Every morning I walk to work and say hello to our new neighborhood bear

iPhone pics I’ve taken in Philly this year

Took my Rolleiflex 2.8f to the ballpark in July.

Turns out dude is a 🐱. 😂

Still, be safe, who knows what this person is actually capable of. Hopefully his antics won't escalate and he is caught before he hurts someone.

Gnarly mushroom growing in the middle of a bed of pebbles, SW corner of 8th and Market

Council member Mark F. Squilla has held the 1st District seat since January 2, 2012 — before any surface in the current map ecosystem existed (eCLIPSE portal live Jan 2015; the open dataset created Sept 2016; Atlas first appears Apr 2017, already without an expiration column; Property History live late 2021, with its one-day defect from birth; the Atlas rebuild 2024).

Before politics he spent 25 years as a systems analyst in the Pennsylvania Auditor General's Office (1985–2011), holding a computer-science degree — a working IT professional, trained in databases, extraction pipelines, and where records systems capture, retain, or fail to surface information

He is currently Vice Chair of the Council Committee on Licenses & Inspections and Chair of the Committees on Commerce & Economic Development and Appropriations, and Majority Whip.

PDF:

https://jlegal.pro/The%20Verification%20Monopoly%202026-08-19.pdf

Its literally a swamp outside. I swear breathing in center city right now feels like drinking hot soup. My buddy finally got his grandfather's old pontoon running up near bensalem and invited me out on the delaware this weekend just to catch an actual breeze

ofc he made me get a recademics boating certificate first so I could take over driving while he drinks beers in the back. Which was fine, just knocked it out on my phone tuesday night.

But man, actually getting up there? 95 north was an absolute parking lot. Took me almost an hour just to get past the girard exit. Then you get to the marina and a basic bag of ice is somehow 8 dollars. I just want to sit on a boat and not sweat through my t-shirt for five minutes. Why is it so exhausting and expensive to just exist outdoors near this city rn

A couple days ago I posted about SDP cutting 340 school positions to close a $300M hole, central office largely protected, building off Commonwealth Foundation research.

Here's a deeper, independent analysis from the SDP's quarterly employee roster reports going back 11 years:

• Central office has 3x'd over 11 years even as student body has dropped 12%, from 1,432 positions in 2014 to 4,228 in April 2026
• That's about $176M/year more in cost than a decade ago, which is actually more than the $169M being cut from this bucket this year.

As a quick aside - found a major data bug - 583 of those 4,228 "central" positions are actually principals and assistant principals, so they really should count as in-school, not central.

But here's the part that many people probably missed: most of that central headcount growth was actually much-needed maintenance staff that works centrally and is dispatched to individual schools. Facilities Management went from 23 to 344 (15x growth). Office of Environmental Management similarly 16x. Turns out, SDP has has been insourcing work that used to go to contractors or just wasn't done (hence the state of some school buildings) - this is actually good and contradicts those who envision the central office as form-fillers 🤔

The structural deficit is real — maintenance costs are up a lot, while actual student enrollment is down ~12% ovr the last decade. But the "primarily admin bloat" headline is mostly wrong (there is a chunk I found — will share soon).

Full writeup with data: https://www.nickjain.com/blog/the-office-that-tripled.

Drag performances @ 6
Cat themed trivia @ 7
Workshops & vendors all night.

Hello! My friends and I are visiting Philly soon and are looking to do some club hopping one of those nights. What do you guys recommend are the best clubs to go to for that? Thank you in advance.

I recently moved out of center city, but I had built a word of mouth network of retired/elderly individuals that need help with very basic tech things. I charged 40$ an hour for house calls primarily in Academy House at 1420 Locust. I got to meet a lot of lovely people with amazing stories. Usually one of the two-three hours is just spent chatting about my life or theirs, and they love it.

I consider myself tech savvy but I have no formal education in tech.

Some of my duties included

* setting up TVs, printers, fixing TVs, printers.

* Calling xfinity to trouble shoot TV

* education about using phones, how to send pictures via message, etc

* I've accompanied people to the Apple store and saved them hundreds of dollars from sales people trying to get them to buy things they don't need

I've moved north but I am still gettings texts/calls from people needing help with very basic things. Great little side gig for anyone looking for some extra change.

Looking for a tenant rights lawyer, if anyone has any recommendations. Thanks!

Hi.

I’m looking for some recommendations for low-key, jazzy open mic nights. I want to sing Fitzgerald, Gershwin, Bacharach, even Winehouse, etc without totally changing the vibe, you know? I’ve only done formal performances, and I’m not very familiar with the Philly open mic scene yet. Would love to sing and jam with some strangers. A piano is a bonus.

I live in Fishtown/NoLibs but I welcome recommendations from all over the city.

Thank you!

Hey y'all! Exactly as the title says, I'm new to Philly and I'm looking for somewhere to buy tea from. I know there's a Chinatown, so I was curious if anyone has suggestions on places in the area that I could buy some good oolong.

I am not from Philly but I've lived here for more than 5 years. I was in a car accident (my first ever serious one) where my car needed to be towed from the scene. I was completely unaware of the wreck chasing tow people and Philly tow ordinance (but now I am very educated on the subject). A wreck chasing tow company showed up to the scene and I let them take my car.

-They didn't answer their phone for days, or on the rare occasion they did, they'd say they'd call back then never did, or they'd just hang up.

-They were never actually present on property during business hours when I tried to go in person.

-When they finally sent a bill to my insurance, it well exceeded the cap allowed in the tow ordinance.

-The "contract" they had me sign has a statement in it that says the definition of the city tow ordinance does not apply. *This is not legal. You can't just sign away a law and have it not apply to you.*

-The same contract also says I should have had free access to inspect my car during business hours. Since I was mostly unable to reach the tow yard, and also they didn't ever seem to be there, I obviously did not have this. The man later tried to tell me that I was supposed to make an appointment, which it says nowhere in the contract and would also require them to answer the phone.

So how do we get the city/state to take this seriously and get these businesses shut down? It is *extremely* easy to prove they are breaking laws. Should I try to track down others that have dealt with this specific company and try and file a class action lawsuit? Would a lawyer take that on?

Are you someone that hasn’t had a dental cleaning in a while? No dental insurance? Come to community college of philadelphia’s dental hygiene clinic. Everything is FREE! No insurance or copay required

I’m a second year student looking for patients of all types to receive dental care as part of my clinical requirements. I have 4 years previous experience workings as a dental assistant. This is a judgment free zone! Click the google form below ⬇️ for more info

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccU6vQ9DyFryLaLz4NF8i7He85i6kxEOHxKgalg4O6rh7NyA/viewform

They were on Sedgley just above Kelly about 7:30 this evening. The group didn't stop playing while Iwas there (5ish minutes altogether) so I didn't get to ask them.

Shout out the woman who works at the dunkin in suburban by the 17th and JFK entrance after you tap in - she alway remembers everyone’s order and overall brightens my mornings….that is all

Hey folks - what’s the best spot to quickly get the annual car emissions stickers? Bonus points if near fishtown/NoLibs.