The fact that half of the White House was reduced to rubble tells you everything you need to know about 2025
Work continues on the construction of the ballroom at the White House, Tuesday, Dec., 9, 2025, in Washington, where the East Wing once stood. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
By Denise Clay-Murray
If you’re looking for the best of all possible metaphors to describe 2025, you need look no further than a photo of what is left of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
That address, also known as the White House, is now a shadow of its former self because the current occupant of the house, one Donald J. Trump, decided that the East Wing of what is essentially a national monument needed to be knocked down in service to a ballroom that will probably have his tacky, gold-leafed, imprimatur.
During Trump 1.0, he turned the Rose Garden into a patio more at home at a cheesy Miami hotel. Trump 2.0 (This Time It’s PERSONAL!!!) has already featured, in addition to this defacement of the White House, a name change at the Kennedy Center, a whitewashing of all of the museums at the Smithsonian and changes at National Monuments, including the ones at Independence Mall here in Philadelphia.
We’ve only had one year of the Second Coming of Trump, but it’s been enough to make Pennsylvanians in general, and Philadelphians in particular, start to think of ways to protect themselves.
From community groups keeping an eye on their immigrant neighbors due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities, to groups concentrating on ways to make sure that no matter what the federal government does — or doesn’t do — that everyone has food, Philadelphians have on occasion banded together to make sure that folks are okay.
If 2025 had a title, it would be “The Year Of Unrepentant Narcissism and Audacity,” because let’s face it — both things have been on full display this year.
Narcissism was the coin of the realm on the national level. But on the local level, audacity, — both good and bad — reigned supreme on the local level. City Hall was filled with people who brought their audacious ideas that were good, bad, and, in some cases, doomed from the start — to Council chambers, the Mayor’s Office, and the voting booth.
Unfortunately, 2025 came with its share of loss. Philadelphia lost two journalism pioneers who tried their best to try and make the media better represent the communities it covers. It also lost one of my favorite radio hosts, a pioneering judge, and an activist that fought to save the lives of people dealing with not only a disease that devastated the LGBTQ community, but also the dual marginalization of being Black and LGBTQ at the same time.
It’s time to take a look back at 2025.
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
Welcome H.O.M.E
If you’ve been watching Mayor Cherelle Parker’s tenure in the Big Office on the Second Floor, you’ve probably noticed that every time she proposes a budget, there’s a big-ticket item that requires Philadelphia City Council to go to the bond market and ask for a lot of money.
H.O.M.E Initiative EO signing. Photograph by Quinton Davis
In year one, the Big Ticket item was $100 million for programs designed to try and solve the drug issues in Kensington. Included in that plan is a Wellness Court that gives those battling addiction the chance to avoid jail by going into treatment and to have a place to go when their stint in rehab is finished.
H.O.M.E Initiative hearings. Chris Mansfield | PHL City Council
This year’s Big Ticket item is the Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E program. The idea here is to build or revamp 30,000 units of housing over the duration of the Parker administration’s term. The money is being divided into smaller chunks, with Council having a say in how it’s spent.
The first of the chunks, a $199 million portion, came up for a vote in City Council. But while the Parker administration wanted a significant chunk of the money to go toward middle-class homeowners, many on Council, including Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau, wanted to spend $277 million, with the bulk of it going to those most in need.
In the end, despite some serious lobbying and a call to “save the rowhomes” from the mayor, Council passed its version of the plan. The accompanying bond issue will be coming up for a vote in 2026.
H.O.M.E represented one of the few times during the 2024-2025 Council Year where the body and the Mayor’s Office weren’t in lockstep.
And there are folks in City Hall who believe that the reason why lockstep is no longer the default is because of how the year started.
Now, when it comes to sports in the City of Brotherly Love, the pecking order goes as follows:
*Your Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles
*Philadelphia Phillies
*Philadelphia Flyers…although I don’t know why. And I say this because they’ve done even less than…
*Your Philadelphia 76ers.
