🗓️ Philly’s Leap Day history

🍎 Tentative Agreement for Teachers Union Contract

A proposed one-year contract extension between the School District of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was announced yesterday. It came unusually early — half a year before the current contract expires. [Chalkbeat Philadelphia]

• Related: PA schools have been struggling to keep and retain teachers. Why? [City Cast Philly 🎧]

🎶 Verizon Hall To Be Renamed After Marian Anderson

After Verizon’s naming rights to the Kimmel Center’s main performance venue expired, a donor gave $25 million to rename the hall after the Philly-born opera legend, effective June 8. [WHYY]

🚘 New License Plate Readers Coming to Bridges

New Jersey State Police are installing the scanners on the Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross, and Commodore Barry bridges to help with locating cars in criminal investigations. [KYW]

🌮 Philly Chef Developing Taco Bell Recipe

Reuben Asaram, who’s known for combining Mexican and Pan-Asian flavors at his Reuby pop-ups, is one of three chefs the fast food chain tapped to reimagine its popular Crunchwrap Supreme. [Inquirer 🔒]

ICYMI, a horse got loose on I-95 in Philly last week (and thankfully made it home safe). In light of that, I asked Hey Philly readers to share the strangest things you’ve seen on a Philadelphia road or highway.

🚶 Hey Philly reader Joe G. said: “While waiting for the El at Spring Garden Station early one morning (about 5:45am), I saw a man walking along I-95 North. Even odder, two days later, I saw another person walking north on I-95. Why, I kept asking myself???”

🌉 Hey Philly reader H.M. M. shared a memory from a commute over the Walt Whitman Bridge in the 1980s, when a woman was “on her side doing leg lifts and looking completely bewildered and stalling traffic” in the left lane of I-76. “Craziest thing I ever saw!” wrote H.M. “And she was very lucky no one hit her.”

🚗 As for me, I once saw a driver get out of their car on I-76 and motion to stop several lanes of traffic. Then, they walked to the side of the road to cast aside the bumper that had just fallen off of their car.

🎧 Tune into the City Cast Philly podcast for more weird things we’ve seen on Philly streets, including a car covered in reflectors and zebras on the loose.

Stay safe out there!

Your Guide To March in Philly

It’s our monthly events guide! The City Cast Philly team shares some of the coolest places to go, restaurants to try, and free things to do this March.