CitizenCast

The Parkway was a bold idea a century ago. As the city embarks on a redesign, a local urbanist has ideas for making it grand again.

City Council is pushing the mayor to spend $100 million on gun violence prevention programs. Is that bold policy-making or just the appearance of it?

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is embedding the arts right into many city agencies. They have a goal Philly should be emulating: supporting art in every neighborhood in the city.

A former city official wonders if Philadelphia leaders can rise to the occasion and capitalize on city growth in the wake of Covid.

Legendary urbanist and Citizen columnist Bruce Katz chats with two infrastructure trailblazers—Oklahoma City mayor David Holt and Shalini Vajjhala, founder/CEO of re:Focus, a California social venture—about how best to use the  trillions  of dollars from the American Relief Plan.

Here's how we should use our American Rescue Plan windfall to grow jobs in Philly. Do our leaders understand this?

The North Broad Street corridor will never be the Avenue of the Arts—and that's a good thing. It's redeveloping to the beat of its own drum.

It's been a hundred years since the Black Wall Street massacre. Philly's African American Chamber head says we must all help Black-owned businesses thrive

WURD host Charles Ellison talks with Citizen writer Christine Speer Lejeune about vaccination rates in Philly and some creative ways of boosting our numbers.

The former mayor, troubled by the problems tearing Philly apart, urges all of us to work together to revive the city he's loved for 55 years.

States and cities across the U.S. are giving away big prizes for people who get vaccinated. It would be a great way to boost the rates in Philly, too.

Reason to Run is helping incarcerated women with their mental and physical health, while giving them the tools that discourage recidivism.

The modern-day retelling of MOVE has ignored a particular group that has been victimized time and again by both MOVE and the city.

Less than half of the murderers who committed crimes in Philadelphia in 2020 were brought to justice. There are Instagram and YouTube accounts dedicated to unsolved murders in Philadelphia. The mothers of the victims are fed the hell up and they have taken to the streets to solve the murders on their own. They've had no choice but to switch into detective mode.

Hassan Abdellah scored a check for $1,000 just for casting a ballot in West Philly. Hear what he had to say. 

We saw an unprecedented push to make living, working and participating in our civic life easier for Philly residents during the pandemic. Let's not slide backwards.

MSNBC anchor and Citizen board member Ali Velshi chats with Larry Platt and Roxanne Shepelavy about trillion-dollar deals, the broken Republican party and a new hope for bipartisanship.

Robert Rooks, CEO of Michael Rubin and Meek Mill's REFORM Alliance, explains his new campaign to fix our failing parole and probation system.

The hours and days after a shooting are often called the golden hour for survivors of gun violence and for their families. This is a time when support, outreach and services can redirect anger and potentially stop a retaliatory shooting.  In this podcast we have talked a lot about the number of homicides caused by gun violence. The number of people murdered by guns makes headlines. What isn't talk...

In this Idea We Should Steal, a volunteer chaperone service called Compassion in Oakland is helping to fight anti-Asian hate crimes. Philly should follow suit.

In this "Ideas We Should Steal" we look to New Jersey and the two cities that have made real progress in reducing gun violence by adopting smart policing techniques.

Larry Platt chats with author Jill Filopovic ( Ok Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind ) about Millennials  not  being a bunch of avocado-toast eating snowflakes, but rather America's most educated, most engaged yet least wealthy generation. City Councilmember-at-large Katherine Gilmore Richardson stops by.

Philadelphia is the nation's first startup. So, in this budget season, why not put old talking points behind us…and pivot?

One of the quotes that stayed with us the most while reporting Philly Under Fire came from Melany Nelson of Northwest Victim Services: "I've spoken to many youth and they said to me, 'Ms. Nelson, either you're going to be the predator or the prey. So you have to pick one.' So nine times out of 10, they're going to be the predator. They told me that they expect to die young."   But as we'll hear in...

We're not likely to lose the corruption-prone Sheriff's Office anytime soon, but adding this office to its rank would go a long way towards fixing it.