In mid-February, Grid requested an interview with Carlton Williams, the newly announced head of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s flagship “Clean and Green” initiative. After receiving no reply, we repeated the request a few weeks later. This time a communications official acknowledged the email, but that’s it so far. Fortunately, we’ve got other source material to examine:
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The History 2008 was an exciting time to launch a sustainability magazine. From out of nowhere (or so it seemed), a community of bold thinkers and innovators coalesced around issues like local food, stormwater management, renewable energy, green building and recycling. Christine Knapp, who was working for the environmental advocacy group PennFuture, was central to
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The 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
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Grid 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
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The 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
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A 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
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On 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
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I don’t know what was more depressing, the dead raccoon alongside Cardington Road at the edge of the freshly erected construction fencing, or the clearcut hillside it had died trying to reach. Cardington cuts through the Cobbs Creek and Karakung golf courses in West Philly, and two weeks ago both sides of the road were
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While it seems like just yesterday, it was six years ago that a world-famous hitchhiking robot was smashed in Philadelphia. The robot—dubbed hitchBOT—was originally created by a Canadian research team. It “could carry a limited conversation” and “took a photo every 20 minutes,” according to the Associated Press. HitchBOT had previously made its way across
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The country’s reckoning with issues of racial justice reached a boiling point last summer after the murder of George Floyd. What followed was an onslaught of streets emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter” and corporate commitments to support equity and examine racial injustice. Notably absent were commitments to cut funding from police budgets and plans to
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Homeless encampments have been popping up around Center City like a game of whack-a-mole. From the Pennsylvania Convention Center, to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, now to Reading Terminal Market and the SEPTA Locust Street underground. Philadelphia’s unhoused continue to band together in small communities rather than relying on city services. As summer approaches and the
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