Philly doesn't put women on pedestals

1 big thing:  Philly doesn't put women on pedestals

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Does ballot position matter in Philly mayor election?

2. 📍 Poll position   

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3. News Market

3. News market: 💵 Pricier water bills 

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4. 📣 1 stat to go: Listen up, City Hall!

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Philadelphia

A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Philadelphia. Written by local reporters.

Axios Philadelphia

1 big thing: People pushed out 

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3. News market: Broadcast oops 

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🏀 Isaac is still rooting for Houston but is gonna stop trying to predict the outcome of games.

Meet the Samboners, cheesesteak fanatics

1 big thing: 🎤 Meet the Samboners 

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Juicy Philly cheesesteak history

2. 🍞 Juicy cheesesteak history

Former presidential candidate John Kerry eats a Philly cheesesteak during a 2003 campaign stop at Pat's King of Steaks.

A cheesesteak pro's favorite sammies

3. 🏆 Pro sammies 

Jim Pappas eating one of more than 1,000 cheesesteaks over the last five years.

4. News market: Schools fiasco

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5. One last cheesesteak to go 

📍 Programming note: It's National Cheesesteak Day! 

What else could we do besides bring you a steak-over — an edition devoted to our city's most beloved sandwich.

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🏀 Isaac is riding comfortably on that Kansas State bandwagon after yesterday's win, baby!

Editor's note: Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly called Alex Morey's group the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. It is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

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Philly primary races heat up

1 big thing: Trail spotting — Primary races heat up  

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Eyes Gallery reboots in April

2. 🎨 Eyes Gallery reboots in April 


3. News market: 🎓 Bee champs 

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Cayman the caiman euthanized by state agency

4.  🐊 RIP Cayman

A caiman found earlier this month at Philly's FDR Park was euthanized. 

☪️ Happy Ramadan Mubarak to everyone celebrating! It's the first day of the holy month.

📍 Situational awareness: Prosecutors will charge seven people, aged 11 to 14, with the brutal beating of a woman in Center City last month.

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🎂 Isaac is soaking up his last few days as a 33-year-old.

🥕 Mike is signing up for the Weavers Way's CSA at Henry Got Crops.

Where Penn's disciplinary case against professor Amy Wax stands

1 big thing: Where Penn v. Wax stands

A new career is waiting for you

2. 📉 Remote work hitting rents

3. News market: Rockefellers cash out 

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Philly Weekender: March 24-26

4. 😎 Weekender 

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☔ Showers likely and breezy with a high of 67. 

📍 Situational awareness: 76ers fans are holding their breath after Joel Embiid suffered calf tightness and didn’t play in the second half of last night’s 116-91 rout of the Chicago Bulls.

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🏀 Isaac is jumping on the Markquis Nowell bandwagon. Let's go, Kansas State.

Eyes Gallery in South Philly is poised to reopen in a new space on April 15 after a fire forced it to shut down last summer.

What’s happening: The store will open at 327 South St, a block from its former location, owner Julia Zagar tells Axios.

Why it matters: The folk art gallery had been a landmark since Zagar opened it in 1968 with her husband Isaiah Zagar, the famed mosaic artist whose work can be seen throughout the city and at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens.

Catch up quick: A fire sparked by electrical wiring in Jim’s Steaks building next-door caused extensive damage to both the famous cheesesteak shop and Eyes Gallery in July 2022.

The owner of Jim’s bought the gallery building earlier this year and plans to expand the restaurant there.

Between the lines: The beloved gallery held two pop-up markets since the fire and a Gofundme campaign raised more than $55,000.

The gallery lost about 40% of its inventory in the fire, Julia Zagar tells Axios.

Details: Eyes Gallery will continue to sell folk art, jewelry, clothing and musical instruments, with an emphasis on handmade items, along with artwork from local artists, including Isaiah Zagar.

The new shop is smaller — a single story compared to the three at the previous building — and won’t have have its famed mosaic facade.

Several items from the old shop will resurface at the new location, including the large neon sign that reads “EYES ART.”

What they’re saying: “It’s a full embrace of everything we had but it’s in a different format,” Julia Zagar says. “We are really making it into an art piece.”

