This is Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate transparency, and the public’s right to know what government officials are doing and saying behind closed doors. PHL Watchdog is a Sunshine Week partner. It is serendipitous that I will be at City Hall in Courtroom 275 during Sunshine Week.
For more than two years, the City of Philadelphia has fought release of records related to the Philadelphia 76ers’ now abandoned proposal to build an arena atop SEPTA’s Jefferson Station. Perhaps the City thought I would give up. But giving up is not in my DNA. And an awesome team of lawyers, led by Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Temple University Law Professor Mary E. Levy, has my back.
The City appealed the Office of Open Records’ final determination to turn over responsive records to the Court of Common Pleas Philadelphia County on June 27, 2025. Judge Christopher Hall will hear oral arguments on March 18, 2026.
While 76 Place is as dead as the 76ers’ chances of winning an NBA championship, the public has the right to know how unaccountable and self-serving billionaires hijacked city planning. The latest Market East fiasco shows that the City has learned nothing from the arena debacle.
It is imperative that public officials are held accountable. Transparency must undergird future development projects. So, let the sun shine in.
In the wake of U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe’s order to restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026, the National Park Service began to reinstall the interpretive panels that were yanked from the walls.
The deadline to restore the President’s House Site was February 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM. The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service appealed Judge Rufe’s order to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
With an hour to go before the 5:00 PM deadline, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman granted a stay of execution. The federal government does not have to fully restore the President’s House Site for the duration of the appeal. Judge Hardiman ordered the federal government to preserve the slavery memorial’s physical status as of February 20, 2026.
The federal government cannot remove the 16 interpretive glass panels that were reinstalled or turn off the four functioning video monitors (the fifth monitor was nonfunctional prior to January 21, 2026). So, for the foreseeable future, the President’s House Site will be a mashup of the original glass panels and signs of creative resistance.
I spent the first day of Black History Month at the President’s House Site. Twenty days later, I was back at the slavery memorial leading a Truth in History Teach-In organized by the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. I shared stories about the nine Black enslaved people who worked and lived in the shadow of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I told the history that President Trump wants to whitewash, including Ona Judge who “absconded from the household of the President of the United States” on May 21, 1796.
Nine months later, President Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, self-emancipated from Mount Vernon on February 22, 1797, Washington’s 65th birthday.
I am nominating Hercules Posey, the nation’s first celebrity chef, for a Pennsylvania historical marker. If the nomination is approved, Hercules will join Ona whose marker was dedicated in 2023.
Invoking President Trump’s Executive Order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the National Park Service executed “a jarring alteration to the integrity of the [President’s House] site” on January 22, 2026.
On Washington’s Birthday, better known as Presidents’ Day, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe rebuked President Trump’s claim to “the truth.” In her opinion granting the City of Philadelphia’s motion for a preliminary injunction, Judge Rufe invoked George Orwell:
And yet, in its argument, the government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control. Its claims in this regard echo Big Brother’s domain in Orwell’s 1984, where:
The largest section of the [government’s] Records Department . . . consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of the Times [a newspaper] which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophesies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions [for workers in the Records Department] . . . never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed; always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy.
Much to his dismay, President Trump does not have the authority to dictate “the truth”:
The government here likewise asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because, as Defendants state, it has the power.
Judge Rufe made it clear that she’s not telling the government what message to convey; rather, whatever message is conveyed at the President’s House Site must be done in consultation with the City:
The government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the City.
Judge Rufe ordered the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026 and “reinstall all panels, displays, and video exhibits that were previously in place.”
When Judge Rufe made a site visit, she saw that the Park Service cleared the snow on Independence Mall and left the President’s House Site covered in snow and ice.
Judge Rufe ordered the Defendants “to provide immediate, continuing, and proper maintenance to the Site, its exhibits, grounds [emphasis added], artifacts, video monitors, and recordings which SHALL remain operable.”
Dr. Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week in 1926 to honor African American contributions that were “overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” February was chosen because Black Americans already celebrated the birthdays of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and the Great Orator Frederick Douglass (February 14).
One hundred years ago, to help highlight these achievements, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. We are grateful to him today for his initiative, and we are richer for the work of his organization.
Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are what our Revolution was all about. They were ideals that inspired our fight for Independence: ideals that we have been striving to live up to ever since. Yet it took many years before these ideals became a reality for black citizens.
Fifty years later, President Donald Trump is sending a different message. Trump aggregates unto himself the authority to overlook, ignore and suppress Black history, and whitewash “what our Revolution was all about.”
Without notice to the City of Philadelphia, the National Park Service dismantled the President’s House Site which opened on December 15, 2010 after years of cooperation between the Park Service, the City and the public.
