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| What Philly's Talking About |
|  | The Atwater Kent building circa 1965. (Camerique / Getty Images) |
| Advocates Sound the Alarm Over Deteriorating Historic Building | The Parker administration intends to address concerns over the Atwater Kent building after leaders of Philly’s historical and cultural organizations demanded its repair. Once the original home of the Philadelphia History Museum, the neglected building has declined in the eight years since the city closed it. [Hidden City] | | Rate of Hiring Slows in Pennsylvania | While the state's overall unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in July — the lowest it’s been in almost two years — the numbers have gone the other way for Black (6.5%) and Hispanic (8.7%) residents. This is according to a report from the Keystone Research Center, which also notes “blinking warning signs” of job market weakness. [WHYY] | - Related: Clothing retailer Burlington is relocating its headquarters from New Jersey to Philly, in a move that's expected to bring 2,000 jobs to the city over the next five years. [🔒 Philadelphia Business Journal]
| | Holiday Market Booths Will Now Be 'Inaccessible' to Shoppers | Shoppers at the City Hall and LOVE Park holiday markets will no longer be able to enter most vendor booths this year. German American Marketing has said that this change is to make the markets compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Vendors, however, are worried about how this will impact their business when the markets open in November. [PHL17, Instagram] |
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| | | Candlemaking on a Tuesday, chain mail on a Friday. Somewhere in between a crafter is born. CraftNation's workshops cover everything from block printing to embroidery to fabric collage to line drawing. There are tons of options. All classes are sliding scale because everyone should have access to art and crafting. All that’s required is curiosity and maybe some glue on your hands. Join our community, browse the full line-up and grab your spot! |
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| How To Help Promote Literacy in Philly |
| | Today is International Literacy Day! First, the good news: Philadelphia ranks higher than 84% of all school systems across the country in average learning rates, beating all 24 other big-city school systems it was evaluated against. However, just 33% of students in the city's school district are at or above grade level in reading, and over half of Philly adults under the age of 64 read at a fifth-grade level or below. While 3,000 people benefited from the city's adult education programs last year, more than 1,000 are still on waitlists. Here are some of the local organizations and programs working to promote literacy among children and adults. | | | State Sen. Vincent Hughes started Read to Succeed in 2012 as a resource for low-income families. R2S's focus was originally on children’s summer programming, but has since expanded to include additional offerings throughout the year, including a boys’ book club, an afterschool literacy program (now enrolling for this school year), and parenting workshops. | | | In 2021, two long-time literacy programs merged to create Beyond Literacy, which serves more than 2,000 adult learners each year. BeLit offers hybrid and in-person classes, as well as a mobile learning lab, and welcomes volunteers to step in as tutors, class aides, and more. | | | The Free Library's Culinary Literacy Center is taking English language instruction out of the classroom and into the kitchen! Designed for nonnative English speakers, Edible Alphabet gives adult students the opportunity to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English while cooking a new recipe each week. You can sign up for an upcoming program here. | | | To disrupt Philly’s low-literacy cycle, Achieve Now works with schoolchildren to provide high-quality tutoring and a research-based curriculum. And it’s working: Students experience a 70% average gain in foundational reading skills. In addition to its volunteer coaches, the organization also relies on school, corporate, and community partners. | | | |
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Have you noticed that cheesesteaks have been popping up in more places outside of Philadelphia? National fast-casual chain Schlotzsky's has put its own spin on the iconic sandwich, and a restaurant devoted entirely to cheesesteaks just opened in northern England! | | Where have you come across cheesesteaks (or other Philly foods) in the wild? Have they been any good? Reply to this email and let me know! |
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