It’s a Wednesday afternoon in late June, and Philadelphia is on its
Ever since Elizabeth Luce began training to become a yoga teacher, she
Ordering takeout from your favorite neighborhood spot is a treat. What’s not
The American Lung Association has released its latest annual report on the
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At St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, a tantrum looms. Scalp bristling with electrodes, a three-year-old boy remains stubbornly unmoved by his parents’ pleas that he take his medication. Then his nurse proposes a deal. “Yeah,” the boy responds to her question, “I’ll take the pills if the clown comes to see me.” Within moments, Marilyn
In July, for the second time in five years, Philadelphia’s waste collection system stopped working and trash piled up in the streets. Five years ago there were staffing shortages caused by the pandemic; this time it was a municipal strike by the workers of District Council 33. When collection ceases, such issues as smells and
Bakari Clark describes herself as a student and a gardener. As the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Douglas Dockery Thomas Fellowship in Garden History and Design, Clark can now claim to be a student of gardens. The 25-year-old Virginia native came to Philadelphia to study at Temple University, where she became interested in many aspects
Amid the typical concrete of the cityscape, the Cecil Street Community Garden offers a place for Southwest Philadelphia residents to enjoy green space, something often absent from dense, urban areas. “Even though it’s in the middle of the city, it kind of gives you an escape,” says Unique Fields, executive assistant at the community nonprofit
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Meet Craig Santoro, a bike commuter whose trek to work involves constantly dodging cars. From the vehicles parked in bike lanes to the vehicles whizzing by in driving lanes, the city’s streets are always keeping Craig on his toes. Cue the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s bike patrol. Follow Craig and the PPA as they bring us
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It’s easy to feel hopeless. A global disaster-in-progress can do that to you. There are 8.2 billion of us humans on this planet, and we are each so tiny, and, on our own, we each have so little we can do to fight climate change and adapt, when adaptation so clearly requires large-scale action. In
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Almost any cyclist or pedestrian knows the pleasure of cruising down a trail without a car in sight. Usually, the open-road vibe only lasts for a limited time before the reality of near ubiquitous traffic reasserts itself. The mission of the Circuit Trails, one of the nation’s most ambitious multiuse trail networks — right here
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“Now — the water is boiling,” says Jen Hamilton, calling attention to the pot on her stove. She lifts the pot and places her other hand flat on the cooking surface. She remains uninjured. “It’s safer!” she exclaims, explaining that her cats used to inadvertently turn on the gas on her old stove by bumping
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The morning after Hurricane Ida devastated Manayunk in September 2021, John Hunter stood looking over the intersection of Main Street and Shurs Lane, watching floodwaters carry away the back deck of the former Mad River building. “As the waters were flying by, it got to the point where this bar became detached from its foundations
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Estere Alveno-Marius remembers the first time she tasted comparette (also known as konparèt), the sweetly spiced gingerbread-like treat that originated in Jérémie, the capital of Haiti’s Grand’Anse region. A friend visiting Alveno-Marius in her hometown of Saint-Louis-du-Sud brought the pastry as a gift. One taste and Alveno-Marius understood how the fragrant coconut sweet bun got
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A version of this story originally appeared in Hidden City in 2024 and is shared courtesy of that publication. For nearly two centuries, humans and Mother Nature have tangoed on League Island, the most southeasterly expanse of land in Philadelphia, known today as the Navy Yard. For the most part, humans have gotten the better
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On a typical Monday at Fishtown Pickle Project, cucumbers are everywhere: being rinsed, flying through the spear cutter—affectionately named Britney Spears—and getting stuffed into jars with garlic and seasonings. The aroma of vinegar wafts down the hallways of their manufacturing center in the Globe Dye Works building in Frankford, where the staff processes roughly 3,000
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When Grid was planning a home electrification guide for the January 2025 issue, the universe threw us a curveball. Donald Trump’s reelection cast doubt on the longevity of federal financial incentives for homeowners across the country to purchase solar panels, electric stoves, heat pump HVAC units and other climate-friendly technologies. So our guide, which walks
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Jason Weckstein cranks open one lane of the massive movable storage unit holding one of the world’s 10 largest collections of birds, revealing stacks of long drawers, each filled with rows of still, silent birds. The ornithology research lab at Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) is home to more than 200,000 of these
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My daughter and I wended our way through the streets of our West Philly neighborhood, shunted block after block by fire department barricades. We were heading from a playground, where we had started the morning, to the supermarket, but there was a burning vacant apartment building in the way. As we followed the downwind side
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