building during the pandemic.
Hankin sold the property in 2021. Now two different townhouse projects are being developedon the site, one by West Philadelphia-based Guy Laren.
The apartment project is being built under the name of Cameron Square Partners LLC, which is registered at a West Philadelphia property owned by Laren.
On the Department of Licenses and Inspections website, violations for “walkway not provided” and a failure to post permits are being appealed by the Philadelphia-based developer, contractor, and property manager Vicintas.
Laren did not respond to a request for comment. Vicintas confirmed it is the general contractor and future property manager for the apartment building but did not reply to an interview request.
Hankin’s building permit is old enough that the Philadelphia Planning Commission decided it has to go through an advisory-only Civic Design Review process again, five years after its first go-around.
The new iteration of the project is different from what Hankin proposed, with 110 instead of 115 apartments but larger layouts. It has a new architect, too, with Philadelphia-based Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture replacing global firm NORR.
“The new owner wanted some bigger units, so we’re down five units, and we increased the height by five feet, and then we redid the entire facade,” said Rustin Ohler, a principal with the firm.
The new plans call for 40 one-bedroom apartments and 35 two-bedroom units, with the remainder mostly being larger studio units known in the industry as “junior one-bedrooms.”
The apartments will have “more square footage, not necessarily more bedrooms,” Ohler said. “The previous design had a lot of studios. This is more ones and twos [bedrooms], and they’re a little larger than your average new construction coming to the market.”
Parking has been reduced from 52 to 48 spaces, although the development team plans to expand the number of spaces by automating the garage.
Such a system would eliminate the need for people to enter the facility, depending on mechanical systems to distribute and receive cars and allowing for a much larger parking capacity.
The latest design for the new apartment building at 801 N. 19th St., with an articulated brick identifier spelling out “801.”Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture
The apartment building contains no retail but will have amenities including a gymnasium and a narrow roof deck, including a dog park, that is set back from the edge so it is not visible from the street.
At a June meeting of the Civic Design Review committee, a representative of the United Francisville Civic Association criticized the amount of parking in the project, the increased height, the roof deck, and the new building materials.
“What was originally approved was a five-story building,” said the representative, whose name was obscured in a recording. “This is now a six-story building, and it really towers above. It just adds a lot more height to the building based on the surroundings.”
At the June and July meetings, however, Ohler noted that the threeprojects on the triangle lot are already under construction and that the apartment project is hemmed in by the bordering townhouse developments.
That restricts what changes could be made to the architecture and layout of the project, despite community concerns.
A new rendering of the apartment building shows the roof deck broken into smaller chunks, to cut down on large crowds making noise and separated from the edges of the building by newly proposed solar panels.Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture
The development team increased “the garage ceiling height in order to accommodate future stacked mechanical parking, which would potentially double our number of cars that we could have,” Ohler said.
Since the June meeting, the development team also added darker brick spelling out “801,″ as an identifier on the building’s south-facing facade and entrance.
Ohler noted that the roof deck has been broken up into four separate pockets to prevent large groups of residents from congregating. It also was pushed back from the street to accommodate neighbor concerns.
“The roof decks have been designed to be centered into the building, so that nobody can get near the edge,” Ohler said. “And we did add the solar panels, there’s no way for anybody to get near the edge, so that would address their concerns of sound from the roof deck.”
