Philadelphia and its surrounding counties are set for what could be a record-breaking $322 million in federal and state funding to go toward building new trails segments, say trail advocates.
The money is part of a larger $8.2 billion pool of transportation funding updated through the federal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for 2027 and spread over four years.
“We consider this to be potentially record breaking,” said Patrick Monahan, vice chair of the Circuit Trails Coalition in Pennsylvania. “It’s proof that the trails are being treated as essential infrastructure, making it safer and easier to walk and bike in the region.”
Pennsylvania gets its TIP plan updated every two years and the majorityof money goes to highways, bus and rail systems, trolleys, and ferries. It is part of an agreed-upon list of priority transportation projects. That list includes 344 projects.
In all, this year’s proposed $322 million in funding for trails would advance 27 bike and pedestrian projects across Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is set to vote on approving the allocations in July.
The trails, either begun or being planned, are part of the Circuit Trails, a network of hundreds of miles of multiuse trails throughout the Philadelphia region including southern New Jersey, which updates its TIP funding in alternate years.
$11 millionfor the second phase to extend the Schuylkill Banks trail in Philadelphia south from near 61st Street to Passyunk Avenue that would include a new park at the base of the Passyunk Avenue Bridge.
$58.5 million for Philadelphia’s Spring Garden Connector project that would link trail systems along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers and make Spring Garden Street safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
$50 million to improve safety for roadway users, including pedestrians and cyclists, on PA 291 from Irving Street to Ridley Creek. The project includes building a multiuse side path that will be designated as part of the East Coast Greenway, a trail system linking Maine to Florida.
$8.5 million for the Chester Valley Trail, a multiuse trail along the alignment of the former Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch, a former freight train route, including renovation of the Whitford Bridge and Downingtown TrestleBridge for bicycle and pedestrian use.
$10 million to develop a segment in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, that would run from the existing Wissahickon Trail in Fort Washington State Park to the existing Cross County Trail near SEPTA’s Fort Washington Station.
This Fourth of July will be unlike any in recent memory. As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, Philadelphia and the surrounding region are packed with celebrations — and fireworks displays. From the city and suburbs to South Jersey and the Shore, there are dozens of opportunities to catch a show.
Whether you’re staying in Philadelphia, heading to the suburbs, or spending the holiday down the Shore, here’s where to find Fourth of July fireworks across the region.
Wawa Welcome America: 🕙 July 4, 5 p.m. 📍Christina Aguilera and Philadelphia native Jill Scott headline a concert followed by fireworks, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pa., 19130, 🌐 july4thphilly.com
Conshohocken Fireworks Display: 🕙 July 3, 9:15 p.m., 📍The fireworks will take place at Sutcliffe Park, but the borough is closing the park and surrounding areas to the public due to the size of the display. (They advise you to watch the show from another vantage point in town.), 🌐 conshohockenpa.gov
Over more than 25 years, Jean Miller and Craig Heim have transformed their East Mount Airy home, a 1907 Dutch Colonial, through countless renovation projects.
“But no matter what state the house was in, whatever was torn apart or upended as we did a project, it’s always been an amazing house to come home to,” Heim said. “We are always happy to come in the front door.”
The facade surrounding that front door was the most recent project. They painted it a bold purple and updated the porch, shutters, and shingles.
Miller said she had always wanted a purple house. “It makes the house pop.”
The exterior of Miller and Heim’s home and their front garden are bursting with color.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerThe porch railing and soffit are painted purple and yellow.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerThe home was covered in asbestos shingles when Miller and Heim bought it, and they uncovered the original cedar shakes.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The couple bought the seven-bedroom, 2½-bath home in March 2000, and moved in that spring after some initial work. At the time, they were renting near the Italian Market in South Philly and planned to buy there.
“On a whim, we looked in Mount Airy after friends mentioned a huge house for sale nearby. Once we saw the neighborhood and how much space we could afford — including a yard — we shifted our search to Mount Airy,” recalled Miller, a physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Heim works for human services nonprofit Face to Face in Germantown.
