Violence interrupted | Morning Newsletter
And scenes from Chinatown’s Mid-Autumn Festival.
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The Morning Newsletter
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🍂 Big news, folks! It’s officially fall, and the trees are already dropping clues about this year’s foliage show. (It may be starting early.) I don’t know about you, but the start of the season always makes me particularly sentimental. What a thing it is to “spend another fall in Philadelphia.” 🎶
For the last five years, when police exit a crime scene, the city’s Community Crisis Intervention Program enters. Our lead story examines how this kind of neighborhood-level involvement is helping reduce violent crime in Philadelphia.
— Erin Reynolds (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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To date, there have been 187 homicides in Philadelphia in 2024, a 40% decrease from 2023. Philly’s Community Crisis Intervention Program (CCIP) is part of the reason why.
Managed by the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, CCIP is an initiative created and funded by the city that started in 2018.
Its role is to respond to every shooting in Philadelphia. Workers put “boots on the ground” — developing relationships with community members to prevent retaliation, restore a sense of security, and help the traumatized get the resources they need.
The most trusted messengers are like CCIP director Don “Ike” Jones: people with lived experience working with people living the experience.
Lynette Hazelton unpacks why violence escalated in Philadelphia, and how Jones and other violence interrupters are working to quell it at a grassroots level.
On Saturday, Chinatown showed out for another edition of the iconic Mid-Autumn Festival, where families traditionally gather to mark the end of the harvest.
But the Chinese celebration of lanterns, mooncakes, and moon-gazing played out with wounds still fresh. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s endorsement of a downtown Sixers arena occurred just a few days earlier.
Residents of Chinatown, activists, and political allies once again turned to expressing outrage that the Sixers’ arena ambitions have overshadowed concerns about the future of their beloved community.
“They say our community needs revitalization. I say no,” organizer Cinthya Hioe told the crowd. “Look around you, does this look like it needs revitalization?”
Organizers say this year’s festival is especially significant because Philly’s Chinatown was designated as one of the most endangered historic places in 2023.
Read on for more scenes of togetherness, community, and protest. And if you’re wondering what comes next for the Sixers arena, the short answer is: a lot. We explain what fans and residents should expect in the days and years ahead.
What you should know today
Vice President Kamala Harris is making progress on the most important issue to Pa voters: the economy. A new Inquirer/NYT/Siena College poll shows how.
With the Phillies clinching their spot in the playoffs, here’s everything you need to know — from tickets to scheduling.
The third annual Philadelphia Polo Classic, a fundraiser for the long-standing Work to Ride organization, brought the “Game of Kings” to Fairmount Park on Saturday.
M. Night Shyamalan spent a night on stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Through all the evening’s musical elaborations on Shyamalan’s films, The Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin writes that The Sixth Sense “still stands out as something special.”
Flood warnings are up for the Jersey Shore, and don’t blame rain.
More music news: Mt. Joy’s Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper just celebrated their biggest hometown show ever (with some help from the Phillie Phanatic and Sixers coach Nick Nurse.)
Owners are increasingly bringing their fur babies to places once reserved for humans. Not everyone is happy about it.
This family got girls’ flag football started in Pennsylvania. Now, they’re seeing the benefit.
Pennsauken landmark The Pub has reopened after a summertime renovation. It’s still serving steaks in a medieval atmosphere.
❓Pop quiz
This actor with local roots just had a Philly street named in her honor.
A) Tina Fey
B) Kat Dennings
C) Holland Taylor
D) Erika Alexander
Think you know? Check your answer.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: The Friday-before-Super-Bowl-Sunday Philly competition that started in 1993 and got progressively more “sleazy.” Now, six years after it drew to a close, it’s getting a documentary.
BLOWN WIG
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Sean Ramsden who solved Saturday’s anagram: Horticultural Society. Its president, Matt Rader, called the Philly Tree Plan “a beacon of hope.”
Photo of the day
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