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119 articles
The Philadelphia Sheriff has a 223-day deed-recording backlog. Buyers paid $1M at auction and are still waiting. The 2003 consent order says 40 days.
Philadelphia's property-return process takes 6 to 10+ months end-to-end. Diversion, court scheduling, and Sheriff backlog stack into a year or more.
Philadelphia Code: Accidental Anthropology · Part 1 of 9
Philadelphia Code § 9-202 sets a $5 fine for playing a hand organ where it forbids it — set in 1897, never adjusted. The city’s modern sidewalk vending regime layered on top.
Philadelphia's broken eviction process adds ~$50/month to every renter's bill. Lower-income zips pay the most, and small landlords leave the market.
SDP faces a $300M structural deficit and is cutting 340 school-based positions. Central office — up 56% — is largely protected.
I care about diverse schools. I care about results. The mismatch research is contested but I think it points the right way — and what Philadelphia is doing with its selective school admissions won't deliver what it promises.
Philadelphia changed its selective school admissions rules on the same day the application window opened, with no formal public comment period, no warning, and no time to respond.
A federal court said Philadelphia may have discriminated in its 2022 school admissions policy and sent the case back for trial.
The Philadelphia Code still names abolished agencies — Fairmount Park Commission, Recorder of Deeds, Board of Inspectors — in present-tense language.
The back-of-the-envelope calculation that changed how I think about calendars forever.
Philadelphia's $3.4B in professional services contracts are 90% finalized late; more than a quarter face 5+ month delays. Nonprofits bankroll the gap.
Philadelphia wants to tax Uber rides to fix schools — but the city has $143.7M in property tax debt it says it can collect. The regressive tax is the symptom.
Philadelphia Sheriff Bilal spent $9,250 on a mascot and $606,000 on a recruiting ad, then asked Council for a 54% budget increase.
The Army Corps downgraded Eastwick's flood protection from a 100-year to a 5-year levee. Construction now: 2030 at earliest.
Philadelphia's City Controller can diagnose the city's financial dysfunction down to the dollar. Fixing it is someone else's job.
Intelligence Is Free · Part 5 of 5
The aggregate valuations of the top six foundational AI labs exceed $2 trillion. The mathematics of discounted cash flows suggests this cannot be justified by any plausible future earnings. A reasoned examination of the bubble.
Intelligence Is Free · Part 4 of 5
This is Part 4 of Intelligence Is Free. The old approach: define rules → check data → flag violations. The new approach: provide context + ask open-ended questions. A framework for thinking about what changes.
Intelligence Is Free · Part 3 of 5
This is Part 3 of Intelligence Is Free. This is a paradigm shift, not optimization. Why old mental models fail in this new world, and why "10% better" completely misses the point.
Intelligence Is Free · Part 2 of 5
This is Part 2 of Intelligence Is Free. When intelligence is free, competitive advantage shifts from "who has the best analysts" to "who has the best AI architecture." What this means for business strategy.
Intelligence Is Free · Part 1 of 5
This is Part 1 of Intelligence Is Free. Intelligence now costs pennies per million tokens. This isn't faster—it's a fundamentally different capability. Like the transition from ship to plane.