About this wiki

The Philadelphia Civic Wiki is an educational reference on how Philadelphia's government, politics, unions, authorities and civic organizations work. It is written for residents, tenants, organizers, journalists and students who need to know which body does what, and where to turn when something goes wrong.

1 Scope

Philadelphia is a consolidated city and county (see City-County Consolidation), so the wiki separates five kinds of body that residents often confuse: bodies created by the Home Rule Charter (mayoral departments, Council), county-style row offices, state-created authorities, state courts, and federal agencies. Every article says which kind its subject is. The Department Directory lists them all with a one-line description.

2 How it was built

Articles were researched and drafted in October 2026 from public sources: official city, state and court websites, union and organization sites, budget and oversight reports, and local and regional news reporting. Each article lists its references. A second pass checked claims that the first drafts could not source, correcting or removing those that did not hold up. The wiki is organized into ten topic portals, linked from the sidebar.

3 Currency and accuracy

Offices, officeholders, budgets, contract terms and laws change. Facts are current to roughly October 2026 where an article says so. Where a figure or name could not be confirmed, the article omits it or attributes it to the reporting it came from. Always confirm names, deadlines, fees and phone numbers with the agency itself before relying on them. Corrections are welcome through the project's GitHub issue tracker.

4 What this wiki is not

It is general civic education. It is not legal advice, it does not take sides on contested political questions, and it does not address any individual's private dispute. Descriptions of criminal cases state only the public record: charges, verdicts, sentences and appeals. Criticism of an institution is attributed to the people or reports that made it.

5 Design

The site imitates the look of the early encyclopedia wikis on purpose: serif type, no images, no trackers, no cookies and no JavaScript required to read. Pages are small so they load on slow connections. The only script is a tiny optional page-name box in the sidebar.

See also: Main Page, Index, Glossary, References.