Trouble at the Shore | Morning Newsletter
And welcoming immigrants at Market East.
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The Morning Newsletter
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Welcome back after the long weekend. This Wednesday won’t be quite as beautiful as yesterday, alas: Expect temps in the high 70s and clouds for most of the day, with a chance of showers in the afternoon.
Wildwood, Ocean City, and other Shore towns are recovering from a chaotic MDW that included a boardwalk stabbing. But unruly teens won’t be allowed to “steal summer,” officials say.
And a group of advocates and architects has a new idea for Market East: a “Welcoming District” for the immigrants who are driving Philly’s population growth. Here’s what you need to know today.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Another season opening at the Jersey Shore, another weekend of ocean waves, funnel cake — and concerns over young people in public spaces.
🔦 Incidents over Memorial Day Weekend included a stabbing in Ocean City and the shutdown of the Wildwood boardwalk from midnight Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday after officials received “an irrepressible number of calls” about hordes of teenagers.
🔦 Remember, some Shore towns had already implemented measures such as teen curfews, earlier beach closures, and backpack bans in response to rowdy incidents in the past few years.
🔦 The Inquirer’s resident Shore beat reporter, Amy Rosenberg, spoke to beachgoers, shop owners, and public officials about whether they’re concerned about safety, or if they see this weekend’s tumult as a short-lived sign of pent-up summer fever.
P.S. Sign up for her Down the Shore newsletter for free to get the latest news, tips, and hacks for your summer travels.
Stakeholders beyond the 76ers have big ideas for revitalizing Market Street East. One group is envisioning the ailing commercial corridor as a “Welcoming District” for new arrivals to the city.
The pitch: Architecture students at the University of Pennsylvania designed concepts for the three-block Fashion District where immigrant services like housing, health care, employment, and language access could be centralized.
Who’s on board: Leaders at Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., which has formally opposed the Sixers’ arena proposal for the same area, and The Welcoming Center, an immigrant-support nonprofit, have backed the idea. They say such a project would benefit Philadelphia because its foreign-born population has more than doubled in the past three decades, and represents a diversity of needs.
Reality check: A Welcoming District is “very speculative,” said one architect involved, with no funding attached. Yet if it did garner the dollars and political will, economic impact would follow, according to advocates.
What you should know today
President Joe Biden will be at Girard College this afternoon to launch a coalition that the campaign hopes will shore up support with Black voters.
A 34-year-old Old City restaurant worker was attacked after he and his boss confronted a man who was sitting at one of their outdoor tables with food from the spot next door. He died 10 days later.
While CHOP was locked in a contract dispute with Keystone First, the largest Medicaid provider in the region, families with medically vulnerable children were caught in the middle.
Pennsylvania voting rights groups are seeking to overturn a state law that bars undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots from being counted, per a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
A global renewable energy giant will pay New Jersey $125 million for pulling out of two offshore wind projects off the coast last year, a move that upended a key part of the state’s clean energy program.
Sen. John Fetterman’s fight with the left isn’t just about Israel. Environmentalists and his progressive colleagues are also targets.
Since 2020, 55 million square feet of warehouse space has sprung up in the Philly area. It’s reshaping jobs, traffic, and landscapes. Plus: Here’s what those warehouse jobs look like.
After a developer whitewashed the mural of queer activist Gloria Casarez, critics say Philly’s Art Commission is rushing the approval of a new art project at the site, without community input.
R. Eric Thomas, the celebrated playwright and author who left Philadelphia for Baltimore in 2017 but has since returned to the city, is taking over the nationally syndicated “Ask Amy” advice column.
As you read last week, Philly’s efficiency-minded bus route overhaul, a.k.a. Bus Revolution, is a go after the SEPTA board approved the plan on Thursday. The plan aims to simplify some routes and increase reliability while maintaining equity for riders across the city.
Across the system, the number of routes will drop from 125 to 108, while 43 will offer frequent service — which means riders shouldn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes between buses — up from 33 now.
But how will your commute be affected? Enter your address in The Inquirer’s updated interactive story to see how nearby bus routes will change under the new plan.
🧠 Trivia time
Germantown-based saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Marshall Allen just celebrated his landmark 100th birthday. What iconic Philly musical group does he play with?
A) Sun Ra Arkestra
B) Snacktime
C) The Roots
D) Philadelphia Orchestra
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we're...
🏛️ Unpacking: How antisemitism is being politicized in Washington.
🏳️🌈 Celebrating: LGBTQ pride at the 2024 Philly Pride march and festival.
🧀 Chomping: The best cheesesteaks in Delco.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
A Ridley Park _ _ league is keeping a childhood favorite alive.
BAFFLE WILL
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Robin Corlies, who solved Sunday’s anagram: Andre Blake. Thanks to a contract extension, the Union is keeping the 33-year-old goalkeeper — its most important player — in town through 2026. But first, Blake will be out for up to six weeks following surgery to clean up his injured knee. (In other Union news: Philly’s pro soccer club bought a 10% stake in Danish first-division club Lyngby.)
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