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Divine Lorraine is now a Mint House hotel, as tenants scramble
Mint House announced it has officially taken over North Broad’s historic Divine Lorraine, which is ending apartment leases as it transitions into a hotel.
- “Tech-enabled residential hospitality” is how NYC-based Mint House describes its extended stay services. The company already rents rooms in Philly’s Public Ledger Building.
No hotel rooms are yet available at the Divine Lorraine, Asha Prihar reports — but tenants are still living there, and they’re scrambling and frustrated.
Vogue’s guide to Philly isn’t very Philly, locals point out
Vogue recently highlighted Philadelphia as a great place to visit. Which is great, except for the closed spots and wrong info they included.
- There were at least five errors in the guide, including misattributing the original design of the Art Museum, mixing up El Rey and El Vez, and directing people to a Center City store that’s since moved to the suburbs.
“If you’re going to highlight Philly,” deputy editor Beatrice Forman writes in an open letter to the Conde Nast fashion mag, “do the work and get it right.”
RECAP: What else happened?
$ = paywalled
- Yesterday the Biden administration declared monkeypox a national public health emergency, a designation that allows more resources to be diverted to addressing the outbreak, which has infected over 6,600 Americans, including 82 in Philadelphia. [WHYY/Phila Gov]
- The deteriorating situation at Philly’s Dept. of Human Services is so bad children are sleeping weeks on end inside a municipal conference room, even as fewer are taken from families. [Billy Penn/Inquirer$]
- Philadelphia this week returned remains of children killed in the 1985 MOVE bombing to a family member. They had been unknowingly kept at the city’s Medical Examiner’s Office for decades, and had recently been ordered destroyed by the former health commissioner. [NBC10/WHYY/Billy Penn]
- Banning gas hookups at new buildings in favor of electric heat is becoming more popular to fight climate change, but in Philly it’s a sticky issue, because the city owns the natural gas utility. [Grid]
- There’s plenty to feast your eyes upon at this year’s BlackStar Film Festival, which runs now through Monday, including several features focused on food. [NYT$/Eater]
- NBC10 traffic reporter Sheila Watko is going viral for doing a whole on-air update using 15 Beyoncé song titles, and even the star’s mom took notice. [@SheilaWatko/People]
MAYOR WATCH
Mayor Kenney hops on Philly’s Ring the Bell back-to-school tour (9:30 a.m.), joining School District officials and dozens of vendors for a big event outside Northeast High School, with dozens of vendors offering supplies, snacks, backpacks, and signups for academic year activities.
