Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Inside the ‘tallest hotel in America’; Incarcerated filmmakers get the chance to tell their stories | Morning Newsletter

All the local news you need to know to start your day, delivered straight to your email.

The bar and restaurant area inside the new Four Seasons Hotel at the top of the Comcast Technology Center.
The bar and restaurant area inside the new Four Seasons Hotel at the top of the Comcast Technology Center.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

The Comcast Tower’s Four Seasons hotel opens up next week. My colleague Bob Fernandez went inside the luxury hotel, accessible via glass-enclosed elevators and filled with celebrity chefs and florists. Also, incarcerated filmmakers have been working on animated shorts that will be played at Eastern State Penitentiary later this month.

Reading this online? Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning.

— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

A visit to the Four Seasons hotel in Comcast Tower begins in a glass-enclosed elevator ride that rockets up the outside of the building, climbing 60 floors, or roughly 1,000 feet, in under a minute. Once guests enter the lobby of what the Four Seasons calls the tallest hotel in America — it’s 12-floors — they’ll find their stay will have a touch of celebrity with chefs Greg Vernick and Jean Georges running restaurants there as well as a florist who has worked with the Kardashians planning arrangements.

We have turned a typical hotel on its head,” said Christian Clerc, president of worldwide hotel operations for Four Seasons. “ ... you could pick up this hotel and and put it anyplace — New York, London, Paris or Bangkok — and it would be the best hotel in town.”

The hotel will open Monday. Room rates top $600 a night.

A group of 20 incarcerated men at SCI Chester are working with a crew hired by Eastern State Penitentiary to develop animated shorts. They’ll be screened starting Aug. 15 on the walls of the historic prison-turned-museum.

Their series aims to confront museum visitors and neighbors with the lived experience of prisoners. These are people who mostly come from nearby communities, but whose voices are largely unheard.

The team’s work began last year, and it hasn’t been easy. Prison regulations make it difficult to collaborate. Regardless, many of the men look forward to telling their stories. “I didn’t know how I was going to get this story out,” a man named Qwasheam said.

The announcement followed two Philadelphia lawyers filing a lawsuit on behalf of a 57-year-old Luzerne County man. The man says he was sexually abused starting around age 12 by a troop leader in the 1970s.

A team of lawyers, including the two from Philly, said Tuesday about 800 men nationwide contacted them with allegations of sexual abuse. The group gave reporters a list of 547 alleged victims. About 40 men were allegedly abused in Pennsylvania as Boy Scouts. About 20 were in New Jersey.

In the spring, Boy Scout officials said they kept a list of thousands of leaders who were suspected of preying on young boys and were kicked out of scouting.

What you need to know today

  1. Toni Morrison, the award-winning author, essayist, editor, lyricist, playwright, and professor, died Monday at the age of 88. Morrison was the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize. She also won a Pulitzer Prize and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

  2. President Donald Trump decried poverty in big cities. But could he be overlooking vast poverty in rural regions and rising suburban poverty?

  3. A number of political analysts, operatives and pundits agreed that Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) had a strong debate last week. But he hasn’t seen any major rise in his polling numbers.

  4. Comcast will expand its internet services for low-income families. The company said that another three million households could be eligible nationwide.

  5. A 25-acre landfill at a Superfund site in South Jersey has been topped with over 30,000 solar panels. The solar farm is capable of generating enough electricity to power 2,600 homes.

  6. The deadline for new, more-secure ID cards is in two months. New Jersey is still one of four states that doesn’t offer them.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

That sky, though 👀. Awesome shot, @castillaabel_.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

That’s Interesting

  1. Ben Simmons claims that he and a small group of friends faced racial discrimination at a casino in Australia. “I am very passionate about equality and I will always speak up even if it means having uncomfortable conversations,” the Sixers star tweeted early yesterday morning.

  2. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has barred the state’s wineries from promoting volume discounts. The discounts themselves are fine, but the advertisements are considered “an inducement.”

  3. The transition from elementary to middle school can be infamously tough. There might be a way to help students overcome that.

  4. Aramark bought a competitor that the company says is “an innovative, app-based on-demand food delivery service that brings freshly prepared, restaurant-quality meals to conveniently located pickup points around college campuses.”

  5. The executive director of Philly’s largest animal shelter has stepped down from her post after less than a year.

  6. Former Phillies star Shane Victorino has launched a second career as a major investor in a cannabis company. Known as the “Flyin’ Hawaiin” in his playing days, Victorino said his home state’s year-round growing climate gives the new company an advantage over competitors.

Opinions

“No one should be locked up and traumatized for skipping class. Yet 1 in 3 youth locked up in Pennsylvania are there for status offenses and probation violations, such as truancy or running away — one of the highest rates in the country.” — Mike O’Bryan, the director of Young Adult Initiatives at the Village of Arts and Humanities, writes about the “broken system” that incarcerates Philly’s children.

  1. The Inquirer Editorial Board writes that while gun control might not stop white supremacy, it could make it less deadly.

  2. Anita Gupta, a pain physician and anesthesiologist who worked at Hahnemann University Hospital and the Drexel University College of Medicine, asks, “How will Hahnemann’s closure affect Philly’s opioid crisis?”

What we’re reading

  1. WHYY reports on a network for young professionals of color that was founded by Philly natives. It’s called For(bes) The Culture, and it has now become an official partner of Forbes.

  2. Vox explains how Earth’s toughest animal may survive on the moon.

  3. Some parents make the choice not to post photos of their kids on social media. In those cases, the biggest threats to their children’s online privacy becomes Facebook-happy grandparents, BuzzFeed News reports.

Your Daily Dose of | Art

Philly artist Pauline Houston-McCall has been commissioned for Wells Fargo’s corporate offices in New York City. She says that the commission of 19 works is among the highlights of her career.