The displaced community of Carousel House | Morning Newsletter
And Philly's ultimate gift guide 🎁.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
It looks like it’ll be sunny today but decidedly colder.
In today’s newsletter:
❗Important: A community was displaced after a recreation center closed and the city, activists, and families grapple with what’s the right path forward.
☃️ Festive: We have everything you need to know about gift shopping for the holidays in Philly.
🗳️ Ambitious : Following their success getting Kendra Brooks elected to City Council in 2019, Working Families Party is trying to replicate another historic victory next year. 🔑
If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
🎤 And now I’m handing the microphone over to reporter William Bender:
Back in January, at a wheelchair basketball tournament, I met some people who had used Carousel House and were upset that it had been shuttered. More recently, that frustration seemed to be flaring up again, and with the midterms over, I decided to start doing interviews.
Carousel House was a big deal back in 1987, a city-funded rec center in West Philly specifically for people with disabilities, in a city with a high disability rate. It offered a huge range of activities to hundreds of people, some of whom started going as children and are now middle-aged. It closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, then permanently last year.
But a lot has changed since the late 1980s. Some city officials and disability activists see it as a symbol of segregation and want all rec centers to be accessible and inclusive to all residents. But several Carousel House families liked having a place reserved mostly for people with disabilities. It’s become a polarizing topic.
Continue reading for the full scope of perspectives.
What you should know today
Philadelphia stands strong as a sanctuary city as Gov. Greg Abbott sends buses from Texas.
The progressive Working Families Party is gearing up to try to oust the few Republicans left in Philadelphia government. 🔑
If you’re looking for holiday presents, we have all the Philly gift guides you’d ever need.
For our four-legged friends, gifts came in a packed trailer to the Pennsylvania SPCA in Philly.
John Fetterman named Philly organizer and longtime political organizer Joe Pierce as state director for his Senate office. 🔑
Showstoppers over stocking stuffers: As a gift for yourself or your loved ones, our music critics picked the best holiday shows to catch.
Local coronavirus numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
❓Pop Quiz❓
On Friday, I told you about Francesca Shuda, an 11-year-old skateboarder who is already scoring big sponsorships.
What town is she from?
A. Bryn Mawr
B. Springfield
C. Broomall
D. Media
Find out if you know the answer.
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
Hint: a popular bookstore and coffee shop.
BUNCO’S LEBBIE
We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Send us your own original anagram to unscramble if you’d like. Email us if you know the answer. Cheers to Molly Surden who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Walnut Street
Photo of the Day
🎶 For today’s Sunday track, I’m listening to “Out of My Way” by RIMON 🎶
👋🏽 And that’s a wrap for your weekend. I’ll be back, bright and early, tomorrow morning.