On the eve of Black History Month, a hearing was held (here and here) in federal district court on the City’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the suppression of the history of slavery. The City wants U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe to order the Defendants to restore the President’s House Site to its status as of January 21, 2026.
The Defendants claim “the National Park Service is the sole decision maker as to what is exhibited on its property.” They claim that President Trump has absolute authority to order the signs removed. The “administration issued the executive order that resulted in this action… The government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.”
Judge Rufe said “that’s a dangerous statement. That’s horrifying to listen to. [History] changes on the whim of someone in charge? Sorry. That’s not what we elected anybody for.”
Judge Rufe plans to inspect the displays removed from the President’s House. She also will visit the site. When she does, she will see the Park Service cleared the snow on Independence Mall and left the President’s House Site covered in snow and ice.
Judge Rufe is likely to issue her ruling in March 2026.
In the meantime, I spent the first day of Black History Month at the President’s House Site. I posted the “runaway slave” ad that Frederick Kitt, steward of the presidential household, placed in the Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser offering a ten-dollar reward for the return of Oney Judge who “absconded from the household of the President of the United States.”
It was heartwarming to see the steady stream of visitors in the bitter cold and the creative forms of resistance.
As soon as the weather breaks, I plan to reserve People’s Plaza, the public square near the President’s House Site where protesting is allowed. I will set up my boombox and play protest songs. I expect the Park Service will “say my music’s too loud.”
UPDATE: On February 2, 2026, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe conducted a visual inspection of the signs removed from the President’s House Site by the National Park Service. Thirty-four panels were removed, some of which “exhibited damage.” The panels are stored in a secure location at the National Constitution Center.
“The government is ORDERED to continue to securely store all removed panels and to mitigate any further deterioration or damage.”
With respect to the Memorial, the enclosed space near the entrance to the Liberty Bell Center that is in the footprint of President Washington’s slave quarters, “no further removal and/or destruction of the President’s House site will be permitted until further order of the Court.”
One year ago this week, the billionaire owners of the Philadelphia 76ers pulled the rug out from under Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council. Their proposal to construct a basketball arena atop SEPTA’s Jefferson Station was a dream for the billionaires and a nightmare for everyone else.
A year later, we don’t have answers about this debacle. The City is still fighting release of documents that I requested from the previous administration.
SEPTA was twice ordered to turn over records. Rather than comply with the orders, the cash-strapped agency continued to pay outside counsel to fight disclosure. With their back against the wall, SEPTA claimed the records were deleted.
In this new year, I will submit new RTKL requests for 76 Place records for the period of January 1, 2024 to January 14, 2025. I will keep on pushing until we get answers to how the billionaires hijacked the public policymaking process.
This time last year, the billionaire owners of the Sixers were going hard for a new basketball arena on East Market Street. 76 Place was a public transit-oriented project hitched to a beleaguered public transit agency. Then as now, SEPTA is facing a fiscal cliff. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is threatening to push the mismanaged agency over the cliff.
Market East has been in decline for decades. Empty storefronts line the once thriving shopping district. The Sixers and their new bestie, Comcast, plan to demolish buildings and build, well, nothing. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
The companies that own the 76ers and Flyers earlier this year made a high-profile commitment to help transform the long-distressed East Market Street corridor.
The first development to come out of that promise? Perhaps a mini-soccer pitch. Or a pop-up beer garden.
The teams recently hired a contractor to demolish buildings they own on the 1000-block of the beleaguered thoroughfare with the goal of eventually erecting a major development that could help revitalize the area.
But, until then, City Councilmember Mark Squilla said Friday the teams and city leaders hope to “activate” the lots slated for demolition with “pop-up” opportunities related to the FIFA World Cup and the nation’s 250th birthday being hosted in Philadelphia next summer.
The Sixers and Comcast’s development plan to shoot first and aim later was shot down by the Design Advocacy Group:
In the meantime, the sports teams that now own many buildings on the 900 and 1000 blocks of Market Street are already planning to begin tearing them down with nothing more in mind than a “pop up” beer garden or miniature soccer field.
If popups are wanted by FIFA and the 250th, Market Street already has large demolition sites—the surface parking lot at 13th and Market and the gigantic “Disney Hole” at 8th and Market. Not far away is the gaping void on Jewelers Row, a cautionary tale about premature demolition. These places remind us of past failures where rushed demolition yielded no replacement.
Of course, Market Street needs dressing up in time for the flood of visitors we look forward to in 2026. And pop-ups on existing empty sites should be part of that. But it makes no sense to stage such impulsive demolition on Market Street to create spaces we don’t need now for the not yet planned projects that may come next.