Over the past two decades, they updated nearly every part of the 3,200-square-foot house and its garden, as they raised their two children. Sara, 22, is a Penn graduate who now lives in South Philly, and Pete, 20, is a sophomore at Michigan State.
Miller said the living room and dining room are favorites. The spaces are made cozy by a wood-burning fireplace, also a backdrop for entertaining.
Art and instruments line the walls of the living room, as Maddie the dog enjoys the couch.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerThe dining room has red walls and crown molding.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
When they moved in, Miller recounted, the home’s living and dining rooms had already been altered, losing their original woodwork. A wall with pocket doors had likely been removed and replaced with folding screen doors. The rooms were painted red with white trim.
“We designed a wooden arch, installed larger crown molding, and removed a non-original built-in cabinet in the dining room,” said Miller. “Fortunately, the contractor removed it in sections and discovered it had been supporting the house’s main beam after studs had been taken out.”
They decided to keep the red walls and, after testing many samples, chose a trim color in greenish gold that gave the rooms a completely different look.
The home boasts an eclectic mix of furniture that they acquired from family, vintage shops, and what Miller described as “trash picking.”
Paintings and photographs by local artists line the walls along the staircase.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerArt fills nearly every inch of this wall in the living room.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
An abundance of art hangs on the walls, loosely grouped into collections. Miller has dedicated one whole wall to “works from family and local artists.”
“We use every space to display art and objects.”
Back when Miller and Heim bought the house, the kitchen appeared to have been last renovated in the 1960s. The sheet-vinyl floor was torn and the subfloor so soft, it crumbled to dust when they pulled it up, recalled Miller.
As a temporary fix, they installed veneered plywood, adding lines and nail marks to mimic wide-plank hardwood, and sealed it with polyurethane. They also painted the cabinets and walls. Those quick fixes held them over until a full kitchen renovation. A neighbor who is an architect designed the new kitchen, transforming it to include a bright breakfast room filled with natural light.
Tiles and wall sculptures line an arch into the kitchen’s breakfast nook.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerA portrait of Jean Miller and Craig Heim’s dogs, Maddie and Mabel, is on display in the sun-filled breakfast area.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
“The kitchen was definitely a game changer, and it still feels new to me after 17 years. I love walking into it and feeling the brightness and natural light,” said Heim. “It’s the hub for so much of what happens every day and for special occasions, a very natural gathering place.”
Outdoors, the garden is a treasure trove of found objects combined with topiary and plantings to create an eye-catching mix. The large porch leads to the front garden.
“It connects us to our neighborhood and neighbors,” Miller said. “Our garden is a destination for many on their walks and allows us to connect with people. It feels like an outdoor room.”
A path of stones runs through the garden.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerA planter the family trash-picked is filled with and surrounded by potted flowers.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The creativity inspiring the garden also shines through in the house’s bold facade.
“When the house recently needed to be repainted, we wanted to do something with a bit more pop,” Heim said. “So, we added the golds and pink to give things a little more zip.”
For holidays, they decorate the yard with inflatables, lights, and ornaments.
A hedge painted and shaped into a “happy bull” grows in front of the home. Heim often spray paints and cuts the hedges into shapes or characters.Allie Ippolito / For The InquirerDecorative oversized ants are arranged as though climbing up a tree in the front garden.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
Mount Airy now holds a special place in both of their hearts. They enjoy an easy walk to the train, Germantown Avenue’s commercial strip, the Wissahickon, and Chestnut Hill.
“We have a tight-knit group of neighbors, many long-term residents from our era and even earlier, and a whole new generation of younger people with kids,” said Miller. “It’s a wonderful community.”
Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.
As global supplies of Chartreuse dwindle, its mystique only deepens and its popularity increases. Luckily, Philadelphia bars have concocted not merely ways to get their hands on the spirit, a botanical liqueur produced by Carthusian monks in the Chartreuse Mountains in southeastern France, but even their own, Philadelphia-made versions.
