🕳️ Where potholes rule the streets | Morning Newsletter

Welcome to a new week, Philly. The weekend’s bright weather set off what’s expected to be a run of sunny and dry days, with highs in the 70s through Tuesday.

In Philadelphia, some streets crack, some crumble — and some stay that way for months. Our top story examines where the city’s pothole problem is the worst.

And Pennsylvania hospitals with a lot of Medicaid patients keep closing, like Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Budget cuts would speed up the trend.

Here’s what to know today.

— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

Potholes add bumps to bus rides, wreck cars’ axles, and send cyclists flying. And in Philly, they often linger for weeks, even after they’ve been reported multiple times.

🕳️ By the numbers: An Inquirer analysis of self-reported data from Philadelphians found that over the past year, nearly 6,000 pothole reports were filed to Philly311. Yet about a third remain unresolved.

🕳️ Pothole hot zones: Center City leads as the area with the most citizen pothole reports. It also sees relatively fast repair times.

🕳️ Repair disparity: The slowest pothole repairs? Philly’s lower-income neighborhoods.

Reporters Henry Savage and Lizzie Mulvey have the details, including where the city’s most hated pothole lives.

Crozer’s recent bankruptcy is just the latest blow to the region’s low-income residents seeking healthcare.

Six of the 10 adult hospitals in Southeastern Pennsylvania with the highest shares of revenue from Medicaid — a government program that covers around 82% of the cost of patients’ hospital care — have either closed or been substantially downsized in the last decade.

In response, state leaders have proposed legislation aimed at restricting private equity’s growth in healthcare services, which they say deserves some of the blame for the closures.

Health reporter Harold Brubaker explains the concerning trend.

In other policy news: U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, returned to his native Bucks County Sunday as part of an effort to flip Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s House seat.

In a bid to connect neighbors and bring joy outdoors, a West Philly picnic themed around which edible item brought close to 100 goodies to Clark Park on Sunday?

A) Candy

B) Cake

C) Caramel

D) Cannabis

Think you know? Check your answer.

🎤 Preparing for: The two-day Roots Picnic 2025 with this what-to-know guide.

🚛 Noting: Which city services are operating on election day, including trash pickup and mail delivery.

🏀 Loving: This former Villanova basketball star’s reaction upon learning a fellow alum is now pope.

👑 Hunting for: Treasure on public land via these Jersey brothers’ game.

⛳ Playing: Mini golf at these six Jersey Shore putt-putt spots.

Hint: Saturday was the eighth annual Eagles _ _

ALGAE LUNCHTIMES

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.

Cheers to Meg Fagan, who solved Sunday’s anagram: Ivanka Trump. The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed the president‘s oldest daughter to the NovaCare complex on Friday. She left a note at defender Eli Ricks’ locker.

I had to laugh at the irony of this headline about the Italian Market Festival.

Think back to the night that changed your life that could only happen in Philly, a true example of the Philly spirit, the time you finally felt like you belonged in Philly if you’re not a lifer, something that made you fall in love with Philly all over again — or proud to be from here if you are. Then email it to us for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.

This “only in Philly” story comes from reader Michael Thomas Leibrandt, who describes the familial controversy of summers spent at the Jersey Shore:

For as far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved being at the Shore during the summer months.

One year in my youth, when the weather gods blew in a storm from the sea that dumped rain on us for five straight days, we finally saw dry weather on the last day of our vacation. Totally oblivious to what seemed like gale-force winds still whipping around the beach, 40-foot tidal waves crashing along the shoreline, and the absence of any other beachgoers for 1,000 miles, I turned to my father and asked where he thought we should unsheathe the beach umbrella.

The Shore gives us that serene mental escape that we all need: relaxing waves, fun on the boardwalk, seafood to melt your tastebuds, rides for the whole family, and of course, it‘s anywhere but home — a key ingredient to any vacation.

And then there are those dissenters who have a totally different opinion of a week at the Jersey Shore: hours stuck in the car, often on summer holidays while traveling to and from, only to arrive in a place where sand was stuck in every article of your clothing and in every orifice of your body.

The issue’s divergent opinions in my family became all too predictable. The women in my family loved the Shore. It wasn’t the beaches or the boardwalk or the food that grabbed them. It was simply the feel of being down the Shore.

This year, as the rainy chill of May rolls into the warmth of Memorial Day and the start of the summer vacation season, and our neighbors to the north choose to leisure somewhere other than our shores — do not be troubled. It leaves plenty of room on the beach for the rest of us.

Let those easy-breezy, soon-to-be-summer vibes carry you through this last week before Memorial Day weekend. See you back here tomorrow.

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.