The beloved folk art seller is moving to a new space after a fire damaged the old one.

The old sign made it to the new space. Photo courtesy of Eyes Gallery

<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Eyes Gallery" data-vars-click-url="https://www.eyesgallery.com/" data-vars-content-id="51e70e9f-1e4c-4455-9bef-5de4f7f53576" data-vars-headline="Eyes Gallery reboots in April" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.eyesgallery.com/" target="_blank">Eyes Gallery</a> in South Philly is poised to reopen in a new space on April 15 after a fire forced it to shut down last summer.What’s happening: The store will open at 327 South St, a block from its former location, owner Julia Zagar tells Axios.

News

Things to Do

Looking for a monument in Philly of a woman who is part of this world is like trying to find an Eagles fan not wearing their gear on game day.

Driving the news: Philadelphia maintains a massive gender gap when it comes to its public monuments despite years of increased awareness about the lack of diversity of sculptures nationwide.

And no city-owned monument depicts a historical woman of color.

The big picture: Public art in the U.S. has long presented a lopsided view of history, Axios’ Chelsea Brasted reports.

Of the top 50 historical figures represented in a 2021 audit from Monument Lab, which looked at about 50,000 U.S. monuments, only three are women, and only five are Black or Indigenous. Half are people who enslaved others.

There were 22 sculptures of mermaids, to 21 honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

Zoom in: In Philadelphia, only four of the estimated 1,500 city-owned statues and public monuments — not including murals — depict real women. They are:

The Quaker martyr Mary Dyer — who was from Boston — at 15th and Cherry streets

Eleanor Gray, a patron of the Philadelphia Orchestra, at the Philadelphia Zoo

The city manages 41 sculptures depicting fictional or allegorical female figures, such as women holding children, “Duck Girl” in Rittenhouse Square and Little Nell beside Charles Dickens in Clark Park.

Of note: That accounting does not include monuments owned by other institutions.

Meanwhile, historical men — overwhelmingly white — are depicted in Philly's public monuments, although the city could not provide an exact figure.

Between the lines: Philly has made some strides in recent years to increase the diversity of its public art, installing its first sculpture depicting an African American girl in 2019.

What they’re saying: “Commissioning public art monuments is time consuming and requires significant funding,” Marguerite Anglin, the city’s public art director, tells Axios.

What to watch: The first monuments of historical women of color are in the pipeline.

The first is Tubman, for the northeast section of City Hall. The winning design will be revealed in September.

The other is Blanche Nixon, a community activist, to be placed at the Cobbs Creek library that bears her name. A design will be selected early next year.

Of thousands of city-owned statues, only four depict women.

Looking for a monument in Philly of a woman who is part of this world is like trying to find an Eagles fan not wearing their gear on game day.Driving the news: Philadelphia maintains a massive gender gap when it comes to its public monuments despite years of increased awareness about the lack of diversity of sculptures nationwide.<ul><li>And no city-owned monument depicts a historical woman of color.</li></ul>

Eviction filings in Philadelphia have soared this year compared to 2022 amid rising housing costs and high inflation.

That’s according to recent data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Why it matters: Not only do evictions contribute to a cycle of poverty and instability, but they form a record that private landlords screen for and can thus prevent families from accessing other housing.

The rise comes despite Philly’s nationally recognized Eviction Diversion Program, a mandatory initiative requiring mediation to resolve landlord-tenant disputes.

What’s happening: Philly averaged 317 eviction filings per week over the four weeks ending March 4, per the Eviction Lab.

That’s up nearly 135% over last year and is 264% higher than the weekly average when pandemic moratoriums were in place.

Reproduced from Eviction Lab; Chart: Axios Visuals

Of note: The Eviction Lab notes that its data doesn't capture illegal evictions or cases where renters are effectively forced out by large rent hikes, and it may be undercounting recent evictions due to processing delays.

That’s significant in Philly, where an estimated 20,000 renters face illegal eviction every year.

Context: Evictions disproportionately affect Black renters, who face filings at more than double the rate of their white counterparts, per a 2021 report from the Reinvestment Fund.