Which is why a lot of folks were scratching their heads when Harris/Blitzer Entertainment, the folks that own the Sixers, came into City Council with the aim of building a new stadium for the team just outside of Chinatown in Councilmember Mark Squilla’s district. Comcast, to whom the Sixers currently pay rent to use the Xfinity Center, owns the Flyers.
(Hang on to that information. It’s important.)
Council passed the plan by the end of December 2024 at the behest of Mayor Cherelle Parker, who took to the streets to gain support for the project.
But, Comcast, who had already announced plans for a revamped sports complex that would include hotels, entertainment spaces and other amenities in partnership with the owners of the Phillies and Eagles, had one card left to play.
Illustration of the planned 76 Place stadium
And 2025 in City Hall began with the cable giant playing that card.
With NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joining everyone via Zoom, Mayor Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, Councilmember Squilla and the Sixers and Comcast brain trusts announced that the downtown stadium wasn’t going to happen. Instead, the Sixers will be partnering with the other three major sports teams in the revamped sports complex.
And in exchange, Philadelphia will finally get the WNBA team it probably should have had in the first place.
But that said, part of the reason why the stadium was even considered is the problems that the city has had developing Market East. Comcast has promised to help with this project and has even started tearing down parts of Market Street for, well, no one knows yet.
One thing that is for sure is that the former Greyhound Bus Terminal site, which was where 76 Place, the proposed Sixers stadium, was supposed to go, will go back to its original purpose as a bus station. The Philadelphia Parking Authority will oversee the station, and Council passed a resolution providing financial support for the project. It’s scheduled to open in early 2026.
Speaking of things to keep an eye out for in 2026, let’s talk about the midterm election preview that 2025 provided us with.
The Midterm Shuffle
Rep. Dwight Evans retires
One thing that Trump 2.0 (This Time It’s PERSONAL!!!) has done is make a lot of people look forward to the 2026 midterm elections.
But because Philadelphia was the birthplace of the nation, it makes sense that the midterms have already started here.
In June, Congressman Dwight Evans announced he wouldn’t be running for re-election to the office he’s held since 2016. Since then, at least 12 people, including State Sen. Sharif Street, State Reps. Morgan Cephas and Christopher Rabb, and Dr. Ala Stanford, founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity.
Evans has endorsed Stanford, who has never held political office before.
Because Pennsylvania is still considered a swing state despite Trump winning it in 2024, all eyes were on the Commonwealth’s Supreme Court retention races. Currently, the Commonwealth’s Supreme Court has a Democratic majority, and 2025 was seen as the best chance to change that dynamic.
More than $9 million was poured into the race by independent donors, including conservative megadonor and charter school bankroller Jeff Yass, who put $3.5 million into trying to deny justices Christine Donahue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht from getting new 10-year terms. In the end, the three justices won retention handily.
Another elected on the hot seat that wound up winning reelection easily was District Attorney Larry Krasner. Krasner became just the second district attorney to serve more than two terms in the office since the charter was changed in the 1950s by defeating former Judge Pat Dugan, who ran as a write-in for the Republicans after being defeated by Krasner in the Democratic primary election.
Meanwhile, in Harrisburg, all eyes are on Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is expected to run for reelection as governor, but might have his eyes on the office attached to that House with The Big Hole in It in Washington.
Hopefully, he’ll solve Philadelphia’s SEPTA problem before he leaves, because it’s a big one.
Deadline blues
According to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s constitution, the Commonwealth’s budget is supposed to be passed by June 30 so that the fiscal year can begin on July 1 and things can run smoothly.
But this year, it took 135 days — or four and a half months for those of you who don’t want to do all that deciphering — to get the $50.1 billion budget together. While it provided more money to the public schools, including a so-called tax credit for the working class, and restructured how cyber charter schools are funded, it didn’t include an independent funding stream for mass transit. In fact, the issue of funding for public transit has been kicked down the road for the next two years.
