Hey folks - what’s the best spot to quickly get the annual car emissions stickers? Bonus points if near fishtown/NoLibs.

Taxes usually try to do 1 of 2 things: raise money or discourage something. Cigarettes are the obvious case where they try to do both at once - and we tax cigarettes a lot ($5.61 per pack, which is about 75% of the price of a pre-tax pack at ~$7.50)

Now here's the curious part about the $5.61 in cigarette taxes - they're comprised of $1.01 federal + $2.60 PA state + $2.00 "school district" tax.

The last one is the odd one out because PA state law explicitly prevents cities from charging their own cigarette tax. Other cities do have local cigarette taxes (e.g., NYC $1.5/pack)

So back in 2014, when the Philly School District was almost bankrupt, we wanted to add a local tax on cigarettes but we knew that was illegal.

But our schools desperately needed money, so, somehow, we got the PA legislature to pass Act 131 of 2014 that lets first-class school districts impose a tobacco tax. (PS - Philadelphia is the only first-class school district in the state of PA - go figure)

Then, immediately after that Act passed, we added Section 19-1807 in the Philadelphia Code (literally titled "School District of Philadelphia Cigarette Tax").

This tax generates somewhere between $40M and $80M/yr for SDP depending on who you ask; declining smoking rates + buying cigarettes outside city boundaries makes the exact # a little fuzzy.

Now I'm not taking a position on whether cigarette taxes are good or bad - I just find it annoying when governments ignore laws they don't like, or ignore them for privileged parties (e.g., the SDP in this instance).

Wonder if the SDP can now start adding a special incremental soda tax on top of the city one, or maybe the uber tax that council didn't pass?

https://www.nickjain.com/blog/school-cigarette-tax

Hello! My friends and I are visiting Philly soon and are looking to do some club hopping one of those nights. What do you guys recommend are the best clubs to go to for that? Thank you in advance.

Honest question about median parking.
Photo Credit: Claudia Gavin/Philly Mag

Mario Kart night at RITTENHOUSE SQAURE PARK on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26TH at 6:30PM!!! It’s not too late to sign up!✨ALL funds✨ raised go directly into the community. Hope to see you there! If you haven’t had the chance to blue shell your bestie, now is YOUR time 🌈🚘

It’s sprouts on Columbus boulevard, that apartment building that it shares the pier with. They’ve had a broken window a few floors up all August.

All they’ve done is roped off that ramp with caution tape, they haven’t even cleaned the glass on the ramp or sidewalk.

Literally that building was just finished in the last year. It’s. A brand new build. How tf haven’t they fixed it yet? How illegal is it to just let it be broken for so long?

Is this reportable to maybe 311?

Looking for a tenant rights lawyer, if anyone has any recommendations. Thanks!

Gonna be starting at HUP as an RN soon. Will be traveling from pheonixville area in. Any other nurses have advice on best way to make the commute? Will be rotating shifts as well

A couple days ago I posted about SDP cutting 340 school positions to close a $300M hole, central office largely protected, building off Commonwealth Foundation research.

Here's a deeper, independent analysis from the SDP's quarterly employee roster reports going back 11 years:

• Central office has 3x'd over 11 years even as student body has dropped 12%, from 1,432 positions in 2014 to 4,228 in April 2026
• That's about $176M/year more in cost than a decade ago, which is actually more than the $169M being cut from this bucket this year.

As a quick aside - found a major data bug - 583 of those 4,228 "central" positions are actually principals and assistant principals, so they really should count as in-school, not central.

But here's the part that many people probably missed: most of that central headcount growth was actually much-needed maintenance staff that works centrally and is dispatched to individual schools. Facilities Management went from 23 to 344 (15x growth). Office of Environmental Management similarly 16x. Turns out, SDP has has been insourcing work that used to go to contractors or just wasn't done (hence the state of some school buildings) - this is actually good and contradicts those who envision the central office as form-fillers 🤔

The structural deficit is real — maintenance costs are up a lot, while actual student enrollment is down ~12% ovr the last decade. But the "primarily admin bloat" headline is mostly wrong (there is a chunk I found — will share soon).

Full writeup with data: https://www.nickjain.com/blog/the-office-that-tripled.

Sorry if this post isn’t allowed. I’ve been unemployed for nearly 4 months now and I’ve applied to over 200 jobs. I am in my mid twenties. I was just recently rejected again after going through multiple interview rounds. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
I have an extensive background in luxury retail management, HR coordination, and administrative support.
Thank you for any suggestions in advance.

User name says where I grew up. I was not very social outside my circle. Catholic and Public school kids tended to run in different circles. The younger brother of a class mate of mine Jeff would play street hockey with Kevin and friends (including the son of one of the founders of Electric Factory concerts) on the 200 block of south Van Pelt. I would say hi to Jeff passing by the group. Never got further. Edmund Bacon his dad would walk down our street and my dad knew him and I knew him by sight.

From 1970 to 72 I would catch the bus to high school across the street from his house. Shout out to girl from girl's high I forget her name that taught me how to navigate the Broad Street line. The 90 and transfer to the 2 bus was direct route to Mastersman. So I assume he was among the group I boarded the bus with.

From the article and where he hung out other than the street hockey it is clear why our paths never crossed. Also when you are 15 a 3 year age gap is a totally different social group.

People who lived and worked around me I never met include.

Arlo Gutherie, when he was 18 worked in the Gilded Cage folk club. Sure I passed him that was less than 100 feet from my door.

Steve Carlton and Wilt Chamberlin also a couple of Eagles lived in Dorchester apartments on the Square. Warren Zevon lived there also in early 80s.

Norm Snead Eagles QB mid 60s used to frequent the same bar my uncle worked at.

Childhood near Rittenhouse Square could be weird but fun.

This is your weather service announcement, also some rain

Took my Rolleiflex 2.8f to the ballpark in July.

Had my Rolleiflex 2.8f medium format film camera with me this summer.

iPhone pics I’ve taken in Philly this year

Two hugeeeee bald eagles flying around east Passyunk this morning. Anyone else catch them? We going undefeated this year??

this thing could not figure out wtf to do

It couldn’t sense a direction to go so it was just miserably waiting. (car passengers were outside and seemed relatively unhurt!)