A LETTER FOR PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE
MON · NOV 2 · 2026
Decisions are being made about your block. You should know.
It's election week in Philadelphia, the Census Bureau says we're the poorest big city in America again, and an anonymous donor saved the Portal at the last minute.
AROUND
The new Census numbers came out Thursday, and Philadelphia is the poorest big city in America again. The rate hit 20.4 percent in 2025, up from 19.7 the year before, when it dipped under 20 for the first time since at least 1979 and Houston briefly took the title. It's the city's first increase since 2011, and the people could have told the Census Bureau this one themselves.
Comcast told the state it's cutting 634 jobs at its Center City headquarters, with the separations starting December 31 at 1800 Arch and 1701 JFK. Click here for more details. The people whose families live it describe an awful week.
The Portal was scheduled to leave City Hall on Saturday, and now it's not going anywhere. An anonymous donor is covering the roughly $30,000 a year it takes to keep the sculpture maintained and connected, and Mayor Parker says the city is working on a long-term solution. The people were relieved, and more than a few suggested the donor's next stop should be the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Which is its own story. Drexel closed the academy at the end of September, and last week's City Council hearing about it ended with testimony torn up and subpoenas threatened. The academy's board chair said Drexel gave the museum a merge-or-close ultimatum and turned down a William Penn Foundation offer to cover operating costs, and the hearing picks up again November 16. The people on this side of town have long memories about institutions that close.
Silk City apologized after a customer said the diner threw away her wallet, her car keys and her daughter's stuffed animals while she was in the bathroom for three minutes, and said the employee responsible is no longer working there. The people of this city could not agree harder about something this week.
Philadelphia has a rat czar. Adrian Jordan, a 20-year Health Department veteran who ran the city's Vector Control crew, is the new citywide rat abatement manager, and he's starting in the lower Northeast, where Council declared the rats an urgent public health emergency last month.
The Eagles lost their fifth straight on Monday night, 38-21 at home to Dallas, with Tanner McKee starting while Jalen Hurts recovers from the blood clot that landed him on injured reserve. They'll try to stop the slide Sunday night in Washington.
UP
Two new tenant protections are now in effect. Landlords have to give a legitimate written reason to end or decline to renew a lease, retaliation against tenants who organize is barred, and renters can sue for back rent if their landlord never had a rental license.
The city is standing up One Philly Mortgage, which it calls the first city-backed mortgage program in the country, with Citizens as the first lender. It's a 30-year fixed rate about a point below market, 3 percent down and no PMI on homes up to about $450,000, and the city figures it saves about $3,400 a year on a $200,000 house. The people who think about housing for a living had opinions about this one, and most were skeptical.
There's a video store again in South Philly. Little Movie Store opened at 10th and McKean with tapes and DVDs for sale up front, rentals in the back, movie-theater seats and Sunday morning kids' screenings, and the owner's pitch is that analog is back, baby. The people are already planning to bring their kids.
ON
MON 2 The Sixers host the Bulls Monday at 7:30 at Xfinity Mobile Arena (click here for the schedule). Across town, Temple opens its season against Central Connecticut at 6:30 at the Liacouras Center.
TUE 3 Tuesday is Election Day. Polls are open 7 to 8, mail ballots must be in by 8 p.m. because a postmark doesn't count, and the city's guide has all 34 drop boxes and 10 satellite offices. On the ballot: governor, every Pennsylvania US House seat, the full state House, half the state Senate and two Philadelphia questions, and if anything goes wrong at the polls, the DA's election task force is at 215-686-9641.
TUE 3 If you'd rather sit the returns out Tuesday night, the Flyers host the Wild at 7 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
FRI 6 Villanova's home opener is Friday at 7 against Holy Cross at Finneran Pavilion, the first home game of its last Big 5 season. The Wildcats open the whole thing Sunday against Notre Dame, in Rome.
THU 12 The SS United States, the ship that sat on the Delaware waterfront for almost 30 years, leaves Mobile on her final voyage November 12 to become the world's largest artificial reef off Florida, and Okaloosa County is streaming it live.
SUN 8 The Eagles come home to host the Giants Sunday at 1 at the Linc. That night the Palestra marks its 100th season with a doubleheader, Temple against Richmond at 5 and then Penn State against Pitt at 8, the 150th meeting of those two in the building that opened on New Year's Day 1927.
WENT ON
On this day in 1920, Pittsburgh's KDKA made the first commercial radio broadcast in American history, and it was live returns from the presidential race Warren Harding would win. The same election was the first where women could vote in every state, and turnout jumped from 18.5 million to 26.8 million.
See you Thursday.
PHILA.FYI
Everything here links to where we found it: local reporting, city records and what neighbors are posting. Corrections welcome.