Rotimi Adeoye is a Philadelphia-based writer and columnist at The Daily Beast covering history, voting, and constitutional law. Formerly a speechwriter and Capitol Hill aide, he appears on MSNBC and writes for major publications.
On May 13, 1985, the city of Philadelphia dropped a bomb on its own citizens. Eleven people, five of them children, died in that fire. Sixty-one homes burned to the ground. The target was MOVE, a radical Black liberation group.
Something consequential is happening in Philadelphia. SEPTA, the region’s public transit system, is facing a financial crisis so severe that it’s planning to eliminate nearly half of its service
Donald Trump has never been subtle about where he stands on history.
Donald Trump is betting big on tariffs.
If a story is told but no one listens, does it matter that it was told at all?
The Trump administration, through Elon Musk’s newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is aggressively pushing to sell off key federal buildings in Philadelphia, promising efficiency and modern governance.
Philadelphia stands at a precarious intersection, balancing aspirations of renewal against the harsh reality of diminishing federal support.
In Philadelphia, a city where thousands live in poverty, where rents are rising. Trump's speech had nothing for them.
From public safety and housing to tax reforms and infrastructure, the budget is poised to address pressing issues that have been the focus of both city officials and residents.
You wake up, check your phone, and in seconds, the day’s headlines flood your mind: another mass shooting, another Supreme Court ruling gutting fundamental rights, another climate disaster in Los Angeles.
There are some policy choices that announce themselves with fireworks—think tax cuts or healthcare overhauls—and then there are those that slip in under the radar, quietly reshaping the future before most people realize what’s happened.
The collapse of the Sixers’ proposed arena in Chinatown was a foreseeable disaster.
In 2024, Philadelphia’s homicide rate fell to its lowest level in a decade—a stunning 40% drop from the previous year and a sharp decline from the city’s recent high of 559 murders in 2021.
On his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of executive orders designed to undo years of progress.
Philadelphia woke up this weekend with a stark reminder of how billionaire developers see the city: a big chessboard on which they capture real estate and toy with local politicians.