WrestleMania’s coming, brother! | Morning Newsletter
And PPA targets sidewalk parking.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
It’s official: The Phillies’ season opener against the Braves has been postponed to Friday due to rain in the forecast. Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that we’ll have to wait one more day to find out if the earworm “A-O-K” returns as Bryson Stott’s walk-up song.
A major sports entertainment event is coming to Philadelphia next week: WrestleMania 40. Not a pro wrestling fan? We’ll fill you in on why it matters and, yes, whether it’s all fake via our handy WrestleMania chatbot.
And the PPA is planning a crackdown on sidewalk parking and blocked curb ramps that make it hard for people with disabilities to get around. Read these stories and much more below.
— Julie Zeglen (@juliezeglen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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WrestleMania descends upon Philadelphia next week, bringing several days of title fights, star showdowns, and fan festivities.
Now, that might not mean much to you if you still think the biggest names in pro wrestling are “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan (who in his heyday referred to anyone and everyone as “brother,” hence today’s subject line). But for fans, this supersized sporting spectacle is not one to be missed. Last year’s WrestleMania attracted more than 120,000 attendees to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which means it’s a big deal for the host city’s economy.
For wrestling enthusiasts, we have plenty of guides to help you navigate the fun. And for those who aren’t quite sure why people like to watch buff dudes pretend to fight, we humbly offer our WrestleMania chatbot. It has all the info you need to understand the scope and stakes of this form of entertainment, answering burning questions such as: How much do wrestlers get paid to do this? Why isn’t it called WWF anymore? What’s changed since the ‘90s?
I’ll give you one answer from Vaughn Johnson, The Inquirer’s resident wrestling expert, who made this cool interactive tool with Sam Morris:
Q: You know wrestling is fake, right?
A: “The overall result of the match and the main plot points are locked in ahead of time, but wrestling is partially live theater, which means there is room to improvise if needed,” per Johnson. “That also means that things could go wrong, which requires the wrestlers to adapt on the fly.”
Plug into our WrestleMania chatbot to learn more, brother.
Clear sidewalks and curb cuts make city streets navigable for everyone, but especially people with mobility challenges. Wheelchairs, walkers and strollers can’t easily be moved to avoid a car parked in the middle of a narrow path.
“People are constantly taking their lives in their hands because they’re forced to roll in the street,” one advocate told transportation reporter Tom Fitzgerald. “It’s a safety issue.”
The Philadelphia Parking Authority is launching an initiative to ticket vehicles blocking sidewalks and ADA-accessible curbs, especially in neighborhoods beyond Center City. (Looking at you, everyone who lives on a one-way street in South Philly.) The agency will also release a series of PSAs featuring people with disabilities speaking about the importance of car-free pathways.
Fitzgerald has details on when the program will debut, and how high fines will be.
What you should know today
Philly’s Delaware River bridges are well protected, according to the Port Authority. Even so, the agency will expedite a planned review of safety features in the wake of the Baltimore bridge collapse: “We’re not complacent.”
A Parks and Recreation proposal to cut down 48 heritage trees in FDR Park will be allowed to move forward, despite an onslaught of opposition and a lawsuit filed this week asking for a stop to all work at the park.
The Cinnaminson School Board violated anti-discrimination laws by refusing to allow three women employees to coach extracurricular activities while on parental leave, New Jersey’s attorney general has determined.
Hospitals are required to post “machine-readable files,” such as a downloadable Excel spreadsheet, with prices for every procedure under every insurance plan they accept. Only one in five Pennsylvania hospitals are fully compliant.
A program launching this summer in Germantown and Mount Airy will facilitate weekly cleanups of 335 city blocks in an effort to reduce gun violence.
The Office of LGBT Affairs will not host a formal Trans Day of Visibility flag-raising ceremony this year, though the striped Pride flag will still fly at City Hall.
Students who applied to the eight Ivy League universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, will be finding out today whether they got in. Will demographics change since the Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions?
City Council members want to help Philadelphians land jobs in the emerging life sciences industry — especially those without college degrees. Companies working on cell and gene therapies offer a major opportunity.
Meet Isabeau Levito, the 17-year-old from South Jersey who just won a silver medal at the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships.
Can’t wait to see our guys together again: Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox will throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Phillies this weekend.
🧠 Trivia time
Apologies to everyone else who bought lotto tickets, but congrats to the $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot winner who bought theirs in this New Jersey county.
A) Camden
B) Monmouth
C) Burlington
D) Ocean
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we're...
😩 Bemoaning: Rising food (and candy) prices, even as it’s helping us earn a free Easter ham faster.
🍳 Ordering: A veggie omelet and home fries at the Havertown Grille, a common Kelce haunt.
🥵 Wondering: How the heck “Baby Hooter” maintains her stamina in that big, furry suit.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
The Eagles’ longtime salary cap executive is leaving the team when his contract expires after the NFL draft next month.
BROKERAGE JENS
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Eric Stack, who correctly solved Wednesday’s anagram: WrestleMania, which you know all about at this point in the newsletter.
Photo of the day
Columnist Stephanie Farr went behind the scenes during this week’s filming of “Delco: The Movie,” which is about three high school seniors in 2004 who decide to live a day “the Delco way,” and “jump first, ask questions later.” Sounds about right.
Back in your inbox tomorrow. Cheers!
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