As 2024 comes to a close, Metro is revisiting the top local news stories of the year.
While no list can encapsulate everything that happened in Philadelphia this year, what follows are some of the more memorable and impactful events and trends of the last 12 months.
Parker takes the reins
Cherelle Parker, after emerging from a crowded field of Democrats in the 2023 primary, was sworn in as the city’s first female mayor in January.
Since then, she has battled with City Council over one of her Board of Education nominees, Joyce Wilkerson; cleared a high-profile homeless encampment along Kensington Avenue; and implemented a contested return-to-office policy for municipal employees.
Her administration and Council, under the leadership of first-year President Kenyatta Johnson, reached a budget agreement in June that boosted property tax relief programs and incorporated $100 million for a new addiction treatment center.
Extended-day, year-round programming is being piloted at 20 public and five charter schools, in line with a key priority for Parker that she touted on the campaign trail.
The new mayor also threw her support behind one of the most controversial development projects in Philadelphia within recent memory. More on that later.
SEPTA narrowly avoids ‘death spiral’
Leaders of Philadelphia’s public transit agency have long warned of a coming “fiscal cliff,” and SEPTA peered down over the edge in 2024.
Coming into the year, the authority faced a $240 million annual deficit, a result of expiring federal coronavirus relief funding and ridership levels that have yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic numbers.
Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed addressing SEPTA’s budget gap in his spending plan unveiled in February, but the ultimate deal between his administration and GOP legislative leaders only included a one-time payment of $46 million.
When no additional dollars materialized in Harrisburg, SEPTA announced plans in November to introduce massive fare hikes and service cuts, on top of a more modest price increase. Authority leadership predicted such a course of action would result in a “death spiral” of ridership losses and further cuts.
Plans to drastically reduce service and up fares were shelved when Shapiro redirected $153 million in flexible federal infrastructure funding to the authority. The governor’s move to ‘flex’ those dollars is still not a permanent fix for SEPTA’s fiscal woes.
Bus stop bullets
A pair of shootings involving young people gathered at SEPTA bus stops rocked the city in March, leaving a teenager dead and 12 other people injured.
Dayemen Taylor, a 17-year-old student at Imhotep Institute Charter High School, was killed and four other people were struck by gunfire when shots were fired after class dismissal at Ogontz and Godfrey avenues.
Two days later, four gunmen unloaded on a group of Northeast High School students waiting for a bus at around 3 p.m. at the “Five Points” intersection of Cottman, Rising Sun and Oxford avenues. Eight teenagers were wounded in the shooting.
Investigators believe the incidents may have been related.
Arena proposal advances
Debate about the 76ers plan to build a new arena in Center City has swirled since the team’s ownership announced the proposal in 2022, but it reached a fever pitch this year.
Long-awaited studies of the project, commissioned by the city, were released in August. A month later, Parker came out in favor of the $1.3 billion arena and presented details of her administration’s agreement with the 76ers.
Legislation paving the way for 76 Place at Market East, as the planned venue is known, was introduced in City Council amid protest in October. Lawmakers held eight hearings, as anti-arena crowds and groups affiliated with construction unions filled City Hall.
Council ultimately green-lit an arena deal with a $60 million community benefits agreement – $10 million more than what was included in Parker’s package. The legislation was approved earlier this month, after sheriff’s deputies handcuffed and removed demonstrators from Council chambers.
OHS in hot water
Parker, about a month into her tenure, hired an outside accounting firm to audit the city’s Office of Homeless Services, after financial irregularities inside the department became public in late 2023.
A preliminary report, released by the Inspector General’s Office in April, found that OHS leaders “knowingly” overspent the office’s budget by nearly $15 million over the course of four years.
Faced with funding cuts, OHS manipulated contracts and carried debt over between fiscal years, according to the report. No criminal activity has been alleged, and former executive director Liz Hersh has defended the office’s actions as necessary to avoid service reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revelations have prompted multiple reforms, including efforts to streamline procurement procedures, legislation eliminating a nonprofit city contract exemption and a ballot question that could establish an OHS ombudsperson.
Goodbye UArts
The University of the Arts, an institution with roots dating back more than 150 years, shut down in June, giving students, faculty and staff just a week’s notice.
School leaders pointed to a “fragile financial state” and an inability to cover “significant, unanticipated expenses.” However, few concrete answers for the college’s sudden closure have emerged. UArts filed for bankruptcy in September.
Students gathered on the university’s Center City campus, along the “Avenue of the Arts,” to protest and mourn the loss of what they described as a unique and accepting community.
School president Kerry Walk, after announcing the closure, stepped down before the institution even shut its doors.
Election-mania
The eyes of the nation again turned to Pennsylvania in the lead-up and aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
In September, the National Constitution Center hosted one of the two debates between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
As the swing state with the most Electoral College votes, both campaigns focused heavily on the Keystone State, with Democrats, in particular, investing a lot of energy in Philadelphia and its collar counties.
Harris’s campaign brought Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Robert DeNiro and others to town to build excitement. The vice president, accompanied by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, held an election eve rally on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
While Harris captured 79% of the tally in Philadelphia, Trump has increased his share of the vote and raw number of ballots within the city in each of the three elections where he has topped the Republican ticket.
Down the ballot, GOP businessman Dave McCormick unseated three-term U.S. Senator Bob Casey, and Joe Picozzi surprised some by beating out incumbent Democrat Jimmy Dillon for a state Senate seat in Northeast Philadelphia.
