Kevin Riordan

Haddon Heights

Writer at Freelance

I’m a freelance writer/[email protected]/267-815-0975

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Articles

A highway project that would have destroyed South Street in the 1960s echoes today's debates about Philly traffic

2 weeks ago | inquirer.com | Tom Fitzgerald |Kevin Riordan

Imagine South Street, a longtime cradle of creativity, buried under concrete like the Vine Street Expressway. It almost happened. Today, the Vine is sunken below grade, a stub of a freeway. Parking lots front blocks above, the thrum of vehicles is constant, and the air reeks of exhaust. On the east end, ramps to I-95 and the Ben Franklin Bridge and speeding cars on surface streets menace pedestrians.
At 93, this South Jersey resident is still adding to her legacy of advocacy and sowing love

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

The Friends Enrichment Program began in the late 1990s with an in-line skating class for kids in a Moorestown parking lot. But the program’s roots were grown in 1940s Montreal, where a wealthy French Canadian girl and some of her Catholic school classmates collected donations from tavern patrons to buy winter coal for needy families. “Sow love, reap love” is FEP’s slogan. “After the war I saw legless [veterans] sitting on mats on the ground in downtown Montreal,” said Monique Begg, 93.
'Building Ghosts' explores who lived in Philadelphia's demolished rowhouses

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

All that’s left of 2716 N. 12th St. in North Philadelphia are sun-bleached rectangles of plaster clinging to the party wall of an adjacent house that still stands. Traces of stairways, shelving, joists, and tilework overlook demolition sites in the city’s older neighborhoods — like illustrations for a story about depopulation, disinvestment, mass demolition, and loss. The story of a tenant named Elizabeth Cornog at 2716 N.
Eclectic artist and Philly promoter Joel Spivak, who helped revive South Street, has died at 85

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

Joel Spivak, 85, a free-spirited carpenter and artist known for his quirky, scholarly passion for all things Philadelphia, died Monday, April 21, of heart failure at his home in the city’s Bella Vista neighborhood. Mr. Spivak was an authority on Philly trolleys, delis, soda fountains, and neighborhood traditions, including “rowhouse sports” such as half-ball.
Is off-price Burlington the retail we need as the economy wavers?

1 month ago | miamiherald.com | Kevin Riordan

Off-price retailers tend to do well when the economy doesn't. That's good news for Burlington Stores, the nationwide off-price retailer founded in South Jersey. Burlington opened 100 new locations in 2024 and plans to continue that pace of expansion this year and beyond.
Is off-price Burlington the retail we need as the economy wavers?

1 month ago | dailygazette.com | Kevin Riordan

Off-price retailers tend to do well when the economy doesn’t. That’s good news for Burlington Stores, the nationwide off-price retailer founded in South Jersey. Burlington opened 100 new locations in 2024 and plans to continue that pace of expansion this year and beyond. kAm“xE’D 2 5J?2>:4 E:>6 C:89E ?@H[ 2?5 @77\AC:46 :D 2 8@@5 A=246 E@ 36 :? C6E2:= 3642FD6 4@?DF>6CD H2?E E96 36DE G2=F6[” r9C:D |:==6C[ 8C@FA D6?:@C G:46 AC6D:56?E @7 >2C<6E:?8 2?5 DEC2E68J[ D2:5 62C=:6C E9:D >@?E9 2E E96 qFC=:?8E@?
Mural Arts creates a new way for building owners to preserve street art

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

The 4,000 vividly hued and often-dramatic murals on its streets have given Philadelphia a reputation as the "Best City for Street Art"in America, and even the "Mural Capital of the World."“Philly is the world’s largest outdoor public art gallery,” said Chad Eric Smith, the communications director of the nonprofit Mural Arts program. But at least a half-dozen of these large-scale, community-driven works of public mural art are lost annually to demolition, development, or both.
Is off-price Burlington the retail we need as the economy wavers?

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

Off-price retailers tend to do well when the economy doesn’t. That’s good news for Burlington Stores, the nationwide off-price retailer founded in South Jersey.Burlington opened 100 new locations in 2024 and plans to continue that pace of expansion this year and beyond.
St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society opens East Camden job skills center and community hub

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

As it continues to rebuild East Camden’s housing stock, the St. Joseph’s Carpenter Societyis adding vocational and job readiness services — and sharing expertise its has gained over the last 40 years. Student interns, aspiring construction workers, and neighborhood residents who want to learn how to improve their own houses are welcome at the nonprofit’s new workforce training and community resource center at 29th and Federal Streets.
London’s great fire of 1666 helped make South Jersey America’s ‘patterned brick’ capital

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Kevin Riordan

For years, author Robert L. Thompson heard fellow historians rave about the jazzy exterior wall designs of South Jersey’s 18th-century patterned brick farmhouses. These geometric arrangements of structural bricks in contrasting colors, typically found on a single side of a house, “are really beautiful,” said Thompson.