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Art Commission Reviews Cobbs Creek Development Plans

A special meeting by the Philadelphia Art Commission scheduled to review plans for buildings on the Cobbs Creek and Karakung golf courses, which took place on July 27, 2022, led to a conceptual approval by the commission of one set of the buildings proposed for the site, with the commission requesting that the Cobbs Creek

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2 mins read

New Legislation Facilitates Energy Efficiency Improvements

It isn’t cheap to make a large commercial building more energy efficient. Even when improvements will eventually pay for themselves, that timeframe can be longer than owners plan to hold onto the building, according to Philadelphia City Councilmember Derek Green. With no prospect to recoup the upfront expenses, building owners often decide not to invest

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1 min read
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What Will Become of the Boy Scout Tract? Civic Associations Engage

On Thursday, June 30, 2022, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education’s plans to sell a 24-acre parcel of land called the Boy Scout Tract met with sharp questions and numerous objections from neighbors at a public virtual meeting of two local civic associations, the Upper Roxborough Civic Association and the Residents of Shawmont Valley Association.

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2 mins read
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Somerton Woods on the Chopping Block?

About 80 acres in the Somerton neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia have been conspicuously left out of Philadelphia City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson’s legislation to improve the city’s tree canopy protections, which passed City Council on June 16, 2022. The Somerton Civic Association is lobbying to change that. Northeast Avenue comes to a tree-shaded end in

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2 mins read
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New Budget to Boost Parks Spending

Philadelphia parks advocates are celebrating an increase in Philadelphia Parks & Recreation funding, $4.99 million above what Mayor Jim Kenney had requested for fiscal year 2023. Philadelphia’s park system has been chronically underfunded for decades, and as City Council worked on a budget deal for 2023, advocate groups such as the Philadelphia Parks Alliance have

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1 min read
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The dispute over Edgely Field highlights systemic failures in park maintenance

The Parkside Saints finally found a home. An October 4, 2019 announcement from Philadelphia’s Rebuild initiative announced the completion of a practice field for the youth football club at the Parkside Evans Playground in West Philadelphia. The Saints, founded in 2010 by Coach Cliff Smith, had practiced in whatever open space they could find in

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14 mins read
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Rat poison causes a slow, cruel death, and kills wildlife too. Better sanitation and upkeep of homes — easier said than done — controls rat populations effectively

On march 19, 2019, Mom, the red-tailed hawk matriarch of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, disappeared. A post by Carolyn Sutton on the Franklin Hawkaholics Facebook page described how, over the previous weekend, Mom had been looking unwell, sitting listlessly on a branch and showing no interest in a dead rat delivered by her mate, T4

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9 mins read

Tree Regulations Bill Advances (but Amended)

Philadelphia City Council’s Committee on Rules voted on June 15 to advance Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson’s bill to close some loopholes in Philadelphia’s tree regulations. As Grid has reported, highlights of the bill include a community notification process for tree clearing, expanding tree replacement rules to public land, and fees in lieu of replacing cut

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1 min read

EPA Updates “Forever Chemicals” Guidance

Does the thought of drinking toxic chemicals that linger in your body and in the environment for decades freak you out? Well, good news: the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has lowered the recommended limits for two types of “forever chemicals” (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS) and created limits for two others. PFAS

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1 min read
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