Market Street is finally getting its new mall; Pa. lawmaker resigns after child pornography arrest | Morning Newsletter
All the local news you need to know to start your day, delivered straight to your email.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/3VHY7HNHK5GODHQHOMP66B52G4.jpg)
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
After years of construction, Center City is getting a brand new mall. And it seems to have as many retail stores as it does entertainment venues. A couple of miles north, a library at Temple is bringing ambitious architecture to the campus and has already established itself as “one of the best new buildings in Philadelphia.”
— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
It used to be called the Gallery, and after three years of construction, it’s opening today as the Fashion District. It’s a mall, taking up three blocks of Market Street, and has more than just stores — it’s also got a music hall, movies, bowling, and a candy museum, for example. But many are wondering if, like the retail site that came before it, this flashy project will lead to an eventual demise.
If you’re someone who still goes to the mall to shop, particularly for clothes, you’ll find big Nike, Skechers, and Levi outlets that are also symbols of the kind of fashion city Philadelphia truly is. This is not a Gucci town, columnist Elizabeth Wellington writes. “When it comes to luxury labels, we are armchair fashionistas who turn our noses all the way up at expensive pieces."
The new Charles Library has become the instant heart and soul of Temple’s campus, according to The Inquirer’s architecture critic Inga Saffron. The building features two enormous portals that “practically enfold you in their wide embrace,” she writes. Inside, huge windows fill reading areas with natural light.
While “the level of ambition is something new for Temple,” it doesn’t mean the library is without flaws, she says. Still, why would you bother working anywhere else?
Pennsylvania State Sen. Mike Folmer resigned yesterday, a day after he was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and other crimes. The 63-year-old told authorities that he had been dealing with personal problems and received child pornography through his blog on the social media site Tumblr, according to court records.
Folmer, a Republican from Lebanon County, was considered one of the Senate’s staunchest conservatives.
What you need to know today
What’s Pennsylvania doing to address climate change?
A $37 million construction project that co-locates two Philadelphia high schools has stopped after students and staff reported health problems and conditions that might be hazardous for learning and working. Put simply, “that building is not safe for kids,” said a history teacher at one of the schools.
“People think I’m not going crazy enough," Noema Alavez Perez said. Her 5-year-old daughter was apparently abducted Monday.
Yesterday, a nautical engineering trainee became the first crew member indicted in connection with the 20-ton, $1.1 billion cocaine bust that happened this summer at the Port of Philadelphia.
The South Jersey referee that made a Buena Regional High School wrestler choose between having his hair cut or forfeiting a match has been issued a two-year suspension from officiating.
Hospital stays for opioid overdoses are decreasing around Pennsylvania. But how much progress is actually being made to fight the epidemic?
Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly
That’s a nice way to celebrate National Cheeseburger Day, @vodca_maduro.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!
That’s Interesting
🍺Here are 40 beer festivals that you can go to this fall. 🍺
Internet-only customers can get Comcast’s new Roku-like streaming box for free.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened a “jaw-dropping” new entrance that had been closed for decades.
Rural Pennsylvania has “exercise deserts.” And they’re contributing to obesity.
“Queer Eye” made its last filming stop in Philadelphia earlier this month when they busted in on a local education nonprofit’s morning staff meeting.
Reasons why 60,000 people move out of Philly each year: 1.) jobs, 2.) safety, 3.) ...
Opinions
“Surely, police didn’t have to shoot him. Surely, less lethal methods could have been used to subdue him. Surely, things could have ended differently. But none of the officers was carrying a Taser. We don’t know why.” — columnist Jenice Armstrong writes about an incident in which police shot a resident with a long history of mental illness.
People who worship in Center City and cyclists might not be as far apart as they seem to be on the issue of courtesy parking in bike lanes on Saturdays and Sundays, The Inquirer Editorial Board writes.
Democrats need to take a page from the Republican playbook on the Supreme Court, write Kermit Roosevelt III, a law professor at Penn, and Dan A. Cotter, a member of a progressive bar association.
What we’re reading
A Philadelphia dad has created inexpensive strollers that are easy to transport. 6ABC has the story.
A young writer and magazine editor pens an essay for The Cut about what her life might be like if she didn’t have Instagram.
And, in other social media news, a new site is building a huge U.S. audience, but its roots in China are fueling suspicion over censorship, The Washington Post reports.
Your Daily Dose of | The UpSide
Members of the Philadelphia Police Department and workers from some of the city’s biggest labor unions stepped into the ring last week. They boxed to honor 290 service members from Pennsylvania who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.