Customers in the ‘Record Joint’ in Progress Plaza. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. March 14th, 1975.
We know we’ve mentioned this before, but you should totally follow Urban Archives (Paley Library, Temple University) on Facebook. They just dropped their “Friday Photos” album, and the above pic was in it, along with other photos that reminded us in a [...]

Good news for people who like to gamble either before or after they buy their tax-free computers and booze: The State of Delaware has approved table gaming legislation. The decision comes on the heels of a similar one made here in PA recently, about which readers of this site know all too well. What’s more, [...]

Amazing quote, Foxwoods attorney Fred Jacoby! Jacoby uttered this memorable bon mot whilst pleading his case before what is being characterized as an “increasingly impatient” PA Gaming Control Board. Now, before we go any further, can we all take a moment to appreciate our “increasingly impatient” PA Gaming Control Board? You know, the one [...]

Unless you’re in Monaco, where a bit of roulette is just something you do whilst waiting for Grace Kelly to put on her face, a casino is almost by definition a sad place. It doesn’t matter how loud you make the bloops and the bleeps and the bells — every moment that passes in a [...]

The “free” bus to Atlantic City may have been discontinued, but don’t despair; the New Atlantic City may just be popping up in our backyard. On Tuesday night in Harrisburg, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, the House voted 103-89 in favor of allowing up to 250 table games at large casinos. Rendell is supposedly [...]

Wake up, rockists! No, it’s not about the new Vampire Weekend album (although that was digitally serviced this morning so expect it to be on the Internet and everywhere and free… now!), it’s about Wilco. The band will be playing Electric Factory on Saturday, April 10; tickets go on sale Saturday, January 9 at 10am. [...]

2010, a brokedick odyssey: Before this year is over, mark our words, you will have the option of playing slots in an oxygen-pumped prole sarcophagus on Delaware Avenue among both The Greatest Generation and some of the saddest unskilled laborers Sugarhouse’s dirty, dirty money can buy. Maybe even by August! Also this year: Legalized table [...]

We can say it because we’re Italians: Whose idea was it to let a guy named Dante Santoni be the PA House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman? In the first of a two-part post over at The Clog, recent Philebrity Award winner Isaiah Thompson reveals exactly how table games (poker, blackjack, etc.) are being legalized in [...]

Under the heading Other Business, a repurposing of yes, another factory-to-luxury-apartment complex in Northern Liberties was discussed on Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (video footage courtesy of Plan Philly). The buildings to be gutted, painted, and beautified are the two massive 8-story 1930s-era solid concrete behemoths at 800 N. Delaware Ave [...]

Since we’re sick of going on and on about the casino issue here in Philly, only to have to load-tards shrug and be like, “yeah but what about BIKE LANES?,” we’ll be quick with this: Foxwoods, the casino chain that was supposed to build in South Philly until it was supposed to be in The [...]

UPDATE: Voting is now closed! Thanks for participating, and congrats to all the nominees and winners! Join us tonight for The Philebrity Awards Show & Xmas Pageant on Thursday, December 10th at the Trocadero!
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Hi, and welcome to the first-ever Philebrity Awards Poll.
For years now, we’ve been talking about doing a Philebrity Awards, and this year, [...]

One of the most baffling things we’ve noticed on this site over the last year or so is just how much of hot-button issue anything to do with bicyclists in Philadelphia is. On one hand, the amount of bike-positive progress we’ve seen over the last few years in Philly has been something to behold; as [...]

Indiana or The Riviera? Oh, no, wait: That is definitely Indiana.
As you probably know, the failure of local democracy known as Sugarhouse recently broke ground, and it’s looking like Foxwoods, its just-as-evil twin, is also considering fast-tracking a “temporary casino.” What, you ask, is a “temporary casino?” To some, it’s a big tent where you [...]

Over the weekend, diving into Bicycle Diaries, the new book by David Byrne — which is an utter joy to read, by the way — we stumbled across this passage in Byrne’s chapter on American cities, and boy, did it ever sound familiar:
[...]There is often a highway built along the waterfront in many towns. Before [...]

Now, look: Before we go any further, can the anti-casino among us please refrain from the emails and comments prostelytizing the myriad ways in which casinos are bad? WE KNOW. Somewhere along the line, since we opened our big mouths and criticized the anti-casino movement here in Philly — not even one specific group, mind [...]

Now that Sugarhouse is a done deal and the anti-casino movement has failed in Fishtown — God, they love it when we say that — can we just (pardon the pun) call a spade a spade say that, yo, it’s only a matter of time before we get some table games up in here. And [...]

RECOMMENDED: The Secret Cinema presents Bookworms’ Revenge: Various Short Films on the themes of Reading, Writing, and General Nerdy Bookness at the 215 Festival, which opens tonight. (See Philebrity preview here.) And true to its billing, the Secret Cinema’s program tonight will feature a veritable cornucopia of nerd ephemera. Among other things: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: [...]

On Sep 30, 2009, at 10:31 AM, Jethro Heiko wrote:
Joey,
Normally I think your posts are great. But how about asking me/us before regurgitating false claims about who we employ. Did Dan Fee crawl up your ass lately? Right now we employ one organizer, Lily Cavanagh. We have always been a city-wide group and our goal [...]

With news breaking that Sugarhouse, after literally years of protest, class warfare and God only knows what kind of backroom dealing, is slated to break ground on October 8th, here comes the part where it all starts to get ugly. Really ugly. This morning, a dozen protestors were arrested after blocking the gates at the [...]

We begin today with a question: If Great Depression 2.0 isn’t economically depressing enough to tank plans for the Sugarhouse casino on Delaware Avenue, then why in the hell did we even bother to have it in the first place? After a few months in which it looked like Sugarhouse was having the same kinds [...]