30th Street Station needs to learn from NYC’s upgrade letdown | Morning Newsletter

Good morning from the Inquirer newsroom.

First: Our architecture critic Inga Saffron says the refreshing new Moynihan Train Hall still isn’t the showpiece that New York deserves. Here’s how Philly could meaningfully change 30th Street Station for the better, and the obstacles that would have to be resolved to get some movement on a renovation.

Then: Lawmakers are calling for U.S. Rep. Scott Perry to resign now that we know he aided Trump in a scheme to overturn the election.

And: There’s a new problem with those monoclonal antibodies that help high-risk people with COVID-19, and it’s a lot like one of the issues with vaccine distribution.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

The country’s busiest train station has been an ever so slightly unpleasant place for about as long as it feels that you have to wait there, 60 years.

Penn Station was demolished in 1963 by the dying Philadelphia company that owned it, and replaced by something arguably worse. Now, New York’s Moynihan Train Hall’s new towering glass roofed light-drenched upgrade is breathing new life into the before picture that architecture critic Inga Saffron compared to a “disaster-relief center.” But New York still deserved better, she writes.

On the upside: She details how the cautionary tale from our neighbor tells us what not to do if Philly ever gets serious about making a powerful hub out of 30th Street Station. Amtrak is tentatively, slowly taking steps to level 30th Street Station up. If the city got behind it the way Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally made something happen in New York after years of inertia, they could do something monumental and make it a hub for all modes of transportation.

She gets down to who could help make something happen, the inevitable obstacles and what real improvements could look like.

Fallout time. Lawmakers are calling for the removal of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry because of his role in Trump’s scheme to get rid of the acting attorney general upholding Biden’s legitimate election win.

The Republican representing Harrisburg, Hershey and York had been a vocal supporter of Trump’s exhaustively debunked election fraud claims, but only recently did the New York Times bring Perry’s active part in his false narrative to light. Now we know he urged Trump to work with Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, according to the Times. According to the report, Clark was open to promoting Trump’s rigged election claims that have been decidedly dismissed.

Here’s what both Democrats and Republicans are saying about what should happen to Perry.

We wish we could look at this gallery of the museum under starlight every night. Thanks for sharing @lit.imaging.

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!

“We live in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. There is no reason for people here to be suffering in the middle of this crisis. We need Biden and Harris to step in and give us the resources we need to survive,” artist Kah Yangni writes for First 100 Days, a new project in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia with 10 local artists. Each artist created a poster to illuminate what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should address in their first three months.

When an unthinkable avalanche of family health crises swallowed all the money that would have gone to this student’s private Catholic school tuition, inmates at a state prison stepped in and pooled their money to cover the cost.