Philadelphia, PA,- September 5, 2026: Wide view of Dinosaur Hall and fossil displays at the Academy of Natural Sciences.
PHOTO: Big Blink Creative / Shutterstock.com
Philadelphia City Council returns from its summer break this week.
By Denise Clay-Murray
While it’s still warm — we still have a few days in the mid-to-upper 80s coming this week — there are signs that summer is in our rear-view mirror.
Students are back in school, although some of their weekend activities are giving their elders pause. Pumpkin spice is everywhere, whether we like it or not.
The Philadelphia Eagles, and, thankfully, quarterback Jalen Hurts’ goatee, are back at Lincoln Financial Field, and the Philadelphia Phillies are making folks assess whether or not they have enough warm, red outfits as Red October approaches at Citizens Bank Park.
The leaves are even starting to turn colors.
But for the purposes of this column, the most important sign of fall is the return of Philadelphia City Council. The city’s legislative body holds its first meeting of the year on Thursday, and while they haven’t been idle this summer — there were some hearings held during the break — they’ll be dealing with some things that were left hanging when Council adjourned for the break on June 11.
One of those things will most likely be Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s “Stop Trashing Our Air” bill, which passed out of the Committee on the Environment, and put on the final passage calendar, but was never voted on.
In July, the City decided to award a new contract to the Reworld Trash incinerator in Chester, something that the bill, which calls on the city to stop sending its trash anywhere to be burned, would prohibit if passed. Like the contracts the city decided to WM, formerly Waste Management and Republic Services, this would be a four-year deal that gives the City the option to renew it for up to three years.
But while Mayor Cherelle Parker can make the decision to award the contract, the contract itself has to be passed by Council. My sources say that passage will likely happen, but with the 2027 Municipal Elections around the corner, expect speeches. Lots and lots of speeches.
Another thing that Council will likely revisit is the School District of Philadelphia’s facilities plan. Lawsuits regarding the plan have already been filed and while it’s unlikely that members of Council will repeat their visits to 440 N. Broad St. to protest, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas’s hearings to discuss revising the school board and how it’s selected were supposed to take place on Sept.15 but have since been cancelled.
Expect them to be rescheduled.
Another topic of conversation that will certainly come up in this council session is the closing of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. On Sept. 1, it was announced that the museum would be closing its doors. The last day for the public to visit the building at 19th and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is Sept. 27 and the academy’s operations at the place it has called home since 1812 on Sept. 30 due to financial issues they said were connected to an inability to bring attendance back to pre-COVID lockdown levels.
Drexel became partners with the museum, the oldest natural history museum in the Americas, in 2011. While research will continue, no one knows what will happen with the exhibits and other things that call the museum home.
(There aren’t a whole lot of places you can put a 42 ft. long, 7.5-ton dinosaur, so finding a new home for it isn’t going to be easy. Unless, of course, you want to make it part of the new stadium that the Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Flyers and the city’s new WNBA team will call home. A Tyrannosaurus Rex could work in that space.)
In a city still smarting from the abrupt closing of the University of the Arts, expect hearings on what happened with the Academy, because you’ve got to work hard to shutter a museum that’s been around since 1812.
If you want to find out what’s going on in your city government, please join me as I host the live broadcast of Philadelphia City Council on Thursday mornings, starting at 10 a.m. on WURD Radio, 900AM/96.1FM.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee or other group or individual.
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