Zoom in: Philly renters facing eviction are also racking up higher debts than in pre-pandemic times.

The median "claim amount" — or back rent and late fees — for tenants with eviction filings is now $4,100, which is about double from before the pandemic, per the Eviction Lab.

At the same time, a big pot of pandemic-era relief money — nearly $300 million — that was available partly to help families pay their rent is no longer available. The city has allocated only $30 million for a new, more limited program to replace it.

The big picture: The rate of eviction filings has returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels in many U.S. cities in recent months, Axios’ Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

What they're saying: Carl Gershenson, project director at the Eviction Lab, tells Axios the city needs to continue investing in rental assistance programs and the spike in filings doesn’t yet indicate that the Eviction Diversion Program isn't working.

“I’d have to see this trend sustained to say whether we’ve returned to the bad old days,” he said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia

Renters facing eviction are also racking up higher debts than in pre-pandemic times.

Illustration of a house broken into mismatched puzzle pieces.

Eviction filings in Philadelphia have soared this year compared to 2022 amid <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="rising housing costs" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2023/01/30/philadelphia-rents-still-high" data-vars-content-id="c7551d4b-99c3-4615-8bf3-3030ec217f91" data-vars-headline="Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2023/01/30/philadelphia-rents-still-high" target="_self">rising housing costs</a> and <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="high inflation" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/14/the-sticky-inflation-conundrum" data-vars-content-id="c7551d4b-99c3-4615-8bf3-3030ec217f91" data-vars-headline="Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/14/the-sticky-inflation-conundrum" target="_self">high inflation</a>.<ul><li>That’s according to recent data from the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Eviction Lab" data-vars-click-url="https://evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/philadelphia-pa/" data-vars-content-id="c7551d4b-99c3-4615-8bf3-3030ec217f91" data-vars-headline="Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/philadelphia-pa/" target="_blank">Eviction Lab</a> at Princeton University.</li></ul>Why it matters: Not only do evictions <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="contribute to a cycle of poverty" data-vars-click-url="https://clsphila.org/housing/report-eviction-record-policy/" data-vars-content-id="c7551d4b-99c3-4615-8bf3-3030ec217f91" data-vars-headline="Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://clsphila.org/housing/report-eviction-record-policy/" target="_blank">contribute to a cycle of poverty</a> and instability, but they form a record that private landlords screen for and can thus prevent families from accessing other housing.

Real Estate

The city’s May 16 primary is kicking into high gear after ballot positions were chosen last week. Candidates are jockeying for attention and stepping up attacks on rivals.

Here's a cheat sheet to the biggest developments so far.

↘️ Competitive Council primary peters out

A heated Democratic race in the 3rd City Council district fizzled out this week when challenger Jabari Jones withdrew over legal challenges to his candidacy, per his statement on Twitter.

Jones was among dozens of candidates facing a ballot fight, whereby campaigns and rivals seek to bump off candidates over their paperwork.

Why it matters: Jones, president of the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative, was considered the only viable candidate challenging incumbent City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who took over the seat in 2020.

Jones tells Axios that voters mistakenly signed a petition using the wrong address and the legal challenge could have eliminated enough signatures to put him below the threshold to make it on the ballot.

The big takeaway: Gauthier most likely will cruise to victory in the primary.

Her only other challenger is Mustafa Majeed, a little-known candidate who faces his own ballot challenge on Thursday.

Mayoral candidate Allan Domb launched a scathing new website against rival Jeff Brown last week, Philly Mag reports.

Therealjeffbrown.com features excerpts from critical coverage about the ShopRite titan and plays an anti-Brown commercial on loop.

Why it matters: This year's Democratic mayoral candidates have largely avoided going after other candidates — except Brown.

The attacks and negative coverage in recent weeks could begin to affect his top-tier status in the crowded race.

Yes, but: Brown, who has no political experience, spent big and early on TV ads.

Kyle Anderson, a spokesperson for Brown’s campaign, tells Axios that Brown is “clearly the front runner and you can see why.”

“Allan Domb is proud to run on his record of creating jobs in Philadelphia and demanding accountability on City Council,” says Domb spokesperson Jared Leopold.

