Parker’s watered-down affordable housing goal | Morning Newsletter
🛍️ And a changing Chestnut Hill.
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The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning, Philly.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker pledged to build 30,000 units of affordable housing. But her plan has changed since she was on the campaign trail. And in Chestnut Hill, a new stretch of boutiques, galleries, and bookstores are being opened by people of color, in turn servicing an evolving and increasingly diverse neighborhood.
Let’s get into it on another unnervingly warm April day.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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While on the campaign trail, now-Mayor Cherelle L. Parker voiced an ambitious plan to build 30,000 units of affordable housing to benefit low-income Philadelphians. Now that she’s in office, the goalposts have shifted to 30,000 units built or repaired over four years, “affordable” or not.
🏠 That goal includes privately constructed homes, houses repaired using government-funded programs, and new market-rate rental units.
🏠 The new target is more achievable, but still ambitious: Fewer than 15,000 construction permits were issued during former Mayor Jim Kenney’s first term.
🏠 One strategy the administration aims to employ to make it happen is easing regulations to encourage more and faster private development: “Time is money,” said John Mondlak, the interim director of planning and development. “If you can get people through the permitting a lot quicker, then that saves them money and that allows production to increase.”
Reporters Sean Collins Walsh and Jake Blumgart explain what the 30,000-units goal looks like in practice, and the roadblocks the mayor might face in reaching it.
What you should know today
The Pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania remained on campus through Monday. As encampment protests continue at colleges across the nation, experts say school leaders are confronting one of the hardest public-facing challenges in recent times.
Organized workers at area colleges and universities have been getting louder in recent years, demanding better pay and working conditions. At the Community College of Philadelphia, students want to be at the bargaining table, too.
A complaint accusing the Central Bucks School District of permitting antisemitic statements by a teacher and Muslim student group he advises has led to a federal investigation.
City Council won’t consider Joyce Wilkerson, one of the mayor’s nominations to Philly’s school board. Parker asked her to stay on anyway.
Republicans increased their share of mail votes in the Pennsylvania primary to about 26%. Will the trend continue in November? Plus: State Rep. Amen Brown has declared victory in an incredibly close Democratic primary race for the 10th District seat.
The FTC banned non-compete agreements, but groups opposing the rule have already filed a lawsuit challenging it in court. Experts say Philly doctors should wait to shred their contracts.
The Library Company of Philadelphia and the American Philosophical Society — both founded by Ben Franklin — are exploring a closer formal relationship. Don’t call it a merger, they say.
Two nursing professors from the Philadelphia area are leading a national coalition seeking to convince federal agencies to recognize their field as a STEM profession.
A speculative fiction bookstore. An art gallery. A medspa.
🛍️ In Chestnut Hill, more than two dozen businesses have opened in the past two years — many of them owned by people of color.
🛍️ It’s a marker of change for a Northwest Philly neighborhood that’s still majority white, but growing increasingly diverse. To some residents, that diversity is its best quality.
🛍️ “If I could put a blueprint for what I wanted it to be, it’s here,” said one first-generation immigrant and queer resident who just moved to the neighborhood a year ago. “I never felt in place [in Center City], but [here] it’s diverse, queer-friendly, and a lot of Black-owned businesses. I love it.”
It wasn’t always this way. The Inquirer’s Earl Hopkins spoke to shop owners and residents about the changing face of Chestnut Hill, and why many see diversity as a strength.
🧠 Trivia time
Retired Eagles center Jason Kelce isn’t staying retired for long. What’s his newest gig?
A) Star of New Heights: The Movie
B) Judge on The Masked Singer
C) Offensive line coach for the Chiefs
D) Commentator on ESPN’s Monday night preview show
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we're...
🐊 Hoping: Wally, Pennsylvania’s famous emotional support alligator, makes it home safe (or enjoys swamp life).
🎪 Excited for: The possibility of a 2026 Children’s World Fair, organized by three Philly cultural institutions.
🍹 Planning: Outings for sunny afternoons with this guide to area rooftop bars.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Philly booster Rob McElhenney’s show, which returns for its third season this Thursday: Welcome to ...
HEX WARM
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Terry McGrath, who solved Monday’s anagram: Jeremiah Trotter. The Hall of Famer’s son, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., was just drafted to play for the Eagles.
Photo of the day
Back at it tomorrow, Philly. See you then.
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