Philly Plain Dealer

2024 is out the door, but the effects of last year will linger far into the future. Below are ten stories to keep in mind as the year moves forward. America goes from blue to red on January 20th and we will begin to see the political, social, and cultural ramifications of that change. National movements aside, there are a lot of local issues that deserve your attention.

Philly’s Massive Gun Violence Decrease 

According to the City Controller’s Office, to date, there were 193 homicides linked to gun violence in 2024, a 40% decrease from 2023. According to the same dataset there were 1,079 shooting victims in Philly last year. Compare that to 2023’s 1,665 shooting victims with 410 homicides. Those 2023 numbers are bad, but they were still 20% down from an even worse 2022, and a tragic 2021. 

In 2021, there were more than 2,300 shootings killing 562 people. This three year decrease in gun violence is borderline miraculous and something that the people of Philly should be proud of. The 65% decrease in shooting deaths over three years is some of the best news out of Philadelphia imaginable. If 2025 brings another decrease in shootings, it will be a major success for the city sparing hundreds of innocent lives. If 2025 brings an increase in shootings for the first time since 2021, it will be branded as a terrifying disaster, regardless of if numbers slightly uptick or return to 2023 numbers.  

The Trump Presidency Affect on Major Cities

Pennsylvania was a focal point for the 2024 Presidential Election. Trump and Elon Musk toured the State and slung french fries in Bucks County during the last month of the election. The Harris campaign flirted with the idea of choosing PA Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate for the White House. PA will remain top of mind throughout the Trump presidency. But how will Philadelphia be impacted?

Philadelphia’s ports import more fruit to the United States than any other port in the country. How will Trump’s proposed tariffs affect imports? Philly is a sanctuary city, and according to Newsweek the Trump administration is looking to execute mass deportations over the next four years and he likely remembers the hurdle that was “sanctuary cities.” Democratic leaders are bracing for the new administration to target sanctuary cities specifically in their deportation attempts. 

From 2016 to 2022, the temperature was turned up to 100 degrees. Protests were consistent, political outrage was palpable, but in 2024 the electorate felt fatigued and unenthused. The future is unwritten and only time will tell what the Trump presidency holds for Philly.  

The Future of Public Education

The Trump White House is filled with conservatives in favor of school choice vouchers and the expansion of the charter school system. Philadelphia has many charter schools and many charter school advocates looking to expand in the region. 

The Philadelphia Public School system is far from perfect, but has been making efforts to improve and innovate, and Mayor Parker has expressed interest in closing the more than one billion dollar funding deficit faced by Philly schools.

As for innovating, the “extended day, extended year schooling pilot program” created by Mayor Parker and her administration offers programming and specialized enrichment five days a week and for six weeks during the summer, between the hours of 7:30am to 6pm. This program was rolled out in 20 public schools and 5 charter schools to lend support to working parents.

Will the public school system get the funding needed? Will the Trump administration enact policy that will incentivize a gold rush into the charter school business? 

Parades Down Broad Street

The Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles are two teams perennially in the championship conversation at the top of their leagues, they have flirted with World Series and Super Bowl hardware for the last 3-4 years and 2025 is feeling like the year we see a parade down Broad Street. Soon the Eagles will be soaring into the playoffs, and hopes haven’t been this high for the Birds since 2017. If they don’t secure a championship, our next best chance will come 9-10 months later when the Phillies are back in the playoffs in the Fall.

The 76ers are down but not out of NBA Championship contention, they absolutely blundered the start to the 24-25 season but can be on a fast track back to relevancy with a productive January. The Union and the Flyers seem hopeless, but I hope they have fun this year.

The Aftermath of City Council’s 76 Place Vote

Protestors spent years opposing the development of a new arena in Chinatown, but recently City Council voted in favor of the new arena. On December 19th, 2024 the No Arena Coalition released a statement announcing, “We have more in our playbook to kill this deal, and the fight continues in 2025.”

It seems the protests are not ending anytime soon, but 2025 will be a year of planning for the city and the owners of 76 Place. What will become of the old bus station? How will the much argued over Community Benefits Agreement be facilitated? How will Sixers fans and Philadelphians respond as the new development becomes tangible?

2025 PA Supreme Court Elections & Local Philly Elections.

The terms of three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices will expire on January 4, 2026. The three seats are up for retention election on November 4, 2025. All three justices are Democrats: Christine Donohue, David N. Wecht, and Kevin M. Dougherty. If two seats flip, the Commonwealth’s Supreme Court flips to a Republican majority.

In Philly there will be elections for a new District Attorney, Elections Inspector, Judge of Elections, and City Controller in 2025.

Preparation for the 2026 World Cup.

In one year’s time we will be just months away from hosting tourists from across the globe for the 2026 World Cup. By next Christmas tangible decisions and changes will have been made to Philadelphia, more specifically to South Philly where the stadiums reside. 

The economic impact of the World Cup will be gauged and studied, homeowners will be renting out houses on Airbnb, hotels and venues will be booked, tourism will spike, and a spectacle driven economy is on its way. 

New Pop Culture Figures Representing Philly

No Philly artist had a number one song in 2024, the last to accomplish this feat was Lil Uzi in 2023 with “Just Wanna Rock.” It’s been a while since Dreams N’ Nightmares and the peak of Meek Mill’s career. There are a number of promising Philadelphia rappers like Lay Bankz, D4M Sloan, and Tierra Whack who have achieved national success. It’ll be exciting to see who, if anyone, rises to the top of the algorithm and achieves further national recognition this year. 

We’ve watched the tide turn from Invincible and the Rocky franchise being the primary representation of Philly on screen. There are currently two massively successful sitcoms based in Philadelphia – Always Sunny and Abbott Elementary. That being said there is also a lackluster cartoon on FOX called Universal Basic Guys which centers around Philly-based characters, similarly a new film called The Brutalist is currently shooting in Budapest to portray Philly. 

The internet has helped amplify the voices of Philadelphians and better help the national media understand and digest our cultural nuances. Online outlets like Crossing Broad and No Shorts are making waves on TikTok and Instagram creating consistent slice of life content in man on the street interviews and clips. Philadelphia is far more represented in the national media than in previous years, we’ve come a long way from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 

Diversifying PA’s Energy

Six American states create 50% of the country’s energy, Pennsylvania is one of those six states. PA is the second largest energy producer in America and is actively working to bolster and diversify that energy output. 

Three Mile Island is set to open in 2028, in the coming years that process will become less mystified and more transparent. 

One of the twenty policy points laid out in Donald Trump’s platform “Agenda 47” is policy number four “Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!” This could have major implications for Pennsylvania.

UFOs, Drones, and All That Jazz

The topic of UFOs and drones is confounding. The reports and news coverage of UFOs have been sensational and not helpful for the most part. Reports of drones over New Jersey have been circulating for many weeks, no satisfying answer or conclusion has been given. New Jersey and New York have witnessed the majority of drone and UFO sightings, however at the start of December Philly had a prominent sighting of a cluster of drones. The drone news is far from over.