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Anisa George

#157 June 2022/Climate-Change/Community/Environment/Water

Will we save the meadow that saved us?

Like many American cities, Philadelphia is built on land that wants to be wet. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park sits in a particularly soggy corner, right at the junction where the Schuylkill River rushes into the Delaware. The park is perforated by several lakes and water channels, and flooding regularly renders pedestrian walkways impassible. Over

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May 31, 2022
15 mins read

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🖊 "As we are overwhelmed by news about problems 🖊 "As we are overwhelmed by news about problems with no easy solutions, we should rejoice in this triumph, and learn from it as well. Helen Gym, a former councilmember now a candidate for mayor, says: “When we are clear about our missions, we can go out and leverage resources to make it happen.” Intractable problems require unshakeable resolve. We must set the moral compass, something our City government has struggled to do, and then get to work." Read this months full editor's notes at Gridphilly.com #editorsnotes #Gridphilly #Gridmagazine #philadelphia #phillymagazine #philly
🌎 In his classroom at Lankenau High School, vet 🌎 In his classroom at Lankenau High School, veteran teacher Matthew VanKouwenberg points out to his students the connection between average daily temperatures across Philadelphia and tree canopies, noting that the lack of tree cover can leave some neighborhoods — often poor, often majority-minority — overheated in summer. 🌳 VanKouwenberg, who teaches chemistry and environmental science at the 350-student magnet school in Northwest Philadelphia, takes it a step further, telling students that these discrepancies might make them and their relatives more susceptible to heat exhaustion or getting sick, or force them to pay higher costs to keep their homes livable. He teaches them how historical practices like redlining have contributed to environmental injustice. And then he asks them how they can help change it. “It ignites this righteous anger,” VanKouwenberg says. “They should be mad about it.” Read the full featured piece from Ben Seal on Gridphilly.com Pictured: Lankenau High School principal Jessica Naugle McAtamney (center) and teacher Matthew VanKouwenberg take their students out of the classroom to learn about nature and sustainability. Photography by Chris Baker Evens / @chris_bakerevens @philly_schools @phillyschoolnews @lankenau_esmhs @pennenvironment @fairmountww #climatechange #globalwarming #treecanopy #treecanopies #environmetaladvocacy #environmentalscience #ENVIRONMENTALJUSTICE
💧Dwayne Wharton was tasked with helping to solv 💧Dwayne Wharton was tasked with helping to solve one health care crisis affecting kids when he discovered another.🥤 Wharton was working for The Food Trust in the mid-2010s, and that organization’s goal was to reduce the number of sugary beverages, especially soda, kids were drinking. They encouraged students to drink more water from the ubiquitous water fountains. But many kids, Wharton learned, were reluctant to drink from the fountains. “We spent enough time in schools to know about the old water fountains,” Wharton says. Students told him that some were used as trash receptacles, and some fountains were turned off and had “do not drink” signs on them. “Kids were saying, ‘If that water over there isn’t safe, why would this water be safe over here [at functioning fountains]?’ Kids were bringing this up.” Read our cover story from Bernard Brown at Gridphilly.com Pictured: (1)+(2) While working to reduce soda consumption at schools, Dwayne Wharton discovered students were reluctant to use water fountains. Pictured: (3)+(4) Former City Councilmember and current mayoral candidate Helen Gym proposed a bill in 2016 to test schools’ water supplies for lead. Photography by Chris Baker Evens. @philly_schools @phillyschoolnews @dwyanewharton215 @helengymphl @lankenau_esmhs @pennenvironment @chris_bakerevens @phillybillynature #waterfountains #phillywater #philadelphiawater #foodtrust #publichealth #phillypublichealth #phillywaterissues #phillyschools #phillyschooldistrict #philadelphiaschools
🌟 Our new issue has arrived - the #Community & 🌟 Our new issue has arrived - the #Community & #Education issue!🌟 Featuring our cover story: Advocates, City Council and the school district get the lead out of our children's drinking water. 💧 Plus our featured story: Are Schools Preparing For Climate Change? 🌎 & an excerpt from the forthcoming novel: Blood Grip! 🩸 Inside you'll find coverage of: @philly_schools @phillyschoolnews @dwyanewharton215   @helengymphl @lankenau_esmhs @pennenvironment @philly_schools @phillyschoolnews @lankenau_esmhs @pennenvironment @fairmountww @philastreets @cedarparkneighbors @terracycle @aampmuseum @incolorbirdingclub @interpret.green @fairmountww @pennalexanderschool @weaversway @urbanessencesalonspa All part of our continuing 2030 series.  Don't see it in your mailbox? Subscribe and support independent journalism for as low as $2.99/month! #Gridmagazine #Gridphilly #phillymagazines #phillymagazine #philadelphiamagaznie #philadelphiamagazines
