Home Rule

Inquirer editorial board member Dan Pearson joins Ali and Jon for part two of a conversation about the emerging City Council At-Large field. With 29 candidates filing petitions to run, voters have a surplus of choices, but only a few are likely to be viable. Learn more about who the front-runners are, who is supporting them, and what are some of the consequences of different slates of candidates winning in May

Philadelphia’s 2023 election season is underway, and in this episode of Home Rule, Inquirer editorial board member Dan Pearson joins Ali and Jon to discuss the City Council field. Adding to the already-high stakes of this election, Council President Darrell Clarke announced his retirement this week. We talk about CP Clarke’s politics and leadership on City Council, and how his departure could change things going forward. We also discuss the state of the District City Council races to date. Stay tuned for more episodes of Home Rule as we feature more election and issue expert guests over the coming weeks to discuss the policy stakes of the 2023 elections.

Central business districts have had a particularly tough time during the pandemic, with big ripple effects for all different kinds of businesses and organizations who normally rely on having much larger daytime populations downtown. That’s led to a lot of speculation about the future of these places, and how they’ll fare if certain pandemic-era trends like increased remote work prove to be sticky even after the public health recovery.

On the latest episode of our Home Rule podcast, we talked with Paul Levy, CEO of Center City District, about the outlook for Center City, what makes him optimistic about a strong rebound after the pandemic, and what city officials can do to leverage Philadelphia’s strengths for a full economic recovery. 

Center City District recently celebrated its 30 year anniversary, so we also discussed what things were like in 1991 when Levy first came on the job, the ingredients of CCD's economic after the 1990's, and why nobody should be satisfied to simply return to the strong-for-Philly growth trajectory that we’d been on prior to COVID-19.

Give it a listen at the link, and stay tuned for more episodes of Home Rule, part of the RADIOKISMET podcast network here in Philadelphia.

Hosts Ali Perelman and Jon Geeting discuss restaurants and the pandemic. They are joined by guests Allan Domb, at-large city council member, and Melissa Bova, the VP of Government Affairs for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association. 

Together they debrief about what’s happened over the last year, how restaurants are managing as society reopens, and what the post Covid future looks like for the industry.  

Jon Geeting and Alison Perelman are joined with guest Roukai Chen to discuss real estate assessments, why they matter, and what's happening in city politics with this issue.

In this episode, we talk to State Rep. Kevin Boyle, the minority chair of the powerful State Government Committee, and Suzanne Almeida, the interim Executive Director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, about the recent PA Supreme Court Decision impacting the General Election. Where can vote-by-mail ballots be dropped? Are counties allowed to expedite the counting of mail ballots? Will ballots that get tied up in the postal system be okay? Pennsylvania is *the* battleground state which will decide the Presidential election. Tune in to find out how easy or difficult it will be to cast a ballot in the Keystone State. 

PA lawmakers have taken some steps to shore up the election during the COVID-19 shutdown, but there’s still more to do. In this episode we talk to Rep. Kevin Boyle and local election attorney Adam Bonin about the pandemic’s implications for voting, PA’s new vote-by-mail program, the party conventions, and more.

What is a presidential delegate? And how do you become one? In this episode, we'll explain how the delegate selection process works with the help of election attorney Adam Bonin.