In 2021, the monks of the Carthusian order, an extremely secluded Roman Catholic order founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 who adhere to a life of absolute silence and solitude, announced a cap on the production of their cordial, which they had been making since the 18th century. The recipe is culled from an ancient manuscript on the “Elixir of Long Life.”
The iconic green liqueur is made of 130 plants— there is also a Yellow Chartreuse that is milder and sweeter due to the inclusion of honey and saffron —and is the base for several famous cocktails, including the Prohibition-era Last Word and the Naked and Famous (a classic cocktail from New York’s Death & Co.). With robust alpine notes, it is also commonly served neat. It’s also a favorite of bartenders and mixologists nationwide.
“It adds depth and character to cocktails,” said Neill Laughlin, a partner and manager at Old City’s Sassafras.
With the rise of the craft cocktail movement in the early 2000s and then drinking habits during the pandemic, which drove people to start shaking up more cocktails at home, Chartreuse has only gotten increasingly more popular.
The monks’ decision to limit their production has had a trickle-down effect for Philadelphia’s cocktail programs, like the one at Sassafras, run by Laughlin and Donal McCoy. Philadelphia’s bars already struggle with obtaining specialty liqueurs due to Pennsylvania’s Liquor Board restrictions. But Sassafras, who maintains its own long history (almost 50 years in business), doubled down on Chartreuse-based cocktails, adding four to their new bar program (which changes quarterly). It’s no easy feat: a search of the PLCB’s Fine Wine and Good Spirits site shows no bottles of Chartreuse in stock at all.
Champs-Elysees at Sassafras ($16) with St-Rémy VSOP, Green Chartreuse, lemon juice, Angostura bittersSassafras
“You need to have contacts within the PLCB,” explained Laughlin. “Certain [liquor] portfolios are broken down to different vendors and it’s a lot of homework to discover who has what products and how to get them. The liquor control board took it away from the stores and allocated Chartreuse to certain bars and restaurants — but you have to buy it in bulk.”
And so, Sassafras has been stocking up on Chartreuse for years. Supply is never regular. “There’s no warning when the ship [from France] comes in and how much you’re going to get,” said Laughlin, who just two weeks ago, managed to obtain four cases each of Green and Yellow Chartreuse.
“We’re comfortable offering six cocktails at Sassafras that use it,” said Laughlin. The newest cocktails at Sassafras include the 1904 ($65) featuring Yellow Spot Irish whiskey, Chartreuse VEP, and Antica Formula, Naked and Famous ($17) made with Catedral Espadin Mezcal, Aperol, Yellow Chartreuse, and lime juice, the Champs-Elysees ($16) with St-Rémy VSOP, Green Chartreuse, lemon juice, Angostura bitters. And for high rollers, the bar has also debuted one Chartreuse-based cocktail that costs $115 The Àrd-Rìgh (Irish Gaelic title meaning “High King”) is crafted with The Macallan Rare Cask, alongside Chartreuse VEP and Chartreuse MOF — “two exceptionally rare and highly coveted expressions of the French liqueur,” said Laughlin.
The Àrd-Rìgh (Irish Gaelic title meaning “High King”) at Sassafras is crafted with The Macallan Rare Cask, alongside Chartreuse VEP and Chartreuse MOFSassafras
Chartreuse has also entranced newer cocktail programs, like the one at chef Scott Calhoun’s Ember and Ash. Calhoun also recently put a Chartreuse cocktail on his menu: “Our Herb Your Enthusiasm ($19) is a play on a gimlet with Green Chartreuse, gin, charred fennel and cucumber syrup, and lime,” he said.
Herb Your Enthusiasm from Ember and Ash on East Passyunk. The cocktail is a play on a gimlet with green chartreuse, gin, charred fennel and cucumber syrup, and lime.Lulu Calhoun
“When we start to get low on either and our purveyor is out, I scour the PLCB online system to have bottles shipped to my local store for pick up,” said Calhoun.
The dearth of Chartreuse has also inspired Chris Fetfatzes of Grace and Proper and Sonny’s Cocktail Joint, establishments known for crafting their own spirits like amari. Fetfatzes’ liqueur, dubbed the “Green Monk” is made with about forty botanicals and is inspired by the forty Kelpius monks of the Wissahickon, a doomsday cult that inhabited Wissahickon Valley Park in the 1690s.