UPDATE: The Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic Inga Saffron doesn’t trust the Sixers and Comcast’s process:
The long-awaited effort to reinvent Market East began in the same bombshell manner as the Sixers’ arena proposal did three years ago — with no transparency and no planning.
First, the two new BFFs of the Philadelphia sports world — the Sixers and Comcast — blindsided Mayor Cherelle L. Parker (and the rest of us) by announcing that they intended to raze several buildings on the 1000 block of Market Street, an area covering half the block. As for what they would put in their place, well, they’ll get back to us on that.
This has to be the worst idea for fixing Market Street’s woes since the last bad idea: the Sixers basketball arena.
The federal government shutdown has paused the whitewashing of American history prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior’s order implementing President Trump’s Executive Order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” It is insane to believe that “truth” is on the side of Trump and his monochromatic and chaotic administration.
The Save Our Signs project is a crowdsourced archive dedicated to documenting and preserving signs, exhibits and plaques at National Park Service sites. SOS has launched an open-access, searchable digital archive of photographs of interpretive signs taken by visitors to National Park Service sites. As of October 13, 2025, the SOS Archive has over 10,000 photos.
In a statement, Jenny McBurney, Government Publications Librarian at the University of Minnesota and SOS co-founder, said:
I’m so excited to share this collaborative photo collection with the public. As librarians, our goal is to preserve the knowledge and stories told in these signs. We want to put the signs back in the people’s hands. We are so grateful for all the people who have contributed their time and energy to this project. The outpouring of support has been so heartening. We hope the launch of this archive is a way for people to see all their work come together.
[…]
The SOS Archive includes an online collection of the crowdsourced photos organized by NPS site, and a spreadsheet that houses volunteer-provided details for each individual photo submission. In addition to the name of the park, this includes the date that the photo was taken, and may include the title of the sign, if it was submitted by the volunteer.
SOS is still collecting photos. To add your photos, go here.
September is International Underground Railroad Month, a celebration of the history and legacy of the Underground Railroad. Events highlight stories of the self-emancipators who used a covert network of antislavery activists and safe havens to escape bondage.
Frederick Douglass embarked on his journey to freedom on September 3, 1838. Harriet Tubman began her escape on September 17, 1849.
Archival records show that William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad, held meetings at the Johnson House, an Underground Railroad station in Philadelphia. The Johnson House Historic Site is a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation for a historic property.
This International Underground Railroad Month, the Johnson House will host a party with a purpose, Jammin’ in the Garden 2025: A Celebration of Music and Community, on Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The fundraiser will support their preservation work and the Center for Social Advocacy.
Although SEPTA is in a transit death spiral, the agency is wasting money on outside counsel fighting release of records related to the Philadelphia 76ers’ proposal to build an arena atop Jefferson Station.
I submitted a Right-To-Know Law request on August 1, 2023 for records related to 76 Place for the timeframe of April 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023. After losing before the Office of Open Records and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, SEPTA now claims more than seven gigabytes of data were deleted. Former CEO Leslie Richards and current CEO Scott Sauer deleted records related to the most controversial proposal in the transit agency’s history.
Richards left the cash-strapped agency in November 2024 but she’s still collecting a check from SEPTA.
It is said that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. Fittingly, Richards is now teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn recently announced that Richards received the 2025 Government Service Award from the Philadelphia chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
In deleting 76 Place records, Richards did a disservice to the public. We have the right to know how SEPTA could have been stuck paying tens of millions of dollars for the Sixers billionaire owners’ now-abandoned vanity project.
SEPTA is Exhibit 1 as to why the Pennsylvania House of Representatives should pass Senate Bill 686, sponsored by Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee Chairman Sen. Cris Dush. The legislation makes the intentional destruction or alteration of Right-To-Know Law records a third-degree felony.
I find it deeply troubling that Pennsylvania’s long-standing RTK law mentions no criminal offense for destroying or altering records subject to a RTK request. Not surprisingly, the rule of law is entirely thwarted whenever government officials or their staff intentionally dispose or suppress records that have been requested under RTK provisions, and which the public has every right to examine.
Those who cannot handle the truth should not get away with criminally suppressing the truth. In short, the punishment for violating our Commonwealth’s RTK law must fit the crime. It’s well past time in Pennsylvania to balance the scales of justice against this preposterous ‘get-out-of-jail-free-card’ for the flagrant destruction of RTK records with a maximum third-degree felony conviction.
It is deeply troubling officials destroyed records knowing that if SEPTA approved 76 Place, lawsuits would fly.
PHL Watchdog 