Jerome Shabazz, Author at Grid Magazine

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Jerome Shabazz
#185 October 2024/Community/Environment/Environmental Justice

The Hard Work of Environmental Justice

At the Overbrook Environmental Education Center (OEEC), we know how hard it is to run an equity-centered community-based organization. In 2019, the acre of land on Lancaster Ave that the OEEC acquired to make into a green oasis was analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals and more. We knew the

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October 4, 2024
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🌱 The outdoors is surging with the warmth and l 🌱 The outdoors is surging with the warmth and light of spring. Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. Shoots are sprouting. Your neighbors are digging in the soil. No matter the color of your thumb, you may feel the urge to get your hands dirty and plant something. Indeed, now is the time to get those tomatoes and squash seeds in the ground if you haven’t already. But spring isn’t the only season to cultivate friendships with photosynthesizers. Fall is best for planting perennials and the prime time to pop native seeds in the fridge for cold stratification through the winter. Then you can start drawing up spring plans all over again. And you don’t have to go it alone. Resources like the Discovery Center’s seed library can jump-start your native plant journey, and Heroic Gardens accepts volunteers to beautify public and private spaces in the region while helping military veterans heal from trauma. Whatever plants you tend, remember to do it cleanly and quietly, with electric or, better yet, human power. We hope that this issue gives you some ideas for your own garden now and through the seasons. ➡️ Visit gridphilly.com to read the full Gardening Issue now! ✏️ Cover illustration by James Boyle #philadelphia #urbangarden #gardening #communitygarden #urbannature #pollinatorgarden
⛽ Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the Unite ⛽ Imagine the dirtiest engine legal in the United States. It’s an engine responsible for an annual 30 million tons of carbon dioxide, 21,000 tons of fine particulates and 68,000 tons of nitrogen oxides nationwide that are harmful to human health and the environment, PennEnvironment reports. A heavy-duty truck or SUV may spring to mind, but this dirty engine actually belongs to gas-powered lawn equipment — specifically, the two-stroke gas-powered leaf blower and its relatives. (Two-stroke means it burns both gas and oil.) One leaf blower produces the same emissions per unit time as 15 cars. Locally, this variety of lawn equipment annually emits the CO₂ equivalent of adding nearly 13,000 cars to Philadelphia’s streets, plus other harmful pollutants that contribute to the city’s rank as the fifth most challenging metropolitan area in the U.S. to live with asthma. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue 📸 Chris Bair #philadelphia #cleanair #airquality #emissions #reduceemissions #goelectric #asthmaawareness #publichealth
📝 Editor’s Notes: Resisting Resignation 📝 📝 Editor’s Notes: Resisting Resignation 📝 A few years ago a friend moved to the suburbs after decades in Philadelphia. Last week she came over for dinner, and she joked about a chicken bone she stepped over on the sidewalk on her way to our West Philly door. There’s nothing like chicken bones to let you know you’re back in the city. It was a small thing, but it hit me as a powerful statement about litter. Did someone toss that bone out of their car window, not caring that they were littering? Did a rat dig it out of a bag of uncontained household waste the night before trash pickup? In sad contrast to expectations in our neighborhood, suburban culture rejects casual littering. In even sadder contrast, suburban waste systems generally provide enclosed trash bins and collection methods that don’t scatter refuse (compared to sanitation workers flinging bags of trash into moving garbage trucks). After a while in Philadelphia, you just turn a blind eye to the litter, but it shouldn’t take moving away to remind us that we don’t have to. ➡️ Read the full note from our editor at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown #philadelphia #litter #waste #wastemanagement #wasteremoval
👗 The handmade dresses of red lace and black si 👗 The handmade dresses of red lace and black silk displayed in the tall, arched windows of Dafina Co. in Old City (47 N. 3rd Street) prompt passersby to pause and imagine slipping into such elegance. Inside the boutique, restrained electronic music and French artwork set the stage for the runway-ready clothing that designer Gerta Hebeja says not only gives the wearer confidence, but also goes easy on the planet. Gerta co-owns the boutique with her mother, Anila Hebeja, a dressmaker. Her sister, Megi, models for the Dafina catalog. Together, the Hebeja women are encouraging people to invest in timeless clothing that they will love for years, rather than buying fast fashion by the truckload. It starts with quality fabric, Hebeja says. She looks for materials with a luxurious feel. “There must be a fullness to the fabric.” While much of it comes from Philadelphia and New York, Hebeja also acquires materials during her regular visits to her Albanian grandparents. Limited-edition fabrics come from Turkey and Italy. To minimize waste, she buys only what’s needed, and any scraps of leftover material are repurposed as detailing or used for accessories. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Dawn Kane 📸 Matthew Bender #philadelphia #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #sustainablestyle #slowfashion #zerowastefashion
