In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law one of the most consequential pieces of housing legislation, but unless you’re an urban planner or housing advocate you probably have never heard of the Section 9(g)(3) of the United States Housing Act of 1937, more commonly known as the “Faircloth Amendment.” Named for Senator Lauch Faircloth… Continue reading
Posts in "Health"
An Open Letter to The New York Times: Stop Using “Addict” to Describe People
To the Associate Managing Editor for Standards, I recently read Jennifer Percy’s feature in The New York Times Magazine titled: Trapped by the ‘Walmart of Heroin’ published on October 10, 2018. As a subscriber of The Times and resident of Philadelphia, I was glad to see more attention and quality reporting on this important issue. I was… Continue reading
To Prevent Gun Violence, Look to Public Health
After mass shootings we often ask: Could this have been prevented? Yes. We can prevent gun violence. “The public health approach emphasizes prevention and focuses not only on the gun user but also the instrument of violence and the environment.” https://t.co/jz6kC9tvjS 1/13 — Justin Gero 🦅 (@JustinGero) February 18, 2018 The public health approach to… Continue reading
A Brief History of Philadelphia’s Syringe Exchange

Philadelphia in the 1980s was a city desperate for, yet stubbornly resistant to, change. The election of W. Wilson Goode, Philadelphia’s first African American mayor, had failed to bring the kind of sweeping reforms in which many in the city had hoped. By 1991, Philadelphia had struggled with two decades of job loss, population decline,… Continue reading
The Measles Vaccine is an Obvious Success [Infographic]

Collaboration with Berly Laycox.