Before getting a total of $614 million from the Commonwealth’s Public Transportation Trust Fund, SEPTA was proposing the kinds of cuts that pretty much gut a public transit agency to close a $213 million deficit. The cuts were stopped by a lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court and while riders were spared from having to find new bus routes near their homes, SEPTA is not out of the woods. Regional rail service is still slowed down due to federal inspections.
Now the tardiness of the budget wouldn’t have been so obvious if it weren’t for two things: Pennsylvania is one of the many mid-Atlantic states that have been impacted by the efforts of Trump 2.0 (This Time It’s PERSONAL!!!) to remake the government in its own unconstitutional image by cutting departments, including the Department of Education, down to the bone. So, unemployment is an issue.
Add to this a 43-day federal government shutdown that had people scrambling for food because the Trump Administration decided that punishing poor people by withholding SNAP benefits was the way to bring their legislators to heel, and 475,000 Philadelphians were wondering where their next meal was coming from.
Fortunately, Gov. Shapiro made $5 million available to food banks and other places that distribute food. Also, Mayor Parker created the One Philly (SNAP) Support program to make sure that no matter what happens in D.C., Philadelphians can get something to eat.
Because the deal that ended the federal government shutdown expires in February, that might become very important.
Labor Days
Back in 1986, shortly after he was re-elected to office, Mayor Wilson Goode had to deal with a strike by District Council 33, the union that represents the city’s trash collectors, 9-1-1 dispatchers and librarians, among other jobs. The 20-day strike came to an end when Goode filed for an injunction to force the trash collectors back to work.
When DC33 workers went out on strike in July, it looked like the impasse between the union and the Parker administration was going to end the same way. But while the eight-day impasse led to Welcome America concert headliners LL Cool J and Philly’s own Jazmine Sullivan refusing to cross the union’s picket line, it was ended with a deal, not injunctions.
While it didn’t lead to the union losing its status as the lowest paid in the city, the deal that Mayor Parker called “fair and fiscally responsible” gave the union raises and a $1,500 bonus.
But let’s look at it this way. Although the unions didn’t get anywhere close to what they wanted, Philadelphia has a great new event on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to start off the 2026 New Year. LL Cool J is doing a makeup concert on the parkway with Philly’s own DJ Jazzy Jeff on New Years Eve.
It’s the first of a bunch of big events celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
Those We Lost
Fredricka Massiah-Jackson
In a lot of ways, 2025 reminded me of 2016.
We had someone in the nation’s highest office that was more concerned about being as cruel as possible to certain Americans than he was helping those who put him in office. And we also lost a lot of brilliant, talented people.
Orien Reid
Music in general, and R&B music in particular, took a real hit this year as pioneers like Sound of Philadelphia pioneer Jerry Butler, multitalented singer and songwriter Roberta Flack, funk pioneer Sly Stone, hip-hop artist and producer Angie Stone, Steve Cropper (If you saw the movie “The Blues Brothers”, he was a member of the band), WMMR DJ and all around “Good Citizen!” Pierre Robert, and neo-soul architect D’Angelo left us this year.
Pioneering Judge Fredricka Massiah Jackson left us this year, as did journalist Orien Reid, former Philadelphia Inquirer executive Mark Frisby, former Philadelphia Daily News executive and founding president of the National Association of Black Journalists-Philadelphia Chapter Michael Days and Tyrone Smith, an activist who fought for those who navigating the dual marginalizations of being both Black and LGBTQ.
And Jimmy Carter, a man who did more as a former president than many of the people who came before and after him did while in office, died just before 2025 began on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100.
So, that’s 2025. We celebrate the nation’s 250th Birthday in 2026 and will probably spend much of that time wondering exactly what we’re celebrating. But no matter what the issues are, we’ll discuss them as we’re Hanging In The Hall.
Until then, have a Happy New Year. Get plenty of rest. We’re all going to need it.
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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