Meet Your Mayor Philly: A political matchmaking quiz
If you’re still deciding who’s getting your vote for Philadelphia mayor — or are just curious about where the contenders stand — we have a treat for you.
- Billy Penn’s “Meet Your Mayor” tool is a 13-topic quiz to help show how you align with each candidate on top issues the next mayor will have to tackle. Think of it as political matchmaking.
Using it is simple: Visit phillymayorquiz.com, and select your preferred answer to each question to see your candidate “matches.” You can skip any you want, or go back and switch answers around to see how that changes things.
The quiz is part of the Every Voice, Every Vote project run by the Lenfest Institute. Find out more about how we put it together here.
Swiftadelphia? What Philly could do to match other cities
Taylor Swift has been getting lots of love from stops on her uber-popular Eras Tour. Glendale rebranded as “Swift City,” Tampa made her mayor for a day.
- What should Philadelphia do? There aren’t yet any official plans, according to the Kenney administration — but there’s still plenty of time.
Asha Prihar asked other Philly Swifties, who came up with lots of ideas, from lighting up the skyline to inviting her to an abandoned pier to eat rotisserie chicken.
RECAP: What else happened?
$ = paywalled
• As more district schools close over asbestos — C.W. Henry in Mt. Airy is the latest — Philly DSA is helping parents build DIY classroom air filters to distribute around the city. [6ABC/Billy Penn]
• The nonprofit Welcoming Center is celebrating 20 years of helping immigrants integrate into Philadelphia, like the family of Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban and are making a home in the Northeast. [WHYY/Billy Penn]
• August is the target for installing the historical marker at Hakim’s Bookstore in West Philly, one of the nation’s oldest Black-owned book shops and an important gathering place for activists and intellectuals. [Hidden City/BP 2022]
• PEP Bowl will live on. Despite financial troubles forcing Programs Employing People to sell its South Philly HQ, the social service org will lease back part of the building and keep the basement bowling alley. [Inquirer$/PhillyVoice]
• Bees are busy at the Free Library this spring. There’s an apiary on the roof of the Parkway Central Branch, and a hive *inside* the Port Richmond location. [Billy Penn]
Weekly brief on gun violence prevention (with PCGVR)
We publish this report each week in partnership with the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting. • Six Philly rec centers will provide trauma counseling this summer in neighborhoods impacted by gun violence. [PhillyVoice]
• Each day at Kensington’s Gloria Casarez Elementary starts with a morning meeting, where students share how they’re feeling and adults remind them violence shouldn’t be accepted as normal. [NPR]
• A newly released report from Temple’s Violence Reduction Task Force recommends the university take a bigger leadership role in addressing violence in the surrounding North Philly neighborhood. [PDF/6ABC]
• All four of the Stoneleigh Foundation’s new emerging leader fellows this year will be focused on addressing Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic. Applications are now open. [Stoneleigh]
By the numbers in Philadelphia
- 35: Shooting victims recorded last week, vs. 31 the week prior. [City Controller via @PCGVR]
- 540: Shooting victims this year so far, down 18% vs. this time last year. [PCGVR]
- 133: Year-to-date homicides, down 13% vs. last year’s pace; up 51% vs. five years ago [Philly Police]
MAYOR WATCH
Mayor Kenney joins Rebuild officials and community leaders in Southwest Philly to break ground on the $13 million renovation of the Paschalville Library (10 a.m.).
ON THE CALENDAR
🎾 Tonight! Join us at Padelphia for a night of Philly trivia. RSVP to join us at the athletic club on the Schuylkill River near City Avenue with snacks and sips, plus prizes for the winners. (6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 26)
🚖 Students at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts are putting on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights.” Tickets are $25. (7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday or 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27-30)
🐦 Birding is a great way to get to know Philly’s many green spaces, but how do you do it with care? Anwar Abdul-Qawi leads a class in ethical bird photography at the Academy of Natural Sciences. (2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 29)
Catch up on the previous week
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