Speaking of new ads, mayoral candidate Rebecca Rhynhart launched her first TV spot this week featuring touts from former mayors Michael Nutter and John Street.

Why it matters: Their endorsements could factor significantly in voters' minds in the 12-person Democratic field.

The playbook: The former mayors back former city controller Rhynhart’s experience and policies to address gun violence and city services.

The bottom line: The mayor’s race is heating up and the new advertising flurry could signal that campaigns are ready to spend more cash to reach voters beyond the countless mayoral forms.

A competitive council race is no longer competitive, and more.

The Board of Elections office in City Hall. Photo: Mike D'Onofrio/Axios

The city’s May 16 primary is kicking into high gear after <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="ballot positions" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2023/03/20/philadelphia-2023-mayors-race-ballot-john-wood-coffee-can" data-vars-content-id="c87f22e9-526b-49a9-afa5-d5fa90e15749" data-vars-headline="Philly primary races heat up" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2023/03/20/philadelphia-2023-mayors-race-ballot-john-wood-coffee-can" target="_self">ballot positions</a> were chosen last week. Candidates are jockeying for attention and stepping up attacks on rivals.<ul><li>Here&#x27;s a cheat sheet to the biggest developments so far.</li></ul>

Politics

Pennsylvania is no closer to legalizing marijuana even though Democrats control both the House and governor’s mansion.

Why it matters: Pennsylvania is increasingly surrounded by states where weed is legal, which means it is losing out on tax revenue from residents who end up buying the drug elsewhere.

State of play: Both Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Democrats are supportive of legalizing cannabis, but they aren’t united behind a single proposal to do so.

Republicans, who have stymied legalization efforts in the past, still control the Senate — a potential roadblock even if Democrats align.

Zoom in: At least two proposals for legalization are circulating in the statehouse, which Democrats control for the first time in 12 years, but legislation hasn't been introduced.

One calls for selling weed at Fine Wine & Good Spirits locations, the state stores that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board controls. It would also allow people to grow up to six plants.

The other proposal is broader, calling for creating a framework to control and regulate the market.

Between the lines: Shapiro has hinted at how he'd like the market to look.

His first budget proposal suggests a 20% wholesale tax on weed.

That could raise an estimated $188.8 million for the state in 2028 if sales began Jan. 1, 2025.

He didn't lay out a regulatory framework.

In the House: Nicole Reigelman, a spokesperson for speaker Joanna McClinton, tells Axios that the Democratic caucus supports “exploring the expansion of marijuana legalization,” but it must emphasize health and safety, social justice and equity.

She declined to back any of the pending proposals.

In the Senate: Kate Eckhart Flessner, a spokesperson for the GOP's Majority Leader Joe Pittman, tells Axios that any proposal must be vetted by committees.

“Strengthening our communities and ensuring public safety are of paramount importance to our Caucus,” she said.

Zoom out: New Jersey and New York have legalized marijuana and set up dispensaries.

Maryland will have legal weed starting in July, while Delaware and Ohio are advancing their proposals.

What they’re saying: Legalization stands little chance of passing this year in Pennsylvania's divided legislature, where bipartisanship is rare, says Jeff Riedy, executive director of Lehigh Valley NORML, a pro-legalization lobbying group.

“By not legalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania," he said, "lawmakers are forcing consumers to go over state lines to buy legal cannabis that’s tested or to the black market.”

What's up with legal weed in Pennsylvania?

One proposal would have weed be sold in state liquor stores.

Illustration of a clock with cannabis leaves for hands.

Legalized marijuana

Pennsylvania is no closer to legalizing marijuana even though Democrats control both the House and governor’s mansion.Why it matters: Pennsylvania is increasingly surrounded by states where weed is legal, which means it is losing out on tax revenue from residents who end up buying the drug elsewhere.

Mike D'Onofrio

Stories

Philly primary races heat up

Eyes Gallery reboots in April

Eviction filings surge in Philadelphia

Philly doesn't put women on pedestals

What's up with legal weed in Pennsylvania?

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💰 Protesters get payouts

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