Robert K. Lawson didn’t plan on becoming a journalist. After graduating from Penn State with a degree in urban planning in 2009, he spent two years working for a Philadelphia-based land use consultancy—until a botched rezoning vote in Fishtown sent him to a community meeting where he watched a reporter from the old Philadelphia Daily News completely misunderstand what was happening. He wrote a letter to the editor. The editor wrote back and offered him a freelance assignment.
Fourteen years later, he’s still explaining zoning variances to people, though now from the other side of the notepad.Robert joined Newsofphiladelphia.com in 2019 after eight years at the Bucks County Courier Times, where he covered municipal government across a dozen townships, and a stint at public radio station WHYY, where he produced segments on infrastructure and development. His current beat spans Philadelphia’s city council, mayoral administration, and the often-overlooked bureaucratic machinery that determines how the city actually functions—permit offices, licensing boards, the arcane world of tax abatements.
Notable Work
His 2022 investigation into delayed building inspections in Kensington, which revealed a 14-month backlog that left hundreds of properties in limbo, led to a City Controller audit and staffing increases in the Department of Licenses and Inspections. The series earned a Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association Keystone Award for public service reporting.Robert’s approach leans on documents and data. He maintains a spreadsheet tracking every city council vote since 2018 and has FOIA’d enough records to fill a small storage unit.
He’s particularly interested in how budget decisions ripple through neighborhoods—the story isn’t always what council members say in chambers, but what shows up months later in a crumbling rec center or a shuttered health clinic.
Philadelphia Roots
A Northeast Philly native who grew up near Pennypack Park, Robert returned to the city after his time in Bucks County specifically to cover the place he knows best. He lives in East Oak Lane with his wife and an unreasonable number of houseplants. On weekends, you might find him at a SEPTA board meeting—voluntarily—or walking his dog along the Wissahickon.
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