🧸 Julie McWilliams never liked the idea of buyi 🧸 Julie McWilliams never liked the idea of buying a toy that her three young boys would outgrow in a matter of months. An environmentally-conscious mom, she had long struggled with the tension between providing her kids with enriching play experiences and her desire to reduce waste. That’s why, last December, she decided to do all of her holiday toy shopping through Unless Kids, a Philadelphia-based online platform that promotes circular toy sharing. “I really try to limit consumption in our house and be thoughtful about what we bring in,” McWilliams explains. “Unless Kids makes it easy to get secondhand toys without the hassle of going to thrift stores or dealing with flaky sellers on Facebook Marketplace.” Unless Kids offers a simple yet transformative model: parents purchase toys at a discounted rate, giving their children a chance to play with them without committing to permanent ownership. After a child grows tired of the item, families can return the toys or simply pay a small portion of the discount back to keep them. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #circulareconomy #wastefree #zerowaste #recycledtoys #sustainability
🧥 For the Ardmore-based fashion company America 🧥 For the Ardmore-based fashion company American Trench, it’s all about looking sharp and staying stateside. “We make some pieces of classic menswear that guys can identify with as super useful investment pieces,” says cofounder Jacob Hurwitz. When the brand launched its first product in 2013, Hurwitz says he and cofounder David Neill were driven by their desire “to support the making of something beautiful” in the United States. At the time, they used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to garner customers for their trench coat — a quality piece with real staying power. “You’re going to have it for 20 years,” Hurwitz says. Today, American Trench sells hundreds of products, including retro socks, linen trousers and alpaca wool sweaters. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Jenny Roberts 📸 Matthew Bender #philadelphia #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #sustainablestyle #slowfashion #zerowastefashion
Philly AIDS Thrift was born out of a love for junk Philly AIDS Thrift was born out of a love for junk and an activist spirit, says Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, cofounder and executive director of the nonprofit thrift store. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job creating this safe space for people,” Kallas-Saritsoglou says. “It’s a little bit more than a thrift store; it’s a real communal space.” Located at 710 South 5th Street, Philly AIDS Thrift is an eclectic, artsy retailer that doubles as a local haven for LGBTQ folks and HIV-positive people. Over the last 20 years, Philly AIDS Thrift’s activism and philanthropy have resulted in more than $5 million in donations to HIV/AIDS nonprofit service organizations in the Delaware Valley. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Jenny Roberts 📸 Troy Bynum #philadelphia #phillythrift #thriftstore #lgbtqia #hivawareness #aidsawareness
Polyester fleece burst onto the catalog pages and Polyester fleece burst onto the catalog pages and clothing racks of outdoors brands such as Patagonia (a key developer) in the 1980s, offering wool’s benefits without its drawbacks. It was durable, warm, moisture-wicking and quick-drying. By the late aughts, however, concerns grew over microplastic pollution. While industrial and fishing waste were primary culprits, our clothes also played a role. Polyester fibers — just 10 microns thick — shed in the wash and enter marine ecosystems, harming wildlife. Worse, microplastics are now found in human organs, breast milk and even brains. Throwing out your wardrobe probably isn’t the greatest solution; we can still use what we have, but we should try to cut off the steady flow of these fibers into our wastewater. Here are some ways we can collectively reduce microplastic pollution from our clothing. ➡️ View the full infographic at gridphilly.com ✍️ + ✏️ Bryan Satalino #philadelphia #microplastics #plasticpollution  #microplasticpollution #sustainableclothing
