On the morning of Wednesday, October 5, volunteers monitoring bird mortality in Center City found more than 20 dead chimney swifts to the east of Rittenhouse Square, according to Stephen Maciejewski, one of the volunteers. “I had found dead ones before, but never so perfectly preserved,” he said. “These were obviously fresh kills. They look
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There are six trash-burning power plants in eastern Pennsylvania, “and Philly sends trash to all of them,” the Clean Air Council’s Russell Zerbo wrote in Grid. On October 4, a group of 274 environmental organizations signed a letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality asking the advisory group to direct the EPA to
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If you’ve ever walked along the east bank of the Schuylkill River in Center City and wondered what trees you were looking at, you’re in luck. The Schuylkill River Park is now officially a Level 1 arboretum. As part of the programming to go along with the park’s new status, the Friends of Schuylkill River
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As I write this, the rain has been at it for six hours, and the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch. Behind my house, the rain barrel, connected to a downspout draining the back section of the roof, is overflowing, with the excess water joining the rest of the block’s runoff in our
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Hello Readers, Bernard Brown submitted this essay to Grid, and I thought it made for a perfect introduction to the new issue. I’ll be back next month! AM I swim laps at the West Philadelphia branch of the YMCA, on Chestnut between 51st and 52nd. My walk there takes me across Walnut Street, often on
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Sandi Vincenti isn’t sure who called CLIP (the Community Life Improvement Program) on her native plant demonstration garden in Fishtown, A Child’s Inspiration Wildlife Discovery Garden. She can think of two possibilities. One is a developer interested in building on the plot. “The other assumption is that we have two neighbors in some of the
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Domonique Howell doesn’t like to roll through the street in her wheelchair, but sometimes it’s better than the sidewalk, like when a tree heaves up the concrete so much that her wheelchair could tip over. “I try not to because I’m with my daughter, who is eight, and it’s a dangerous thing to teach her,
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The Lower Merion School District plans to raze a wooded area — home to towering tulip poplars and red and white oaks — to build practice athletic fields for the nearby Black Rock Middle School. The grounds of Oakwell, an estate on County Line Road in Lower Merion, have greenery that includes high rhododendron bushes
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At its September 14 meeting, the Philadelphia Art Commission again did not approve the first element of the Cobbs Creek Foundation’s renovation of the Cobbs Creek golf courses: the driving range and education center. This is the foundation’s third attempt to gain final approval for the driving range and the education center at the golf
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After twice being told to come back with more-detailed plans, the Cobbs Creek Foundation is again on the Philadelphia Art Commission’s calendar — for Wednesday, September 14, at 9:30 AM. At that time the foundation will present plans for buildings on the golf courses at Cobbs Creek, 350 acres of land the foundation has leased
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