🏫 A Philly school’s cry for help | Morning Newsletter

Happy Monday, Philly! Let’s start the week off right. Today we’re looking at sunny skies and highs nearing the 70s.

Students at Philly’s Southwark Elementary held a rally and testified before City Council about the school’s poor conditions. Their outcry comes as the school board prepares to vote on a sweeping facilities plan.

And the 76ers and Comcast Spectacor have revealed the pop-up businesses coming to East Market Street. Those businesses will be in place through the end of July.

Plus, an accused gunman at the White House correspondents’ dinner was believed to be targeting top officials, and more news of the day.

— Sam Stewart (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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Seventh grader Vallery Flores sat in front of the city’s top lawmakers and the Philadelphia School District’s top officials last week with a grim message.

She rattled off a list of things that are wrong with her school: just a handful of working toilets for hundreds of students; “repulsive” smells; raw sewage; mystery puddles; flooding toilets; and more.

The Southwark building crisis lays bare a fundamental problem for the district: It cannot keep up with its old buildings, even for a school community that has been organizing and has multiple political backers amplifying its calls.

These requests come as the district fights to pass Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s sweeping facilities plan. The $3 billion blueprint would close 17 schools and upgrade 169 aging buildings, but it would require $2 billion in yet-unsecured state or philanthropic funding for many of those renovations.

Inquirer reporter Kristen A. Graham has the full story.

Next week, the row of storefronts on the 900 block of Market Street will begin hosting six locally owned small businesses for the summer. Beginning May 6, the offerings will range from water ice to a record store with immersive listening experiences.

Dubbed Meantime on Market, the initiative is being implemented by the Center City District and Interface Studio Architects (ISA), a locally based design firm that has created a nonprofit arm — called Meantime — which seeks to pair empty retail space with small businesses for free.

ISA’s Meantime has been sprucing up the buildings on this block of Market in recent weeks. Workers have been painting the lower portions of the buildings black and adorning them with white icons. A mural will be added to the upper reaches of the buildings in the coming weeks.

Notable quote: “This is about creating opportunity, supporting local entrepreneurs, and showing the world the very best of Philadelphia,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said.

Check out the full list of businesses coming to Market and more on the upcoming changes.

John Cafagna has spent nearly three decades as an educator in the Cherry Hill School District. In July, he’ll take the helm of its largest high school, and he’s preparing for the task.

TikTok’s “Dense Bean Salad Girl” made her Philadelphia debut on Saturday from a pink tent at the corner of 19th and Walnut Streets. What is the 25-year-old San Franciscan’s name?

A) Violet Witchel

B) Addy Kral

C) Natalie Pelosi

D) Melissa Miller

Think you know? Check your answer.

🏒 Relieved by: Inquirer reporter Jackie Spiegel has three reasons why the Flyers (and their fans) shouldn’t panic before Game 5.

🏃 Admiring: West Chester University fraternity brothers honored a fellow member who recently died by entering a run for organ donation.

🎧 Listening to: The late DJ Pierre Robert’s vinyl collection, which went on sale on Record Store Day.

😤 Stubborn about: Names! In Philly, official names don’t always stick — especially when they change.

Hint: This local school could soon be the only remaining women’s college in the region. Its president recently unveiled a 10-year strategic direction that aims to benefit students.

AMBER GLYCOL WREN

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

Cheers to Nancy Gale, who solved Sunday’s anagram: Broad Street Run. Philly’s premier road race returns Sunday. From road closures to parking, here’s everything you need to know ahead of race day.

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 Leah Franqui, who describes the beautiful camaraderie she has amongst her Point Breeze neighbors:

I was born and grew up in Philadelphia, right at 5th between Poplar and West George. In the ’90s and 2000s, as the neighborhood wildly changed around us, I felt very much a part of the neighborhood but my perspective was that of a child. I just wanted other kids to play with, I wanted things to do as a teenager, I worked at a local restaurant (Standard Tap) and got pastries at Kaplans, watching as a vacant lot became Liberty Lands Park. I don’t know that we really knew our neighbors on our block well, and I certainly didn’t.

As an adult, I spent over a decade living in other places before moving back to Philadelphia in May of 2024, buying a house in a new-to-me neighborhood, Point Breeze. After a long period of living in other cities, and even another country, I was so exciting to be moving back home, but also apprehensive.

I was buying a house in an area I didn’t know well, trying to come back and make new friends and connections, living on my own as an adult in the city I love so much, but worried I didn’t know well anymore. I shouldn’t have worried. My block just so happens to have the kindest, best people who are so neighborly, so warm and giving, that I feel deeply taken care of.

This winter was rough, but I didn’t shovel an inch of snow, every morning when I woke up to do it, a neighbor had already taken care of my patch of the sidewalk (salt, too!). And this isn’t just Philadelphia natives, but people who’ve come from other parts of the country and made this place their home.

I try to do my part, too. Recently, a neighbor knocked on my door and asked me to alter a pair of pants she had, knowing I sew. I did it, rushing to have it ready for the event she wanted to wear them to, and refused payment. She gave me chocolates, and asked for more alterations. I said yes. My neighbors take good care of me and I’m happy to have a way to repay them in kind.

👋 Welcome to a new day, a new week, and a new opportunity, Philly. Have a great day, folks!

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