Amid a federal disinvestment in technical support Amid a federal disinvestment in technical support for environmental justice communities, four community-based organizations (CBOs) in Philadelphia are advancing their work to address the local impacts of climate change. Partnered with Drexel University’s Environmental Collaboratory, Esperanza, Mantua Civic Association, Overbrook Environmental and Education Center (OEEC) and SEAMAAC have released the findings of thorough community outreach to recommend solutions to climate-based quality-of-life issues in the city that they will turn into policy suggestions. The report, which was released in November and publicly announced on April 11 at a town hall on Drexel’s campus, comes about two years after the formation of the Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective (PCJC), a collaboration between the CBOs and the university. That collective branched off from the larger, roughly 30-group Green Living Plan, which gave climate-based recommendations to the 2023 mayoral candidates. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Gabriel Donahue 📸 Markus Spiske #philadelphia #sustainability #environmentalpolicy #environmentalissues #politics #climatechange #climatejustice #environmentaljustice
🐦 The attendees came out for the living birds a 🐦 The attendees came out for the living birds at the September 22 “Little Sit” held by the In Color Birding Club, the Feminist Bird Club, Philly Queer Birders, Disability Pride Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, but John Eskate showed up with dead birds in his bag. Eskate, the volunteer and civic engagement senior manager for The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, brought preserved bird specimens from the research collection. He hoped the specimens could provide a link to the ornithological research conducted by the academy’s scientists during the Little Sit (a riff on a Big Sit, which is a birding tradition of observing birds for 24 hours at one location). To other outdoors events held by Disability Pride, Eskate has brought along birding backpacks from the Free Library of Philadelphia. The backpacks contain binoculars and guidebooks to help novices get started. “I think for any new birders it’s an opportunity to promote the birding backpacks and try them out,” Eskate says. Eskate and Andrew Kleiner, the academy’s director of community science, have spent the last two years looking for opportunities to connect local naturalists of all stripes with science and to knit Philadelphia’s many nature lovers, and nature groups, together. They have plenty of groups to work with. “You cannot have a weekend that passes without a group doing something,” says Kleiner, who has resolved to take part in a nature activity every Saturday. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Bernard Brown 📸 Chris Baker Evens #philadelphia #birding #birders #birdwatching #birdwatchers #urbannature
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Earth Day at Awbury Arboretum: Join us at The Farm at Awbury on April 19th from 12pm – 4pm to celebrate Earth Day! We’re inviting our friends, neighbors, and the entire Philadelphia community to come out for a fun day of volunteering, fun with The Philly Goat Project, live demos, and so much more! When: Saturday, April 19th (12:00 PM - 4:00 PM) Where: The Farm at Awbury 6336 Ardleigh Street Philadelphia, PA 19138 ➡️ Plant and People Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting: Celebrate with us as we officially open our expanded space dedicated to plants, wellness, and community! We are excited to share this new space with our community and showcase what we can create and celebrate together as it begins to blossom. When: Saturday, April 19th (10:00 AM - 4:00 PM) Where: Plant and People Shop + Café 3952 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19104 ➡️ Cutloose Cares - 3rd Annual Community Clean Up: Roll up your sleeves & grab a friend, join us in our efforts to keep Norristown beautiful! Let’s come together and show our love for our neighborhood! When: Saturday, April 19th (10:00 AM - 1:00 PM) Where: Ackey’s Park West James Street Norristown, PA 19401 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🦀 Robert Amar had a solid business wholesaling 🦀 Robert Amar had a solid business wholesaling seafood to some of Philly’s finest restaurants — until March 2020. As COVID-19 spread and city restaurants shuttered, Amar wondered what he could do. He had fresh fish on hand. Grocery stores were insane. He figured his Fairmount neighbors might appreciate some free seafood, so he sent a group email to residents of his block and found some takers. They raved about the fish. Small World Seafood (SWS) found its new footing with trusting customers willing to buy fish sight unseen: 11 orders the first week, 20 the second, 40 the third. In those early days, there were typically six to eight items on offer. Five years later, SWS features online recipes, cooking videos and 80-some weekly items for sale. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Marilyn Anthony 📸 Chris Baker Evens #philadelphia #phillyfood #phillyfoodie #phillyseafood #seafood #smallworldseafood
