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Since 2012, Circuit Trails has made strides connecting the region. Local governments and residents are on board, but will the Trump admin stymie its progress?

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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4 mins read
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Local designer makes sustainable fashion more size inclusive through alterations, consulting and product development

After learning to sew in middle and high school and studying fashion design at Thomas Jefferson University, Itohan Asemota learned the ins and outs of apparel product development. Working with regional brands such as Grant Blvd, Asemota identified a growing need in this sector: independent fashion houses had trouble finding manufacturers that would work with

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2 mins read
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Community-building art projects stitch together the personal, the political and the ecological

Shari Hersh trained as a painter in the 1970s and ’80s. At that time, classical fine arts emphasized personal practice: picture a solitary artist holed up with an easel in a studio. Through her work with Mural Arts Philadelphia and a years-long participation in workshops, readings and discussions that Hersh undertook with her best friend,

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2 mins read
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A coalition of activists and advocates nudges PECO toward purchasing more renewable energy

In 2020, members of POWER Interfaith, a grassroots social justice organization with a mission to “shine a light on broken systems,” organized to push PECO, Pennsylvania’s largest electric and gas utility, to incorporate long-term contracts for renewable energy into its Default Service Program (DSP). The DSP is essentially the company’s “house special,” and about 75%

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4 mins read

Two veterans of the sustainable food movement share how they’ve persevered through the decades

There is nothing easy about running a small business, especially when that business revolves around food. In most restaurants, there’s the mountain of to-dos that must be accomplished before the doors even open; the never-ending puzzle of scheduling employees; the toothy-smiled rigor of providing seamless hospitality; and actually serving up good food. For producers and

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6 mins read
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Native plants and organically-based repellents can keep deer from making a feast of your garden

Even the most dedicated naturalists have their boundaries when it comes to cohabitating with wildlife. And for many home gardeners, deer are enemy number one. It’s possible to acknowledge that we’ve largely taken over deer habitats and, simultaneously, feel a potent ire while watching your landscaping efforts blithely munched by these creatures. According to Penn

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2 mins read
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Where to see native plants growing in Philadelphia and beyond

We’ve sung the praises of native plants numerous times in these pages. Because truly, what’s not to love? Native plants — or “regionally-appropriate” plants, as Ryan Drake, McCausland Natural Areas manager at Morris Arboretum, urges us to call them — have abundant ecological benefits. They attract pollinators, sequester carbon, promote biodiversity, prevent erosion and require

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5 mins read
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Germantown-based designer turns forlorn garments into meaningful treasures

When Moth Snow was in college, they would spend afternoons scouring thrift stores for discarded sartorial gems. Perusing the racks, they’d perform a kind of tactile divination, feeling the hem of a sweater or collar of a blouse, then guessing its fiber content. Was it cotton? Wool? A polyester blend? Their fingertips would seek answers,

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4 mins read