Newsroom
New Study Shows More Than Three-Quarters of PA Voters Support Bipartisan Whole-Home Repairs Act
Philadelphia, PA − May 24, 2022 − Today, Senator Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia County) held a rally attended by more than 200 housing and energy advocates, community leaders, Pennsylvania residents, and Democrat and Republican legislators from the General Assembly...
Senator Calls for the Passage of the Whole-Home Repairs Act
Pass the Whole-Home Repairs Act: Rally at Our Capitol
Pennsylvania Voters Across Parties Support Public Investments for Housing Repairs
Pennsylvania has some of the oldest stock of housing in the country. For years, weather damage, unreliable heating, and severe structural inadequacies have led to housing insecurity and expensive home repairs. New polling by Data for Progress and People’s Action shows...
Philly officials support GOP bike lane protection bill
Bell-ringing in Philadelphia Friday morning wasn’t coming from Citizen’s Bank Park or the Constitution Center but from a peloton riding into Dilworth Park outside City Hall. Several city and state officials rode into a press conference with the Bicycle Coalition of...
Lawmakers call for teaching more AAPI history in schools
HARRISBURG, Pa. — As a child growing up in the Philly suburbs, Serena Nguyễn was ashamed of her last name. “It was a strange, unfamiliar, hard-to-pronounce sound connecting me to a land distant in time and space. It seemed un-American,” said Nguyễn, who has since...
The Lawmaker Pushing for a State Fund to Help Pay for Home Repairs
A proposed bill in Pennsylvania would use the power and budget of the state government to help homeowners and small-time landlords make critical repairs to their properties, in an effort to address the growing challenges of housing affordability and climate change....
Philly spent a decade reconnecting neighborhoods to the waterfront. Widening I-95 is repeating past mistakes.
Over the last decade, something miraculous has been happening in the central Philadelphia neighborhoods that border the Great Wall of I-95. Guided by a smart master plan, the agency that manages the Delaware waterfront has helped transform its old piers and industrial...
Hughes, Fiedler, Rally with Educators for Full School Funding
PHILADELPHIA, PA — With Pennsylvania sitting on more than $8 billion in excess revenue, and a dismal national ranking for school equity, state Sen. Vincent Hughes and Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler held a pre-budget school funding rally in South Philadelphia on Friday to call...
Senator Nikil Saval Demands Full Funding for PA Public Schools
Where Have All the Liberals Gone?
Last week, I had the surreal experience of reading my way through a stack of high-toned books about liberalism when news trickled out that a conservative majority on the Supreme Court was preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade. Legal scholars were swift to denounce what...
How have Philly and PA public officials reacted to the Roe v. Wade leak?
On Monday, May 2, Politico leaked a draft of the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion, which indicated that the nation’s highest court will most likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling which guaranteed the right to abortion in the nation for...
Seek ways to fight blight together
Imagine this: you’ve worked tirelessly over the years to be able to purchase an older home. You’ve spent countless hours and thousands of dollars to improve it. That was my parents’ dream in Tamaqua in 1965 when they first purchased a 1917 “half a double” and my...
Senator Saval Announces $17.8 Million in Grants for Local Projects
Philadelphia, PA − May 5, 2022 − Senator Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia) has announced $17,815,000 in grants for multiple local projects throughout the First Senatorial District, adding to the tens of millions of dollars in major investments previously secured.
Politics and Civic Engagement
Asian American Studies Scholar and host Rob Buscher discusses AAPI involvement in local politics and civic engagement with panelists Nina Ahmad, Nikil Saval, and Helen Gym. Historically, Asian Americans have faced barriers in becoming politically active. What are the...
Workers at Philadelphia Museum of Art ramp up pressure for fair contract
Nearly two years ago, workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) made history by voting 89% in favor of forming the country’s first wall-to-wall museum union. A relatively new phenomenon in the cultural sector, a wall-to-wall union allows for all eligible...
It’s Time for Pennsylvania to Act on Environmental Justice
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has an open public comment period on proposed revisions to the DEP’s Environmental Justice Policy guidance (EJ Policy). The deadline for written comments is May 11 and the last of four public hearings is May 4 at...
A city initiative and a State Senate bill show promise for retrofitting homes, but not without big challenges
Philadelphia’s built environment is responsible for about 70% of its carbon footprint, making it a key sector to tackle in order to meet climate goals. Building new, efficient buildings is part of the solution, but experts say there’s a practical need to work with...
Pennsylvania nursing home buyers would face more scrutiny under state health proposal
In the most complete revision of its nursing home rules in at least 25 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Health last month proposed new regulations that would require more scrutiny of homes’ prospective owners. For the first time, regulators would analyze the...
William Way receives $2.5 million from Gov. Wolf to assist with renovations
Gov. Wolf recently awarded $32.85 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) funding to support 13 community economic development and revitalization projects in Pennsylvania, including $2.5 million for William Way LGBT Community Center to assist with...