After nearly two decades, Henry Got Crops, the farm at the W.B. Saul Agricultural High School, still doesn’t turn a profit. But that doesn’t bother senior farm manager Ali Ascherio. The partnership between the school and Weavers Way Co-op pays off in other ways. The vegetable farm takes up two acres behind the school. A
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On Thursday, January 19, the effort to pass legislation to waive restrictions for clearing trees on steep slopes for the Cobbs Creek golf course passed one hurdle at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, though final passage will be delayed thanks to amendments introduced by the sponsor, Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. The bill would create a
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Short dumpers have left more piles of tires in Tacony Creek Park, according to Julie Slavet, the executive director of the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF). Two piles — one near the intersection of Garland Street and Tabor Road, and another beneath the Whitaker Avenue Bridge — were discovered on Monday, January 2. Another pile was
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The Cobbs Creek Foundation’s creek restoration plans received a $3.5 million boost in state funds from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project (RACP) grant program in November. The RACP program funds “the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement projects,” according to its website. In a minor win for neighborhood advocates
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Students are organizing to oppose the Lower Merion School District’s 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. As Grid has reported, the school district acquired the land this year for about $13
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For the first time in its six decades operating Philadelphia’s public transit system, SEPTA is planning to overhaul its bus routes. After more than 30 in-person and online public meetings across the city’s neighborhoods this fall to detail and discuss the proposed changes, the message from residents and riders has been loud and clear: Go
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On December 6 the City Council Committee on Rules discussed a bill to exempt the Cobbs Creek golf course development from zoning restrictions preventing clearing trees on steep slopes and limiting the height of fences and buildings. Ordinarily developers seeking exemptions from such zoning requirements have to seek approval from the City’s Zoning Board of
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The sycamore leaves rustle as a tiger swallowtail flutters overhead and a Cooper’s hawk screeches from above. A ruby-throated hummingbird couple is nectaring at our feeder, a woodpecker tries (in vain) to peck holes in our stucco wall, a red fox chases a baby rabbit that was just feeding on clover in our grass and
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The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education announced on December 7 that it has secured $3 million in funding from anonymous donors to preserve the Boy Scout Tract, the 24-acre parcel of land whose potential sale to developers over the summer caused a firestorm of community opposition. The center began exploring a sale after they received
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Members of the public will have two chances to weigh in on legislation proposed by council member Curtis Jones to exempt the Cobbs Creek golf course from restrictions on cutting trees on steep slopes, rules meant to protect water quality and prevent erosion. On December 6th at 10am, the City Council Rules Committee will meet.
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Homeowners whose properties back up to the Cobbs Creek golf courses could lose their decks or backyard sheds according to a letter sent from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s Kathryn Ott Lovell to Cobbs Creek Foundation founding CEO Christopher Lange. In the June 20, 2019 letter, obtained in response to a right-to-know request by Lawrence Szmulowicz,
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