The call came a few days after we’d broadcast a report on a Philadelphia man hawking TV satellite systems to homeowners in communities not yet wired for cable. For a few hundred bucks he claimed his company would place a small satellite dish on a roof and all the wonders of satellite TV would flow to the set.
But it was all a ruse. The scammer would literally take the money and run. Running was something he sure liked to do because he hightailed it just as we tracked him down and began hitting him with questions while in the act.
Our broadcast report put an end to his swindle, and it prompted a phone call early on in my 25 years of reporting on television in Philadelphia. It was an older woman who’d been taken by the guy. She called to thank me for stopping him, but it wasn’t all she had to say. She continued in the blunt language of people of this gritty city: “I’ve never seen a reporter, a white guy,” she said, “chasing down someone who was ripping off poor people — black folk.”
“Please, keep going,” she urged.
I knew I’d fit here.
A quarter century later, after reporting countless stories on this city and its people, having witnessed heart breaking tragedy and experienced pure joy, having raised two fine young men with my wife, and reveled in its pro sports, culture, restaurants and spirited populace, we’re leaving.
I’m a Massachusetts native, who reported news in Connecticut and moved to WTXF in 2000 to lead an investigative unit when Fox was building investigative teams in its big market television stations. My wife, armed with an MBA and an interest in healthcare fundraising work she did here, is a native of New York’s Westchester County. Our sons, Aidan and Gabriel, were one and four when we arrived.
Philadelphia’s remarkable neighborhoods were what I noticed in my first weeks. Row home after row home stretching for miles often along streets so narrow barely one car could pass. Parking on sidewalks was sure new to me, as was the long held South Philly tradition of parking in the middle of busy streets.
I quickly learned to love the vibe of Philly. I’d long been a fan of the talented but troubled singer Rick James. James, who died in 2004, combined funk, and soul to produce the song Ebony Eyes. In it he screams his love for the woman with ebony eyes, but laments “I bet you didn’t know that.” Soon after I got here, while chasing a story in North Philly, I hear Ebony eyes. It’s booming from a large speaker propped against an open, upper floor window with a young woman on the street below screeching the lyrics by herself, just for her own, evident enjoyment. I soon learned it represented the essence of Philadelphia: content in its loves; unafraid to show it.
As I leave, I take with me deep concerns.
Visiting Philadelphia’s public schools was a moving experience for me. I found students’ artwork posted on walls next to quotes from historic figures in corridors where excited young students offered wide smiles and wonder to a visitor. I watched engaged teachers in large classrooms in front of kids swinging their arms in the air to be called on. But I also reported continually on aging buildings with asbestos inside forcing students out of their classrooms and sometimes out of their buildings entirely. And there was violence. Students shot on their way to and from school or even leaving football practice as in the searing murder of Nicholas Elizalde outside Roxborough High School in September of 2022.
While shootings and murders have thankfully fallen in Philadelphia, too many communities remain violent, especially for young people. The condition of public school buildings continues to roil the city, as evidenced by the debate in City Council and the loud showdown at a recent school board meeting.
Entering the homes of people across the city, I was often startled by the substandard conditions of the housing stock. Collapsed ceilings, busted pipes, broken windows covered with plywood or even cardboard were common. Residents, struggling with unemployment or low wages, didn’t have the money to make repairs and if they did all too often a fly-by-night contractor would take money and make conditions worse.
Too many kids in Philadelphia suffer from asthma. It’s a complaint I heard constantly from parents. Their concerns are supported by a 2020 study by the Centers for Disease Control which found 21 percent of Philadelphia kids suffering from it. That’s more than three times the national figure. It’s a concerning issue but there’s another problem I’ll never forget.
I remember walking to a fire scene in a city neighborhood a few years ago and telling a young reporter, new to the city, that Philadelphia will break your heart. Fire is the reason. It kills children in their beds, huddled in their bedrooms, in their parents’ arms in all sorts of horrifying ways. Aging, overcrowded homes with disabled or missing smoke alarms were almost always the cause. The Fairmount Fire of January of 2023 that claimed twelve lives including nine children is the defining event of Philadelphia’s struggle with fire. The fire department installs free smoke alarms across the city and attempts to educate the public on the vital importance of smoke alarms and other safety practices, but the problem persists.
I’ve lived in the Philadelphia area longer than anywhere else. I consider it a gift. A lucky break I got a job in this amazing, vibrant, passionate place. The best city in America to cover news and maybe even the best to live.
Jeff Cole was an investigative, politics and policy reporter at Fox 29 in Philadelphia for 25 years. He is a two-time winner of the Weiss Award for Investigative Reporting, as well as the recipient of a series of Edward R. Murrow Awards and Associated Press Awards and four New England Emmy Awards for his investigative reporting.