Daniel Pearson

The U.S. must support Ukraine in peace deal, not help fulfill Putin’s wish list | Editorial The Trump administration must not force Kyiv to capitulate to a Kremlin-friendly peace plan.

The United States has never offered Ukrainians the support they need to maintain their freedom. Now we are threatening to take even our current inadequate support away.

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While some pay for police, others are getting a free ride | Shackamaxon When it comes to paying for public safety, City Council members, favored community groups, and some of Pennsylvania’s towns and villages are getting an absolute bargain.

Public safety costs must be shared more evenly.

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The killing of Kada Scott ratchets up a clash over development in Germantown | Shackamaxon Did a City Council member block the sale of a vacant school building where the body of the 23-year-old recent college graduate was later found?

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That’s what I want for the market east zone

Local progressives hated the abatement

And it was local progressives who killed it!

That is fascinating and they really should have, y'know, told people this.

The weight of history falls on Philly neighbors and museum’s CEO | Shackamaxon Historic district neighbors find it hard to change, while Philadelphia Museum of Art CEO Sasha Suda is out after she changed too much.

This week's column is about balancing the legacy of the past with the needs of the present.

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Great density, horrible double-loaded corridor floorplan. Imagine how much better this could be as an ensemble of single-stair buildings with more height allowed away from the street

Rubio. If he picks him early he might avoid having a seriously contested primary altogether.

For Philly’s Greyhound bus terminal, the best way forward is by going in reverse | Editorial It's been a long wait, but intercity bus riders may soon have a safe, accessible — and very familiar — terminal housed in the former space Greyhound occupied at 10th and Filbert Streets.

City Council should approve the new bus terminal, and bring an end to the long saga for riders.

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This is great for Chicago, but as someone from a state that has not only failed to fund transit but also postponed any discussion of it until 2027, it hurts.

If SEPTA and the Gov had proposed it, they would have rightly called it irresponsible.

Sean Duffy has the right message about SEPTA’s woes, but addresses it to the wrong people | Shackamaxon It's not SEPTA leadership or Gov. Shapiro who needs to hear from the transportation secretary, but those who've stood in the way of sustainable transit funding. Are you listening, Joe Pittman?

Given the capital raid was devised by the State Senate Republicans, Sean Duffy should have sent them this letter.

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East Market Street needs smart new development, not another ‘Disney Hole’ | Editorial There is opportunity for growth as the Sixers and Comcast move to demolish two blocks of mostly vacant storefronts across from the Fashion District.

Philadelphia won't lose much when the Sixers and Comcast demo some vacant storefronts along Market Street. But action must be taken to ensure that we don't end up with another Disney hole. The real answer isn't planning, but getting our local economy humming again.
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Parker’s Land Bank shakeup may lead to more affordable housing | Shackamaxon In this week's column, a deep dive into city land sale dysfunction and the continuing budget woes in Harrisburg.

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Fewer killings, more homicide cases solved is good news for Philadelphia | Editorial Improvement is undeniable, but there is still much more to be done, as the city's homicide rate remains higher than that of New York or Boston.

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The muncipal political parties might be the secret of Montréal's success. Candidates are campaigning on issues they actually control, like bike and bus lanes, rather than ones they don't, like Healthcare policy.

What Philadelphia can take from Montreal — including a mention of local political parties.

“In Montreal, however, voters have a real choice. They even have municipal political parties, meaning voters have to form their own opinions about local issues.”

Why Philly should try to mimic a city up north | Shackamaxon Unlike too many in Philadelphia, Montreal’s leaders embrace being a city, rather than trying to plug their square suburban preferences into a round metropolitan hole.

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More people should understand that this is standard practice in American urban planning. The zoning on paper is not a real plan for growth, it's the opening bid in a highly politicized negotiation between home builders, elected officials, and activists with the power to kill projects.

No bike lane from Jeffery Young; no state budget from Kim Ward | Shackamaxon In this week's column, Jeffery “Jay” Young takes councilmanic prerogative to new lows, NYC outdoes Philly, and Kim Ward dumps the budget for the Emerald Isle.

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Welcome to Shackamaxon, a new column about government and politics | Daniel Pearson Named for the site where Lenape chiefs would meet to settle disputes, Shackamaxon, by The Inquirer's Daniel Pearson, offers viewpoints on the work of elected officials in Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

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No Such Thing as a Free Bus How I'm thinking about Zohran Mamdani's fare-free bus proposal

Okay now that I've celebrated Mamdani's win, and now that it looks unlikely he'll face any real trouble in the general, I'm going to re-up my concerns about his free bus proposal and cross my fingers that he gets some good advice as mayor. publiccomment.blog/p/no-such-th...

I wouldn’t be here without public transit | Opinion While my family owns a car, we don’t rely on it. From my experiences, I know that the kind of freedom public transit offers is just as vital as the thrill of of the driver’s seat I craved as a boy.

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Great post from @dpearsonphl.bsky.social

those are op-eds from guest contributors.

They got laid off

I think the closest thing to this is the Philadelphia @inquirer.com

Other arguments tapped into town-gown tensions between Cambridge's student population and its older homeowners. Suzanne Blier, a Harvard professor of African art history and a board member (and president-elect) of the Cambridge Citizen Coalition, used ChatGPT to analyze the city's demographics, arguing that if you exclude shorter-term residents attending college (as well as graduate students, post-docs and interns), the average age of a Cambridge resident rises to 42-to-46 years old, not the more inclusive age of 30.6 - a number, she writes, "often used in an ageist and disparaging manner to negate the views of older residents who attend meetings."

Hilariously on-the-nose paragraph about a Cambridge NIMBY: white professor of African art history uses ChatGPT to analyze the city’s demographics if you exclude…uh…any young adult affiliated with a university (but of course not the professors like her) www.bloomberg.com/news/article...