The countdown is on. We are one month away from America\u2019s 250th birthday. From the Welcome America concert and fireworks, to Movies on the Mall, to art installations and exhibitions across neighborhoods, and burying a national time capsule, the list of festivities is long. With the FIFA World Cup kickoff next week, and the MLB All-Star Game in town for the first time in 30 years, it\u2019s an exciting time to be in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The convergence of so many events drawing international attention comes with special challenges. City officials say they\u2019re more than ready to meet the moment \u2014 and the demands of a potential influx of tourists. But critics of the preparation campaign say investments in infrastructure and beautification were too little, too late.<\/p>\n
The decade leading up to this year\u2019s celebration was marked by tension between planning groups and changes in leadership and direction. The COVID-19 pandemic, a municipal workers\u2019 strike, and a fiscal crisis that plagued SEPTA were just a few major bumps in the road. Construction projects across the region remain unfinished, and now, skyrocketing costs for fuel and travel mean hopes for a tourism boom may not materialize.<\/p>\n
On this episode of Studio 2, with just a month to go, is Philadelphia ready to celebrate USA 250?<\/p>\n
Guests:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The countdown is on. We are one month away from America\u2019s 250th birthday. From the Welcome America concert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28,69,71,70,12736],"class_list":["post-210778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-studio-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210778","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=210778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}