“Green Monk has a hint of chamomile, a hint of mint, and a hint of génépy with a little bit of a menthol burn,” said Fetfatzes.
And given that it’s produced in Philadelphia and not by actual monks, a shortage is unlikely. .
As graduating seniors at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School prepared for college, summer jobs, and other hallmarks of young adulthood this spring, 17-year-old Shawn Rinnier was focused on a simpler goal.
He hoped to muster the physical strength to walk across the graduation stage to collect his diploma.
That’s because the Bryn Mawr teenager is recovering from a traumatic brain injury that his parents say he suffered during an assault at a late-night party in Wissahickon Valley Park last month.
The attack knocked him unconscious, they said, and he has since experienced poor memory, fatigue, delayed vision, balance issues, and numbness in the right side of his body.
Now, in addition to caring for their son during what they expect to be a lengthy recovery, the Rinniers are seeking accountability for the people who assaulted their son.
“Nobody will talk at this point, and it just seems like people are trying to protect themselves, protect their friends,” said his mother, Susan Rinnier. “There’s some young adults that have a lot on the line here.”
Alongside investigators with the Philadelphia Police Department, Rinnier’s parents are working to piece together the events of the May 10 “tiki party” in the woods near Chestnut Hill, where they say about 250 teenagers had gathered before the evening turned physical.
Rinnier’s brain injury has left him with little recollection of what happened, said his father, Shawn Rinnier Sr., leaving his parents to look for clues after being sent photos and videosof the assault that partygoers took on their cell phones.
That night, students from a nearby Philadelphia private school as well as those from schools in the suburbs gathered for the party, which had been promoted on social media, Shawn Rinnier Sr. said.
He did not name the schools, deferring comment on those details to investigators.
The videos, Susan Rinnier said, show young people growing increasingly aggressive and eventually fighting.
“A couple fights broke out where the video evidence is showing that the other students were the aggressors” in the assault of her son, Susan Rinnier said.
“Some kids are on the sidelines yelling and chanting ‘punch on him’ and riling things up,” she said. “Our son, kind of scared, turns around and starts walking out of the event. The group follows him for about a second or so. That’s all we can see.”
A woman driving home in Chestnut Hill that night discovered Rinnier lying in the street around midnight and called 911, his father said. Shawn Rinnier Sr. later spoke to the woman, who told him “hundreds” of people had been fleeing through the woods with flashlights.
The parents did not recognize the young people involved in the assault, and they continue to communicate with detectives who told them they are interviewing people who may be involved.
A spokesperson for the police department did not return requests for comment on the investigation.
Rinnier was rushed to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital and put on a ventilator, his parents said, and doctors later determined that his traumatic brain injury was moderate to severe.
“When he finally awoke, he was suffering from poor memory, couldn’t follow instructions, was confused, acting impulsive,” his mother said. The teen then moved to a rehabilitation unit at Bryn Mawr Hospital, where he continues to recover, she said.
The violent events of that spring night were life-altering, Rinnier’s parents said.
Their son, a tennis player, was preparing to attend the University of Florida on a scholarship this fall, they said. Those plans are now on hold.
Instead, the teen is taking part in an extensive outpatient rehab program, and his parents are working to have his enrollment deferred to 2027, when they hope he will be well enough to attend school.
Making sure that Rinnier took part in graduation at St. Joe’s last month was a more readily attainable goal, his parents said, and they were determined that he would achieve it.
Susan Rinnier was pleased to see that he was able to walk across the stage on May 31, even if he soon grew fatigued and experienced numbness in his legs after the ceremony, she said.
The Rinniers’ next hope is that police will find and charge their son’s attackers. Meanwhile, they continue to scan social media for additional photos and videos that may offer a better view of the incident.
“We owe it to Shawn to continue to move this forward any possible way we can, to get to the bottom of this,” his father said. “That’s our job as parents, and we’re not gonna stop.”
