In June, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stood on the lawn of the historic Jackson Mansion in Berwick, Columbia County, to make an announcement in the works for nearly two years: Amazon, he said, would spend $20 billion to build two cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in Pennsylvania, one in Bucks County and
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Myriam Siftar cried tears of joy. It was March 2012, and she was at the grand opening of Mariposa Food Co-op’s new home, a Greek-revival style former bank building on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. (Full disclosure: This author is a member of the co-op.) For Siftar, it was the triumphant culmination of a journey
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At the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Pop Up Garden at South Street one evening in August, two long picnic tables are covered in plants: philodendrons, lantanas, begonias and more. Around them, dozens of people anxiously hover, some picking up plants from the table to inspect them, others using their phones to look up the species.
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It’s a Wednesday afternoon in late June, and Philadelphia is on its fifth day of the first heat wave of the summer. As temperatures climb to 95 degrees, residents of Mill Creek flock to the best place in the neighborhood to cool down: Fletcher Pool. Public spaces like Fletcher Pool are essential in a city
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The American Lung Association has released its latest annual report on the state of the nation’s air — and the news isn’t good for Philadelphia. In last year’s report, the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden metro area had the 65th worst air quality in the country; now it has the 26th worst. Based on data collected between 2021 and
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George Lakey has seen his fair share of grim political moments. He has, after all, spent nearly seven decades fighting for civil rights, peace and environmental justice. At 87, Lakey recognizes that now is another one of those moments. But his own personal experience as an activist and his research as a scholar of political
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In February, The Philadelphia Inquirer published — in print and online — an op-ed by former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Titled “We should support an affordable, inclusive energy transition,” the article made the case that “we must act fast on the seriousness of climate change and do so responsibly, without losing sight of the affordability
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Philadelphia is often ranked among the best cities in the country for cycling. And yet, leading up to the 2023 mayoral election, cyclists had reason to fear for their safety on city streets. That year, 10 cyclists were killed in vehicular crashes, one third the number of cyclist deaths reported in New York City —
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What’s a fossil fuel utility to do in a rapidly warming world? That was the question posed by a study the City released jointly with Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the country’s largest municipally-owned gas utility, in 2021. The answer? Diversify and decarbonize. The study recommended that PGW pilot three strategies: expanding its weatherization services, converting
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It’s a Friday morning in October, and there’s a steady stream of cars driving down 43rd Street in West Philly’s Spruce Hill neighborhood. Then, through the traffic, a cavalcade emerges of about 20 parents and children on bicycles — a mix of kids on electric cargo bikes, kids on the front of folding bikes, kids
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