“1854,” says Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, with authority, when asked about the origins of Philadelphia’s borders. “That’s when the Consolidation was signed: February 2, 1854.” Good luck finding another Philadelphian who could, on the spot, provide the exact date on which the Consolidation Act transformed the neat rectangle of William Penn’s colonial city — from Vine
More
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
More
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
More
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
More
At the first hint of spring in March, thousands of voices ring out from our ponds and wetlands. It might still feel chilly to human skin, but the thawing ground and lengthening days tell hordes of frogs that life is returning to the earth. It’s time to get it on. Each male wood frog, spring
More
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
More
There’s nothing like a great bookstore. At their best, they can provide both a mirror to who we are and expand the possibilities of who we can be. They are the hubs of the dreamers and visionaries. I share in the disappointment of many Philadelphians that Joseph Fox Bookshop will be closing after 71 years
More
Sometimes a forest can feel like a time machine. A walk in the quiet, shaded woods takes you back to a world before there were crowded streets and computer screens. But in early January, as I walked through the Haddington Woods section of Cobbs Creek, I took a trip to what might be our future.
More
In early November Troy Bynum bagged his first deer and shared a photo of it on social media. Bynum, a tech worker from Mount Airy who is also a wildlife photographer, shot it with a crossbow as part of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum’s Mentored Archery Deer Hunt. “A lot of people
More
On a cold February morning, a new birding group huddled up at the John James Audubon Center in Audubon, Montgomery County. Though there’s nothing remarkable about birders getting together at the museum, the former home of America’s most famous birder, what was remarkable was what they were celebrating—the launch of a more accessible kind of
More
On a walk along Cobbs Creek in West Philadelphia I inspected some old ruins. On the opposite side of the creek I could see the tall earth bank interrupted by a stone block wall, covered in some parts by crumbling concrete. I walked to the water and found I was standing on a matching surface.
More