{"id":126882,"date":"2026-03-01T18:30:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126882\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T18:30:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:30:06","slug":"philly-will-spend-over-600-million-on-u-s-250th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126882\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly will spend over $600 million on U.S. 250th anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Philadelphia plans to spend $620 million on celebrations for the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, according to a new city controller <a href=\"https:\/\/controller.phila.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/February-2026-MMM.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The number includes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcphiladelphia.com\/news\/local\/phl-airport-major-upgrades-2026\/4324973\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$500 million<\/a> previously allocated to upgrading <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-international-airport-newark-flight-cuts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia International Airport<\/a>. The report from City Controller Christy Brady says that while the inclusion of PHL funds is not exclusive to <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/series\/philadelphia-250\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">250th celebrations<\/a>, it is intended to support increased tourism during the anniversary events.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhiladelphia is projected to welcome 1.5 million visitors for major events scheduled throughout the coming months. The city has allocated funds to manage the steady flow of travelers arriving from around the globe. The City of Philadelphia 2026 Director has indicated that it will be the largest concentration of visitors in the city\u2019s history during a single period,\u201d the city controller\u2019s office said in a statement.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Including Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s \u201cRing It On!\u201d events, $120 million has been allocated directly to the city\u2019s anniversary celebrations.\n<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the sum breaks down to:\n<\/p>\n<p>$70 million for public safety and essential services<br \/>\n$45 million allocated to special events hosted through partner organizations<br \/>\n$4.6 million to support Community Life Improvement Program, or CLIP, projects<\/p>\n<p>The total is $20 million more than originally announced, and it remains unclear whether the $70 million for public safety includes overtime costs for police, fire and sanitation workers. \u201cRing It On!\u201d celebrations include the <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/liberty-bells-philly-250-anniversary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bells Across PA program<\/a>, in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Local artists will design 20 large replica Liberty Bells; each will represent the unique identities of various city neighbourhoods, and residents and visitors will be able to walk through the city to see them.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,4001,71,70,9880],"class_list":["post-126882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-250","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-semiquincentennial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}