A new climate resiliency plan is in development for Philadelphia, with a new focus: community vulnerability. The work is being funded by $600,000 the Office of Sustainability (OOS) received in March from the William Penn Foundation. The City’s resiliency plan outlines climate change’s impacts on Philadelphia and how the City will meet the challenges they
MoreThe Cobbs Creek Foundation, the group clearing trees on the city-owned land where Cobbs Creek and Karakung golf courses are situated, has apparently suspended its attempt to get a zoning variance to clear some of the trees on the courses. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve of last year, the foundation signed a lease with
MoreGrid has uncovered more donations made to Philadelphia City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr.’s campaign from people connected with the Cobbs Creek and Karakung golf course development. As Grid previously reported, Councilmember Jones received an illegal donation in September of 2021 from the Cobbs Creek Restoration and Community Foundation (aka the Cobbs Creek Foundation), as well
MoreFor the past two years, Ray Daly has spent many of her days bouncing around Philadelphia’s parks. Pulling up to farmers markets and other events in her Ray’s Reusables van, outfitted as a mobile refill station, she’s made a name for herself by bringing low-waste, plastic-free lifestyle products to neighborhoods across Philly. This week she
MoreIt’s a wet, snowy, bitterly cold Friday in January in Fishtown, as Roya Williams steps into a bright room, lined with colorful artwork. Her dog, Jack, immediately starts to bark and play with a French bulldog named Chuey, the cute, welcoming “guard dog” at Stash Spot. Williams is greeted by founder Debbie Anday, who gives
MoreThe sound of trees being cut down woke Fred C. Cartwright on the morning of February 23. “Saw, crackle, then boom. Then a minute later, saw, crackle, boom. It had us all out of the house looking to see, ‘what is that noise?’” recalls Cartwright.. Cartwright lives on Wyndale Avenue, a well-kept one-block street of
MoreWhen the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, entrepreneur Dan Tsao’s multiple businesses were devastated. As the owner of the restaurants EMei in Chinatown and General Tsao’s House in Rittenhouse and the publisher of two Asian weekly newspapers since 2007, Tsao sent out an email to his newspapers’ more than 43,000 email subscribers. The feedback
MoreA few hours after our March 2 post (and four days after Grid initially emailed asking about the donation), the Cobbs Creek Community Foundation’s communications manager Michael Rodriguez, of Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy, responded to our inquiry: “The donation to Councilmember Jones was made in error when it came from the CCF. Both the
MoreOn December 28, 2021 a private foundation signed a 30-year lease with the City of Philadelphia and took control of 350 acres of Philadelphia park land with an assessed value of $92.7 million. The rent? $1. To supporters of the agreement, it is nonetheless a good deal for the city. Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., who
MoreFor Christa Barfield, the entrance into agriculture was prompted by her exit from another industry. Before the success of FarmerJawn—Barfield’s ambitious and sprawling enterprise that includes farming at the historic Elkins Estate, running a CSA, being part of a development project in East Kensington, opening a garden shop in Germantown, selling herbal-infused teas and providing
MoreWhen Laverne Evans needed a red purse for her birthday outfit this past November, she knew exactly where to go. Evans, 28, made her way to I Spy, You Buy, a curated thrift store in Mount Airy, to see if owner Dolly Park had something in stock. “She told me to come back tomorrow,” Evans
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