🌳 Beginning by the Chamounix Mansion, The Fairm 🌳 Beginning by the Chamounix Mansion, The Fairmount Park Trolley Trail passes through acres of lush forest. It curves and slopes past trees that are home to birds and squirrels, trees whose trunks sprout mushrooms closer to the forest floor. After a 15-minute walk, visitors arrive at the Skew Arch Bridge, the trail’s most popular feature. Named after a construction method used to span obstacles at other than a right angle, the bridge once formed a short tunnel under which the trolley passed. Other landmarks include the Chamounix picnic area by the main gateway, “park hubs” with portable restrooms and the restored Woodside Station platform. For the past seven years, the Fairmount Park Conservancy (FPC) has partnered with a handful of organizations to revive parts of a 20th-century trolley system and establish the Trolley Trail, a four-mile multipurpose loop with connections to the long history of West Fairmount Park. Fairmount Park is a “huge priority,” says Kevin Roche, the FPC chief of staff; renovating the trail will encourage park visitors to explore the “hidden gem.” ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Khysir Carter 📸 Solmaira Valerio #philadelphia #fairmountpark #phillyparks #urbannature #urbanhike #hikingtrails
In last month’s issue, I wrote about how Philly In last month’s issue, I wrote about how Philly could start a City-run composting drop-off program. Unfortunately, the City might not have the staffing to mount such an effort. Forty years ago, when the City was launching its recycling program, it had 23 employees in its recycling office. Today, the Department of Sanitation has two. Neither the Office of Sustainability nor the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives has any employees focused solely on waste, and a recent plan to hire an employee to focus on organics was tied to an EPA grant that was put on indefinite hold by the Trump administration. If the City can’t run the program — but could fund it — a public-private partnership might be the answer. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Tim Bennett 📸 Albert Yee #compost #composting #foodwaste #zerofoodwaste #zerowaste #sustainability
🌎 Each year, Earth Day brings a flurry of messa 🌎 Each year, Earth Day brings a flurry of messages about sustainability and the importance of protecting our planet. Subject lines range from “Ten tips to reduce your carbon footprint” to “The fossil fuel industry cures cancer and rescues kittens stuck in trees.” The deluge can leave you dazed and maybe feeling a little guilty, as if it’s your fault that our forests are burning and our coral reefs are bleaching. While some Earth Day messaging is genuine and useful, it’s important to recognize that many companies may be co-opting this opportunity to falsely promote their own agendas or to greenwash. Greenwashing is the practice of leading people to think that a company’s actions are more sustainable — more environmentally responsible — than they actually are. Alongside greenwashing is the more subtle but equally troubling practice of convincing the public that it is individuals who are causing our global environmental woes rather than major industries putting profits over people and the planet. While, yes, there are significant choices you and I can make that matter, the most powerful actions are those we take together to end the fossil fuel industry, to become a powerful green force in politics and to hold those in power accountable for polluting and degrading our environment. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Alex Bomstein #philadelphia #earthday #sustainability #sustainableliving #greenwashing #pollution
🌱 Have you ever watered a neglected plant only 🌱 Have you ever watered a neglected plant only to find the water bouncing off the surface of the soil? If so, your potting soil likely has peat in it, which has been a go-to ingredient in potting soil since it’s been sold. Not only does peat require regular watering to keep its surface permeable, it also has a significant carbon footprint. It may be hard to believe, but even cultivating a garden can have some bad carbon consequences. Thankfully, someone has been thinking about this problem for the past couple of decades. Mark Highland, the president and founder of Organic Mechanics has been tinkering with soil composition since he was an environmental horticulture student at the University of Florida in the 1990s. While there, friends gave him the nickname “the organic mechanic,” which he eventually bestowed upon his business. After college, he spent time working as a design build contractor in the Northwest, scouring the University of Oregon library to finetune the soil he was working on. The environmentally-minded Highland always knew he wanted to start a business, and he sensed there might be an opportunity to create a more earth-friendly gardening product. He earned a master’s degree at Longwood Gardens — which at the time had a partnership with the University of Delaware — studying peat-free alternatives to potting soil. Highland says, “The results of those trials showed that it absolutely could be done and the plants still look beautiful.” In 2006, he launched Organics Mechanics, transforming his collegiate nickname into his business’ moniker. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com #philadelphia #organicmechanics #sustainablesoil #livingsoil #peatfree
