PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden has named Rosie Rios, who was U.S. Treasurer under President Barack Obama and more recently cohost of the Unicorn Hunters business-entertainment show, to succeed Philadelphia developer Dan DiLella as chairman of the government’s U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is planning America’s 250th anniversary.
DiLella, who presided over the commission’s sometimes stormy first four years, is “still on the board. I’m still involved. But I’m not a Democrat, and they had to get one,” DiLella told The Inquirer. “I’m surprised I was in that position so long.”
There could be a lot at stake for Philadelphia. Six of the 24 commission members are Pennsylvanians. Philadelphia gained massive infrastructure projects in each of the last three national 50-year celebrations of the American Revolution: Fairmount Park was developed in part for the 1876 Centennial, the South Philadelphia stadium district for the 1926 Sesquicentennial, and Independence Mall in advance of the 1976 Bicentennial, though that last celebration failed to gather the projected massive crowds.
