On crime, public transit, and the economy, Philadelphia counts the ways | Shackamaxon

This week’s Shackamaxon is all about the numbers.

As I write this column, that’s Philadelphia’s total number of homicides for the year so far. It is a 50% decrease from this time in 2025, and a stunning 79% drop from the pandemic-era spike in violence. While it is much too early to make projections, and snowy and freezing weather the last few weeks undoubtedly played a role in keeping people indoors, the decline is genuinely remarkable. Especially when it is accompanied by a similar decline in shooting victims, and double-digit declines in overall violent and property crimes.

In fact, on a per-capita basis, Philadelphia’s homicide rate is currently not that different from Bucks County’s.

Given the city just notched its safest year since the 1960s, this progress is exciting. So far, no one has an explanation for why homicide is declining. It may simply be a national trend back to normalcy. If so, it is time to extend it to more parts of life.

Killings may be down, but homelessness is rising. SEPTA’s Metro system is still overrun with smokers. And the melting snow has revealed that much of the city is covered in too much everyday grime.

That’s how many additional minutes trolley trips to Media could take after implementing something called “communications-based train control” at a cost of $75 million. This system takes away discretion from operators, resulting in slower acceleration, longer braking periods, and slower overall speeds. SEPTA says a similar installation on its Regional Rail system also led to initial delays, but those challenges were overcome in time.

There’s a better solution. SEPTA should restore the gate system that was removed back in 2009. This would eliminate many of the needed slowdowns.

That’s how many daily rides SEPTA provided on average last month, an increase of 1% over 2025. Given the struggles the agency went through last year, the fact that ridership continues to grow is remarkable.

In August, SEPTA scaled back overall service by 20%, before reversing the cuts weeks later under court order — and after a gubernatorial funds transfer. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman essentially called the agency (and our entire region) a bunch of greedy moochers and blocked a plan for sustainable support.

The Regional Rail network was severely curtailed for months because of aging, exploding train cars. The Center City trolley tunnel was closed for weeks because of maintenance issues. In January, a brutal winter storm made getting to — and on — the bus a struggle. And yet, ridership grew.

In fact, since the pandemic, SEPTA has routinely been one of America’s strongest transit agencies when it comes to ridership growth. Given there have been zero additional dollars invested in operations for years, the system’s resilience may prove that Philadelphians need mass transit so badly that they’re willing to keep riding through the chaos.

That’s how much investment, in billions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies, is coming to Eastern Pennsylvania, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro. While this is great news for the Keystone State, it’s hard to avoid noticing that none of these investments are coming to Philadelphia itself. Neither is Merck’s $1 billion new biotech center, which is being built in Delaware. Given our city’s status as a hub for eds and meds — with multiple colleges and medical schools, and a high concentration of skilled workers — this is disappointing.

That figure, also in billions of dollars, is how much economic growth Pennsylvania needs in order to bridge the deficit without raising taxes or cutting services, according to an analysis by Athan Koutsiouroumbas, managing director of the Harrisburg-based lobbying and consulting firm Long Nyquist.

The easiest way to accomplish this is by being bolder on housing policy. As Shapiro has pointed out, Pennsylvania is currently 44th in the nation when it comes to new housing production. Unfortunately, current plans aren’t bold enough to meet the moment. They lack the significant forays into statewide zoning standards that have been embraced by figures like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Shapiro likes to say he’s tired of losing to “frigging Ohio,” but without a more audacious approach to housing policy, he may have to add “frigging Illinois” to the list of states eating our lunch.

If we’re being optimistic, let’s call it almost 14%. That’s how much job growth Philadelphia has experienced since 2020. That’s better than the 11.7% average for the nation’s 25 most populous counties. It is better than the collar counties, and puts Philadelphia ahead of Montgomery County in office employment for the first time in decades.

Still, economist Mark Zandi urges caution. In the pages of The Inquirer, he points out that much of this has to do with the fact that the national economy is struggling. Given the city has lagged on growth for decades, even incremental steps forward may look more significant here than elsewhere.

There’s also the fact that much of this growth is in relatively low-paid work, rather than the high-wage “tradeable industries” the city needs to escape decades of economic stagnation.

Simply put, while working as a home health aide and working in a drone factory both put food on the table, only the latter helps make the regional economy healthier.