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City Blocks: Two Frankford Avenue Artists

Profiles of two artists, both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, who have a hand in the ongoing transformation of Kensington. (Comments)

The Flickring of Philadelphia: Chris Woods

By Elise Vider Chris Woods aims - focuses and shoots - to please. An unabashed Philadelphia booster and self-described photography addict, Woods' mission on Flickr is to show off his native city to anyone who may doubt the beauty of... (Comments)

Special Report: Preserving the City's Past II

By Alan Jaffe Everyday we walk or drive past buildings that once defined the Philadelphia skyline and continue to serve as important markers of the city's history. But many are lost in the long battles to protect them and slow... (Comments)

Gaming the System

By Tom Ferrick Jr. If you ever wondered how police handle a drug stakeout, I can tell you. There is a team of narcotics officers who stake out a drug corner. They remain out of sight. One officer, usually the... (Comments)

Eye in the Sky: A New Way to Combat Crime

By Brian James Kirk When it comes to fighting crime, Philadelphia is undergoing a video revolution. Within a few short years, the city is likely to be blanketed by a network of more than a thousand state-of-the-art, high resolution cameras,... (Comments)

Why I Am 'Going Bamboo': I'm not sure which aspect of corporate America can be credited as the straw that broke the camel's back and made me decide to "go bamboo." Maybe it was the chorus of co-workers wishing me things like "Happy Friday" or chirping "Somebody could use another cup of coffee!" Maybe it was time I spent studying the walls of my cubical, attempting to conjure up ideas of how any postcard or picture could camouflage the plastic box I worked in. Most likely, however, it was the unenthusiastic chatter of my fellow 20-somethings every morning on the R5. IPod in ears, the front page of The Metro shielding their faces, they are daily ushered from the suburbs like unwilling passengers on the River Styx.
Return to Eden: September is rolling in and stores across the nation are...
New Look, New Logo: Regular Metropolis readers will notice a different look to the...
The New Home Schooling: Like many Pennsylvania children, eight-year-old Venus Kennedy has just begun third grade, but not in a new and unfamiliar classroom. She is doing all of her schooling from the comfort of her family home near Temple University. Kennedy is among the thousands of youngsters in the Philadelphia region for whom the start of school this year means pulling up a chair in their living room, dining room or bedroom and logging on to a computer. They are attending virtual schools - a fast-growing trend in K-12 education, enrolling about 175,000 students nationwide and estimated 23,000 in Pennsylvania.
Finding the Right Cyber Charter: In the new world of public education - where choices abound - parents have to do their homework before picking a school for their child. That's doubly true for cyber charters, which promise a lot but sometimes don't deliver the goods when it comes to quality education. In this installment of The New Home Schooling, reporter Connie Langland offers tips and a list of sources on how to find the cyber charter that best fits your child's needs...
A Cyber Future for Education: The John Paul II High School in suburban Montgomery County has all the bells and whistles of a brand-new school--including two cyber learning labs. Advanced Placement courses, once the bragging right of the highest functioning, best funded schools in the region, are becoming commonplace - thanks to the Internet. Students who once were on the verge of dropping out in the Octorara Area School District in Chester County are now making up lost ground - taking so-called credit recovery courses using school computers.
Do You Speak Construction?: I'm sitting in my house cringing, as two guys are...
Say It Ain't So, Sam: It's been the worst-kept political secret in Philadelphia and now...
From Dawn to Dusk: I usually sleep until 7 a.m., but these days I...
Confessions of a Techno Dolt: As a mom of three teens, I've relied upon them...