🥳 The Vaudevillains NYB, a queer, femme-led New 🥳 The Vaudevillains NYB, a queer, femme-led New Year’s Mummers brigade in the comics division, is an eclectic group of individuals from all walks of life who come together from across the city and beyond to create performances with a point. Melissa MacNair (she/they), one of the three brigade captains along with Al San Valentin and KL Miller, described the group as a family that practices radical joy and speaks out in defense of open and healthy communities. The 2023 march sent a clear message to city leaders: take your hands off our green spaces.🍃 In the past year, City officials authorized the felling of hundreds of trees, including some old-growth giants, in two locations. The first strike hit along the western side of the Cobbs Creek golf course. Hundreds of trees — including native species — lay in ruin, and before the dust settled the earthmovers’ maw struck again. The second clearcutting authorized by officials ravaged a beloved pandemic refuge: the South Philly Meadows in FDR park.  After these events and many discussions and emails, the Vaudevillains adopted a theme portraying the forces of nature against the destroyers for a 2023 protest theme. “We’re about speaking truth to power,” MacNair said. “One thing that spoke to me the most is [that] people who live in the city and who don’t have cars are losing access to untouched natural spaces. Philadelphia is becoming a city where nature is inaccessible to people in a certain economic class.”  Read the full piece from Dawn Kane on Gridphilly.com and for more follow the @vaudevillains_nyb #SaveTheMeadowsFDR #SaveTheMeadows #TheVaudevillains 📷 Photography by Chris Baker Evens @chris_bakerevens
😠 A community meeting Thursday night to discuss 😠 A community meeting Thursday night to discuss the future of Philadelphia’s FDR Park turned into a tense and unproductive affair, demonstrating the significant gaps that exist in the City’s efforts to satisfy the disparate groups who use its hundreds of acres to picnic, play and commune with nature. 🌳 Protesters advocating for civic leaders to #SaveTheMeadows that became a refuge for many during the pandemic were not allowed into the Grand Yesha Ballroom in South Philadelphia with their signs, leading to a disruptive back-and-forth between state Rep. Regina Young and some of the 400-plus community members in attendance almost as soon as the meeting began. By the time the night’s speakers had concluded their remarks, less than half an hour after beginning, a frustrated audience was begging for an opportunity to be heard. “This wasn’t a meeting,” one woman yelled. “We want a community meeting.” Read the full piece from Ben Seal at Gridphilly.com and stay tuned for expanded coverage on this breaking news. First and last photos @southphillyoracle If you have additional photos from the meeting, please reach out. For more coverage (and our thanks to) follow: @savethemeadowsfdr @savethemeadows #SaveTheMeadowsFDR
🖼 Infographic: #WasteWatchers - We can help to 🖼 Infographic: #WasteWatchers - We can help to curb household food waste as individuals 🗑 Visit Gridphilly.com to view the full amazing infographic from Bryan Satalino. #foodwaste #waste #recycling #infographic
🔍 Glass is 100% recyclable: it can be melted ov 🔍 Glass is 100% recyclable: it can be melted over and over again to form new glass products without any loss in quality.🥛 Most of it is not recycled, however, despite the fact that the planet is running out of the sand necessary to make glass and other products. The opportunity for glass recycling, therefore, is enormous, but obstacles abound. Many experts believe that the pathway to saving glass from the landfill almost certainly begins with the dismantling of the single-stream system of recycling collection. Maurice Sampson, the City’s first recycling coordinator, proposed in the mid-1980s a system based on the same conclusion. In his plan, every household would have two bins: one for paper and one for containers. The reasoning was that it would greatly reduce contamination, sorting would be easier and much more material would be recovered. But the multi-stream system Sampson proposed required a new fleet of trucks, and the City did not want to invest the additional money. The existing side bucket trucks the City had at the time accommodated paper and combined glass and metal but could not accommodate glass collected separately. The system remained in place until 2008 when the City embraced single-stream recycling, the system we have now that collects all recyclables in the same blue bucket. Trucks with compactors, which were designed for garbage, were enlisted for the new task, with inefficient results. Read the full featured piece from Lindsay Hargrave on Gridphilly.com Make sure to follow: @bottleunderground @rabbit_recycling @cleanh2oaction @aeroaggregates @philastreets @buildingbok Pictured (1): Remark Glass and Bottle Underground cofounders Rebecca Davies (left) and Danielle Ruttenberg in their studio. (2) Remark Glass can upcycle bottles into everything from light fixtures to tableware. Photography by Chris Baker Evens / @chris_bakerevens #glass #recycling #glassrecycling #singlestreamrecycling #phillyrecycling #recyclingPA #RECYCLEPA #PArecycles #parecycling #recyclingglass #remarkglass #bottleunderground
😠 Short dumpers have left more piles of tires i 😠 Short dumpers have left more piles of tires in Tacony Creek Park, according to Julie Slavet, the executive director of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF). 😠 Two piles — one near the intersection of Garland Street and Tabor Road, and another beneath the Whitaker Avenue Bridge — were discovered on Monday, January 2. Another pile was found on Thursday, January 5 at Cheltenham Avenue. The Tacony Creek Park has long been plagued by dumping. The entire city has been afflicted by short dumping and the City’s uncoordinated response, with tires commonly left in vacant lots and parks. Slavet says that TTF is working with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Philadelphia Department of Streets, the Philadelphia Police Department and other partners to clean up the tires. Volunteers can work to make a dent in the pile at Garland and Tabor at an event on January 14th. Keep up with this issue at Gridphilly.com @ttfwatershed @phillybillynature #ttf #ttfwatershed #dumping #illegaldumping @phillyh2o #tacony #taconycreekpark

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