On Tuesday, voters can approve or reject two ballot measures in the primary election. We break them both down.

Staff writer Malcolm Burnley recently visited City Cast Philly to chat with host Trenae Nuri about his recent story Fix the Sidewalks!

Listen in on the conversation and then check out City Cast Philly for yourself.

On this episode of Ideas We Should Steal, Vienna and Maryland have invested in innovative, income diverse public housing to much acclaim. Could they work in Philly too?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has changed dramatically since 2024, not just detaining and holding more people, but also making it harder for them to get help. Here, a Temple law professor lays out what you can do about it.

"This is the most urgent problem facing every one of us today, no matter where in the country we live." Ali Velshi explains.

Local debates around Gaza, school closings, and ICE all raise the same question: Does anyone care about actual governing, or has Philly fully entered the age of the political grandstand?

When Republican Stephen Goldsmith was Mayor of Indianapolis, IN, he ran his city by "devolving" decisions down to the grassroots level. He created partnerships with the movers and shakers of local areas – community-based organizations, small businesses, faith leaders — to decide together how best to spend money in their neighborhoods.

"Government had neglected those neighborhoods," he told our podcast hosts, former Mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philly. "And no amount of expenditures would have been sufficient if we couldn't lift up the civic infrastructure of the neighborhoods themselves."

This, said Goldsmith, who was a deputy mayor under Mike Bloomberg in New York and is now a professor of urban policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School, is the true power of mayors: the ability to convene and inspire a city to greatness. Despite the circus coming from Washington, D.C., Goldsmith told our hosts that he has great hope for cities. "This is the time to be mayor, because if you want to lead, you can really make a difference."

Goldsmith also garnered some unexpected praise from our hosts. "I was struck by your book, Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship," Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt told him. "I remember thinking it was a model for cities to follow."

"This is exciting," Goldsmith replied, "You're one of five people who read that book. What sort of life do you live?"

"We're working on it, Mayor Goldsmith," laughed Nutter and Reed. "We're trying to help him!"

As cities go, so goes the nation!

There are only two options for generating more money to fund schools and city services, writes former City Councilmember Allan Domb. One way is clearly better than the other.