Events happening in and around Philadelphia this w Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend! ➡️ Creek Cleanup Day - Montgomery County: All tools and supplies will be provided, including work gloves (though you’re welcome to bring your own). Please note, that restrooms are not available. No plastic water bottles – please bring a reusable water bottle if you have one. When: Saturday, April 12th (10:00 AM - 12:00 PM) Where: Abington Junior High School School 2056 Susquehanna Road Abington, PA 19001 ➡️ Horticulture Volunteer Day: Volunteers will support seasonal plantings, weeding, invasive species removal, and support greenhouse maintenance. When: Saturday, April 12th (9:30 AM - 12:00 PM) Where: Bartram’s Garden 5400 Lindbergh Blvd. Philadelphia, 19143 ➡️ How to Help Nesting Birds in Your Yard: Many cavity-nesting birds, like bluebirds, have become reliant on manmade bird boxes to provide them with the safe spaces they need to raise their young. Willistown Conservation Trust will talk about supporting birds in your neighborhood. When: Sunday, April 13th (2:00 PM - 3:30 PM) Where: Historic Waynesborough 2049 Waynesborough Road Paoli, PA 19301 #philadelphia #philly #phillysupportphilly #eventsinphilly #phillyevents #phillyevent #philadelphiaevents
🚲 Millions of visitors will descend on Philadel 🚲 Millions of visitors will descend on Philadelphia in 2026 to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary), to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and to attend FIFA World Cup matches. To take full advantage of the waves of global travelers traversing our city, officials need to take critical steps to improve infrastructure and create a welcoming and integrated experience. Other cities have leveraged big events to expand active transportation. Paris completed 34 miles of new bike lanes in two years in advance of the 2024 Olympics. Ahead of hosting the 2028 Games, Los Angeles is on track to complete a set of new rail line extensions estimated to move more than 30 million people in its first year. Philadelphia is off to a slow start but still has an opportunity to prioritize moving millions of car-free people while also investing in existing infrastructure. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Nicole Brunet 📸 Uma Mcguire #philadelphia #citybiking #bikephl #phillybikelife #bicycling #bicyclist
Walter Palmer, 90, vividly recalls how poverty sta Walter Palmer, 90, vividly recalls how poverty stalked him — first, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was born, and then in Philadelphia, where his family moved to escape the low-wage, seasonal work many Black people were relegated to in the oceanside city. It pushed him into the juvenile delinquency that brought him in contact with a firearm. Born in North Philly nearly 40 years after Palmer, Donnell Drinks, 51, grew up in similar circumstances. As a result, he became homeless, the parental figure to his two younger brothers, and a drug dealer. He also became a gunshot victim and a convicted first-degree murderer on death row — all before his 18th birthday. Like so many other Black Philadelphians across the decades, Palmer and Drinks grew up in grinding poverty, their lives punctuated by gun violence. Their experiences speak to a long-running truth: Across the country, poverty drives people to commit violence — and in no big city is that connection as acute as it is in Philadelphia. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ Mensah M. Dean for The Trace 📸 Caroline Gutman for The Trace #philadelphia #stopgunviolence #gunviolenceawareness #gunviolenceprevention #endgunviolence #endgunviolencetogether
📈 In 2024, there were 220 fatal shootings in Ph 📈 In 2024, there were 220 fatal shootings in Philadelphia, a sharp decline from 375 such deaths the previous year. While city leaders celebrated this improvement, professor and writer Julien Suaudeau, 49, wondered how the community could be satisfied with that number. “The fact that it was almost hailed as a miracle — like it was an indication that the policies are working — is mind-blowing for me,” says Suaudeau. One in five American adults knows or cares about someone who was killed with a gun. In Suaudeau’s new podcast, “The People Left Behind,” he features the stories of these survivors and co-victims (surviving loved ones of victims) — the Philadelphians who are coping with long-term grief due to gun violence. ➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com ✍️ + 📸 Julia Lowe #philadelphia #stopgunviolence #gunviolenceawareness #gunviolenceprevention #griefsupport #griefawareness
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